Slate's Political Gabfest: 20+ years old
Slate's Political Gabfest, co-hosted by John Dickerson, is more than 20 years old, making it one of the earliest and longest-running political podcasts.
Snapshot · The Bulwark Podcast
John Dickerson: When the Media Helps Rewrite Reality
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Jun 29, 2026
Where this was said
Frederick Douglass, the American Experiment, and Reasons for Hope
At 1:03:55 · chapter starts 1:02:15
Dickerson refuses to leave the episode in melancholy. He invokes Reverend Harry Emerson Fosdick's WWII-era argument that being called to fight for freedom is a privilege, not just a burden. At America's 250th anniversary — a 'bleak 250,' as Miller puts it — he says the moment forces people to distil what they actually care about in a democratic republic. And then he reaches for Frederick Douglass: after the Dred Scott decision declared him not a person, not a citizen, Douglass still wrote about hope in America, still described the Declaration and Constitution as 'glorious liberty documents,' still found nourishment in the founding ideals even as the system tried to make him a non-human. If that's possible under absolute cruelty and oppression at the hands of slaveholders, Dickerson argues, 'we can stand up a little straighter and keep the fight.' The values have survived 250 years; there's strong stuff in the cupboard. [1] — John Dickerson "Frederick Douglass maintained hope in American democracy after the Dred Scott decision declared him a non-person. If he could cite the Decl…" 1:01:40
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