Slate Daily Feed

On this week’s show, the hosts reflect on 50 years of music, culture, and comedy with the 50th anniversary of SNL and QuestLove’s new documentary Ladies & Gentlemen…50 Years of SNL Music . For that, the team is joined by Jason Zinoman , critic at large for culture at The New York Times.  Then they discuss the Oscar-nominated animated film Flow – where we follow the adventures of an unlikely gr...

Among his recent executive orders, Donald Trump moved to halt aid to South Africa over a land law and extended political asylum to South Africa’s white Afrikaner population. Where does Trump’s seemingly spotty understanding of South Africa come from? How could having close advisors who grew up in apartheid-era South Africa, like Elon Musk, influence him? Guest: Chris McGreal , writer for The Guard...

Kate Lindsay and Candice Lim dive into two internet stories they can’t stop thinking about. First, they explain how Montoya from Temptation Island became 2025’s crash-out king and created one of the first great international memes of the year. Then, they recap the journey of Onijah Andrew Robinson , an American who spent months in Pakistan after a catfish-gone-wrong, and used local media to become...

When the poet and writer Kaveh Akbar likes something, he really likes it. As a high school student, he got hooked on poetry. In college, it was alcohol. This week, Kaveh talks to Anna Sale about the factors that led to his sobriety, and he explains exactly how he manages a life that’s full of healthy, wonderful obsessions as well as problematic ones.   Kaveh’s critically acclaimed novel Martyr! is...

As Donald Trump has demonstrated, losing an election is no reason to admit you lost an election. In fact, in North Carolina, the Republican challenger, who lost a race for the state’s Supreme Court, is testing a bold new strategy of disqualifying ballots until he gets the result he wants. And if he succeeds, it could start a trend. Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, Slate senior writer covering courts and...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh examine how the world-beating Chiefs ran into the brick wall that was the Philadelphia Eagles at the Super Bowl. They also speak to journalist and author Julie Kliegman about the Trump administration’s recent executive order aiming to ban trans women from sports. Plus, the panel examines the growing movement across sports to shorten game time...

On this episode: Zak, Elizabeth, Lucy and Jamilah are joined by Lauren Passell, of Tink Media , for the ultimate conversation about planning and executing a Disney trip. We won’t lie — yes, it can be complicated, and expensive. But we’ll share how to manage the hard stuff and still have a great trip.  Then, if you’re hanging out for the Slate Plus Playground, everyone will share their favorite mem...

Donald Trump has a lot of similarities—and something of a bromance—with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. And those who wish to resist Trump’s Orbán-like, right-wing strongman tendencies could learn something from the resistance in Hungary.  Guest: Gábor Scheiring , former member of the Hungarian parliament and assistant professor of comparative politics at Georgetown University Qatar. Want m...

Using Github, you can watch as government websites are brought into compliance with Donald Trump’s executive orders. Out goes the word “equity;” in comes “fair.” And health and science data, once publicly available, disappears. Guest: Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media . Jeremy Prokop, data science advisor in the Midwest Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listeni...

Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay are not the world’s biggest sports fans, but are now more tuned in than ever thanks to TikTok. In today’s episode, the pair talk about how everything from fancams to fashion is giving audiences new entry points to a typically masculine space. But what happens when trends start to outway tackles? When followers start coming before free throws? This podcast is produced b...

This week: Trump almost started a trade war with our nearest neighbors. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers explain why Trump’s trade war with Canada and Mexico not happening is still newsworthy. Then, Felix breaks down why Trump’s plan for a US sovereign wealth fund makes no sense. And finally, Kalshi seems to have found a loophole by offering event contracts on the Super Bowl even i...

DOGE is running wild in the District of Columbia. Chaos reigns supreme. Trump 2.0 has been frightening and it’s all been happening so fast. But there are lots of people fighting back, as they try to slow the damage. And the courts are exactly where the pushback has been most fierce. One of the teams of people leading the charge includes former Judge Nancy Gertner, one of the many legal professiona...

Elon Musk is supposed to be running several companies and a new government department—so why is he also spending money to pretend to be good at video games? Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter for the Washington Post . 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 TBD—you’ll also access ad-free l...

Elon Musk is supposed to be running several companies and a new government department—so why is he also spending money to pretend to be good at video games? Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter for the Washington Post . 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 TBD—you’ll also access ad-free l...

You can’t doubt the enthusiasm of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. You can question the legality of some of their early moves.  Guest: Makena Kelly , senior writer at WIRED .  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 Free” at the...

You can’t doubt the enthusiasm of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. You can question the legality of some of their early moves.  Guest: Makena Kelly , senior writer at WIRED .  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 Free” at the...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Elon Musk’s speedy assault on federal agencies, talk to guest  David Leonhardt  about the widening gap between US prosperity and quality of life, and discuss recent aggressive immigration efforts by states. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the New York doctor recently indicted in Louisiana for...

On this episode: Elizabeth, Jamilah and Zak circle up to talk about parenting in the current moment. The Slate Parenting Facebook group has been talking recently about how to explain current events to kids — even when we wish we were unplugged, and even when we’re scared and uncertain, too. So today? We’ll just talk. And after that discussion, we’ll of course circle up for a round of triumphs and...

Last week, Donald Trump announced that Guantanamo Bay would be used to house the “worst criminal illegal aliens” and claimed that it would be drastically scaled up to hold as many as 30,000 people. In addition to its infamous role in the War on Terror, it’s the latest use of Gitmo as an immigration deterrent—and legal grey zone. Guest: Andrea Pitzer , author of One Long Night: A Global History of...

On this week’s show, the hosts discuss Max’s new medical drama The Pitt – a show that we legally can’t call an ER reboot but does have Noah Wyle donning scrubs and handling the next bodily emergency yet again. Our regular hosts also discuss an article from the Intelligencer, The Cruel Kids’ Table about how young Republicans now feel empowered to bring cruelty back into public discourse. Finally, w...

Why did the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which gives money to humanitarian causes around the world and accounts for roughly half of one percent of the federal budget, end up in DOGE’s crosshairs? And is its abrupt closure legal?   Guests: Franco Ordoñez , White House Correspondent for NPR. Fred Kaplan , Slate’s war stories correspondent. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to...

This week, Jules Gill-Peterson sits down with Owen Dempsey, the founder of Quest Healing House, a post-op recovery home providing safe, affordable lodging and wraparound support for transmasculine people. They discuss how Quest House, began, the urgent need for trans-led recovery spaces, and how the project has grown to meet community needs. Dempsey shares their vision for a future where no trans...

Episode notes: Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay are joined by meme historian and researcher Aidan Walker, whose Substack travels into the depths of meme lore. 2025 is off to a rocky start for several reasons , but the panel wonders if memes may provide a solution for getting through the year. Memes are a coping mechanism, especially for those who like dark humor in difficult times. And some memes help...

In this Money Talks: Historian Quinn Slobodian’s 2023 book Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy explored the dark reality that many extremists seek a purely capitalist society free of democracy. Now, with the Silicon Valley elite playing such a large role in Trump’s second term, Quinn's work is more relevant than ever. In this episode, Quinn joins Felix S...

In 2023, Anna and On The Media’s Micah Loewinger traveled to Montana to talk to Tasha Adams, the ex-wife of Stewart Rhodes, who founded the far-right paramilitary group, the Oath Keepers. Stewart had been charged with seditious conspiracy for his participation in the January 6 Capitol riots, and Tasha was eagerly awaiting sentencing: “I need him to stay locked away so my kids can legally cut conta...