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Joe Biden has vowed to pick a woman as his running mate. But of the many qualified contenders, who should win the veepstakes? Michelle and Frank have different ideas as to whose name on the ticket could help push Mr. Biden to victory in November.

Then, editorial board member Jesse Wegman joins Ross and Frank for a Supreme Court battle: has SCOTUS usurped Congress when it comes to legislating Americas culture wars?

Background Reading:

Ive been an Op-Ed columnist for The Times since 2011, but my career with the newspaper stretches back to 1995 and includes many twists and turns that reflect my embarrassingly scattered interests. I covered Congress, the White House and several political campaigns; I also spent five years in the role of chief restaurant critic. As the Rome bureau chief, I reported on the Vatican; as a staff writer for The Timess Sunday magazine, I wrote many celebrity profiles. That jumble has informed my various books, which focus on the Roman Catholic Church, George W. Bush, my strange eating life, the college admissions process and meatloaf. Politically, Im grief-stricken over the way President Trump has governed and Im left of center, but I dont think that the center is a bad place or compromise a dirty word. Im Italian-American, Im gay and I write a weekly Times newsletter in which youll occasionally encounter my dog, Regan, who has the run of our Manhattan apartment.

Ive been an Op-Ed columnist since 2009, and I write about politics, religion, pop culture, sociology and the places where they all intersect. Im a Catholic and a conservative, in that order, which means that Im against abortion and critical of the sexual revolution, but I tend to agree with liberals that the Republican Party is too friendly to the rich. I was against Donald Trump in 2016 for reasons specific to Donald Trump, but in general I think the populist movements in Europe and America have legitimate grievances and I often prefer the populists to the reasonable elites. Ive written books about Harvard, the G.O.P., American Christianity and Pope Francis, and decadence. Benedict XVI was my favorite pope. I review movies for National Review and have strong opinions about many prestige television shows. I have four small children, three girls and a boy, and I live in New Haven with my wife.

Ive been an Op-Ed columnist at The New York Times since 2017, writing mainly about politics, ideology and gender. These days people on the right and the left both use liberal as an epithet, but thats basically what I am, though the nightmare of Donald Trumps presidency has radicalized me and pushed me leftward. Ive written three books, including one, in 2006, about the danger of right-wing populism in its religious fundamentalist guise. (My other two were about the global battle over reproductive rights and, in a brief detour from politics, about an adventurous Russian migr who helped bring yoga to the West.) I love to travel; a long time ago, after my husband and I eloped, we spent a year backpacking through Asia. Now we live in Brooklyn with our son and daughter.

Tune in on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Tell us what you think at argument@nytimes.com. Follow Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn), Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) and David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) on Twitter.

The Argument Is a production of the New York Times Opinion section. The team includes Phoebe Lett, Lauren Kelley, Paula Schuzman and Pedro Rafael Rosado. Special thanks to Brad Fisher, Constanza Gallardo, Sara Nics and James T. Green.

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