Slate Daily Feed

This week: Los Angeles continues to try and fight back its most devastating wildfire ever. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the fires raging in Los Angles and how they highlight the growing problem with disaster insurance as well as the complex issues around prison labor . Then, Meta is walking back their content moderation, giving hate speech more of a chance to thrive on...

Candice Lim is joined by Slate culture writer Scaachi Koul, the host of Scamfluencers and the author of the upcoming book Sucker Punch (coming out this March). Today, they’re diving into Scaachi’s internet diaries to hear about her most-referenced meme, the internet rule she thinks everyone should follow, and whether there’s hope for the next generation online. But first, they’re discussing Trisha...

While Donald J Trump was virtually fuming at his sentencing hearing in Judge Juan Merchan’s New York City courtroom on Friday morning, the nine justices of the US Supreme Court were taking their seats for oral arguments in the so-called TikTok ban case . And while it only took 40 minutes for the president elect’s sentence of an ‘unconditional discharge’ to be pronounced , the arguments over nation...

Will a First Amendment defense keep TikTok running in America?  Guest: Emily Baker White, tech reporter for Forbes.  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 top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access...

This week, Emily Bazelon and David Plotz are joined by  Juliette Kayyem  and discuss the status of the Jack Smith reports and Donald Trump’s legal troubles; Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s continued cozying up to Trump; and the horrific wildfires raging in Los Angeles.  For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Juliette, Emily, and David discuss dropping into the memory hole the January 6, 2021 at...

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.* There is a cluster-you-know-what of constitutional and legal news this week, so Amicus Plus is popping up a little early with a bonus episode to tackle the Trump prosecutions portion of the melee ahead of Friday’s very important TikTok-ban arguments. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Andrew Weissman, co-host of the MSNBC podcast "Prosecuting Donald Trump...

A note: this episode was recorded just minutes after the Palisades Fire reportedly ignited in California. Jamilah and her family are safe as of the airing of this episode.  If you want to help victims of any of the fires in the Los Angeles metro area, please consider donating to the California Fire Foundation , Direct Relief , World Central Kitchen , or CORE .  On this episode: Jamilah, Zak, and E...

With Republicans holding the House, the Senate, and the presidency, cabinet confirmation hearings may be the most prominent place for Democrats to make a stand. Guest: Chris Murphy , US senator for Connecticut.  Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on  App...

Bryan Lowder talks with writer and scholar Lucas Wilson about his new book, Shame Sex: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy. They chat about Wilson’s experience navigating same-sex attraction while on an evangelical path, experiencing conversion therapy, and the complicated relationships he experienced along the way. He also shares powerful stories from other survivors and explores the endurin...

After a summer on the receiving end of the internet’s ire, Blake Lively is back in the news, as her relationship with her former director and co-star Justin Baldoni has taken a turn for the litigious.  Guest: Heather Schwedel , staff writer at Slate. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe direct...

On this week’s show, it’s an all-movie week! Isaac Butler — author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act and host of the new Criterion Channel series, The Craft of Acting — sits in for Stephen Metcalf. First, the panel explores The Brutalist , director Brady Corbet’s two-part epic following the life of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survives the...

Candice Lim is joined by Slate business and tech writer Nitish Pahwa and internet culture writer Steffi Cao to debate, defend, and decide how they’re going to face the internet this year. Each brought a personal query they’re on the fence about, and the remaining panelists will argue both sides before coming to a verdict. For example, should we join Bluesky? How can we resist the urge to fact-chec...

In this Money Talks: Jane Marie has spent years reporting on the tangled web of multi-level marketing companies, or MLMs, with her podcast The Dream and dives even deeper in her new book, Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans . In this episode, she sits down with Emily Peck to discuss their origins, their appeal to American women, and their extremely questionable bus...

After nine years as Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau has resigned. Has Canada joined much of the rest of the world by jettisoning its progressive leadership, or does Trudeau’s career tell a different story? Guest: Jesse Brown , editor and publisher of Canadaland . Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You...

Whether it's a nanny taking us to school or a home health aide helping us age in place, most of us will rely on paid caregivers at some point in our lives. For the next two episodes, we'll talk to professional caregivers about the emotional and economic reality of the intimate work they do. In episode one, we hear from two eldercare workers: Rahn*, whose relationships with patients have helped hea...

Hosts Alex Kirshner , Ben Lindbergh , and Lindsay Gibbs talk about Premier League Soccer and how sputtering performances could leave Manchester City and Manchester United out of Champions League contention. The hosts also get into the college football playoffs and the coming NFL postseason. For Afterballs: Ben recounts a history of alternative settings for specialty ‘classic’ sports games. On the...

On this episode: Lucy sits down with actress and author Mandy Gonzalez for a wide-ranging conversation about parenting, building a creative mom group, and enduring cancer treatment with your head held high. Mandy also answers questions from our own budding Broadway stars. Lucy also shares a quick update about her mom's cancer journey - and Care & Feeding's production schedule in the new year....

Though their physical caliphate has been gone for more than five years, the terrorist organization ISIS has survived—through propaganda, in chatrooms, and as an inspiration and cheerleader for actions like the New Years’ Eve attack in New Orleans. Guest: Colin P. Clarke , Director of Research at The Soufan Group, a nonprofit research group focusing on global security, author of “ After the Calipha...

Cryptocurrency spent generously on this last election cycle, and now they’ve got their top pick in the White House, and wins across Congress. Where is the industry looking to go with these favorable, regulatory winds?  Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany , tech reporter covering the crypto industry for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the w...

Happy (?) New Year. Amicus is gingerly stepping into 2025 and into the coming onslaught of Trump 2.0 with one of the country’s very best legal, constitutional and human guides –– civil rights litigator and 14th Amendment scholar Sherrilyn Ifill. Together, Sherrilyn and Dahlia navigate some of the most pressing questions facing the law, the legal profession, and those who care about it. In his end...

Candice Lim is joined by media scholars Dr. Jess Maddox and Dr. Jess Rauchberg to discuss the subreddit r/NYCInfluencerSnark : In the early 2020s, influencer snark pages began as a way to contain a growing, unregulated economy where sponcon and diet teas began to thrive. With more money flowing into influencer marketing, a backlash started to emerge on Reddit as followers became anti-fans, then ha...

This week: The Lively/Baldoni PR war has become a legal battle. And it’s not just reputations that are at stake. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers explain how Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and his answering suit against The New York Times is more than just a Hollywood feud, it’s a fight to stay profitable. Then, the hosts discuss the recent ruling that seems to have...

On Christmas Eve a fracas erupted on X, when Elon Musk posted in favor of H1-B visas for specialized and high-skill workers and was met with anger from the MAGA base who view the visas as a way for immigrants to take American jobs. Guest: Ryan Mac, tech reporter for The New York Times and the coauthor of the book “ Character Limit How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscri...

To kick off the New Year, we're sharing a podcast that we think Hit Parade listeners are going to love:  Broken Record . Check out this episode with singer/songwriter Norah Jones, co-hosted by Blue Note Records President Don Was. Norah has been with Blue Note Records since releasing her juggernaut 2002 debut album,  Come Away With Me.  In this conversation, Norah details her musical upbringing and...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the presidency and post-presidential life of Jimmy Carter; the infighting of Elon Musk v. MAGA; and the possibilities of citizens’ assemblies with The New Yorker’s Nick Romeo . Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: John Dickerson for CBS Mornings: John Dickerson on Jimmy Carter’s legacy and a life shaped by faith...