Political Gabfest - Susie Wiles is a Sane Enabler
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the vivid and impulsive portrait Susie Wiles paints of Trump’s White House in a revealing interview with Vanity Fair, what the new unemployment numbers say about the economy and how Americans are feeling about it, and why some studies show that young Americans are increasingly antisemitic.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, David, and special guest Stephen Colbert answer listeners’ conundrums of all kinds: the meaningful, the trivial, and the delightfully absurd.
In the latest Gabfest Reads, John talks with journalist and author Andrew Ross Sorkin about his new book, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation — the story of speculation, debt, and the human drives that fueled the Wall Street crash that changed everything.
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.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've listened to every episode of the Gab Fest. |
| 0:03.7 | I've since 2009, and then I went back and listened to the earlier ones. |
| 0:08.2 | Yes, that Steven Colbert, political gap fest super fan, |
| 0:12.0 | talking about us on stage at our 20th anniversary show in New York City. |
| 0:16.2 | And you can watch the whole thing right now if you join Slate Plus. |
| 0:19.7 | Stephen sang. He answered listener conundrums. I have a harrowing follow-up question. watch the whole thing right now if you join Slate Plus. Stephen Seng. |
| 0:22.5 | He answered listener conundrums. |
| 0:24.5 | I have a harrowing follow-up question. |
| 0:27.8 | Is he taking over my body for those 24 hours? |
| 0:33.9 | He had lots of thoughts on everything from Trump and Taylor Swift to museum heist, |
| 0:36.2 | what pastry he'd be reincarnated at. |
| 0:41.3 | And then he said something that will either shock you or make perfect sense, depending on how well you know us. |
| 0:46.1 | Well, I think he'd be more likely to be a dictator than the rest of us. |
| 0:49.9 | Look, this is not an episode you want to miss. |
| 0:53.2 | Join Slate Plus today to hear and watch the whole show right now. |
| 0:55.6 | Everyone else has to wait until next week, |
| 0:59.7 | but you can find the show wherever you listen or on YouTube by going to slate.com slash Colbert Plus. |
| 1:03.0 | 20 years of the show, and this might be our best episode yet. |
| 1:05.4 | Seriously, it was so fun. |
| 1:07.6 | Join now to listen or watch the video at slate.com slash Colbert Plus. |
| 1:19.8 | Hello and welcome to this late political cat fest December 18th, 2025. |
| 1:23.3 | Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Cat Fest December 18th, 2025. Suzie Wiles is a sane enabler edition. |
... |
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