Slate News

Is Microsoft laying off 3,200 employees from the Xbox division just a new boss coming in and pruning an overgrown asset, or is it a sign that console gaming is coming to the end?   Guest: Jason Schreier , reporter at Bloomberg News , cohost of Triple Click, author of Play Nice , Press Reset , and Blood Sweat and Pixels .  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-fre...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how the confirmation hearing for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is yet another example of Trump trying to force Congress to bend the knee, what is behind the horrific ICE killings of two men this week and what can be done about it, and the details of a new multi-state antitrust lawsuit to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. merge...

America is one nation under the fear of an outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a food-borne illness that has given thousands “explosive diarrhea.” Where did it come from? What can you do to avoid it? And how will it end? Guest: Nicholas Florko , staff 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 S...

Todd Blanche’s hearing to become US Attorney General has begun. With a resume that includes the president’s $1.8 billion slush fund and, uh, the “handling” of the Epstein files, what could they possibly have to talk about?  Guest: Harry Litman, former US attorney, former deputy assistant attorney general, host of Talking Feds, the podcast and Substack Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate P...

As the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston demonstrates, ICE’s deportation surge is continuing—and so is the violence.  Guest: Arelis Hernández , reporter at the Washington Post covering the U.S. southern border, immigration, Texas and beyond. 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 podc...

Mitch McConnell’s “extended absence” (let’s call it that) from the Senate has drawn attention to the fact that the average age of American lawmakers has been skyrocketing. Is it time to talk about mandatory retirement ages? Guest: Sam Moyn, author of Gerontocracy in America , Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listen...

This week: The company buying up legacy brands like AOL, Evernote, and Vimeo had a huge IPO with shares immediately surging by 40%. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and guest host Stacy-Marie Ishmael discuss the Milan-based company’s strategy and unexpected success. Then, the hosts look at how prediction markets are booming during the World Cup. And later: why Bitcoin’s plummeting price is costin...

The Supreme Court just wrapped one of its most consequential terms in decades—and Amicus brought together three heavyweight legal experts to break down the damage. Their conversation centers on the biggest themes of the recent term: Congress has been sidelined completely; the Court is the final arbiter of all things; hubris has become the methodology, and the midterms should worry us all. &nb...

Ah high summer—time for Emmy nominations, giant aquatic mammals to take over seaside towns, and Democrats to point fingers as they frantically try to swap out candidates at the last minute.  This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next —you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your...

If you’ve seen ads for Trump Accounts for kids, but also know anything about Donald Trump, you might be wondering “Free $1,000 per baby? Okay, what’s the catch?” It’s a classic.  Guest: Justin Wolfers, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan , and founder of Platypus Economics . Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why an insurgent candidate with so many red flags got so far, how shocking new details about Trump's 2025 income show billions in earnings while those who bought his crypto lost billions, and what everyone lost when the president decided World Cup rules didn't apply to us. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and D...

How are supporters and voters reacting to the sexual assault allegations that have brought an end to Graham Platner’s Senate campaign? Guests: Lorry Fleming, Maine voter.  Emma Vigeland, co-host of The Majority Report with Sam Seder. 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 tod...

It was the red card—and subsequent White House phone call—heard ‘round the world. After USMNT striker Folarin Balogun was dealt a red card, President Trump gave FIFA head Gianni Infantino a ring. Suddenly, Balogun’s one-game suspension was revoked. It wasn’t enough to keep USMNT from losing against Belgium 4-1… but it was enough to ruin the World Cup vibes and make the United States, once again, t...

In this Money Talks: Felix Salmon is joined by Nobel Prize winning-economist Alvin Roth to discuss his new book, Moral Economics , which uses controversial topics—like prostitution and organ sales—to explore how morality shapes a market … and how we can apply economics lessons to big ethical issues. Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all y...

For two years, Alex Jones has been battling The Onion for control of Infowars. And, despite still being in a legal gray zone, it’s finally launched – with creative director, comedian, and chief Jones impersonator Tim Heidecker at the helm.  Guest: Tim Heidecker Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite S...

Union leader Dave Regan has spent decades wielding California’s ballot system against the healthcare industry. Now, he’s the man behind California’s billionaire tax — a one-time, 5 percent tax proposal that has “unleashed a political earthquake” and pissed off everyone from Elon Musk to Gavin Newsom.  Guest: Dave Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) Want more Wha...

Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck are joined by Reuters Media Editor Edmund Lee to revisit their 2016 predictions for the Comcast/NCBUniversal merge r, now that the companies have announced their split. Then, they explore how the World Cup fits into our very American media landscape. And finally, the hosts look at Donald Trump’s latest mandatory earnings disclosure, which revealed t...

The Supreme Court just wrapped the term with a blitz of extremely consequential decisions, and the smoke hasn’t cleared yet. (In fact, it’s looming like a dark storm cloud over our Fourth of July and America 250th festivities…) In this week’s episode, cohosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern focus on two of the term’s bleakest legacies: first, the court’s catastrophically bad use of history a...

WARNING: This episode spoils Toy Story 5. Right on the heels of two new directors with two fresh new films, comes a five-installment franchise: Toy Story 5. But the consensus is split on this big screen screentime critique. Guest: Sam Adams , Slate senior writer and editor. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusi...

Thanks for joining us during the holidays. White our team is taking a break, we want to share a series with you that we think you’ll love. It’s called Diving In.  Getting food delivered should be simple — but somehow it's gotten outrageously expensive. Economist Justin Wolfers breaks down why food delivery apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub make it nearly impossible to compare prices,...

This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Ruth Marcus discuss this week's momentous Supreme Court rulings. The FTC/ Slaughter case overturns nearly a century of precedent protecting independent agencies from presidential power while Cook makes a suspicious exception for the Fed, birthright citizenship prevails on constitutional grounds but the close vote further reveals what's broken a...

Well, the movement to change society so it stops heating up the world didn’t take, so now we need to figure out how to change society to deal with a hotter planet. That means new forms of insurance, new models for construction and—yes, looking at you, Europe—more air conditioning. Guest: Jeff Goodell , contributing writer at Rolling Stone and the author of the book The Heat Will Kill You First: Li...

The Supreme Court wrapped up a year of giving Trump and the Republican Party nearly everything they could want. And even in the final, birthright citizenship case, what is remarkable is not that Trump lost, but how close he came to winning that one too. Guest: Jay Willis , editor-in-chief at Balls and Strikes.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the wh...

It was a weird and wild ride as the Supreme Court handed down the last decisions of the term that started all the way back in October of 2025. We were so much younger then. After 58 argued cases and a steady, sneaky stream of shadow docket orders, the court issued its final four decisions Tuesday, and one justice was retired and unretired in short, confusing order.  The headline win: The cour...

The Gilded Age has nothing on the present when it comes to a huge—and growing—portion of wealth being controlled by a smaller and smaller group of men—and they’re doing their best to keep it that way. Must everything that goes up come down? Guest: Paul Krugman , Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor at City University of New York’s Graduate Center. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plu...