Polls Inch Toward Democrats, and Voters Worry More About Corruption

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what they’re paying attention to and what to expect on Election Day next Tuesday, how to understand the complex results of Israel’s elections with guest Ruth Margalit, and what Anthropic’s highly anticipated IPO prospectus says about the promise and peril of AI. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Theodoric Meyer and Klara Auerbach for The Washington Post: The seven races that will decide control of the Senate Laura Meckler, Chris Hacker, and Patrick Marley for The Washington Post: How Trump and his allies are sowing doubt ahead of the midterms Ed Kilgore for New York Magazine: Intelligencer: The Worst-Case Midterm Scenario for Democrats Quinta Jurecic for The Atlantic: The Limits of Trump’s Midterm Trickery Marianne LeVine, Josh Dawsey, and Meridith McGraw for The Wall Street Journal: Grift Becomes Bigger Issue for Voters in Final Days Before Midterms Ezra Klein for The New York Times: Opinion: The Ezra Klein Show: Nate Silver on What the Polls Say — and What His Gut’s Telling Him Steven Scheer, Rami Ayyub, and Lina Obeid for Reuters: Netanyahu survives another day with unexpectedly clear backing of Israeli Jews Graeme Wood for The Atlantic: Three Scenarios for Israel Liam Stack for The New York Times: A Historic Show of Strength for Israel’s Arab Minority Marc Champion for Bloomberg: Opinion: The Referendum on Netanyahu Will Now Test Israel’s Democracy The Editorial Board for The Wall Street Journal: Opinion: Netanyahu Gives Israel One More Surprise Alexander Cornwell for Reuters: Netanyahu warns of Arab voter surge in Israel’s election; Arab leaders call tactic racist Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, Farnaz Fassihi, Natan Odenheimer, and Ronen Bergman for the New York Times: U.S. and Israel Draw Up Plans for Renewed Strikes on Iran After Elections Corrie Driebusch and Kate Clark for The Wall Street Journal: The Biggest Takeaways From Anthropic’s IPO Prospectus Mary Cunningham for CBS News: Anthropic’s IPO filing lists 93 pages of risks. What could possibly go wrong? Max Chafkin for Bloomberg Businessweek: Anthropic Raises More Questions Than It Answers About Risk Emily Bazelon for The New York Times Magazine: What Should the Rules for A.I. Companies Actually Be? We Asked the Experts. Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: Sam Levine for The Guardian: Justice department charges ex-FBI director James Comey for third time; Jordan Rubin for MS NOW: How the Trump DOJ can lose the new Comey case before it even starts; Michelle Spear for The Conversation: Do women have to pee more often? The answer is surprisingly complex John: CBC Podcasts: Sea of Lies; BritBox: Ludwig David: Hulu: Adults; Michael Johnston and Melissa de la Cruz for NPR: ’Spell’-Bound By A Goofy Book — And Later, United By It Listener chatter from Bryan Bennett in Austin, Texas: Bryan Bennett for Walking Through the Data (Substack): Democrats Need to Confront the Length and Depth of Distrust in Government and Institutions For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the spat between Obama and Trump over Trump’s gilded Oval Office decor, consider which side emerges looking better, and ask whether dumb cultural moments like this really matter. In the latest Gabfest Reads, John Dickerson interviews Angela Duckworth about her new book, Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best. This new book argues that the most successful people don’t just grind harder; they reshape their circumstances to make success feel automatic. 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 You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here. Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen. Find out more about David Plotz’s monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.