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Hello and welcome to this late political gab Fest for August 16th, 2013, the Bazelon Family Edition.

I'm David Plotz, the editor of Slate.

Once again, at Cliff House Audio in Montpelier, Vermont.

Joining me from New Haven is a special double bill of Bazelon, Slate Senior editor Emily Bazelon. Hello, Emily. Hey, David. And at Emily's side for the Gab Fest, as for everything else, is Mr. Emily Bazelon, known to his students at Yale, his friends, and soon to book buyers nationwide as Paul Sabin. Hello, Paul. Hey, David. Paul is a professor of, what are you a professor of? Environmental history,

history of the environment? American history. American history. All right.

They let and teach you got other stuff too. They have low standards here at Yale.

We consider it all connected. I'm glad to see that the digs are starting already.

I'm looking forward to that. So, Paul, do you actually listen to the GabFest, or do you ignore us because you've got enough of Emily otherwise? Well, I do get enough of

Emily, and she channels your opinions and ideas and debriefs each week on how the Gab Fest has gone,

so I know the ups and downs of it. I don't talk that much about it. And I don't get a chance really to listen to Gap Fest that much, but I love it when I do get a chance to hear. So no. The answer is no. Right. Enough of me is the answer. I know all about it, though. So insofar as you do listen to us, whose side are you on? Are you always on Emily's side? Or are you on the side of truth and justice? I, of course, am always on Emily's side.

Spoken like the smart husband he is. All right. So this week, we will talk about America's paralysis in the face of the crisis in Egypt,

as the generals murder hundreds in the streets, President Obama and his team.

Speak vague platitudes and generalities and do nothing.

We'll talk about why they do nothing.

Then we'll consider Eric Holder's plan to reduce prison populations by changing how drug crimes are prosecuted.

And then we will talk about Paul's book, The Bet, a story about an amazing episode in environmental history, recent environmental history, that has quite enormous ramifications for environmental politics today.

We'll interrogate Paul about that. He will tell us about that

episode and explain what it means for current environmental policy. And of course, we'll have

cocktail chatter. Emily, before we get started, tell us about our hunt for a new intern.

Our hunt is going well. We've gotten some excellent applications, but we are happy to

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