Slate News

In this Money Talks: The Wall Street Journal ’s Heather Haddon joins Emily Peck to unpack her recent reporting on the fast food industry, including the reason we’re seeing the “ Value Wars ” play out at places like McDonalds and Chili’s, Starbuck’s strategies to revive sales, and the intense drive-thru operations research being done by Chik-fil-A. Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. P...

Between the drastic budget cuts and provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill, the Trump administration has found a way to drain Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health centers and cut off access to abortion services—as well as any other health care those clinics provided.  Guests:  Shefali Luthra , reproductive health reporter at The 19th, author of Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in P...

Tracking a license plate across the country has never been easier, which is good news if your car has been stolen, but in an era of ICE and Border Patrol raids, these warrantless searches feel increasingly invasive—and unconstitutional. Guest: Joseph Cox , co-founder of 404 Media and host of the 404 Media podcast. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah, who brings her extensive experience trying and supervising federal criminal cases to a discussion of what the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse can teach us about justice. She suggests that the Trump administration’s eleventh-hour switchback tactic of calling for investigations of only Democrats speaks volumes about how t...

This week: Larry Summers has stepped down from his public positions following the release of unsavory emails he exchanged with Jeffrey Epstein. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck discuss Summers’ correspondence with the infamous sex trafficker, the veracity of his “genius” reputation, and his beef with Felix. Then, Meta has won its anti-trust case, highlighting the current struggle t...

You can have enough ICE recruits or you can have standards for the shape that they’re in, but you can’t have both—this was just one lesson Donald Trump could have learned this week, in between hosting a summit of McDonald’s franchise owners and calling a reporter “piggie.” Guest: Rebecca Onion, Slate senior staff writer . This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate P...

Trump promised to stop the “persecution” of the cryptocurrency industry. He did call off the SEC investigations that began under Biden, and pardoned Binance cofounder and ex-CEO Changpeng Zhao. But is the crypto industry ultimately better off because of that?  Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany , tech reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free liste...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss a new oral history of President Trump’s Department of Justice, the complex transactional nationalism of this week’s visit from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with guest Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor and co-host of the new podcast The Long Game , and what is likely to happen now that Trump has signed the bil...

People have been talking about how the penny is more trouble than it’s worth for 50 years—so why drop it now? And—other than having nothing to put in our loafers—will it be missed?  Guest: Caity Weaver , writer at The Atlantic. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple...

Ongoing civil war in Sudan has left tens of thousands dead, with millions displaced. A country of great natural resources, regional foreign governments have chosen sides—but foreign aid from the US that had mitigated some of the war’s damage is gone.  Guest: David Miliband , president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, former UK foreign secretary 2007-2010. Want more What Next? Subscri...

You can’t really blame Donald Trump for thinking he could just handwave away the Epstein Files. But for the first time in what feels like forever, his base, the GOP, and his own desires don’t quite align.  Guest: Will Sommer , senior reporter at the Bulwark.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate po...

Trump can’t seem to decide if the National Guard is needed in American cities to stop violent crime, or to assist ICE deportations, or something else entirely. And the lack of a clear and present crisis is starting to make some Guard members uncomfortable.  Guest: Kat Lonsdorf, news reporter for National Public Radio. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the...

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, doesn’t (just) have a scam problem—with 10 percent of its revenue coming from scam ads, and a third of all successful scams in America using a Meta platform at some point, it’s more an interdependence with scammers. Guest: Jeff Horwitz , tech reporter for Reuters. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the...

Dahlia Lithwick welcomes retired federal judge Mark Wolf for his first ever podcast interview. The Reagan-appointed jurist made headlines last week with his searing indictment of the threat posed to the rule of law and democracy by the current administration. Judge Wolf opens up about his decision to leave the bench after decades of public service and the challenges faced by judges in the face of...

John Dickerson talks with journalist and author Andrew Ross Sorkin about his new book 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation . Recorded live at the 92nd Street Y in NYC, their conversation explores how a decade of optimism, leverage, and moral hazard culminated in the financial collapse that defined modern capitalism. Sorkin details how figures like ba...

This week: FHFA director Bill Pulte convinced Trump to back 50-year mortgages with some posterboard and a photo of FDR.  Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck , discuss why Trump’s post about 50-year mortgages angered conservatives – officials and voters alike – and why they’re more of a hindrance than a solution to the housing crisis. Then, the White House is considering limiting the p...

They don’t cut cleanly along party lines, but data centers, and where they get built, became an election issue in Virginia. With so many more data centers to build, are we looking at a new trend?  Guest: Margaret Barthel , reporter covering northern Virginia for WAMU.  Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite S...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why Democrats caved to end the government shutdown and what comes next, the affordability crisis with guest and editorial director for New York Times Opinion David Leonhardt , and the importance of this week’s spectacle of competing Epstein document drops. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the...

In a new, very special, Death, Sex and Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale are once again joined by Felix’s financial advisor Adrianna Adams from Domain Money to talk about…parents. They dig into the emotions of trying to take care of your aging parents while also growing your own wealth, the importance of setting goals, and to do with aging children AND aging parents at th...

Why would Elon Musk attempt to replace Wikipedia—which is already quite futuristic, utopian and accurate—with a faulty, hallucinatory A.I.-powered “Grokipedia”? Well, see, he called it “Wokepedia…” Guest: Stephen Harrison , writer, tech lawyer, author of “ Why Editing Wikipedia Is Becoming More Dangerous ” for Slate and The Editors , a novel about Wikipedia. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate...

It didn’t take long to go from Beyoncé holding for applause in front of the word “FEMINISM” to a headline in the New York Times asking “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” How long is this backlash going to last? Guest:  Danielle Kurtzleben, political correspondent at NPR.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorit...

It has been the longest government shutdown on record. Why did the Democrats choose this moment—right after elections proved how unpopular Donald Trump and his policies truly are—to cave in and end it? Guest: Jamelle Bouie , New York Times opinion columnist. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate pod...

In this Money Talks: Elizabeth Spiers is joined by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman , to discuss her book The Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid . They discuss Anna’s extensive research into how racism and sexism create real economic barriers in the US, why it’s not just women of color who should be worried about this disturbing trend, and what can actually be done about it. Join...

Children with disabilities' place in public schools—though legally mandated—has often been tenuous at best. Now the Trump Administration is targeting the department that oversees special ed. What does that mean for kids and their parents? Guest:  Pepper Stetler , author of A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother’s Reckoning with the IQ Test and professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Want mor...

Tesla shareholders just approved a trillion dollar (with a t!) pay package for Elon Musk. Is it enough incentive to keep him around the company and away from verbal spats with government officials? Because the whole Musk empire is still reeling from that dalliance. Guest: Faiz Siddiqui , tech reporter at The Washington Post and author of Hubris Maximus: the Shattering of Elon Musk . Want more What...