Slate Daily Feed

This week, David Plotz and guest hosts Mike Pesca and Susan Glasser discuss what to make of Elon Musk’s quixotic attempt to start a third political party in America, how Trump’s conflation of national interest with self-interest creates an incoherent foreign policy, and the tedious but impactful “summer rerun season” of Trump’s tariff folly.  Here are this week’s chatters: Mike: ABC7 New York: Traffic deaths across NYC at record low so far this year as City sees historic drop; Tomoki Chein for The San Francisco Standard: Policing has little effect on SF traffic deaths, decades of data show; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: NHTSA Announces Traffic Fatalities Decreased in the First Quarter of 2025. Susan: Meg Anderson for NPR: Murders are down nationwide. Researchers point to a key reason David: Kyla Scanlon on Substack: Kyla’s Newsletter; Clan of the Cave Bear (1980) by Jean M. Auel; Leah Dearborn for LitReactor: What Is ‘The Clan of the Cave Bear,’ and Should You Read It? Listener chatte