Profits Over People

Emily and John are joined by guest host Mary Harris (host of What Next) to talk about the dangerous debt ceiling games; blowing the whistle on Facebook; and new revelations about January 6th and the plan to overturn the election. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Wall Street Journal: The Facebook Files Wall Street Journal: The Facebook Files, A Podcast Series Nathaniel Persily for the Washington Post: “Facebook Hides Data Showing It Harms Users. Outside Scholars Need Access.” Charlie Warzel’s Substack, Galaxy Brain: “The Algorithm Tweaks Won't Save Us” Katie Benner for The New York Times: “Report Cites New Details of Trump Pressure on Justice Dept. Over Election” Mike Stobbe for The Associated Press: “More Than 120,000 Us Kids Had Caregivers Die During Pandemic” YouTube video: “Richard Feynman Magnets” Slate’s What Next With Mary Harris Here’s this week’s chatter: John: The President Is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth, by Matthew Algeo Mary: Gary Shteyngart for The New Yorker: “A Botched Circumcision and Its Aftermath”; Robert Kolker for The New York Times Magazine: “Who Is the Bad Art Friend?” Emily: Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law: Annual Awards Virtual Event–Championing Disability Rights for 49 Years; Sabrina Tavernise and Katie Benne for The New York Times: “Federal Judge Pauses Strict Texas Law Banning Most Abortions” Listener chatter from Kyle Amann: Matthew Fox for Insider: “A Hamster Has Been Trading Cryptocurrencies In A Cage Rigged To Automatically Buy And Sell Tokens Since June - And It's Currently Outperforming The S&P 500” For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment John and Emily talk to Mary about work as a daily podcaster. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Danny Lavery's show Big Mood, Little Mood and you’ll be supporting the Political Gabfest. Sign up now at slate.com/gabfestplus to help support our work. Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices