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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...

America hadn’t had a major commercial airline crash since 2009 until the mid-air collision over the Potomac. Is this a sign of a larger problem that will require government intervention—and will Congress prioritize safety over convenience for their constituents and themselves?   You can read Dan’s 2023 article, “ Everyone Seems to Agree a Major Plane Crash is Coming. Why?” on Slate. Guest: Dan Koi...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Lindsay Gibbs , and Ben Lindbergh look at the trade heard round the world that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. The panel also discusses the sexual misconduct allegations against Ravens’ kicker Justin Tucker, as well as the sports betting scandal in the NBA that now involves Terry Rozier. In the Afterball, Lindsay breaks down the NFL Pro Bowl games played this past...

On this episode: Zak, Elizabeth and Lucy crack open the C&F mailbag for some extended conversation on the internal rage club, parental favoritism, and Lucy’s special tea.  We’ll also check in on where the hosts are this week – and then, if you’re coming to hang out on the Slate Plus Playground, it’s Groundhog Day. If you’re not part of the Slate Plus community, we hope you’ll consider joining!...

Trump and his allies in the House’s flurry of anti-trans legislation and executive orders will soon run into both the law and the reality that our institutions like the military really rely on trans people. Guests: Major Alivia Stehlik, Director of Holistic Health and Fitness for the 101st Airborne Division. Kate Sosin, LGBTQ+ reporter at The 19th. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock fu...

The artificial intelligence industry was thrown for a loop when the Chinese start-up DeepSeek rolled out a product that was more energy efficient, cheaper to produce, and open source. Where did DeepSeek come from, and are Silicon Valley and Washington right to be panicking?  Guest: Zeyi Yang , senior writer at WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to t...

If you’re punch-drunk and disoriented this week, come on in. Donald J Trump’s second administration is materializing at frightening speed and recklessness and it is hard (and stressful) to keep up with it all. Kim Lane Scheppele, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International affairs at Princeton University, explains that the speed and viciousness of the legal orders in Trump...

Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay, still recovering from Justin Baldoni’s leaked voice memo to Blake Lively, dive into the online war being waged between the two It Ends With Us actors. They explore how this is the latest scheme in what seems to be a playbook for PR teams to tear down women online, and ask how we can avoid falling victim to the trap. This podcast is produced by Alexandra Botti, Daisy R...

This week: The Trump administration offered a resignation deal to millions of federal employees. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers discuss why this plan seems like a bad idea – for everyone. Then, Invidia’s stock dropped this week when Deepseek proved AI can be done cheaper. But is this just steam engines and Jevons paradox all over again? Finally, the bookstore is back. The hosts d...

Did the Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Deepseek just blow up the A.I. world as we know it? Or is it just a cheap knock-off? Guest: Lizzie O’Leary , host of the Slate podcast What Next TBD . 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 yo...

Tapped by Trump for the role of health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presents himself as someone willing to say what other politicians won’t. But during his Senate confirmation hearings, both Democrats and Republicans questioned his previous statements about vaccines—and questioned whether he even knows what the job he’s trying to get entails. But his nomination signals that maybe it isn’t abou...

At the movies, A Complete Unknown depicts Bob Dylan as a 1960s “it” boy—played by a 2020s “it” boy, Timothée Chalamet. But the film ends in 1965. What happened in the six decades after that? Dylan not only kept recording. He actually started topping the charts—in the 1970s, the era of Led Zeppelin, not Pete Seeger. And several of his chart-topping albums came decades later, in the 21st century. Bo...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the chaos and coming fight around impoundment of federal grants; the surprise market shakeup around AI and DeepSeek; and talk with Jonathan Rauch about his new book out next week entitled  Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy . For this week’s Slate Plus Episode, Emily, John, and David discuss new data from t...

We're aware of some playback issues on this episode - if you hear something weird, delete and re-download. On this episode: Elizabeth, Lucy and Zak help a listener whose son is putting up a fight about preschool. This four-year-old has never loved school, and now he has a new baby sibling to love… so he really doesn’t want to leave home. And it’s getting to the point of peeing on things out of spi...

Tulsi Gabbard’s political career is truly singular: once a young progressive Democrat on the rise, then a gadfly taking surprise meetings with Bashar al-Assad, now she’s Donald Trump’s nominee to head up National Intelligence. Along the way, Gabbard has given almost everyone a reason not to vote for her. Guest: Elaine Godfrey , staff writer covering national politics for The Atlantic . Want more W...

When we recently got a couple of listener emails asking about the swing revival of the late 1990s, host Willa Paskin’s first, knee jerk reaction was just: no. She lived through it, and remembers it as being so incredibly corny and uncool. Insofar as the swing revival persists in the cultural memory, it’s usually as a punchline or as head-scratcher, a particularly odd-seeming fad.  But then we star...

On this week’s show, Dan Kois sits in for Dana Stevens. First, the hosts discuss One of Them Days , a new buddy comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA that’s quickly becoming a critical darling — and a box office success. Then, they dive into Asura , Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Netflix show that’s about the dynamics between three sisters and is “totally uninterested in the rhythms of a TV s...

Bryan, Jules, and Christina take on the troubling transphobia in Emilia Pérez, the movie that has received 13 Oscar nominations this awards season. They explore why it’s heavily nominated in this political climate. They also unpack the backlash to the film and the backlash to that backlash, exploring why some defend Emilia Pérez despite its flaws. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in...