Slate News

Democrats are divided over student debt forgiveness. President Joe Biden is trying to get $10,000-per-borrower canceled, while more progressive members of the party want $50,000 wiped out. So whom would these proposals help? And what can be done to keep the student debt crisis from happening all over again?  Guest: Jordan Weissmann, Slate's senior business and economics correspondent. Slate Plus m...

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 Peter Kafka, a senior correspondent at Recode and host of the Recode Media podcast, to talk about the 2007 Oscar-winning film Michael Clayton . They break down some of the plot issues, get int...

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has attracted national praise for his buck-stops-here leadership throughout the pandemic. But he's made some major missteps in his coronavirus response - the lack of transparency around COVID-related deaths in nursing homes is only the latest example. And his efforts to evade scrutiny have drawn fire from critics and constituents.  Guest: Jimmy Vielkind , reporter fo...

It’s Anna Szymanski’s final (regular) episode as a host of Slate Money. So, in true Anna fashion, she, Felix Salmon and Emily Peck get wonky on the Texas power grid and Citibank’s $500 million error. Plus, Anna answers your questions for her!  Don’t worry, there is more Anna coming in our Slate Money Goes to the Movies miniseries! Next up: Michael Clayton.    In the Slate Plus segment: Anna argues...

Over the last week, millions of Texans have been forced to live without power or heat. At least 16 have died since Monday. In a state that’s no stranger to extreme weather and high power demand, how did it all go so wrong? Guest:  Josh Rhodes , research associate at the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin   Host Lizzie O’Leary   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Over the last week, millions of Texans have been forced to live without power or heat. At least 16 have died since Monday. In a state that’s no stranger to extreme weather and high power demand, how did it all go so wrong? Guest:  Josh Rhodes , research associate at the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin   Host Lizzie O’Leary   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Emily, John and David discuss Republican allegiance to Trump, schools during COVID-19, and they're joined by guest Jonathan Cohn to look back on Obamacare and to explore the current state of COVID-19 vaccinations. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Susan Dominus for the New York Times Magazine: “ Rhode Island Kept Its Schools Open. This Is What Happened. ” Shawn Hubler for T...

Rush Limbaugh’s radio show provided a roadmap that the Republican Party has been following, more or less faithfully, for decades.  Guest: Nicole Hemmer, author of Messengers of the Right and co-host of This Day in Esoteric Political History .  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the year since the pandemic began, the number of attacks against Asian Americans has skyrocketed. The most recent wave of assaults left a number of victims injured and one man dead. Many Asian American activists say the attacks reflect a pattern of violence “as old as America itself.”  Guest: Kim Tran , an anti-oppression consultant and the author of the forthcoming book, The End of Allyship: A...

Gustavo Arellano’s father is what he would call a ‘pandejo’ - someone who doesn't take COVID safety seriously. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Gustavo has been fighting the uphill battle to dissuade him of his skepticism. And two weeks ago, his father finally got vaccinated.  We all know a ‘pandejo.’ What can we learn from Gustavo’s relationship with his father? Guest: Gustavo Arellano, colum...

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 Taffy Brodesser-Akner to discuss the 1993 film Indecent Proposal starring Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson and Robert Redford. They get into topics like whether there can possibly be a feminist rea...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by renowned communications researcher and campaign adviser Anat Shenker-Osorio to talk about the messaging of impeachment outside the lens of the law. Then, Bob Bauer , former White House counsel under President Barack Obama and senior adviser to the 2020 Biden campaign, joins Dahlia to discuss the significance of this impeachment as a legal matter, and the next steps nee...

Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Anna Szymanski talk about Tesla’s $1.5 million Bitcoin investment, the recent growth of fast fashion and Bumble’s IPO.  In the Slate Plus segment: Birkinstocks. (Not to be confused with Birkenstocks.)   ‘Ultra-fast Fashion Is Eating the World’ by Rachel Monroe for the Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/ultra-fast-fashion-is-eating-the-world/...

For most of the last year, Clubhouse—the audio-only social media app—has been dominated by conversations about business, branding, and Elon Musk. But as users picked up the app around the globe, something extraordinary happened.   Censors in mainland China overlooked it. And for two weeks in February, it hosted a series of unusual, unfiltered conversations. Han Chinese, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, an...

For most of the last year, Clubhouse—the audio-only social media app—has been dominated by conversations about business, branding, and Elon Musk. But as users picked up the app around the globe, something extraordinary happened.   Censors in mainland China overlooked it. And for two weeks in February, it hosted a series of unusual, unfiltered conversations. Han Chinese, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, an...

David, Emily and John discuss Trump’s impeachment trial; lawsuits about election lies; and the execution of a possibly innocent man. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Talk Radio’s America: How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States by Brian Rosenwald  “ New US Capitol Riot Video Shows Mob Rifling Through Senators' Desks ” The Telegraph Emil...

On Tuesday, workers in an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama started voting on whether or not to form a union. Amazon has been fighting the vote on multiple fronts. A “yes” vote could possibly spark unionization drives in warehouses all across the country.  Guests: Jay Greene , tech reporter for the Washington Post Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Ho...

As soon as the Democrats won a slim 50-50 majority in the senate, the jokes about President Joe Manchin started flying. The Senate's self described “conservative Democrat” from West Virginia is in a key position to influence legislation during the Biden administration. How will he wield that power?  Guests: Jim Newell, senior politics reporter for Slate Ken Ward Jr. , co-founder of Mountain State...

After the insurrection at the nation's capitol on January 6th, the House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump for a second time. The only article charges him with high crimes and misdemeanors for inciting a riot. There's no shortage of evidence backing up that claim, but the politics make it an open question if the senate will convict.  Guest: Dahlia Lithwick, host of Slate’s Amicus podcast ...

The COVID-19 vaccine roll-out has been a mess across the country, but the failure has been particularly egregious in Philadelphia. The city entrusted a large part of its vaccine distribution to a start-up company run by a 22-year-old with zero medical experience. It wound up with a shuttered clinic and stolen vaccine doses.  Guest: Nina Feldman , health reporter for WHYY. Slate Plus members get bo...

Lionel Barber, former editor of the Financial Times , joins Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Anna Szymanski to discuss his book The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times , the “devil's bargain” involved with being a journalist who has direct access to some of the most powerful people in the world, and what it’s like to run a newspaper like the Financial Times.   In the Slate Plus...

Emily, John and David discuss the stimulus bill, racial inequities in vaccine distribution, the return to in-person learning, and Majorie Taylor Greene’s GOP. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Ezra Klein for the New York Times: “ The Senate Has Become a Dadaist Nightmare ” Uché Blackstock and Oni Blackstock for the Washington Post: “ White Americans Are Being Vaccinated at...

Last week, in response to protests by farmers outside New Delhi, India, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi restricted access to the mobile web in areas where the protests were unfolding. The move is the latest in the Indian government’s long history of throttling internet access and censoring speech online.  Why is the Modi government increasingly shutting down the internet and stiflin...

Last week, in response to protests by farmers outside New Delhi, India, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi restricted access to the mobile web in areas where the protests were unfolding. The move is the latest in the Indian government’s long history of throttling internet access and censoring speech online.  Why is the Modi government increasingly shutting down the internet and stiflin...

The pandemic has hit many of us in different ways. But women in particular find themselves at the intersection of multiple crises. Across the economy, jobs in female-dominated industries are disappearing. Inside the home, moms are often shouldering the brunt of the extra childcare burden that comes with school closures.  How are women getting by right now? And will the setbacks they’re experiencin...