Will Gas Hit $5 a Gallon?
Political Gabfest
Slate Podcasts
4.4 • 8.5K Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether Trump will be willing to endure the political pain if his capricious Iran war causes gas to hit $5 a gallon, the system of ICE mega-prisons DHS is starting to build, and new fronts in Trump’s efforts to control the 2026 elections and beyond.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss last weekend’s attempted bomb attack in front of Gracie Mansion in NYC, and how it somehow managed to be a terrorism story, a protest story, and a media story all in one.
In the latest Gabfest Reads, John Dickerson talks with Father James Martin about his new book, Work in Progress: Confessions of a Busboy, Dishwasher, Caddy, Usher, Factory Worker, Bank Teller, Corporate Tool, and Priest. They discuss the spiritual lessons learned through eight different jobs, Martin’s controversial LGBTQ ministry that made him a target of criticism within the Catholic Church, and what the Gospels demand about welcoming strangers and caring for the marginalized.
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
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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 | Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest. |
| 0:11.5 | March 12th, 2026, the wheel gas hit $5 a gallon edition. I'm David Plotz of Citycast. I'm in Washington, |
| 0:23.7 | D.C. Windy, Washington, D.C. from the New York Times Magazine and Yale University Law School in New Haven, |
| 0:30.1 | Connecticut, maybe, I don't know. Possibly New Haven. Not in New Haven. Emily Bazelon. |
| 0:35.9 | Hello, Emily. |
| 0:37.1 | Hey, guys. I am not in New Haven. I'm outside San Juan and |
| 0:40.6 | Puerto Rico where it is so nice and I can't wait to go outside later. Oh, man. I feel like you're, |
| 0:46.6 | I feel like you're a lot of times in places that aren't New Haven. That's good. And that aren't like |
| 0:52.1 | a holiday inn in Dubuque. |
| 0:56.1 | That from New York City is John Dickerson. |
| 0:59.2 | John Dickerson has a new line of products for curly-haired men called the Whig Party. |
| 1:05.6 | Love the slogan. |
| 1:06.9 | If you don't change now, you're going to look like a Republican. |
| 1:11.5 | John, I was with a prominent CEO this week, and that CEO told me the major way they get their news is by reading your substack and a couple of other substacks. |
| 1:22.3 | God help us. |
| 1:23.8 | Wow. |
| 1:24.6 | Well, that's God love them. |
| 1:27.9 | Obviously, whatever company they run is going to be successful in all that they do. |
| 1:32.1 | That's great. Well, I mean, this week is a perfect example. |
| 1:35.6 | I'm sure all of you read the multi-page analysis of these seven different reasons that we're at war with Iran. |
| 1:42.9 | But it was the reason that was created |
| 1:45.1 | was I was like, how many reasons have they given? And are they really contradictory? And it was just |
... |
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