Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for August 26th, 2021, the Back to School edition.

I am David Plotz of CityCast.

I am not in Washington, D.C.C.

I'm on a working vacation, worky, worky vacation in Traverse City, Michigan, a beautiful

place. Thanks for all your recommendation, Gap Fest listeners, having a great time here. I'm joined,

of course, by Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine and Yale University Law School from New Haven.

Hello, Emily. Hey. How's Empty Nest life treating you?

You know, I can't tell yet because it's only been a few days.

But yeah, I'm, I mean, I'm like really distressed.

I feel the same way I felt when my older son left for college, which is like I see the benefit for him for my kids, but not for me. Like, I see only downside for myself, but maybe I'll

cheer up about it. I do like my husband, so that's good. Let's start. Then John Dickerson is

away for, I think this is the last week's John's away. It's got to be. He can't be longer

than this. But who cares? Because we have Jamel Bowie. The New York Times columnist is joining us, as he often does. Hello, Jamel from, I guess, from Charlottesville, probably. Are you in Charlottesville? Yes, I'm in Charlottesville at my home with my dog next to me. Hello, everyone. Hello. This week, we will talk about the Afghanistan exit.

How much of a blow is it to American power, America's reputation in the world,

and how much at fault are we Americans and American leadership for how it's gone?

Then schools are back, and yet everything is still wrong.

How is America poised to screw up yet another year of pandemic schooling?

Then reconciliation, will Congress manage to pass $4.5 trillion in democratic spending bills?

Or will they not?

Plus, we'll have cocktail chatter.

Hi, GapFeth listeners.

This is David Plotz later on Thursday. When we taped on Thursday morning,

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