Slate News

This week, David Plotz and guest hosts Will Saletan and Catherine Rampell discuss what the Senate’s regressive budget bill will do to the health of America, whether there is space left for non-Trump conservatives in American politics, and how Paramount’s settlement of Trump’s meritless lawsuit signifies the fall of another guardrail against an authoritarian president. Here are this week’s chatters...

Trump wants his “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed by July 4. But the bill is so large and expensive—with deep tax cuts only partially offset by huge cuts to Medicaid and SNAP—there’s something in there for almost every member of Congress to hate. Guest: David Dayen , executive editor of the American Prospect. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What...

The Trump administration’s plans to strip funding from PBS and NPR is the latest in a long line of Republican fights against public broadcasting. The House has already voted to take back over a billion dollars it had previously agreed to pay. Will the Senate sign off on it next? Guest:  Brian Stelter , chief media analyst at CNN. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free liste...

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern host the panel that’s guaranteed to help you understand what happened during the Supreme Court’s latest term – examining the major decisions, the emergency docket, and the evolving dynamics on the court. Dahlia and Mark welcome the New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie, civil rights lawyer and 14th Amendment scholar Sherrilyn Ifill of Howard University, and Professor...

Last week’s big Supreme Court decisions walked back rights for individuals and the powers of the lower courts—and in aggregate made it ever more difficult to believe the court is anything other than another vehicle for delivering the outcomes favorable to Republicans and the conservative project.  Guest:  Mark Joseph Stern , Slate senior writer covering courts and the law. Want more What Next? Sub...

ICE agents have begun concealing their identities in masks and plainclothes while making arrests. Experts—including a former ICE official—say that endangers those agents, and violates the trust between law enforcement and the citizenry. Guests: Philip Bump , columnist for the Washington Post Scott Shuchart , ICE’s Assistant Director for Regulatory Affairs and Policy Counselor to the Director, 2022...

Under a normal administration, a merger between two large advertising firms might attract the government’s interest for anti-monopoly reasons. Under this one, the Federal Trade Commission is creating conditions to…ensure that X still gets advertiser dollars? Guest: Kate Conger , technology reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening...

The cataclysmic opinions from SCOTUS on Friday certainly suggest that the courts can no longer save us. In fact, in Trump v. CASA., we learned that it’s somehow not actually the job of the courts to save us from blatant violations of our rights. With universal injunctions drop-kicked and district court judges sidelined, it’s going to be nearly impossible to vindicate your rights in Trump’s America...

This week: Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary in the race for New York City mayor.  Felix Salmon , Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the alarmist reactions from business leaders to the Mamdani’s win and why he’s hardly the threat to capitalism they make him out to be. Then, Trump has turned his sights on Jay Powell once again, threatening to prematurely name his successor for Fed Chai...

In addition to the three-dimensional war of bombs and missiles, Iran and Israel—and the US—are squaring off in a cyber battle. With everything from water infrastructure to banking connected to the internet in some way, how much damage can cyberattacks do?   Guest: Maggie Miller , POLITICO cybersecurity reporter Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the who...

This week, Emily Bazelon and guest hosts  Ruth Marcus  and  James Forman  discuss Trump’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities with guest  Steven Cook  from the  Council on Foreign Relations , Zohran Mamdani’s stunning victory in the NYC Democratic mayoral primary, and an astonishing whistleblower report that sheds incriminating light on Trump’s judicial nominee Emil Bove and defiance of court ord...

How Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani upset the better-connected, better-funded, better-known candidate in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary—and how he might actually govern if he makes it into office. Guest: Ross Barkan , contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine columnist, and Editor-in-Chief of The Metropolitan Review. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Pl...

When news broke that the United States had bombed Iran, members of Congress—the only people who can authorize war according to the Constitution—found out at the same time as the rest of us. What can they do to wrest this authority back; and where is this war with Iran headed now? Guest:  Mark Warner , Democratic Senator from Virginia and Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Want mor...

In this member-exclusive Opinionpalooza episode of Amicus , Dahlia Lithwick and co-host Mark Joseph Stern discuss the Supreme Court's shadow docket decision in the case of DHS vs. DVD , which allows for the deportation of migrants to third countries without due process or notice, despite the potential for torture and death. The Supreme Court's majority chose the opaque system of an unsigned, unarg...

A jury recently found Greenpeace liable for more than $660 million in damages to the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline for its role in the Standing Rock protests.  But the ramifications extend far beyond Greenpeace. As protests against various Trump administration policies heat up across the country, what does this lawsuit say about how opponents can weaponize the courts to criminalize pro...

In this Money Talks: Felix Salmon is joined by author James Frey to discuss his new novel, Next to Heaven , set among America’s ultra-ultra-rich, the real life billionaires he knows who inspired it, and why he thinks money is addicting.  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 all your fav...

The Trump administration bombed three Iranian nuclear sites. While the Pentagon says these facilities are severely damaged, a diplomatic end to the conflict and a nuclear disarmament agreement feel less possible than ever. Guests: ⁠ Gregory Gause ⁠ , Visiting Scholar at the ⁠Middle East Institute⁠ and ⁠ Professor Emeritus of International Affairs ⁠ for the Bush School of Government and Public Serv...

ARC, the data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, has been selling domestic flight data in the US to Customs and Border Protection. But in the contract, they told CBP not to reveal where the data was from… why?  Guest: Joseph Cox, co-founder of 404 Media and the co-host of the 404 Media Podcast.  Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole Wh...

David Plotz talks with  author Alison Bechdel  about her new book,  Spent . They discuss what’s memoir and what’s less than memoir in the comic novel, David’s own contribution to the book, and more.   Tweet us your questions  @SlateGabfest  or email us at  gabfest@slate.com . (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)   Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Hosted on A...

The Justices seem intent on packing their summer vacation bags and getting on their way.  Earlier in the week, the court’s conservative supermajority upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for trans kids. The logic behind the decision was…lacking (Slate Plus members can hear about this right now). In this episode, Dahlia Lithwick talks to Chase Strangio, the lawyer for the Tennessee plain...

This week: We become cheerleaders for crypto regulation, AI, and…Cheerleaders. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the GENIUS act, the major crypto regulation bill which recently passed the Senate, and its implications for regulating stable coins and how it could upend payment processing as we know it in the United States. Then, the hosts discuss the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders,...

Listen to What Next via Apple Podcasts , Spotify , TuneIn , Stitcher , Overcast , Google Play , or iHeart . America’s most machismo and gas-guzzling car, the Hummer, has been relaunched as an electric vehicle. But who is this electrified megatruck really for? Guest: Alex Sammon , Slate features writer This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not...

The Trump administration's anti-immigration campaign has become defined by distasteful memes that gleefully portray the mass deportations being carried out across the country. It’s impossible to ignore… which is exactly what the administration wants.  Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter at the Washington Post.   Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the who...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether the US should join Israel’s war on Iran, the tragic Minnesota assassinations and why US political violence is surging now, and the Supreme Court’s unsurprising but willfully obtuse decision to uphold Tennessee’s youth transgender care ban. Here are this week’s chatters:   Emily:  A Family Matter   by Claire Lynch;  The Fall...

As What Next celebrates Juneteenth, please enjoy this episode ⁠from our colleagues at Hit Parade⁠ . What Next will be back in your feed on Monday. Little Richard was rock ‘n’ roll’s flamboyant architect. Lesley Gore sang that no one owned her. Sylvester was a gender-fluid icon who helped define disco. Freddie Mercury made rock operatic, and George Michael demanded freedom. What all of these LGBTQ...