Slate News

Most kids in the country aren’t back to school in any way we’d recognize as normal. Republicans have noticed. Now, they’re launching a few trial balloons this year to see if “reopen the schools” can become their next winning campaign slogan. Guest: Edward-Isaac Dovere, staff writer at the Atlantic. Read his story, “ Democrats Are Failing the Schools Test .” Dovere is the author of the forthcoming...

Houston residents and elected officials are trying to stop the largest urban highway project of their lifetimes -- one that would clear out more than 1,000 homes in primarily Black and Latin neighborhoods and, they say, introduce additional flooding and health risks. Now, residents have a powerful new ally in Washington: the Biden administration. The fate of I-45 may tell us something about what 2...

Welcome to Slate Money Goes to the Movies, a miniseries in which Felix Salmon, Anna Szymanski, and a different guest each week discuss popular business-themed movies.  This week, Felix and Anna are joined by Edmund Lee of The New York Times to talk about The Devil Wears Prada. They discuss the film’s dated depiction of the magazine and fashion industries, Andy’s judgey friends, and of course, the...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has become a Republican celebrity for his notably lax coronavirus policies, keeping the state mostly open during the pandemic. But in Miami Beach, tourists are using the lack of restrictions to their advantage, exposing the difficulty of managing a world that isn’t quite done with COVID-19, but desperately wants to be.   Guest: Verónica Zaragovia , healthcare reporter...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Adam Cohen to talk about Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America , and whether Merrick Garland should heed calls to reinvestigate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.  In our Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern on Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid , the big union case before the court this week, guns at the 9th Circuit, and Georgia’s vote-s...

Max Cho, a product manager at Google, joins Felix Salmon and Emily Peck to talk about that cargo ship stuck in the Suez Canal and its effect on supply chains, the bloodbath at Medium and the media in general, and what the post-pandemic return to the office will look like. In the Plus segment: The price of Bitcoin.  Email: slatemoney@slate.com Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Twitter: @felixs...

Back in April 2020, AstraZeneca was hailed as a frontrunner in the race to get an effective vaccine to market. A year later, after a series of trial pauses, communication blunders, and PR problems, the vaccine is on the cusp of FDA approval.  By all accounts, the company succeeded in making a safe, effective vaccine. So why has there been so much confusion about its rollout? Guest:    Peter Aldhou...

Back in April 2020, AstraZeneca was hailed as a frontrunner in the race to get an effective vaccine to market. A year later, after a series of trial pauses, communication blunders, and PR problems, the vaccine is on the cusp of FDA approval.  By all accounts, the company succeeded in making a safe, effective vaccine. So why has there been so much confusion about its rollout? Guest:    Peter Aldhou...

Emily, John and David discuss immigration, violence against Asian Americans and how Amazon is shaping the American economic landscape. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Emily Bazelon for Slate: “ Stop Telling Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Retire: It's Counterproductive ” David Leonhardt for The New York Times: “ The Democrats’ Immigration Problem ” Nicole Narea for Vox: “ Migrants...

Colorado Rep. Tom Sullivan counts the number of Fridays since his son was killed in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012. The latest mass shooting in Boulder, which left 10 people dead, was yet another reason Sullivan says he’s continuing his quest to curb gun violence in the state. Guest: Colorado State Rep. Tom Sullivan . Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up no...

After four years of President Trump’s harsh immigration policies, many advocates for Central American migrants welcomed a change in administration. But after two months in office, President Biden has given a clear message to people arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border: “don’t come.” Still, thousands of people, including an increasing number of unaccompanied children, are making the trek and forcing...

Residents of Jackson, Mississippi, were left without water for weeks after a deep freeze hit the south, bursting pipes and forcing people to rely on bottled or collected rain water. But even though the water is back on, Jackson’s next water crisis might not be so far off. Guest: Nick Judin is a reporter at the Mississippi Free Press.  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds...

Welcome to Slate Money Goes to the Movies, a miniseries in which Felix Salmon, Anna Szymanski, and a different guest each week discuss popular business-themed movies.  This week, Felix and Anna are joined by Niala Boodhoo of Axios to discuss the Paul Thomas Anderson oil epic There Will Be Blood. They’ll delve into the religious symbolism in the film, analyze Daniel Plainview’s family values and ge...

On March 16, a white gunman killed eight people - six of them Asian-American women - during shootings at three different spas in Georgia. The shooter claims he was driven by a “sex addiction,” but his actions fall into a complicated legacy where race, sex, and the fetishization of Asian women all intersect. That legacy is now in full view as the nation grapples with this latest tragedy and a rise...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon to discuss voting rights, democratic reform, and what it will take to get the For the People Act through Congress. This conversation was recorded as part of this year’s SXSW. Slate Plus members have access to the whole interview.  Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...

Economics professor Lisa D. Cook stops by to discuss her New York Times article on the wide-ranging economic impact of discrimination, the racist history of patents and innovation, and vaccine IP questions.  In the Plus Segment: Mobile money.  Email: slatemoney@slate.com Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Twitter: @felixsalmon , @EmilyRPeck Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more infor...

Facebook’s failure to contain the spread of dangerous misinformation is no secret. For years, the company has pledged publicly to fix the problem. But in the wake of the Capitol riots, it’s clear that there’s more work to be done. So, why isn’t the social media giant using its powerful AI to contain hate and lies? Guest:  Karen Hao , senior AI reporter at MIT Technology Review Host Lizzie O’Leary...

Facebook’s failure to contain the spread of dangerous misinformation is no secret. For years, the company has pledged publicly to fix the problem. But in the wake of the Capitol riots, it’s clear that there’s more work to be done. So, why isn’t the social media giant using its powerful AI to contain hate and lies? Guest:  Karen Hao , senior AI reporter at MIT Technology Review Host Lizzie O’Leary...

David, John and Josie discuss the politics of vaccine acceptance, the changed conversation on policing, and how Texas, undeterred by failing to find voter fraud, continues its assault on voting rights. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Dan Diamond for The Washington Post: “ ‘We Want To Be Educated, Not Indoctrinated,’ Say Trump Voters Wary of Covid Shots ” Charles Duhigg fo...

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo faces calls to resign over accusations of sexual harassment and allowing a toxic workplace culture to persist. But to the people who know him best, it’s unlikely the governor will ever bow to those demands.  Guests: Jimmy Vielkind , Wall Street Journal reporter covering New York politics & government. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feed...

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed crucial gaps in the public health system, including the government’s inability to gather data quickly and accurately. After a year of lockdowns and isolation, a return to life resembling normalcy is in sight, but how will we know when we get there?  Guests: Alexis Madrigal , co-founder of The COVID Tracking Project, and staff writer at The Atlantic. Slate Plus members...

When it comes to the past year, we’ve all lost something -- or someone. Time with friends and family. A job. A loved one. But when we think about the 530,000 people in the U.S. who died because of COVID-19, the magnitude makes it hard to see the individuals. Today, we remember one loss, out of many. Guests: Alicia Montgomery, executive producer of podcasts at Slate, and her cousin, Yvonne Tilghman...

Welcome to Slate Money Goes to the Movies, a miniseries in which Felix Salmon, Anna Szymanski, and a different guest each week discuss popular business-themed movies.  This week, Felix and Anna are joined by Paul Ford, podcaster and CEO of Postlight, to discuss the 2010 David Fincher movie The Social Network and let’s just say...he does not recommend it. They’ll discuss what the movie gets wrong i...

When the coronavirus pandemic shut down cities across the U.S. and forced many people to work from home, others deemed “essential” still had to show up for their jobs. A year later, the gap between the need for essential workers and the way they’re treated is all too apparent.  Guests: Henry Grabar , staff writer at Slate. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up no...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Jessica Ring Amunson , who argued Brnovich v DNC at the Supreme Court this month, to take us inside the arguments and the key questions, and also to look at the wider landscape for voting rights.  Then Dahlia’s joined by Jamal Greene who says Americans’ thinking about rights is all wrong, as they discuss his new book How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession With Rights...