Slate News

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Jim Jordan’s efforts to become Speaker of the House; President Joe Biden’s visit to an Israel at war; and Donald Trump’s gag order. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Robert Jimison and Kayla Guo for The New York Times: “ As Speaker Chaos Grows, so Does Talk of Empowering McHenry ” Josh Levin and Stefan Fatsis...

With bombs falling in Gaza, President Biden traveled to Israel to make a show of support. But as meetings with allied government leadership around the region were canceled, is the president doing more harm than good? Guest: Yousef Munayyer , Palestinian-American political analyst and writer and Senior Fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for S...

New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, who was the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was charged with conspiring to act as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government. This follows on the heels of an indictment for bribery and federal corruption. But Menendez says he isn’t stepping down. Guest: Jessica Taylor , Senate-and-governors editor at The Cook Political Report.  If you enjoy thi...

Donald Trump has been saying shocking—even violent—things for so long, it barely registers as news anymore. But after January 6, and with Trump again leading the field of Republican candidates for president, is there a real-world danger to what he’s saying? Guest: Robert A. Pape , professor of political science and the director of the University of Chicago’s project on security and threats If you...

While mounting a military response to Hamas, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been forced to unite his far-right wing with his political rival, centrist Benny Gantz, a former military Chief of Staff. The plans for retaliation that are emerging are unlike any of Israel’s past skirmishes with Hamas. Guest: Dov Waxman , director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies...

Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers and Emily Peck talk about the latest in the Sam Bankman-Fried trial. They also discuss the (maybe bad???) Birkenstock IPO, and why your sweaters are getting worse.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and an additional segment of our show every week. You’ll also be supporti...

In this week’s big voting rights case, Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the Supreme Court heard arguments concerning whether to uphold a South Carolina congressional map that is avowedly partisan (everyone agrees it favors Republicans, but partisan gerrymanders are A-OK under SCOTUS precedent). What is disputed here is whether the mapmakers relied on race to reach their p...

Zelle has exploded in popularity as a fast, convenient way to send and receive money. But the story of a couple who was scammed out of a pool shows there are problems with safety on the platform.  Guest: Devin Friedman, journalist and senior correspondent for GQ magazine. You can read Devin’s piece here. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get bene...

When the Arab Spring was unfolding, Twitter was hailed as a way for on-the-ground reporting to reach the public. But when fighting between Hamas and Israel broke out over the weekend, X became flooded with misinformation. Guest: Casey Newton , founder and editor of the technology newsletter Platformer. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefi...

This week, Emily Bazelon and David Plotz are joined by Juliette Kayyem to discuss the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Steve Scalise’s fight for the gavel of the House Speaker. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Juliette Kayyem for The Atlantic: “ A Devastating Attack by Hamas ” Tom Dannenbaum for Just Security: “ The Siege of Gaza and the Starvation War Crime ” Zack Beauchamp f...

After their first plan to forgive billions of dollars of student debt was thwarted by the Supreme Court, the Biden administration is quietly searching for other ways to help borrowers.  Guest: Jeremy Bauer-Wolf , senior higher education reporter for Higher Ed Dive. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast,...

President Biden’s administration announced plans to resume construction of a wall on the southern border, contradicting a contrast then-candidate Joe Biden drew between himself and his opponent in 2020,  Guest: Muzaffar Chishti , senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute at NYU’s School of Law If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits...

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing a complete blockade of Gaza after Hamas militants killed more than 700 Israelis this weekend. The surprise attack caught Israeli intelligence completely off-guard, and has thrown the region into disarray, on the eve of landmark talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia.  What’s the next stage of this already-volatile conflict? And what’s next for ci...

While the What Next team enjoys today's holiday, we are proud to present this episode on viral misinformation in 1955 from our colleagues at Slate's One Year. What Next will be back tomorrow. When Alaskans wanted their own mental-health facility, a rumor took hold all over America. This week, Evan Chung traces the origins of that far-right conspiracy theory: that the government was building a conc...

In this episode of the Movies series, the gang talks with Slate’s Cheyna Roth about Barbie. Is Barbie an anti-capitalist movie? Does Ryan Gosling steal too much of the show? And what message does Barbie’s success send to Hollywood?  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and an additional segment of our sho...

This week, Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers talk about how Ozempic affects food buying habits, the rise in mortgage and interest rates, and the decrease in stock buybacks.  In the Plus segment: The correlation between life expectancy and having a college degree .  Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following oral arguments in a case aimed at demolishing Senator Elizabeth Warren’s brainchild - the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Senator Warren to talk about how far this Supreme Court is prepared to go to fulfill right wing deregulatory fantasies.  Next, Dahlia talks to investigative reporter Andrea Bernstein, part of the team behind We Don’t Talk About Leona...

Hank Asher was a lot of things: a Florida condo maven, a drug runner, a DEA informant—and a tech visionary who created the mixed blessing of turning everyone’s online activity into an unshakable shadow profile. Guest:  McKenzie Funk , reporter for Pro Publica and the author of The Hank Show If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero...

As the trial begins, SBF is making the case that what he did is typical in the world of crypto. But when the government paints a much bleaker picture of FTX—one riddled with fraud and deception—what does that say about the industry?  Guest:  Nitish Pahwa , associate business and tech writer at Slate . If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefit...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the now-former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and the for-now Republican Matt Gaetz; the Supreme Court’s new term; and crime in America.   Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Marianna Sotomayor, Leigh Ann Caldwell, and Colby Itkowitz for The Washington Post: “ Fight for speakership begins as House reels fr...

For once, Donald Trump is going to court for things that have nothing to do with his presidency. As Trump defends himself and his businesses against charges of fraud, what does his conduct in New York tell us about how his other trials may go? Guest: Zach Schonfeld , courts and legal reporter for The Hill. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get be...

After an arduous series of votes to get the job, it only took one vote to remove Kevin McCarthy from his position as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Guest: Todd Zwillich , deputy Washington bureau chief, VICE News  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn an...

California Democrats were already jockeying to run for Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat next year and Governor Gavin Newsom sidestepped the contenders by announcing he would appoint Laphonza Butler to the seat.  While Newsom made good on his vow to appoint a Black woman to the Senate, does Butler’s job offer come with a poison pill? Guest: Alex Sammon, Slate politics writer . If you enjoy this show,...

One case on the Supreme Court’s docket could upend federal regulatory bodies’ ability to regulate at all.  Guest: Jay Willis , editor-in-chief of Balls & Strikes If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do he...

The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried marks the end of an era where crypto rose to dizzying, Super-Bowl-commercial heights. Where does the industry go from here?  Guest: Zeke Faux, investigative reporter for Bloomberg and author of Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall .  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads...