Slate Daily Feed

Just as public sentiment is turning on ICE and Border Patrol’s action in Minnesota, another spending bill is due in the U.S. Senate. Can the Democrats use the opportunity to put some restraints on Trump’s DHS?  Guest: David Dayen , executive editor of The American Prospect. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all yo...

Shuffling under the mortal coil this week (aka hosting the Gabfest), it’s our OG players Steve, Dana, and Julia. Like a morose Danish prince contemplating a human skull, they gaze upon the Oscar nominated Hamnet , based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell inspired by William Shakespeare’s life. Directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, Hamnet has brought some critics to tear...

It’s a weird time for culture. There is more of it than ever before, it’s more accessible than ever before, but so little of it feels original. New movies are based on old stories, new songs are recycling old hooks, and fashion trends are cycling so fast that everything’s in.  Has our culture grown stagnant? The author and culture critic W. David Marx thinks so.  His new book, Blank Spac...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Slate contributing writer David Mack to discuss the surge of niche celebrity drama unfolding in the midst of a horrifying news cycle. We’re cancelling the “Glambot guy”? Brooklyn Beckham broke up with his family via Instagram Story? Those two hockey podcasters didn’t actually like Heated Rivalry ??? This drama is so petty, but also so necessary fo...

It’s a weird time for culture. There is more of it than ever before, it’s more accessible than ever before, but so little of it feels original. New movies are based on old stories, new songs are recycling old hooks, and fashion trends are cycling so fast that everything’s in.  Has our culture grown stagnant? The author and culture critic W. David Marx thinks so.  His new book, Blank Spac...

When the US won a bid to co-host the World Cup, Trump was midway through his first term. Eight years later, he’s back in office, and giving soccer fans eager to watch the tournament this summer good reasons to squirm. Guest: Jon Arnold , sports journalist and author of the Getting CONCACAFed substack. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next f...

Comedian Maria Bamford discusses her separation after a decade of marriage, the wildfires that destroyed her Altadena neighborhood, and starting over in a new apartment.  Check out if Maria is coming to your city on her comedy tour: https://mariabamford.com/tourdates   Listen to our previous Death, Sex & Money interviews with Maria:  Anna and Maria talk in 2023 about her memoir...

How ICE and Border Patrol’s mission became harassing the president’s personal enemies. Guest: Radley Balko, journalist and the author of Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces and a Substack called The Watch .   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. Sub...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh recap NFL conference championship weekend, where the Patriots braved a blizzard better than the Broncos, and Sam Darnold proved that resurrected quarterbacks really can win it all. Later, they get into Trinity Rodman’s three-year NWSL deal that keeps her in D.C., but has caught the ire of the players’ union. The panel wraps with a breakdown o...

On this episode: Lucy Lopez , Elizabeth Newcamp , and Zak Rosen want you to know that you’re still a great parent, even if you don’t sit by your kids’ bedside to gently wake them up. It’s okay! The ‘Rents sit down and debunk some of those pretty parenting tips you see all the time on Instagram. You know the ones. They have a really aesthetic, soothing background, and then say something wild like “...

Once again, federal agents have shot and killed a legal observer in Minneapolis. Once again, the shooting is on video. And once again, the Trump Administration has closed ranks around the officers. But could the fallout from Alex Pretti’s death be different? And Minnesotans want to know – when will the feds finally leave?  Guest: Will Stancil , lawyer and observer in Minneapolis Want more Wha...

Having already taken over Paramount, David Ellison was vying to add Warner Bros. Discovery to his portfolio. Are his dad’s politics behind his drive to run Hollywood or is there something else going on? Guest: Reeves Widemann , features writer at New York Magazine. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate...

The evidence is mounting that ICE is not only unbothered by moral boundaries, but immigration and customs enforcement agents acting on behalf of President Trump believe they are not constrained by constitutional red lines, either. According to a super-secret internal memo flagged in a whistleblower complaint this week, the Fourth Amendment simply doesn’t apply to ICE. That sense of impunity is als...

This week: World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos is all over the news. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck , explain the moments that made headlines and why Davos feels so much more relevant this year. Then, Trump promised to address the affordability crisis at Davos but failed to say much. The hosts discuss what he did say, and how the ongoing crisis is being addressed overa...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Washington Post reporter Tatum Hunter , who interviewed Australian teens about the country’s new social media ban. Platforms like Instagram and Reddit are now required to keep under-sixteens off their apps, but it didn’t take long for the teens to outsmart these new restrictions. As similar legislation is introduced across the world, no one knows...

Our friends at Selects bring you this documentary from 2010 looking at the debate among LGBTQ folks in San Francisco around the fight for gay marriage and the cost of that fight borne by other parts of the broader community.  The Selects Podcast is a free, twice-monthly show that is bringing you unearthed audio works that we’ve found buried in web archives, radio streams, and early podcasts....

The administration’s justification for their actions in Minneapolis owe a lot to the right-wing influencers—and they seem happy to keep this vicious cycle rolling onto California next.  Guest: Will Sommer, journalist for the Bulwark . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether Trump’s lust for Greenland will break the world (or indeed, whether it already has), what this week’s arguments at the Supreme Court suggest about the future of Fed independence, and how FBI sources say the Bureau is being turned into a weapon of the president. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David...

On this episode: Lucy Lopez , Elizabeth Newcamp , and Zak Rosen want you to know that it’s GOOD to ask for what you need! A listener’s non-verbal kid seems to be doing great at school, but the school hasn’t been communicating with mom about what’s going on for her kid during the day. Should she reach out and ask for more? Or be happy that her kid is happy? But first, they share their latest Triump...

Donald Trump isn’t one for clear policy objectives, but one of his top priorities, apparently, is making Greenland part of the United States–even at the expense of alienating our allies. Guest: Joshua Keating, senior correspondent at Vox covering foreign policy.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite...

In this member-exclusive episode, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discuss the Supreme Court’s fact-free foray into Trump v. Cook , a case that economists warn could crater the economy. President Donald Trump spent the first weeks of his second stint in the White House firing a lot of people from government agencies. For the most part, the High Court’s conservative justices let it sl...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by internet culture writer Jennifer Swann, whose recent piece for Wired featured the users who are still turning to Craigslist for apartment hunting and second-hand shopping, despite newer, flashier alternatives. In fact, it’s precisely because Craigslist hasn’t changed at all in the past 30 years that people keep coming back. While so many other ear...

This week, our Gabfest panel includes Steve and guest hosts Nadira Goffe and Laura Miller with a typically eclectic collection of topics. First up, Dana hops on the call to decode the unspoken truths and dream imagery of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s film The Secret Agent . Set in 1970s Recife, Brazil and starring a very charming Wagner Moura, the film is a heterodox brew of political thriller, magical...

The Supreme Court heard arguments over state-level bans on trans athletes competing in public schools last week. Though it’s hard to imagine the conservative-majority court calling the bans “discriminatory,” trans athletes and allies have reason to hope for a narrow ruling, rather than an expansion of the existing laws. Guest: Kate Sosin, LGBTQ+ reporter for The 19th. Want more What Next? Subscrib...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh are joined by Fried Egg Golf’s Brendan Porath to examine the crumbling of LIV Golf in the wake of Brooks Koepka’s reinstatement by the PGA Tour. Then Alex and Ben speak to author Chuck Klosterman about his new book, simply titled, Football . Klosterman predicts the eventual demise of America’s most beloved sport, and explains why it will be w...