Slate News

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.* There is a cluster-you-know-what of constitutional and legal news this week, so Amicus Plus is popping up a little early with a bonus episode to tackle the Trump prosecutions portion of the melee ahead of Friday’s very important TikTok-ban arguments. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Andrew Weissman, co-host of the MSNBC podcast "Prosecuting Donald Trump...

With Republicans holding the House, the Senate, and the presidency, cabinet confirmation hearings may be the most prominent place for Democrats to make a stand. Guest: Chris Murphy , US senator for Connecticut.  Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on  App...

After a summer on the receiving end of the internet’s ire, Blake Lively is back in the news, as her relationship with her former director and co-star Justin Baldoni has taken a turn for the litigious.  Guest: Heather Schwedel , staff writer at Slate. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe direct...

After nine years as Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau has resigned. Has Canada joined much of the rest of the world by jettisoning its progressive leadership, or does Trudeau’s career tell a different story? Guest: Jesse Brown , editor and publisher of Canadaland . Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You...

In this Money Talks: Jane Marie has spent years reporting on the tangled web of multi-level marketing companies, or MLMs, with her podcast The Dream and dives even deeper in her new book, Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans . In this episode, she sits down with Emily Peck to discuss their origins, their appeal to American women, and their extremely questionable bus...

Though their physical caliphate has been gone for more than five years, the terrorist organization ISIS has survived—through propaganda, in chatrooms, and as an inspiration and cheerleader for actions like the New Years’ Eve attack in New Orleans. Guest: Colin P. Clarke , Director of Research at The Soufan Group, a nonprofit research group focusing on global security, author of “ After the Calipha...

Cryptocurrency spent generously on this last election cycle, and now they’ve got their top pick in the White House, and wins across Congress. Where is the industry looking to go with these favorable, regulatory winds?  Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany , tech reporter covering the crypto industry for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the w...

Happy (?) New Year. Amicus is gingerly stepping into 2025 and into the coming onslaught of Trump 2.0 with one of the country’s very best legal, constitutional and human guides –– civil rights litigator and 14th Amendment scholar Sherrilyn Ifill. Together, Sherrilyn and Dahlia navigate some of the most pressing questions facing the law, the legal profession, and those who care about it. In his end...

This week: The Lively/Baldoni PR war has become a legal battle. And it’s not just reputations that are at stake. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers explain how Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and his answering suit against The New York Times is more than just a Hollywood feud, it’s a fight to stay profitable. Then, the hosts discuss the recent ruling that seems to have...

On Christmas Eve a fracas erupted on X, when Elon Musk posted in favor of H1-B visas for specialized and high-skill workers and was met with anger from the MAGA base who view the visas as a way for immigrants to take American jobs. Guest: Ryan Mac, tech reporter for The New York Times and the coauthor of the book “ Character Limit How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscri...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the presidency and post-presidential life of Jimmy Carter; the infighting of Elon Musk v. MAGA; and the possibilities of citizens’ assemblies with The New Yorker’s Nick Romeo . Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: John Dickerson for CBS Mornings: John Dickerson on Jimmy Carter’s legacy and a life shaped by faith...

Dispensing aid in the Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly difficult. No one knows this better than Hani. On a professional level, his employer, UNRWA—the main supplier of food, water, and shelter to Gazans over the last year—is banned from operating come 2025. On a personal note, his brother Mahmoud was killed in what Hani believes to have been a targeted strike while operating a soup kitchen for...

Happy New Year! What Next resumes regularly scheduled programming tomorrow, but for the holiday, check out this episode of How To! from December: How To Exorcise Your Fitness Demons. Sandy is a former college athlete who knows how to exercise—at least, she used to. These days, she’s feeling lost without a coach, a workout plan, or much free time. On this episode of How To!, Carvell Wallace brings...

The year is wrapping up and so is The Biden Era—oh who are we kidding? This was, and is, the Age of Trump…and now, apparently, Elon Musk. Brace yourselves.  Guest: Jim Newell, Slate senior politics reporter . Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on  Apple...

Former president Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at age 100. Carter was a born-again evangelical Christian as well as a Democrat. Those two identities existed in harmony for him—but they would diverge in American politics in the wake of his presidency. Guest: Jim Wallis , chair in Faith and Justice and the founding director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice. Want more What Next?...

Between a third and half of American schoolchildren have a form of “mental health monitoring” software on their school devices, which scans for and flags certain keywords.  While intuitively appealing, is it worth the false positives, privacy issues, and compromised trust?  Guest: Ellen Barry , mental health reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to acces...

This week: Paul Krugman may have ended his iconic New York Times column but he’s still going to tell us what’s going on. Felix Salmon and Emily Peck are joined by Paul Krugman to get wonky on global trade, discuss the relationship between politicians and economists, and examine the economic legacy of Joe Biden. In the Slate Plus episode: Favorite media of 2024.  Want to hear that discussion and he...

Maybe the court won’t listen to your complaints and questions - but we will. As a parting gift to you this year, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern answer your questions about Trump, the courts and the constitution. Could Trump be president a third time? What does immigration law look like under Trump 2.0? And a deep dive into Dahlia and Mark’s comic book character psyches. Want more Amicus? Jo...

“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat everything from IBS to autism. But if your doctor isn’t ready to fill you up with someone else’s poop, the internet will happily oblige.  Guest:  Luke Winkie , Slate staff writer who published “ The Poop Broker .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to...

“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat everything from IBS to autism. But if your doctor isn’t ready to fill you up with someone else’s poop, the internet will happily oblige.  Guest:  Luke Winkie , Slate staff writer who published “ The Poop Broker .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to...

While the What Next team takes some rest, enjoy this episode, originally aired on April 22. With all eyes on the WNBA as Caitlin Clark was drafted, many were surprised at the star player’s new salary, and how it paled in comparison to that of an NBA rookie. What would it take to address this disparity?  Guest: Lindsay Gibbs , author and founder of Power Plays , “a no-BS newsletter about women’s sp...

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  Gab...

While the What Next team takes some rest, enjoy this episode, originally aired on May 16. When Miss USA abdicated her throne, people noticed that the first letters of each sentence of her resignation letter spell out “I am silenced.” Shortly thereafter, Miss Teen USA stepped down with a letter that opens with a quote from Nietzsche.  What’s going on at the Miss USA organization? Has the idea of a...

While the What Next team takes some rest, enjoy this episode, originally aired on June 12. Two years ago, the FDA announced it was banning JUUL nicotine vapes from sale in the U.S.—and then quickly announced it was holding off on the ban to allow for review. How did regulating ecigarettes end up playing catch-up? Guest: Jamie Ducharme , health correspondent at Time , author of Big Vape: The Incend...

The “Fama–French model” is a Nobel laureate-designed tool for predicting the stock market. It guides hundreds of billions in investments. The problem? Its numbers keep shifting. For this Money Talks,  Felix Salmon  chats with Planet Money host Mary Childs about her  deep dive for Bloomberg  into finance mathematics. They question the nature of investing, markets, and reality itself. Mary is also t...