Slate News

Democracy had a pretty rough ride at the Supreme Court last term. Presidents have criminal immunity now! Agency experts aren’t the experts anymore! Sure, you can convert that rifle into an automatic weapon! And guess what? More horrors await us this term.  But we are not going to spend this last episode before the start of a new term dispassionately picking over a smattering of cases for a lawyerl...

This week: the Longshoremen’s strike is over, and economic disaster has been averted. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the strike, sketchy union leader Harold Daggett, and how the White House put its thumb on the scales to help cut a deal. Also: OpenAI just had a $6.6 billion investment round, but the company is bleeding losses. Then: Dish Network wants to buy DirecTV for $...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the idea of a climate haven has been upended. And as the climate change gets worse every year, fewer places will be safe from its devastation. Guest: Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post climate reporter covering humanity's response to a warming world. Keith Campbell, managing editor at the Asheville Watchdog Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access...

 This week,  Jamelle Bouie  of The New York Times joins John Dickerson and David Plotz to discuss the vice-presidential debate between Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance; the deadly conflict between Israel and Iran with Nathan Guttman of Israeli public television; and the federal indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.  For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Jamelle, John, and David talk wit...

With Israel sending airstrikes on Lebanon and deflecting missiles from Iran, the war has become what experts feared: a regional conflict. How much more will the fighting spread? Guest: Shane Harris , intelligence and national security reporter for the Washington Post.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorit...

The second, and likely final, debate of this presidential election was between JD Vance and Tim Walz, two Midwestern men with two very different visions of what government should do—and perhaps what America is. Guest: David Faris , politics professor at Roosevelt University and contributing writer for Slate.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole Wha...

State Supreme Courts are vital to the functioning of American democracy. They are also where voting rights are enforced or eviscerated. This is especially true of North Carolina’s State Supreme Court, a battleground court in a battleground state. On a special bonus episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern (your Amicus Plus dream team) are joined by Justice Allison Riggs of North Carolina’...

How Tim Ryan looks back on debating JD Vance in the 2022 Ohio Senate race—and how he would coach Tim Walz to win. Guest: Tim Ryan , former representative from Ohio who lost a Senate race to JD Vance in 2022. 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 clickin...

For this Money Talks, it’s time to turn the rat race into a rat walk on the beach. Brigid Schulte, author of Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life , speaks with Emily Peck about America’s toxic relationship with labor in which employees at all levels are underpaid, under-rested, and over-hustled. They discuss what America can learn from work cultures in other count...

The federal indictment of Eric Adams is just the latest in a long line of embarrassing blow-ups, scandals, and unforced errors by the New York Democrats. Can they pull themselves together and deliver for the national party this time? Guest: Ross Barkan , journalist, essayist, and contributing writer to many places, including Slate, the Nation, and the New York Times Magazine.  Want more What Next?...

America is caught in a vicious cycle of trying to alleviate traffic by expanding and building more highways, only for them to clog right up with more cars. How do you beat the traffic? Guest: David Zipper , Senior Fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative who writes about transportation policy. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family a...

In this week's Amicus, Mark Joseph Stern steps in for Dahlia Lithwick to preview the upcoming Supreme Court term and dive into the high-stakes case of Garland v. VanDerStok . This critical case examines the legality of 'ghost guns'—untraceable firearms that can be assembled at home from kits bought online. Stern talks with Eric Tirschwell , executive director and chief litigation counsel of Everyt...

This week: the tragic tale of Nike, Foot Locker, and Bed Bath and Beyond. Bloomberg’s Kim Bhasin joins Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers to discuss his recent piece on the downfall of the Nike brand and the peril of direct-to-consumer marketing. Then, they discuss Kim’s other feature on Jamie Salter, the man who made a fortune buying up mall “zombie brands” like Izod and Brook’s Bro...

A throwback week in politics finds New York’s Boss Tweed of Swagger in trouble, a Republican bucking the party line for his constituents and a name Democrats thought they were done with. Guest: Jim Newell , Slate’s senior politics writer , who writes the weekly newsletter The Surge . This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlo...

Over the last decade, the European Union has been the vanguard regulating Big Tech, and the push has been led by Margrethe Vestager. As she steps down, Vestager is looking both back at the battles she’s fought, and how the fight will continue.  Guest: Margrethe Vestager , European Commissioner for Competition. the European Commission’s Executive Vice President on a Europe Fit for the Digital Age....

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what’s happening with the Kamala Harris v. Donald Trump race, what to expect with the Tim Walz v. JD Vance debate, how crazy Mark Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign in North Carolina has become, and whether college can survive careerism.  For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, David, Emily, and John discuss the all-important Elect...

Winning North Carolina would make Kamala Harris’s path to the White House much easier. And to judge from the huge campaign push, Democrats think the state is in play. Can a strong ground game—and a major Republican scandal—sink Donald Trump’s re-election bid? Guest: Michael Bitzer, professor of politics and history at Catawba College Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free l...

Why are more liberals taking up arms? And how could the trend change the conversation about guns in America?  Guest: Cameron McWhirter , national affairs reporter for The Wall Street Journal covering mass shootings, violent protests, and natural disasters across the South and co-author of American Gun: the True Story of the AR-15 with Zusha Elinson. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to...

On this month’s edition of Gabfest Reads,  Political Gabfest  host David Plotz talks with author Elizabeth Strout about her new book,  Tell Me Everything . They discuss how Strout conceives of interconnected stories and characters across her work, including the return of beloved characters like Olive Kitteridge. They also dig into the importance of listening and the ways ordinary lives can be extr...

How universities and colleges are trying to keep student protests under control—or embracing a raucously political campus. Guests:  Sophie Hurwitz , politics and social movements reporter at Mother Jones . Michael S. Roth is the president of Wesleyan 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...

What message was Israel sending to Hezbollah, its backers, and the population of Lebanon, by blowing up pagers and walkie-talkies last week? And does the international community view this act as a violation of the laws of armed conflict? Guest: Shane Harris , intelligence and national security reporter at the Washington Post.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listenin...

Given Laura Loomer’s history of saying outright offensive and often bewildering things, how did she get into the Trump campaign’s inner circle?   Guest: Ken Bensinger , New York Times politics reporter . 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 clicking “Try...

Chief Justice John Roberts has been labeled by some as the serious centrist at the court, and he seemed to embrace and internalize that. But the New York Times’ revelations about behind-the-scenes maneuvers favoring Trump in last term's insurrection cases shattered that illusion once and for all. The Chief’s stance in these cases surprised the Roberts-as-twinkly-eyed-institutionalist brigade, but...

Mortgage rates are down! Inflation is less inflation-y! Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers discuss what the Fed’s interest rate cut means for the American economy — and American voters. Also: Trump is promising tax cuts like there’s no tomorrow, but are any of them good ideas? And Axel Springer is spinning off its media empire in yet another news business shakeup. In the Plus bonus m...

It’s just 45 days until election day—and the polls are telling us…a little bit of everything. In our first Slate Plus exclusive crossover, Mary sits down with one of the nation’s foremost experts on political nonsense. Guest: Jim Newell , Slate’s senior politics writer , who writes the weekly newsletter The Surge . This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By...