I Alone Can Open It
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2020
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Trump claims “total authority”, Heather Boushey on fighting the recession, and Amanda Ripley on lessons from Katrina and other disasters.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment David, Emily, and John discuss what they would do about the pandemic if they were billionaires. Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on the Gabfest each week, and access to special bonus episodes throughout the year. Sign up now to listen and support our show.
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Transcript
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| 0:49.6 | Hello and welcome to the Slate Political GabFest for April 16th, 2020. The I alone can open it. |
| 0:57.6 | I'm David Plotz of my bedroom closet. In my house, I have total authority to open the double-hung windows. |
| 1:07.3 | No one else has any authority to open them because no one else understands them. It is my decision for many good reasons. |
| 1:14.3 | Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine and Yale joins me. |
| 1:18.7 | Emily, do you have total authority to open anything in your house? |
| 1:22.1 | You know, I sometimes refer to my kitchen, as in you are making a mess in my kitchen. |
| 1:27.8 | And then everybody else in my house points out to me that's a really bad way to talk about it |
| 1:31.6 | because then it seems as if they have no responsibility for it as well as no ownership. |
| 1:36.6 | John Dickerson of CBS is 60 Minutes. |
| 1:39.4 | John Dickerson, do you have total authority to open anything in your house? |
| 1:48.8 | Only my mouth. Um, but like, I don't know. Do your kids really give you total authority to open your mouth? Might not give |
| 1:53.3 | me that. Much like the presidency, you can open your mouth as much as you want, but, um, it does not |
| 1:59.8 | mean that people will listen to you. In fact, sometimes |
| 2:04.9 | it means just the opposite. On today's GabFest, can President Trump order the country reopened? |
... |
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