Slate Daily Feed

This very online administration is facing push back from Iran in their own home territory: the world of insipid memes, A.I. videos, and online mockery. Guest: Ali Breland , staff writer for the Atlantic. 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 on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try...

Emily Bazelon talks with journalist Mark Oppenheimer about his new book Judy Blume: A Life . Oppenheimer, who spent years with Blume’s papers at Yale and conducted extensive interviews with the author herself, traces how a restless housewife in New Jersey became one of the most beloved—and most banned—writers in American history. They discuss what made Blume’s frank, funny voice so revolutionary f...

Hungary’s autocratic creep was turned back at the ballot box last weekend, in a stark rebuke to the forces of illiberalism and to the American conservatives who invested so heavily in former Hungarian leader Viktor Orban’s mission. It’s good news. But it’s not the end of the story. It behoves pro-democracy forces in the United States to move past the example of democratic resilience in Hungary to...

This week: Sneaker company Allbirds announced a pivot into A.I. infrastructure. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck explain why this absurd-sounding venture is actually a pretty clever piece of financial engineering. Then, the hosts get into the market surge that put the S&P 500 at a record high. And finally, the courts confirmed what we all knew: Live Nation and its subsidiary Ti...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Yahoo senior entertainment reporter Kelsey Weekman to discuss influencers at Coachella. Kelsey herself attended Coachella Weekend One, and spoke to creators and regular attendees about what the music festival has become. While the experience itself has been enshittified by brands, even those watching from home are losing interest—especially when t...

Richard Pryor redefined comedy by telling the truth, even when it scorched him. Today, we’re sharing a preview of a new podcast, Big Lives, and a special episode about Pryor. Every week, hosts Kai Wright and Emmanuel Dzotsi dig into the BBC archive to explore the story behind the icons who shape our culture—trailblazers like David Bowie, Meg Ryan, Amy Winehouse, and Tina Turner—and better understa...

Back in the depths of the pandemic, what was an actor to do? Ben McKenzie started looking into cryptocurrency—and his research yielded both a book and a new documentary. The works are both non-fiction, which is more than McKenzie can say for crypto. Guest: Ben McKenzie, actor, director of the documentary Everyone Is Lying to You for Money , and co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capit...

Last week we aired an episode about lonelygirl15, one of the first proper YouTube stars, and perhaps the most famous example of playing around with the boundaries of fiction and truth on the internet. But it was not the first. In 1995, aspiring filmmakers created the first ever soap opera on the Web, on a site called The Spot. Hollywood saw it as the future of entertainment. But a fan-led revolt s...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Trump's Hormuz blockade and his feud with the Pope, a new oral history chronicling stark shifts inside the Department of Homeland Security during Trump's second term, and how to unwind authoritarianism after the consequential electoral defeat of Hungary's Viktor Orbán with guest Anne Applebaum . For this week’s Slate Plus bonus epis...

In Pope Leo XIV, Donald Trump has finally run into someone he can’t silence, threaten, or sully. He’s not taking it gracefully.  Guest:  Christopher Hale, author of the “Letters from Leo” Substack , “a chronicle of how Pope Leo XIV’s papacy intersects with American politics, faith, and the digital age during the presidency of Donald Trump.” Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to...

On this episode: Lucy Lopez , Elizabeth Newcamp , and Zak Rosen help a mom who has found herself in the middle of a prom dress dilemma. Her daughter fell in love with a dress. Fantastic, right? The problem? Our letter-writer hates it. Should she say something or let her daughter wear whatever she wants?  But first, they share their latest triumphs and fails. This week’s roundup includes an em...

On this week’s show, Dana, Steve, and Dan Kois get into cultural topics of various scales. First, they examine The Christophers , the latest film from Steven Soderbergh . The small scale two-hander starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel about an aging artist and an upstart forger is intentionally intimate, but is it too slight? They discuss. Next, they pick up their cultural magnifying glasses to...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Slate Good Job columnist Laura Helmuth . In a recent Slate piece , Kate spoke to employees who say their bosses’ use of AI is making their work life harder. Laura and Kate discuss why bosses are using AI at such higher rates than their employees, and how employees can push back against their bosses’ attempts to shirk their responsibilities in favo...

In a single weekend, JD Vance managed to flunk out of peace talks with Iran and hitch the Trump wagon to Victor Orban’s star just in time for it to implode. Like Kamala Harris before him, the vice president is getting all the hard, unpopular assignments – and also like Harris, it could cost him his political future. Guest: Asawin Suebsaeng, senior political correspondent with Zeteo , co-author of...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh join forces one last time to break down (what else?) the week’s top sports stories. Then, the panel is joined by Hang Up all-star guests from across the years (including John Wertheim, Jeff Passan, Louisa Thomas, and more) to share memories from the show’s seventeen-year run and make predictions of the sports world for the next seventeen. Fin...

In this Money Talks: Elizabeth Spiers is joined by psychologist Dr. Leanne ten Brinke whose new book, Poisonous People , explores the impact that people with psychopathic and related personality traits have on our everyday lives. Leanne explains her research on “dark personality traits” and success in the business world, how to spot a true psychopath, and what to do if you find yourself working wi...

Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a novel that follows a young college student who starts a flirtation, and then affair, with a college professor who ends up getting her pregnant.  Author Rufi Thorpe takes us through what happens next, as Margo decides to keep the baby and then joins OnlyFans in the earliest days of the site.    The novel is now a TV show on AppleTV starring Elle F...

The U.S. and Iran began (and ended) negotiations under a shaky ceasefire, and are now at the stage where America is threatening to also blockade the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Israel and Lebanon have begun negotiating over Hezbollah, with conspicuously no ceasefire in place.  Guest:  Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent for The Economist. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate P...

Lurking behind—and sometimes explicitly out in front of — the Trump administration’s ire for DEI, its crackdowns on immigration, and its rhetoric about what kind of country America is, is “the Great Replacement theory.” But it’s not an exclusively American problem.  Guest: Ibram X Kendi , author of “How To Be An Antiracist,” “Stamped From The Beginning” and his latest, “Chain of Ideas: The Or...

On this episode: Elizabeth Newcamp seeks counsel from Lucy Lopez and Zak Rosen on a treat habit that has gotten out of hand. They also answer a listener question about an annoying toddler who will. not. wait.  This week on the Plus Playground: A mega-round of science-y book recommendations.  Podcast production by Cheyna Roth and Rosemary Belson.  Follow us on YouTube !  Join us...

If you had as much trouble getting along with other humans as Sam Altman does, you too might be eager to issue in the artificial intelligence revolution. Guest: Andrew Marantz , staff writer for the New Yorker.  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 on Apple Podcasts by c...

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by creator Annie Rauwerda, who runs the popular @depthsofwikipedia account, to talk about 25 years of Wikipedia and the platform’s recent decision to ban AI . While Wikipedia has long been seen as an infinite well of knowledge, it’s kept alive by hundreds of thousands of dedicated human volunteers. From the teenager who’d drive to historical sites to...

The events of the past week have revealed a terrifying disconnect between the constitutional remedies available to us and the gravity of the threats posed by an utterly unfit President with his finger on the nuclear button. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick turns to two experts on impeachment and the 25th Amendment: Rep. Jamie Raskin, and Professor Michael Gerhardt. Each has been at the very...

This week: Retail investors usually stick to the stock market, but many are rushing to make bets on oil futures. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck discuss Emily’s piece about “dumb money” moving into more sophisticated trading markets —thanks to new crypto-driven platforms—and what’s motivating the trend.  Then, the hosts examine Bill Ackman’s grand plan to take over Universal...

Donna Summer was a hit-maker for two decades and a dance floor deity for more than three. Her collaborations with Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte were formative in dance, electronic, and rock music, influencing everyone from David Bowie and Blondie to Madonna and Moby. But the rock establishment was stinting in its appreciation—whether at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1979 or the Rock and Roll Hal...