Political Gabfest - Seize and Sell
Political Gabfest
Slate Podcasts
4.4 • 8.5K Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2026
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what the so-called “Donroe Doctrine” means for international order after the US military extracted Maduro from Venezuela amid rumblings over Greenland and Cuba, the background and evolving situation in Minnesota after an ICE agent killed a woman during a raid, and how changes to the federal recommended childhood vaccine schedule dangerously denormalize routine vaccines with guest Dr. Josh Sharfstein, Professor of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss reports that X chatbot Grok is making nonconsensual sexualized photos of women and children at user prompts, Elon Musk’s reaction, and how to stop it.
In the latest Gabfest Reads, David Plotz talks with Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales about his new book The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last. They discuss how Wikipedia’s culture of assuming good faith and shared purpose became a model for building trustworthy digital communities — and what lessons that holds for companies, social media, and politics today.
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Nina Porzucki
Research by Emily Ditto
You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here.
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.
Find out more about David Plotz's monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.
Follow
@SlateGabfest on X / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfestSlate Political Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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 | January 8th, 2026, the Seas and Cell edition. |
| 0:20.3 | I'm David Plotz of CityCast. |
| 0:21.7 | Happy New Year. |
| 0:22.9 | We're back. |
| 0:23.8 | We've been kind of off for a while, but we're back for our 21st year. |
| 0:30.1 | By the end of this year, we will be allowed to drink. |
| 0:34.6 | Pretty amazing. |
| 0:36.1 | We've been off really for all of 2026. |
| 0:38.7 | We have. |
| 0:39.3 | I haven't gab-fested at all in 2026. |
| 0:41.8 | I haven't thought about the gap-festing, 2026. |
| 0:44.9 | We haven't seen each other the whole year. |
| 0:47.5 | And now we're remedying that, and we can move on. |
| 0:50.1 | Okay. |
| 0:50.8 | That is from the New York Times Magazine and Yale University Law School, Emily Bazelon. |
| 0:55.3 | Hello, Emily. |
| 0:56.9 | Hey. |
| 0:58.3 | And you already heard from New York City where he's the anchor of Ann Dickerson's hopes and dreams, John Dickerson. |
| 1:05.1 | Hello, John. |
| 1:07.2 | Hi. |
| 1:08.2 | How's unemployment? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
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.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

