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For this month’s edition of Gabfest Reads, John Dickerson interviews Angela Duckworth about her new book, Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best. Her previous best-selling book, Grit, explored the idea that passion and perseverance drive success. This new book argues that grit is not enough to succeed. Yes, grit matters, but the real game-changer is your situation, that is, the objects within reach, the people around you, the physical and social environment that you inhabit.

Duckworth reveals how the most successful people don't just grind harder; they reshape their circumstances to make success feel automatic. The conversation with host John Dickerson ranges from the "three boxes model" of human behavior to the power of finding your tribe and mentors. Whether you're struggling to be present, trying to build better habits, or wondering why willpower alone hasn't delivered, this book offers a framework for understanding and changing the situation that shapes you every single day.

Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Nina Porzucki.
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On Monday, the Justice Department raided a sitting congresswoman's D.C. home to build a denaturalization case. Andrew Weissmann joins Dahlia Lithwick to explain the new depths being plumbed by Trump’s DOJ.
ICE executed an early morning search of Rep. Ilhan Omar's D.C. home—apparently targeting immigration statements made when she was 12 years old, by a father who is now deceased—all in service of a reported plan to strip her of her citizenship and deport her. Weissmann, lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office from 2017 to 2019 and chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice from 2015 to 2019, walks Dahlia through what is shaping up to be another case of selective and vindictive prosecution, why it violates the department's own 60-day election rule, and what it signals when post-Watergate guardrails established to prevent exactly these kinds of abuses have been dismantled.
Weissmann and Lithwick also discuss the administration's lawsuit against California over mail-in ballots—a case in which the evidence, like every prior non-citizen voting claim, collapses under scrutiny but serves its purpose before the courts can intervene. Plus: Trump’s ballroom grift, and why the only thing standing between another mid-term presidential pardon spree and total impunity for all the president’s men might be state criminal law.
Andrew Weissmann is a professor of practice at NYU School of Law, legal analyst for MSNOW, and author of Liar's Kingdom: How to Stop Trump's Deceit and Save America.

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This week: Inflation is going bananas (unless you’re talking about the actual fruit.) First up, hosts Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers dig into what is causing inflation and why bananas should actually cost more than they do. Then, Meta wants everyone to play with its new A.I. model but is the cuteness covering up something sinister? Finally, why Kelly Clarkson really doesn’t get that Brooklyn magic shop’s whole deal.

Mentioned in the episode:
‘America’s Favorite Fruit Is Being Bruised by the Iran War’, from The New York Times
‘What If New York Just Loves a Fancy, Complicated Bird?’, from Vulture
‘With flying Roadster, Tesla waves goodbye to the car business’, from Axios

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli and Cheyna Roth.

In the Slate Plus episode: Not a Girl, Not Yet A Lawyer

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Perimenopause’s journey from little-understood phase before menopause to the subject of every ad on social media for women of a certain age was quick—and impossible to imagine without the internet.

Guest: Kate Knibbs, senior writer for WIRED.

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort.

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This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what the evidence beyond polling signals for the impending midterm elections, how Trump betrayed Ukraine with his sudden deal over Russian diesel and Starshield restrictions for Ukrainian operations, and how the chilling federal raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar's home is part of the administration's escalating attempt to build a case for stripping her citizenship.

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Danny Funt for Columbia Journalism Review: ‘I’m Not Going to Have Blood on My Hands’

John: The Human Trafficking Legal Center: On My Side Celebration 2026: Awardees

David: Oliver Kay and Sam Lee for The Athletic: Manchester City guilty of ‘sham payments’ and £900m of financial misstatements, independent commission finds; Adam Clery for The Independent: Explained: The complete timeline of Man City’s 115 charges

Listener chatter from John Kirby in Davis, California: Michelle Starr for ScienceAlert: 150,000 Tons of Radioactive Waste Were Dumped in The Atlantic. Decades Later, It's Visibly Oozing.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the precipitous fall of Kimberly Guilfoyle after the Wall Street Journal reported that she had solicited $100,000 from a Trump donor and why those who've departed the Trump administration are overwhelmingly women.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, David Plotz talks with journalist Annie Lowrey about her new book, The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time - and How to Fix It, an investigation into the hours Americans lose to broken bureaucracy, from 12-hour tax filings to multiyear waits for housing vouchers and building permits.

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.

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Find out more about David Plotz's monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.

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