The “Don’t Be a Tough Guy. Don’t Be a Fool! I Will Call You Later” Edition

Here are some of the links and references from this week’s show:

• Max Fisher for the New York Times: “The U.S. Turned Syria’s North Into a Tinderbox. Then Trump Lit a Match.”

• Emily Bazelon for the New York Times Magazine: “Who Qualifies for ‘Asylum’?”

• The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite, by Daniel Markovits

Here are this week’s cocktail chatters:

Emily: Nicholas Casey for the New York Times, “Ohio Was Set to Purge 235,000 Voters. It Was Wrong About 20%.”

John: Kim Bellware for the Washington Post, “Lasers, Rabbits and New Nikes: How the 2-Hour Marathon Barrier Was Broken”

David: Amanda Frost for the American Prospect, “The New War on Naturalized Citizens”

Listener chatter from @spokospoko: Reply All, Episode No. 149: “30-50 Feral Hogs”

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David and Emily discuss the season finale of HBO’s Succession.

You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter or post it to our Facebook page.
(Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.

Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.