I'm June Thomas, host of the new Slake podcast, The Afterword, where I'll be bringing you interviews with the authors of new nonfiction books.

Some of the people I'll be talking with include the editor of the updated American Heritage Dictionary.

There is a handful of words such as a asshat that make their way in.

The writer of a new book about the global underground economy.

A street market is not just cacophony.

And a man who spent a year training to become a mixed martial arts fighter.

It's wrestling but with chokes and submissions and arm bars.

Starting this Saturday on the Slate Daily podcast.

Thank you. podcast. Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for Friday, December 16th, 2011.

I'm David Plotz, the editor of Slate.

I'm alone in Washington.

Amalie Bazelon, Slate Senior Editor, joins us by technology from New Haven, I think.

And John Dickerson, Slate's chief political correspondent and CBS News political director, is, I'm guessing, Sue City, right, John?

You're right. Right, you are.

If you were at the debate last night.

It was a debate last night, and I'm heading to Omaha.

We will talk about that in a minute.

We will talk about the state of the Republican race.

We'll talk about the huge Supreme Court cases coming up.

We will talk about a bizarre article that our colleague Farhad Manjue wrote in Slate this week attacking independent

bookstores. Those are going to be... Oh my God. Talk about loading the dice. I can't wait to

hear you defend that piece, Emily. I'm looking forward to it. I'm planning to. John, you're going to have to

...