Why America Is Turning Against AI Data Centers

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan primary win signals about the future of the Democratic Party, Todd Blanche’s march toward confirmation as attorney general and how opposition to AI data centers swiftly became a bipartisan political fight. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Jonathan Chait in The Atlantic: Liberals Are Now Fighting a Two-Front War Nate Silver on Substack: What to make of Michigan Ally Mutnick, Max Cohen and Andrew Desiderio in Punchbowl News: A Democratic reckoning begins after the left’s showing in Michigan Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times (Opinion): The Populist Left Has a Theory. We’re All About to Test It. Amy Sherman and Louis Jacobsen in PolitiFact: U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro fact-checks Trump on Reflecting Pool ‘vandalism’ Irie Sentner in Politico: Blanche moves, Pirro proves Patrick Reis in Slate: We Just Saw What Happens to Trump Officials Who Dare to Tell the Truth. It’s Not Pretty. Alexander Bolton in The Hill: Cornyn reaches deal on ‘anti-weaponization fund’ to allow Blanche nomination to advance Evan Gorelick in The New York Times: Trump’s Top Lawyer Joe Nocera in The Free Press: A Peace Plan for the Data Center Wars Marina Bolotnikova in Vox: Americans don’t know how to fight AI. So they’re fighting data centers. Ezra Klein interviews Jasmine Sun: The A.I. Giants Weren’t Prepared for This Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: Scriptnotes: The Invite with Rashida Jones and Will McCormack John: Live Science: 40,000-year-old bird figurines the size of a thumbnail discovered in German cave David: Giant Anteater content on social media. Listener chatter from Francis Creighton in Bethesda, Maryland: UK Parliament: Chiltern Hundreds and the Manor of Northstead; Martin Spychal for History of Parliament: How does an MP resign? The Chiltern Hundreds & the Manor of Northstead For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Gabfest discusses the political fallout surrounding Rep. Max Miller and what the episode says about today’s Republican Party. In the latest Gabfest Reads, John Dickerson interviews Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about their new book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump. Drawing on extensive reporting from inside the White House, they explore how Trump’s second term differs radically from his first, from his decision-making process to the people surrounding him and his relationship with power, money, and the presidency itself. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Kevin Bendis Research by Nora Moses 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.