Slate News

It’s hard to imagine music fans mourning a break-up of Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation, as a Department of Justice lawsuit requests. But even with this monopolistic middleman out of the way, touring musicians still seem destined to struggle financially. Guest:  Laura Jane Grace , musician Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What...

Even the Grey Lady struggles to profit from the news. This week, Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Semafor founder Ben Smith to discuss media profit models, the impact of Google’s AI on the news biz, and the TikTok-ification of information. In the Plus segment: Vivek Ramaswamy comes for Buzzfeed.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate...

Over the past 15 years, the journalist and author Katherine Stewart has been charting the rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. On this week’s Amicus, Stewart joins Dahlia Lithwick and Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State to discuss the worrying signs of the growing power of extremist christian ideologies at the highest court in the land. Together, they...

How well is the Biden administration coaxing semiconductor companies to build their chips in the United States? Compared to Taiwan, South Korea, Japan…or even mainland China, things are just okay. Guest:  Asa Fitch , reporter for the Wall Street Journal, covering the semiconductor industry. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family a...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the fallout from Donald Trump’s felony conviction; the spin-up for Hunter Biden’s trial; and the upshot for college speech from campus protests with Charles Homans.   Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Nathaniel Rakich for 538:  Trump’s conviction may be hurting him – but it’s early Sarah Longwell in The Atlan...

After waiting for two strikes to resolve, film and television crews across Hollywood were hungry to return to work. But the work has been slow to come back. As a number of crew union contracts expire at the end of July, how strong is their negotiating position? Guests:  Diane Haithman , Senior Entertainment Business Reporter, TheWrap Diego Mariscal , IATSE local 80 dolly grip Want more What Next?...

On week’s special Money Talks, Teresa Ghilarducci, author of  Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy   joins Felix Salmon to discuss all things retirement. They dig into what other countries are getting right (and wrong) about retirement, how the 401k failed, Teresa’s ultimate plan to fix retirement, and more.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for...

Days after Israeli airstrikes hit Rafah, President Biden touted a potential ceasefire agreement. How far away is the end of the war? And how does Gaza rebuild after this? Guest: Tariq Kenney-Shawa , U.S. policy fellow at Al-Shabaka and an editor and fact-checker for AJ+. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favor...

It will be another chaotic June at the Supreme Court, as the nine justices race to deliver decisions impacting gun rights, abortion, presidential immunity, and more—all before summer vacation. Guest: Mark Joseph Stern , Slate senior writer covering law and the courts. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite...

She was a city clerk for Rochester Hills, Michigan. After Trump lost the state, the threats started coming. Guest: Tina Barton, Senior Elections Expert, The Elections Group 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 clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show...

“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat everything from IBS to autism. But if your doctor isn’t ready to fill you up with someone else’s poop, the internet will happily oblige.  Guest:  Luke Winkie , Slate staff writer who published “ The Poop Broker .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to...

In this week’s essay, John discusses instinct versus obligation, his daughter’s wit, how he has changed since episode one, and more.   Notebook Entries: Notebook 58, page 10. September 16, 2021 “You don’t measure your life the way you measure your writing.” - Nan Notebook 75, page 46-47. September 2021 When your dog dies and son goes to college and you are confronted with your life’s work it all b...

As a jury in Lower Manhattan responded with “guilty” to all 34 felony counts in former President and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump’s hush money trial on Thursday, dozens and dozens more questions began to swirl. Will Trump appeal? On what grounds? Will Justice Juan Merchan sentence Trump to jail time? Will the US Supreme Court intervene? Is the gag order still active and in...

This week, Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Alex Kantrowitz of the Big Technology podcast. They discuss why the Nvidia juggernaut isn’t going to slow down any time soon, the man, myth, and legend of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and whether U.S. texters will embrace WhatsApp and voice memos. In the Plus segment: Which candidate is most TikTok-able? If you enjoy this show, pl...

Business as usual at the Supreme Court is the institutional response to the unusual business of Justice Samuel Alito’s letter writing about his flag-flying wife. In this bonus episode for Slate Plus members, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern knit together the yarns of jurisprudence with injudicious symbolic support for insurrection and christian nationalism - so you don’t get lost in this tang...

His law firm won a $73 million dollar settlement against Remington on behalf of nine Sandy Hook families. Now he’s filing a lawsuit against the gunmaker Daniel Defense, the video game company Activision, and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, on behalf of families in Uvalde. Guest:  Josh Koskoff , attorney Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole Wha...

After six weeks of arguments and testimony and a little under 12 hours of deliberation, a Manhattan jury voted to convict former President Trump of 34 felony counts in his hush money trial. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl, who was in court for the historic guilty verdict and has followed the case over the past six weeks, to talk about how the verdict was reac...

In light of late-breaking news, we present this conversation from our colleagues at Amicus: After six weeks of arguments and testimony and a little under 12 hours of deliberation, a Manhattan jury voted to convict former President Trump of 34 felony counts in his hush money trial. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl who was in court for the historic guilty verdic...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the U.S. Senate seats that might turn from blue to red in 2024;  The Fall of Roe  with The New York Times’s  Elizabeth Dias  and  Lisa Lerer ; and the rise of Lauren Boebert with City Cast Denver’s  Bree Davies and Paul Karolyi .    Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter: ...

How one producer—now freed from his 20-year non-disclosure agreement—regrets his role shaping Donald Trump’s image on The Apprentice.  Guest: Bill Pruitt, producer for seasons 1 and 2 of The Apprentice. 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 clicking “Tr...

What do Israelis think of the war in Gaza and how their leadership is conducting it?  Guest: Tamar Harrel-Santis, student and combat reservist living in Ramat Yishai, Israel. 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 clicking “Try Free” at the top of our sh...

After inheriting a tricky, post-peak-pandemic economy, the Biden administration pulled off the double-feat of stalling inflation while also keeping unemployment low. Wages have risen, and so has purchasing power. But if you ask voters, they’ll tell you the economy is terrible.  Does Biden have a messaging problem or is an economy where the price of everything still seems too high simply impossible...

Lesbian businesses are great for the queer women’s community, but making them profitable is a different matter. For this Money Talks, Felix Salmon chats with June Thomas , author of A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women's Culture , to discuss a unique mix of cultural and economic challenges facing the queer economy. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus...

While the What Next team observes the holiday, enjoy the first episode of Slow Burn's new season. In the 1970s, San Francisco became a welcoming home for tens of thousands of new gay residents—and a modern-day Sodom for the American right. With a moral panic sweeping across the United States, a Florida orange juice spokeswoman inspired an ambitious California politician to launch his own campaign...

Last year saw a record number of healthcare hacks with more than 700 separate incidents. And with a subsidiary of United Healthcare forking over a $22 billion ransom this year, the problem isn’t going away. With so much sensitive personal information on file, why aren’t hospitals and their ilk better prepared? Guest:  Dina Carlisle, president of the local nurses union, OPEIU 40 in Michigan. Justin...