Slate News

Fearing a Democratic-led House of Representatives, Donald Trump set off a state-redistricting arms race when he asked Texas to find him five more safe GOP seats. This triggered California to go hunting for five more Democratic seats, and states like North Carolina and Missouri to search for other seats in the margins. But in some states, Trump’s demands are running into rare Republican resistance....

President Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of Binance who had been convicted for violating anti-money laundering laws, after months of Zhao boosting Trump’s own crypto company. The crypto industry has really nailed the path to Trump’s heart: it was something Joe Biden didn’t like, and it feeds directly to the president’s bottom line.  Guest: Alex Kirshner, contributing writer at Slate...

“The Chief Justice… is presiding over the end of the rule of law in America”. That quote did not come from host Dahlia Lithwick, but this week’s guest, former Federal Circuit Court Judge and George H. W. Bush appointee, J Michael Luttig. On this week’s show, Judge Luttig explains the unprecedented split we’re seeing between the federal courts and the highest court in the land in response to Trump’...

This week: OpenAI has moved away from being run as a non-profit.  Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck discuss the stated reasons behind the move and what it actually means to be a not-for-profit company. Then, the rates for next year's Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance have come out, and the prices have skyrocketed, reflecting an increase in healthcare costs across the board i...

One legacy of the internet is the millions of subcultures that it helps flourish. Another is pornography—and lots of it. At a “gooner meet-up,” the two collide.  Guest: Daniel Kolitz, author of “ The Goon Squad ” for Harper’s Magazine. 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...

This week, live from Chicago to celebrate 20 years of the Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Trump vs. Chicago showdown and the dynamics between progressive and centrist Democrats with former Chicago Mayor and Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel , what threat President Trump poses to the future of American elections and how to push back, and mem...

In a new, very special, Death, Sex and 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! Felix is famously childless, Anna has a couple kids on the older side. Between the two of them they dig into their decisions to have and not have kids (including...

Why SNAP benefits potentially won’t be replenished Nov. 1, and what happens to the people who depend on them to eat. Guest: Dr. Lindsay Allen , health economist and policy researcher at Northwestern University. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clic...

Having successfully gotten their photo ops, the National Guard receded from the streets of Los Angeles, but an aggressive border patrol, with an eye on raising arrest numbers, has taken their place. In the South Bay, an activist group has formed to monitor where raids are happening, who’s conducting them, and try to help residents keep themselves safe. Guest:  Alexander Sammon , politics writer fo...

Last week, the FBI indicted more than 30 people in a series of NBA gambling scandals. The sports leagues are promising drastic action – but with everyone from the states to the owners getting rich off legal sports gambling, is the game rigged?  Guest: Jay Willis , editor-in-chief of Balls and Strikes . Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next...

In this Money Talks: Emily Peck and Felix Salmon are joined by legal scholar Ray D. Madoff to discuss her new book The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy . Ray lays out how the US tax code favors the wealthy to an unbelievable degree, helping them to essentially opt out of the system altogether.  Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free...

Isn’t a government shutdown supposed to be a crisis? The Republicans, in control of the White House, Congress and Supreme Court haven’t taken steps to end it on their own, and the ship may have already sailed on the only real ask from the Democrats. So what now? Guest:  Jonathan V. Last , editor at The Bulwark. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole W...

For years, conservatives claimed that the Biden administration was pressuring tech companies to censor conservative speech with no solid evidence.  In Trump 2.0, the administration is explicitly bragging about doing the very same thing they accused democrats of. What gives?  Guest: Renée DiResta , Associate Research Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown and author of “Invi...

Bulldozers and bulwarks are the twin themes of this week’s show, as Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Joyce White Vance, a longtime federal prosecutor and clarion voice in defense of the rule of law, despite its flaws. As Pam Bondi’s Justice department chases down the President’s opponents, Congress walks away from its constitutional duties, and the highest court in the land struggles to find a preside...

This week: A spectacular heist unfolded at the Louvre, with thieves stealing priceless jewels within 7 minutes in broad daylight.  Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck unpack what happened, why the world was so delighted by this particular crime, and the reasons the thieves might not get that big of a big score in the end. Then, ADP has decided to refrain from giving the Fed special da...

The streets are full of ghouls, masked horrors, and terrifying make-up—also it will be Halloween soon.  Guest: Luke Winkie , Slate staff writer. 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 your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly...

This week’s AWS outage illustrates just how fragile and vulnerable our interconnected world really is—and how far we’ve fallen from the vision of a decentralized internet.  Guest: Samanth Subramanian , author of “ The Web Beneath the Waves: The Fragile Cables That Connect Our World. ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how President Trump reacted to the No Kings protests by embracing his own “cult of the ruler” in particularly dramatic fashion, whether the shutdown will eventually break enough government functions to force more urgency in negotiations, and why Young Republicans are fawning over Hitler in group chats. For this week’s Slate Plus bon...

Thousands of children may be avoiding peanut allergies thanks to research indicating that early exposure to—rather than avoidance of—the legume is key. Now there’s reason to believe this is true for tons of allergens – and that the great “pandemic” of kid food allergies never needed to happen. Guest:  Dr. David Hill, attending physician with the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children's Hos...

Right after JD Vance was done dismissing concerns about racism in a group chat of GOP staffers and Young Republicans, POLITICO released messages from Trump nominee Paul Ingrassia that were so explicitly racist it may cost him the support of what has been an extremely compliant congressional GOP. And lest any vice presidents tell you otherwise, racism is as evident in policy proposals as it is in t...

The whole spectrum of Trump’s foreign policy is on display when it comes to South America: The US Navy is gathering off the coast of Venezuela, while the Treasury Department prepares to send tens of billions of dollars to Argentina.  Guest:  Brian Winter , editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family a...

Off-cycle elections generally favor the party that isn’t in the White House. And with a large voting bloc of federal employees, Virginia Democrats were feeling good about the upcoming elections for governor and attorney general. Then texts from their AG candidate hit the news. Guest: Eva McKend , correspondent covering national politics for CNN. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to acce...

Paying a fraction of a penny per stream and diminishing the value of music were bad enough for Xiu Xiu, but when Spotify owner Daniel Ek announced an investment in a German defense contractor, they decided it was time to take the music back. Guest: Jamie Stewart, musician in the band Xiu Xiu . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next famil...

Janai Nelson, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund argued in defense of the Voting Rights Act in the pivotal Supreme Court case,  Louisiana v Callais this week. Nelson joins Dahlia Lithwick on this episode of Amicus to probe the implications of the case for voting rights around the country, and the role of the Supreme Court in a democratic system. Nelson warns that while the consequences of l...

Emily Bazelon talks with Yale law professor John Witt about his new book The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America . They explore the remarkable story of the Garland Fund—a small 1920s foundation that bankrolled early work by A. Philip Randolph, and others who would go on to shape the civil rights and labor movements. Witt traces how the fund connected race...