Slate News

Jimmy Carter sent his daughter to its public schools; pictures of Obama still grace businesses’ walls; and now Trump has taken an interest in Washington, D.C…by deploying the National Guard, reassigning FBI agents, vowing to evict the city’s homeless population. Guest: Jenny Gathright , reporter at the Washington Post covering the D.C. region. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access...

After using a Trump-stand-in during his first administration, South Park has come back from hiatus as vulgar and confrontational as ever, with its aiming firmly fixed on MAGA. Contrary to government sources, the show’s enjoying a renewed cultural relevance in its 27th season. Guest:  David Mack , contributing writer to Slate. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening...

From the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate Bridge, and places in between like Yellowstone and the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, the National Park Service has been a point of American pride since its inception. And with a small budget and actually generating revenue, even fiscal hawks had no reason to complain.  So why is the Trump administration cutting their budget?  Guests: Jon B. Jarvis...

In this special episode of Slate Money Travels,  Felix Salmon ,  Emily Peck  and  Elizabeth Spiers  discuss whether traveling can really “broaden your mind.” They dig into the distinction between ‘traveling’ and actually living somewhere; why you need to do more than tick places to see off a list to really have an experience; and how you can travel within the US and still have a mind-bending exper...

It’s hard to make money in the music industry. But if you could flood every streamer with hundreds of “original” songs without having to, you know, write or produce it yourself, there’s money there—and less for everyone else.  Guests:  Chris Molanphy , host of Slate’s Hit Parade podcast . Kate Knibbs , senior writer at Wired Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listen...

This week: Planet Money’s Mary Childs wrote about why we should all care about the growing national debt right now. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck are joined by Mary to help them understand why the arguments we’ve heard before about why we don’t need to worry about the national debt are falling short. Then, they discuss the statistical crisis that was exacerbated by Trump firing...

The official history of America’s founding is often told as a whites-only story, a heroic tale of wealthy white men forging a new nation—with no mention of the people they excluded, displaced, or oppressed. But who gets left out of the story that “originalists” like to tell about the law? This week Mark Joseph Stern talks with Maggie Blackhawk, professor at NYU School of Law, and Gregory Ablavsky,...

In January, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta was moving from employing professional fact-checkers to letting its users fact-check each other. If you’ve heard that it’s going perfectly, then you, too, have been exposed to misinformation. Guest: Geoffrey Fowler, tech columnist with the Washington Post Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What N...

This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the future integrity of US economic data after Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, what the mid-decade redistricting arms race portends for the future of US representative government, and the phenomenon of “Trump’s Rasputin,” Laura Loomer. Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: Jake Jones for BBC Sport...

Donald Trump’s never been all that committed to the truth. But experts are warning that by firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and appointing loyalists across the judiciary, he’s taken his war on facts to another level. How long can he attempt to remake reality before the truth—someday, eventually, but inevitably—hits back? Guest: David A Graham , staff writer at the Atlantic. Want m...

More than a thousand rabbis and Jewish leaders have signed a letter calling for Israel to end “the use and threat of starvation as a weapon of war.” This New York rabbi, who has felt a connection to Israel her whole life, explains why she signed.  Guest:  Sarah Reines , rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What...

How Texas redrawing its election maps could set off a gerrymandering arms race across the country—a race the Republicans are likely to win.  Guest:  Ari Berman is a voting rights correspondent at Mother Jones.  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...

In this Money Talks: Slate ’s own Cheyna Roth joins Emily Peck to break down how HBO’s Sex and the City revival And Just Like That… has taken the fantasy of being fabulous in New York City into a whole new tax bracket. They’ll discuss the curious dimensions of the kitchen in Carrie’s Manhattan mansion among other real estate mysteries within the show, examine why it’s so annoying to watch incredib...

Belief in democracy was, until quite recently, taken for granted in America. But what if democracy is less a static noun, and more of a dynamic ideal we (could be) working towards? Guest:   Osita Nwanevu, contributing editor at The New Republic, columnist at The Guardian, author of “ The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding .” Want more What Next? Subscribe to Sl...

In this special episode of Slate Money Travels,  Felix Salmon ,  Emily Peck  and  Elizabeth Spiers  discuss the constant question on travelers’ minds:  should you check your bag?  They dig into how to make your carry-on count, the beauty of Air Tags, and Felix offers an alternative to checking a bag that isn’t a carry on.    Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus t...

OpenAI’s Sam Altman, flanked by President Trump and Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, announced a hugely ambitious investment in data centers across America to support all the artificial intelligence we’re going to be using. Months in, the project has been scaled back to a single, power-hungry data center in Ohio. Guest: Berber Jin , reporter covering A.I. for the Wall Street Journal Want more What Next T...

Some disputes resist an easy “good vs. evil” dynamic, but when one side calls their plans “Operation Satanique,” it’s not too hard to figure who “the baddies” are. Guest: Dan Kois , Slate writer. Articles mentioned in this piece: The Last Days of the Rainbow Warrior Why We Keep Putting Up With Martin Short Who Killed the Segway   This Is the Correct Way to Divide Public Bathrooms Who Won the World...

It’s easy to give up on the courts right now. SCOTUS is throwing down unreasoned decisions expanding Donald Trump’s authority, and Senate Republicans keep confirming the president’s cronies to lifetime judgeships, tarnishing the entire judiciary with their corruption.  But there are judges—courageous, hard-working men and women—who have chosen a different path and are fighting to protect democracy...

This week: Trump’s big trade deal deadline expired. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck discuss where the global tariffs stand now, how they relate to the abysmal jobs report, and the Federal Court of Appeals’ challenge on the tariffs’ legality. Then, Nathan Bomey of Axios joins to break down the ways the sports betting boom could be threatening the integrity of major leagues sports a...

A shadow app for the dating world had its data hacked and exposed, and it laid bare the perils of creating safe spaces for women online — and of relying on tech companies. Guest: Kate Lindsay, host of Slate’s ICYMI 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 cli...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the international condemnations of Israel’s actions. They also examine how the Trump administration is gaining control of both universities and the judiciary—through settlements with Ivy League institutions and a controversial judicial confirmation. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episod...

How an Obama-era decision to invest in space capitalism handed Elon Musk a monopoly on space.  Guest:  Franklin Foer , staff writer at the Atlantic, author of “ The Last Politician ” and “ World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech .” 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. Subsc...

As Trump came back to the presidency, one of the first warnings liberals began repeating was “Do not obey in advance.” But from government-agency heads to university presidents to news organizations, people are opting to simply leave their jobs, rather than do the uncomfortable work of standing up to authoritarianism.  Guest:  Jonathan Last , editor of The Bulwark. Want more What Next? Subscribe t...

Trans rights and access to health care have been under attack on the state level for years, but the second Trump administration and the Supreme Court have accelerated a chilling effect at clinics across the country. Guest: Grace Byron , author of “ The Grim State of Trans Health Care ” and “ The Bureaucratic Nightmares of Being Trans Under Trump ” for the New Yorker.  Want more What Next? Subscrib...

In May, after Trump announced a thorough regime of tariffs, supply chain experts warned that Americans would be looking at empty shelves by the end of June . But here we are in late July and the stores still seem fully stocked. So what happened? Guest:  Justin Wolfers , professor of economics at the University of Michigan Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to...