Prince-No-More Andrew Pays His Epstein Price
Political Gabfest
Slate Podcasts
4.4 • 8.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the public figures being shamed and punished for their associations with Jeffrey Epstein while others remain unscathed, the insights and lessons revealed by a new oral history archive and interview with former President Obama, and the meaning of the Trump administration’s efforts to whitewash history.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss this week’s dust-up between Stephen Colbert and CBS amid FCC threats over an interview with Texas Democrat James Talarico.
In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily Bazelon talks with author Curtis Sittenfeld about her short story collection, “Show Don’t Tell.” They discuss the recurring themes of the book from troubled marriages and middle age to the passage of time, and characters who are navigating moments of racial privilege and prejudice.
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Kevin Bendis
Research by Emily Ditto
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest. |
| 0:10.2 | February 19, 2026, Prince No More Andrew, pays his Epstein Price edition. |
| 0:24.0 | I'm David Plotz of CityCast in Washington, D.C., from the New York Times Magazine and Yale University Law School. |
| 0:29.9 | And New Haven, Connecticut, Emily Bazelon. |
| 0:31.3 | Hello, Emily. |
| 0:32.2 | Hey, David. |
| 0:32.8 | Hey, John. |
| 0:33.8 | And from New York City, John Dickerson, where he's launching a a new presidential-themed line of energy drinks, 1,600 energy. |
| 0:41.5 | Each can with 1,600 milligrams of caffeine. |
| 0:44.9 | John, I loved your first ad, by the way. |
| 0:47.0 | Emily, do you see it? |
| 0:47.8 | It was 1,600 energy. |
| 0:49.4 | Feel of Van Buren. |
| 0:51.3 | It was so good. |
| 0:52.5 | Oh, my God, that was so fully realized. I'm so, I love that for some period of time I was in your brain when you came up with that. That's just, it's so touching. Oh, my God. And also, given the state of my occasional four-hour, you know, sub-sect posts about the election of 1800, I am feeling very close to that. I mean, feel the Van Buren could really like, feel the van Buren. That's what that's what did it. I was just like running through presidents in my head and being like, what could, what, oh, Van Buren's name is funny. What could that be? Yes, exactly. Also, if you look at Van Buren, he looks like a guy who's had, I mean, just because of the shrubbery on the side of his face, if nothing else. He's had an energy drink. He's had an energy drink, but not enough of an energy drink to win the election of 1840, but that's okay. All right. Get your 1600 energy wherever you listen to podcasts. |
| 2:00.6 | This week on the Gab Fest, lots of people are getting fired, demoted, shamed, or in the case of former Prince Andrew, arrested for their role in the newly revealed Epstein files, their Epstein ties, are the right people being punished in the right ways. |
| 2:08.5 | Then a newly released archives reveals how former President Obama and his administration never saw Trump coming. |
| 2:10.8 | Why? Why did they miss? Why did they miss it? |
| 2:19.6 | And then we'll talk about the Trump administration's many efforts to stop what they call, no joke, improper ideology, anything that makes a dead white American look bad in museum exhibits, national parks, and everywhere else. |
| 2:24.7 | Plus, we will have cocktail chatter. |
| 2:27.9 | Prince Andrew, former Prince Andrew, what was his name? |
| 2:30.7 | Did you say? |
... |
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