Slate News

When immigration raids began in the Los Angeles area last weekend, so did spontaneous protests. On Sunday, Trump federalized 2,000 California national guardsmen in response. While Trump stopped short of invoking the Insurrection Act, he claimed authority to send troops wherever ICE operations might be contested by mass demonstrations. Guest: Elizabeth Goitein , co-director of the Liberty and Natio...

Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater inherited the government’s antitrust case against Google and is eager to follow it through—but likely not for the same reasons as her predecessors.  Guest:   Nancy Scola , reporter and contributing writer at POLITICO .  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 podcas...

This week: Prices are going up, but inflation data has become unreliable under Trump. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers discuss how staffing cuts at The Bureau of Labor Statistics have called economic data into question, and what that means for our economy. Then, someone went ahead and told Trump what TACO stands for and he’s pissed. The hosts discuss how a markets term coined by fina...

Money talks, and sometimes it speaks as law by fiat from the highest court in the land . In this episode of  Amicus , Dahlia Lithwick delves into the impact of money on the judiciary and, eventually, on, democracy with Michael Podhorzer, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.  They discuss how the many faces of big money in America, currently personified by Elon Musk and Donald Trump...

Sean Diddy Combs’s trial in New York started about a month ago and was expected to take about two months, so here at the halfway mark, we check in with a Slate correspondent who has been on the scene at the courthouse. Guest: Nadira Goffe , staff writer of culture at Slate. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusi...

One of the goals of DOGE was to get rid of the “silos” that keep government agencies from sharing freely amongst themselves efficiently and instead organize data using tools offered by companies like Palantir. The thing is, a lot of those silos are there by design, and removing them could be a nightmare for privacy advocates.  Guest: Sheera Frenkel , tech reporter for the New York Times. Want more...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Elon Musk’s dramatic entrance into the fight between Republican factions over details of the Big Beautiful Bill, whether an independent judiciary can survive in the face of new threats, and the implications of Trump’s cruel new travel bans. Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: Chris Cameron for the New York Times: Trump Orders Inve...

This is part of ⁠ Opinionpalooza ⁠ , Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. The best way to support our work is by joining ⁠ Slate Plus ⁠ . (If you are already a member, consider a ⁠ donation ⁠ or ⁠ merch ⁠ !)Also! Sign up for ⁠ Slate’s Legal Brief: ⁠ the latest coverage of the courts and the law straight to your inbox. Delivered every Tuesday. Dahlia Lithwick ho...

Since January, the Trump administration has suspended the right to claim asylum at the southern border. One narrower form of protection—for those who had been tortured by their governments—was supposed to remain. But lawyers have realized that even that appears to be gone. Guest:  Mark Betancourt, freelance reporter covering immigration from DC, who wrote “ This Ethiopian Woman Was Tortured by Her...

After 20 months of war, with violence erupting far from the Middle East, where is the future of Zionism headed? Guest:  Isaac Saul, Tangle executive editor and author of “ I think I’m leaving Zionism, or Zionism is leaving me .” 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 Appl...

Five years after George Floyd’s murder sparked nationwide protests, the legacy of that movement is still being written in Minneapolis and America writ large—even as some attempt to erase it. Guest:   Marcia Howard , president of the teacher chapter of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Brandt Williams , senior editor covering race, class and communities for MPR News.   Want more What Next? Subscri...

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: voter discontentment at the two major parties is creating an opening for a far-right populist with an anti-immigration, protectionist agenda that economic experts warn would be devastating.  With a Trump trade deal in hand, can Keir Starmer and Labour give British voters something to vote for, rather than just against? Guest: Anand Menon , professor of Euro...

In this special episode of Slate Money,  Felix Salmon ,  Elizabeth Spiers , and  Emily Peck  discuss how long is too long for a vacation. They dig into how time zones should factor into travel plans, how much recovery time you need on the back end of a vacation, and why you should sometimes plan a trip to do absolutely nothing.   Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate P...

His time in Washington was brief, but we’ll be picking up the pieces for a long time. What Elon’s exit signals for the future of DOGE, and Musk’s political career.  Guest: Kate Conger , reporter for the New York Times covering X and other technology companies. 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 podc...

The end (of the Supreme Court term) is nigh. This week, Amicus goes into June Opinionpalooza mode with some meta-analysis of what to look out for as the Supreme Court delivers dozens of decisions over the next month or so. Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern say this is a term-ending unlike any other, partly because the number of cases pinging onto the high court’s shadow docket means the term m...

This week: Felix Salmon left Axios. He, Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the opaque language and politics around parting ways with an employer and the motivation behind giving severance packages. Then, it seems the threat of AI taking over jobs is becoming real as the hosts examine the role state of AI in tech and other industries and its effect on the job market. Finally, major stablecoin...

The war between Ukraine and Russia is being fought increasingly via drone —and NATO and US military leadership is training troops for future conflicts that will pit man against machine. Guest: Jake Epstein , senior defense reporter for Business Insider. 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. S...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss this week’s Supreme Court decision that validates Trump’s firing of 2 officials without cause thus stealth-overruling a key check on presidents, the power dynamics around who benefits from Trump’s attempts to destroy Harvard, and the challenges and rewards of male friendship in modern life.  Here are this week’s chatters:   Emily: E...

Adriana Smith was nine weeks pregnant when she was declared brain dead in February—far enough along that her fetus showed cardiac activity.  The hospital then refused to let her family decide whether or not they want to keep Smith on life support long enough for the fetus to be delivered. Guests:   Imani Gandy , Editor-at-Large for Rewire News Group , covering law and courts and co-host of the pod...

Everyone assumes the reason Gavin Newsom has had right-wingers like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon on his podcast is to burnish his credentials for an imminent presidential run. But no podcast episode is going to make Republican voters forget that he’s a California Democrat. Guest: Marisa Lagos, political correspondent for KQED and co-host of the Political Breakdown podcast . Want more What Next? S...

A Revlimid pill costs about 25 cents to make, and about a thousand dollars to buy—but it’s keeping him alive, so what choice does he have? Guest: David Armstrong, investigates healthcare at ProPublica , author of “ The Price of Remission .” 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 t...

In this Money Talks: Hillary Frey joins Emily Peck to discuss the kind of rich people that populate the Apple TV+ show Your Friends & Neighbors, Jon Hamm’s Don Draper-esque charm, and whether there’s any real point to having a murder plot line.  Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across...

As What Next celebrates Memorial Day, please enjoy this episode ⁠from our colleagues at Decoder Ring⁠ . What Next will be back in your feed tomorrow. Something seems to have happened to car headlights. In the last few years, many people have become convinced that they are much brighter than they used to be—and it’s driving them to the point of rage. Headlight glare is now Americans’ number one com...

In this special episode of Slate Money,  Felix Salmon ,  Emily Peck  and  Elizabeth Spiers . They talk discuss why you should never get the hotel breakfast, whether locals should get discounts at popular spots, and whether you should avoid tourist traps.    Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening...

The crypto industry poured tons of money into the last election cycle. Is the GENIUS Act, which has bipartisan support, their big payoff? Guest: Hilary Allen , professor at American University’s Washington College of Law. 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...