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Three weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum shared an unusual tweet : a cartoon image of himself with his arm draped around a giant, anthropomorphized lump of coal. This piece of coal has big googly eyes and a smudge of a nose, and is wearing a safety vest and a hard hat. He is, frankly, adorable—and he has a name: Coalie. When Coalie first appeared on the internet, he went viral—r...

The sugarcane fields! La casita! Piraguas! Lady Gaga! Ricky Martin! An actual wedding! Bad Bunny’s immense and boisterous Super Bowl Halftime show brought a whole Puerto Rican universe to Levi’s Stadium and into American viewers’ homes. Julia and guest hosts Nadira Goffe and Rebecca Onion revel in the joyful spectacle and are joined by Slate writer Joshua Rivera to decode the inclusive politics of...

Although sexual assault and rape by rideshare drivers has been widely reported, Uber itself largely avoided legal liability until last week, when a jury decided the company had to pay $8.5 million to a woman who said she was raped by her Uber driver.  Guest:  Sarah London , co-Lead and liaison counsel in the multidistrict litigation against Uber. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate P...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Kat Tenbarge, who wrote “ There's nothing funny about the Epstein Files ,” to discuss how the internet has turned Jeffrey Epstein into a meme. While dark humor has long been a way to process tragic events, online shitposts about the sex offender and alleged sex trafficker risk minimizing his crimes. Instead of justice, the public is using the newl...

On the air, Yesi Ortiz is a warm, flirty host for a popular L.A. hip hop station. Off the air, she’s a single mother of six adopted kids. Managing both roles, plus romance, is a challenge. This episode originally aired in 2015.  Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus ! Members get ad-free podcast...

Markiplier has been entertaining millions of fans on YouTube for over a decade. But his new movie Iron Lung - which he self-financed, directed, wrote and acted in - was a smash at the box office, not on his YouTube channel. Is it proof that he’s more than a YouTuber? Or is it proof that Hollywood is thinking about the platform and its creators all wrong?  Guest: Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier,...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh break down the Seattle Seahawks’ brickwall defense in the Super Bowl, plus Bad Bunny’s refreshing halftime performance. The panel then pivots to the stranger corners of the NBA trade deadline before welcoming college sports writer Jesse Dougherty, who discusses his experience as part of the Washington Post sports desk that was recently elimin...

On this episode: Let’s talk about sex, baby! Lucy Lopez , Elizabeth Newcamp , and Zak Rosen are joined by sex therapist and author Dr. Rebecca Howard Eudy to get tips and advice for keeping the spice alive after kids. They talk about how to find flirty moments when life is overwhelming, a little advice from the movie Hitch (remember that one with Will Smith?), and Dr. Eudy explains the power of wh...

Trump has called for elections to be “nationalized,” something neither the president, nor the federal government, has the authority to do. But as he’s already sent the FBI to raid Fulton County, Georgia’s election offices with director of intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and with the midterms on their way, it’s time to ask how much damage a vindictive president could do. Guest:  Ari Berman , votin...

Scamming attempts might seem to just come out of nowhere to suddenly appear in your WhatsApp, but a special economic zone in Laos has emerged as a hotbed of cryptocurrency schemes—where victims of human trafficking are trapped and forced to attempt more crime. Guest: Andy Greenberg , senior writer for WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Mia Sato, reporter at The Verge and author of the recent piece, “ The rise of the slopagandist .” Creators like Nick Shirley are claiming to be journalists, making unfounded accusations against immigrants that directly result in ICE raids, including the unrest in Minneapolis that resulted in the death of two civilians. The content is lazy and desi...

According to Marc Elias , Dahlia Lithwick’s guest on Amicus, “This week will be looked back on as a pivot point in terms of how the midterms play out.” Elias is a nationally recognized authority on voting rights, redistricting and campaign finance law. He is Chair of Elias Law Group and founder of Democracy Docket .  In the past few weeks, Donald Trump’s election denialism has kicked into hig...

This week: Anthropic released an update that seems to have tipped the scales against Software as a Service companies, erasing billions in market value. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck , unpack why there was such a massive market response to such a small AI plugin, and what it says about the future of tech investment. Then, Disney has finally named a new CEO in Josh D’Amaro. The ho...

He’s discontinuing Tesla’s signature models, taking SpaceX public, and putting more chips on A.I. and robotics. As Elon Musk prepares for his next phase, will he rein in any of his excesses?  And in this week’s Plus segment: Elon in Epstein files. Guest: Faiz Siddiqui , technology reporter for the Washington Post’s Business Desk, author of “ Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk .” Want...

This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the juxtaposition between the devastating layoffs at The Washington Post and the exorbitant price owner Jeff Bezos and Amazon paid for the Melania movie, this week’s ominous foreshadowing of the Trump administration’s real threats to the 2026 elections with election law expert Nate Persily , and why the Clintons are faci...

What Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show means for Puerto Rico, Latin Americans in the U.S., and his haters. Guest: Dr. Vanessa Díaz, associate professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance . Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole W...

On this episode: Play the music and light the lights! Lucy Lopez , Elizabeth Newcamp , and Zak Rosen are getting crafty and talking Muppets! The Muppet Show is back with a really fun, exciting special. The ‘Rents talk about Miss. Piggy, the musical guests, and we hear from the kids on what they thought. While they’re dishing about Kermit and crew, Zak and Elizabeth each share how to make a craft t...

This week, Steve, Dana and guest host Sam Adams talk anti-authoritarian art in its many forms. First, they take up It Was Just an Accident , the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Inspired in part by Panahi’s own experience being imprisoned for critiquing the Iranian government, his new film—made in secret from the regime— holds back little in its sharp political cri...

Another 3 million pages of the Epstein files were released last Friday, with more big names named, more redactions, and more information that should have been redacted left unredacted.  Guest: David Enrich , deputy investigations editor at the New York Times.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favori...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Alex Kirshner, Slate contributing writer and host of Hang Up And Listen . Back in September, Alex wrote about Brick , the plastic gadget he says “broke his phone addiction.” It seems like now more than ever, people want off their phones, and are trying everything from Brick to dumb phones to make it happen. They’re also, ironically, posting all ab...

Melania , the documentary about the First Lady, is a lot like its subject: extremely expensive and fundamentally inscrutable.  Guest: Heather Schwedel , staff writer at Slate, author of “ Unfortunately, I Have to Recommend You See Melania ”. 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. Subsc...

In this Money Talks: Emily Peck is joined by Andrew Biggs, author of The Real Retirement Crisis , to talk about how the data contradicts the so-called "retirement crisis” in the US, what we misunderstand about the system, and what we should be thinking about when it comes to retirement savings.  Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all...

Growing up, George Saunders was the eldest boy with younger sisters, in a family full of women who gave him praise and special treatment. That created the confidence that fueled his ambition to become a great writer.  In this lively interview, George talks about why that dream took decades to realize and what was essential to making it happen – including a karmic, three-week romance, a pivota...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh kick things off by picking their favorite (and the most horrifying) events to watch at the upcoming Winter Olympics. Then the panel digs into Bill Belichick’s bizarre Hall of Fame snub. They finish with a conversation with the Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn about the Buffalo Sabres, the NHL’s most playoff-averse team that might actually make the...

Congress is supposed to have a legal right to tour ICE detention centers and provide oversight on these facilities, where 32 people died in 2025. But this representative’s attempt to tour a facility in her New Jersey district led to her being charged with assaulting a federal officer and facing a 17-year prison sentence.   Guest:  LaMonica McIver is the U.S. representative for New J...