Slate News

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...

After years of being a rare spot of universal, American-government-funded health care, this fall’s new COVID-19 vaccine is hitting the commercial market for the first time. So far, the rollout has been mired by hiccups and confusion.  Guest: Jen Kates , senior vice president at KFF If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on a...

Refusing to play the traditional first Monday in October game, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern squint through the cloud of ethics scandals enveloping the High Court to see a docket aimed squarely at unfettering commerce from outside supervision, with a side order of second amendment extremism. What could possibly go wrong? Sign up for Slate Plus now to support our show.  Dahlia’s book  Lady...

Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are the two-percent! Well, not Emily, to be clear. They dig into what’s going on with all the changes to Delta Sky Miles, the newest lawsuit by the FTC against Amazon, and why LinkedIn is and is not the worst.  In the Plus segment: What do you do with a  concrete banana ?  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus m...

Amazon evolved from a place to get cheap used books to the “everything store”—one encompassing warehouses, logistics and shipping.  But with the FTC now run by Lina Khan—who wrote the essay ‘Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox” while at Yale Law School—a new contender for “antitrust trial of the century” has begun.  Guest: Leah Nylen , antitrust reporter for Bloomberg If you enjoy this show, please conside...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the second Republican presidential primary debate; the next federal case against Senator Bob Menendez, and the latest lawsuit of United States v. Big Tech. Join us for Political Gabfest Live in Madison, Wisconsin on October 25! Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Dan Balz for The Washington Post: “ Republican d...

Why is everyone—on the left and the right—suddenly touting the benefits of a married two-parent family? And what is it about this institution that appeals to a certain class of politicians and pundits as means to address American poverty, even as it loses popularity? We consider the public meltdown over lower marriage rates and the renewed interest in ending no-fault divorce.  Guest: Rebecca Trais...

Everybody loves pandas—and China knows it. As we say goodbye to the National Zoo’s pandas, we look back at 50 years of “panda diplomacy” and consider its uncertain future. Guest: E. Elena Songster, author of Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China’s Modern Icon and professor of environmental history of modern China at St. Mary’s College of California. If you enjoy this show, pleas...

After five long months, the WGA and major Hollywood studios have reached a tentative agreement to end the strike—well, that one anyway. Who won what and where do the actors stand? Guest: Michael Schulman , staff writer at The New Yorker. 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 lik...

At 92, Rupert Murdoch is retiring and handing the reins over to his son. Will Lachlan Murdoch watch over a period of managed decline—or will he chase the audience Fox News has been losing to the even-more extreme right? Guest: Nicole Hemmer , Director of the Roger Center for the American Presidency at Vanderbilt University. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Kashmir Hill to talk about her new book,  Your Face Belongs to Us . They dig into the way facial recognition technology is used in unexpected (and sometimes creepy) ways. They also talk about the A.I. revolution and Rupert Murdoch’s “exit” from the Fox empire.  In the Plus segment: Kashmir talks about  tracking her husband .  If you enjo...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ryan Busse , a former gun-industry executive turned gun-safety advocate, who is now running for governor in his home state of Montana. As the right to bear arms for domestic abusers is set to be argued at SCOTUS this term, Dahlia and Ryan discuss how gun culture has been radicalized in order to… sell more guns. They also examine how that radicalization has reached the...

Emily Bazelon talks with author Zadie Smith about her new book,  The Fraud . They discuss what happens when justice comes through an unjust symbol, how much Zadie does and doesn’t know about her characters, 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 Ro...

As other tech companies that rode the pandemic to success started sinking, Instacart managed to stay above water—they turned a profit and even made it to an IPO. But a stubbornly static stock price has some asking if Instacart—and the whole gig economy—hasn’t already peaked.   Guest: Erin Griffith , who reports on tech startups and venture capital for the New York Times If you enjoy this show, ple...

The sword of regulation, which has been swinging over New York AirBnBs for over a decade, is falling at last. But will new laws for short-term rentals have the effect housing advocates are hoping for? And after many failed efforts, can these laws actually be enforced?  Guest: Heather Tal Murphy , Slate writer covering tech and business. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the UAW autoworkers’ strike against the Big Three automakers, talk with  Yoel Roth  about social media trust and safety, and weigh teachers’ burden to engage in parent diplomacy. Join us for  Political Gabfest Live  in Madison, Wisconsin on October 25!   Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Danielle Kaye for NPR...

Following “The Call,” our series on the opioid epidemic continues in Seattle.  Harm reduction focuses on meeting people where they are, including enabling them to use drugs safely when experiencing addiction. But some advocates are asking, what happens when you think bigger? Guest: Lisa Daugaard , criminal justice reform activist and Co-Executive Director of the nonprofit organization Purpose. Dig...

Wisconsin has been something of a model for Republicans looking to entrench themselves in the state legislature, and one key move has always been to draw the electoral map as favorably as possible. But now, the state Supreme Court has swung to the left – for the first time in 15 years. The GOP is scrambling to keep this battleground state deeply gerrymandered—and keep power in their own hands. Gue...

Thousands of members of the United Auto Workers walked off the line at Midwestern auto plants Friday, putting an exclamation mark on a summer where labor—from screenwriters to UPS drivers—flexed its muscles. But is this a true resurgence of the broader U.S. labor movement? Guest: Barry Eidlin , associate professor of sociology at McGill University If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up...

House speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, but members of the Freedom Caucus—a group of right-wing Republicans with a taste for dramatic, extreme actions—had already moved on to fighting the next spending bill, potentially steering the government to another shutdown.  Guest: Jim Newell , Slate’s senior politics writer. If you enjoy this show,...

 In this episode of the Criminals series, the gang talks with Rebecca Jarvis, host of “The Dropout” about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Who were the real victims of Holmes’ crimes? How did her lofty goals drift into scandal? And where does she sit on a scale of “one to evil”? If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the...

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by award-winning documentarian and lawyer Dawn Porter for a conversation about two projects shining a light on the law and how we can shape it: Porter’s new Showtime documentary series Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court , and the paperback release of Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America .  Together they trace the politic...