This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz close out a confounding year by answering listeners’ Conundrums.

Thank you to Conundrums contributors Mitchell, Alan, Rajesh, Margot, Josh, Rob, Thad, Tobi, Collin, Anna, Glenn, Tom, Aimee, Brad, Phil, Erin, and Sam!

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David conduct a Conundrums lightning-round.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Stephanie Gorton about her new book, The Icon & the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jared Downing and Cheyna Roth with live show support from Katie Rayford

Research by Julie Huygen

Disclosure in Podcast Description: A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 9/26/24, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across the Bond Account is greater than 6%. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account to learn more.

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