Death, Sex & Money

In the 1950s, about 50% of patients who died in a hospital in the U.S. received an autopsy. Today, that figure is in the single digits, which is a big loss according to two people who care a lot about this topic:  One is Dr. Alex Williamson, an forensic and pediatric pathologist who performs autopsies and talks to families of the deceased about what he learned in the process. The other is Sam...

Anna hosted Selected Shorts, an evening where professional actors read short stories in front of a live studio audience at Symphony Space in New York. The theme for the night? Death, sex, and money. Stories performed: Cat Owner by Alissa Nutting performed by Phoebe Robinson The Model Millionaire by Oscar Wilde performed by Peter Francis James You Again by Seth Fried performed by Amy Ryan Hear more...

Your stories about inheritance: Gwynn wrestles with her mother's will that would cut out her sister; Trevor inherited money from his father and questions about whether his death was planned; and Anna talks to two young people giving away their inherited wealth despite some family opposition. Podcast production by Zoe Azulay Sign up for a full year of Slate Plus for 50% off by using the code DSM50...

When screenwriter Russell Hainline first moved to L.A., his goal was to write high-budget monster movies and thrillers. Then one day, he was prompted to write a Hallmark holiday rom-com, and something clicked. In this special holiday episode, Russell talks about his breakout Netflix hit Hot Frosty and how he found his groove writing movies for the Hallmark Channel. He also gets to the heart of why...

After the blockbuster success of her first book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat , Samin Nosrat felt pressure to follow it up with something big. But when depression and grief hit, she was forced to slow down and accept help (and cooking) from people around her. In this episode, Samin talks about getting "chef 911" texts from friends on Thanksgiving, new romance, and finding happiness outside of success. Sa...

The British poet Raymond Antrobus was six years old when his parents and doctors realized that his ears couldn’t recognize a whole range of sounds. He was fitted with hearing aids and began a life of straddling the Deaf and hearing worlds, going to speech therapy and reading lips, learning British sign language, and attending both Deaf and hearing schools. By necessity, Raymond became an expert in...

Sarah Amos says the best way to describe her childhood is as a “nepo-baby fever dream.” She grew up in a pink mansion in Hawaii where celebrities often dropped by, and the fridge was always stocked with cookie dough made from her father’s famous recipe. Wally Amos founded Famous Amos cookies in 1975, but by the time Sarah was in middle school, he had sold the company and their house was in foreclo...

When the Metropolitan Community Church was founded in the late sixties, it was one of the first gay positive churches in America. When AIDS hit, it became a refuge for people who were sick and those who were mourning them.  In this episode, Anna talks to researcher Lynne Gerber, about finding boxes of cassettes under the church floor in an MCC church in San Francisco, and how those recordings of s...

Even though the documentary Tig Notaro produced won the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance, she did not spend the festival hobnobbing with industry types. Instead she stayed holed up at the Airbnb she rented with friends and the film's crew. "We were calling it Snuggle Down because we were all sitting around the fire and having tea and just laughing so hard." Among the people at Snuggle Down was...

In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale are once again joined by Felix’s financial advisor Adrianna Adams from Domain Money to talk about…parents. They dig into the emotions of trying to take care of your aging parents while also growing your own wealth, the importance of setting goals, and how to deal with aging children AND aging parent...

Country musician Luke Bell had swagger, talent, and a career on the rise, opening for Willie Nelson and Dwight Yoakam. Then mental illness took over. His mother Carol shares what it was like raising Luke, the fine line between his bold personality and paranoid delusions, and navigating his years of homelessness and psychosis before his death at 32.  Listen to his posthumous album, The King Is Back...

In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale dig into the stressful world of financial advice and planning for retirement. How do you know if you’re set up financially to retire? Is it possible to think about retirement without having a panic attack? How much should you track your 401k? They’re joined by Felix’s financial advisor Adrianna Adam...

This September when SNL announced its season 51 cast, Ego Nwodim made the cut. Then, just days later, she announced on social media that she was leaving the show. "The hardest part of a great party is knowing when to say goodnight," she wrote. In this episode, she talks about learning to trust her body when making big decisions, growing up in a family of workaholics, and her 3 AM post-show ritual...

In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale dig into the difficult decision of whether or not to have kids. Child care? School? New vehicle? All the baby gadgets? Kids are expensive! Anna has two kids, and Felix is famously childless. Between the two of them they dig into their decisions to have and not have kids, the budgeting and balancing...

In the early-morning hours of October 2, 2023, progressive activist and organizer Ryan Carson was stabbed and killed by a stranger on a Brooklyn sidewalk. His girlfriend Claudia Morales—who witnessed the crime, attempted CPR, and dialed 911—quickly became the target of sensationalist online posting. Internet trolls falsely claimed that she didn’t cooperate with law enforcement and suggested that s...

Christine Brown Woolley grew up in Utah with a dad and two moms, in a polygamist community called the Apostolic United Brethren. When she became an adult, she joined a polygamist marriage as a third wife, helped raise more than a dozen kids, and became co-star of the TLC reality show Sister Wives .  Fast forward to 2025, and she has left her marriage and her polygamist faith. This week, she talks...

In the new movie Sovereign , actor Nick Offerman plays an extremist who doesn’t believe in the legitimacy of the Federal government. In real life, Nick comes from a small-town political family. His father is the mayor of Minooka, Illinois, and his uncle is on the village board. In this episode Nick talks about choosing roles, how he’s different from his family, his love of teaching woodworking and...

When Peter van Agtmael went to Iraq in 2006 to embed with the U.S. military, he was 24 years old and confident that his pictures could help end an unjust war. Two decades later, after documenting combat deaths overseas and then turning his camera lens on America, he's learned the limits of what photography can do. In this episode, Peter talks about the emotional toll of bearing witness to violence...

This week, Anna learns about how frustrating it is to apply for jobs these days, especially for early-career folks, even those with college degrees. First, Jeopardy champion Brendan Liaw talks about what it was like to list his job as “stay-at-home son” on national television. Then Slate writer Nitish Pahwa explains why talented people like Brendan are having such a hard time securing work. And fi...

Over the past few months, we've been asking you to tell us stories about your beauty interventions. You told us about feeling caught between viewing appearance improvements as vanity and recognizing how much looking a certain way affects your relationships, career, and self-worth. In this episode, Anna talks to listeners about their appearance choices: Asher, who spent $43,000 on plastic surgery a...

When Megan Greenwell was 34 she landed a coveted job in journalism as the editor-in-chief of the sports and culture blog, Deadspin . Just over a year later a post about why she was resigning went viral – a private equity firm had bought Deadspin’s parent company, and was seeking "a quick cash-out rather than the growth that comes from a well-run business." Her experience led her to spend six years...

After two decades of making movies with his younger brother Mark, Jay Duplass has gone solo. This week, he tells Anna about all the factors that led to that decision: tricky union rules, his brother’s career taking off without him, and the need to provide for his family. They also talk about the resulting film, a tender and unique indie rom-com called The Baltimorons , which Jay co-wrote with the...

When comedy writer Tamara Yajia talks about her childhood, she’s sometimes unsure what tone to strike. Her new memoir Cry for Me Argentina: My Life as a Failed Child Star depicts a very fun nuclear family with parents and grandparents who are loud, crass, and sex-positive. There are hilarious moments and situations that seem wildly inappropriate. In this week’s episode, Tamara tells Anna about the...

They say moving is one of life’s most stressful events. We asked for your stories about why you’re doing it. Plus, Heidi Reinberg was priced out of a Brooklyn neighborhood she loved. Where did she end up?  Death, Sex & Money is produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus . Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slat...

Casey Johnston grew up in a family where being thin mattered. In college, the internet told her to eat 1,200 calories and do endless cardio if she wanted to lose weight. That habit followed her into her late twenties, until she came upon a Reddit post about weightlifting that changed her relationship to her body and just about everything else. Casey Johnston is the author of Physical Education: Ho...