Happy Friday Slatsters, it's Mary. It is time for another episode of the show that is only for Slate Plus members, which is you. So come on in. This week, we've roped in Slate's Alex Salmon to tell us about his latest reporting, which, as I understand it, it got a little experiential.

Yes, Alex?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, we give ourselves like 15 minutes on the clock for me to pick your brain here.

Okay, so this article is all about the new electric Hummer.

You went down to Florida to actually take it on a little spin.

Okay, just tell me why.

Like, what were you doing down there?

How'd you convince Slate to send you?

Tell me all the things.

That's a good question.

You're like filling out the expense report now. No idea what I'm doing here.

Yeah, just wait too late to see what the numbers look like.

Okay, so I think that obviously I have a lot of interest in electric cars.

I think that they are a very important, you know, American product, obviously.

They have a lot to say about American culture, a lot to say about the Biden administration,

a lot to say about our global fight on climate change.

Do you also think they're kind of a bummer, though?

I think that they are kind of a bummer.

But I also think that they're sort of amazing.

It's like, like, technologically, they're, like, right? It's like, they're like marvelous in ways that I don't think I ever anticipated. They're also like incredibly disappointing in these other ways, which are like, how did we manage to come up with something like this? Or I guess that question could be asked in two different directions, right?

It's like, how do we manage to do this and how on earth do we manage to do this? And I think that like nothing, nothing asked that question more loudly than the electric Hummer,

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