Elon Musk’s DOGE Rampage

Political Gabfest

Slate Podcasts

Politics, Government, News

4.5 • 8.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Elon Musk’s speedy assault on federal agencies, talk to guest David Leonhardt about the widening gap between US prosperity and quality of life, and discuss recent aggressive immigration efforts by states. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the New York doctor recently indicted in Louisiana for sending abortion pills there, and the complexities of abortion shield laws. In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Yael van der Wouden about her novel, The Safekeep. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected]. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Research by Emily Ditto Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest.
0:06.8	We don't have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk, and that's going to become real clear.
0:15.6	February 6th, 2025, the rampaging Musk edition.
0:22.5	I'm David Plotz of CityCast in Washington, D.C., and as Elon Musk now certainly knows, my social security number is 586-3-2-25-25.
0:32.7	Wait, you didn't just read your real social security number.
0:36.2	We'll find out.
0:37.1	From the New York Times Magazine and Yale University Law School, Emily Bazelon, whose home address is, of course, according to the U.S. government, 3728 Magnolia Court, New Haven, Connecticut.
0:49.0	John Dickerson, co-anchor of CBS Evening News from New York City. He paid exactly $3,478 into Social Security in 2024, according to Musk.
0:59.9	This week on the Gab Fest, none of those numbers are real, by the way, as far as I know.
1:06.2	Well, because, David, weren't you a radical?
1:09.1	Didn't you once hold the view that it didn't matter who had your social security number?
1:12.3	Oh, yeah.
1:12.6	I published my social security number once back when I was younger.
1:16.1	I don't think I would do it today.
1:16.9	That's a poor idea.
1:18.9	Don't do that, people.
1:20.5	This week on the gas fest, Elon Musk's shocking takeover of the federal government gets more and more and more and more alarming. Can anything or
1:29.2	anyone stop him? Then compared to the rest of the world, Americans are very rich and very unhappy.
1:37.3	We will talk to David Leonhard of the New York Times about some depressing new data about
1:41.8	how miserable Americans are and why we're miserable.
1:44.8	Then bounty hunters, death penalty mandates, scaring undocumented kids out of school,
1:50.6	National Guard to the border.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.