The following podcast contains explicit language.

Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gap Fest for September 22nd, 2016, the Time to Panic

Edition.

I am David Plotz of Atlas Obscura.

To my left is Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine. Hello, Emily. Hello. To my right is John Dickerson of Face the Nation. That's about the size of it, isn't it? I'm so glad we're in a room together. We haven't been in a room together in a long time. It's exciting. We are in the swanky. I think we should apply for some kind of grant so that we could all be in the room together. We haven't been in a long time. It's exciting. We are in the swanky. I think we should

apply for some kind of grant so that we could all be in the room together all the time. You think someone wants to give us a grant? I don't think so. I think that's called our jobs. That's called the advertisers. Well, no, but finding a way to get us all into the room. I think There's got to be some phony baloney.

They're used to in the pre in the pre days when Emily first moved to New Haven.

We had some, we had a slush fund for you to come down from New Haven once a once of something. And then it ended. You stopped wanting to go. I think it was an act of sanity. Yeah. It's like, but we should meet here more often. I'm all for meeting up in New York.

Yeah. That's fine. All right. Now, I think that's a good idea. We'll get, the MacArthur people have some money, right?

Yeah. One of us wins. We all, we all share it. Yeah, instead of a genius grant. What about like a moderately above average grant?

This show is going to be a giddy show. On this week's Gab Fest, Donald Trump abandons birtherism, or does he?

Spewing more lies along the way.

But also, why do the polls look so good for him?

And what's going to happen in the debate?

Then the New York and New Jersey bombings, are they going to shape the election at all? Then should President Obama pardon Edward Snowden? Emily? Emily, I'm hoping we'll argue. Yes. Maybe she'll argue no. I don't know. We'll find out. Plus, we'll have cocktail chatter. And in Slate Plus are Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, the Ralph Naders of 2016? Or are they more innocent and valuable than that?

If you are not yet a Slate Plus member or Mumber, you can get it by going to slate.com

slash Gap Fest Plus and you can get a discount, a 20% discount or 30% discount.

My math is fuzzy.

30% discount for the 20th anniversary celebration. That's funny. You would have thought it was a 20% discount for the 20th anniversary celebration.

That's funny.

You would have thought it was a 20% discount for the 20th anniversary.

But they did a 30% discount so you can get it for $35 in honor of the slate 20th anniversary celebration.

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