Slate News

The Iran war’s disruption to global oil supplies demonstrates another upside to switching to renewable energy sources. Instead, Europe is considering rolling back carbon regulations. Guest:  Catherine Rampell , economics editor at The Bulwark and anchor at MS NOW. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorit...

A flurry of activity in the oil-futures market, minutes before Donald Trump made a big announcement about not striking at Iranian infrastructure, has all the appearance of someone using classified national security information to turn a profit.  Guest:  Paul Krugman, Nobel-Prize winning economist and author of paulkrugman.substack.com . Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to acc...

In this Money Talks: Journalist Bridget Armstrong joins Emily Peck to discuss this moment of reckoning for the iconic reality show America’s Next Top Model and what she learned in reporting for her podcast Curse of: America’s Next Top Model . They explore how Top Model ’s central promise — a fast track to a career in the fashion industry — was ultimately an illusion used to make great television a...

OpenAI is shutting down its video generator Sora less than six months after it launched, and just three months since it signed a deal with Disney. Is this an A.I. company fine tuning its offerings, or the long-awaited popping of the A.I. bubble? Guest: Jason Koebler , cofounder of 404 Media. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and...

Artificial intelligence is working its way into every aspect of our lives, including law and immigration enforcement, and the industry is spending millions of dollars to ensure it can continue to do so unregulated. But as evidence of bias appears in this nascent tech, this congresswoman wants to ensure we’re not just recreating our historical biases and problems all over again—which is to say, she...

On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick checks in with Protect Democracy co-founder Ian Bassin about the United States’ speedy retreat from democracy, and how lawyers seeking to protect the constitution are adapting their strategies for Trump 2.0. While Trump’s second term is following an authoritarian playbook, some courts are acting as speed bumps, while others (we’re looking at you, SCOTUS), are...

This week: Just minutes before Trump posted about talks with Iran, oil markets saw a flurry of activity. Conspiracy theories followed. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck dissect the suspicious timing of those trades and the possibility of insider trading within the Trump administration. Then, the hosts react to the surprising ruling on Meta and social media addiction. And: OpenAI’s s...

 Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries! Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the intersection of culture and finance. On this episode, Nadira and Felix take a trip to a bathhouse for spirits in 2001’s Spirited Away . Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the film follows a girl named Chihiro, who becomes trapped in the...

What YouTube and Meta’s loss in the “social media addiction trial” could mean for your feed. Guest: Ryan Mac , business and technology reporter for the New York Times. 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 Free” at the top of our show page. S...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why politicians keep failing to solve the escalating crisis of American air travel as massive lines and ICE agents disrupt airport operations, what could happen to the 2026 elections when the Supreme Court decides the fate of a state law on mail-in ballot deadlines, and how two jury verdicts provide new legal hooks to hold social me...

Trump’s unpredictability injects uncertainty into the economy, foreign policy, and everything else he touches. Even as his war messaging varies wildly moment to moment, the world economy is certain of one thing: it’s bad for the Strait of Hormuz to close. Guest:  Justin Wolfers, professor of economics at the University of Michigan.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access...

Leftist political commentator Hasan Piker feels the Democrats have missed an opportunity to articulate their opposition to Trump’s foreign policy—in Venezuela, Iran, and, from the sound of it, soon enough in Cuba, where Piker just visited.  Guest: Hasan Piker, political commentator on Twitch who recently joined the Nuestra América convoy to Havana, Cuba. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slat...

Kristi Noem is out, and Senator Markwayne Mullin is in (in theory) as the new DHS secretary. Mullin tried to strike a softer tone during his confirmation hearing, nodding towards rolling back controversial policies like entering homes without a judicial warrant—but his reputation as a Senate-floor brawler raises questions about whether that’s just rhetoric. Meanwhile, the partial government shutdo...

Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries! Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the intersection of culture and finance. On this episode, Felix and Nadira discuss dating and money in Celine Song’s 2025 romantic comedy Materialists , which centers on a love triangle between a millionaire matchmaker (Dakota Johnson), a...

The argument against counting mail-in ballots that arrive after election day is going to involve Supreme Court-pleasing “originalist” language, but is the case really just another way to say that Trump should have beaten Joe Biden in 2020?  Guest: Jay Willis, editor-in-chief of Balls & Strikes. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next...

Why Palantir cofounder and CEO Alex Karp views working with Western militaries not just as a business opportunity, but as a higher calling. Guest: Jacob Silverman , journalist and author of “ Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley .” 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 podcas...

This Supreme Court term has seen threats against the Justices – from the President, a slew of game-changing shadow docket opinions, justices sparring in public, and some of the most consequential cases of our lifetimes. If you’re feeling a little disoriented by it all, join Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern on this week’s show for a clearer understanding of what’s going on at One, First Street...

David Plotz talks with journalist Gabriel Sherman about his new book Bonfire of the Murdochs: How the Epic Fight to Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke a Family—and the World . Sherman, who also wrote the bestselling biography of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, spent 15 years reporting on the Murdoch empire. In this book he turns his lens on the family itself — the rivalries, the wounds, and th...

This week: The war in Iran has caused a dramatic spike in global oil prices. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck discuss the international repercussions of the oil shortage and how central banks are responding. And: With the dust settling on the Paramount-Warner Brothers deal (including a $700 million payout to David Zaslav for some reason), the biggest loser in the megamerger might b...

 Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries! Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the intersection of culture and finance. On this episode, we’re headed to Wall Street to watch a Felix Salmon favorite: Margin Call , the 2011 thriller-drama starring a long list of famous people, including Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany...

Hank Green recently pulled a “reverse OpenAI” - he took his education platform Complexly and made it a nonprofit. In a world where outrage, A.I. slop and “brain rot” are all heavily incentivized by platforms, Hank explains why he’d rather make content that leans into the complexity of our world.  Guest: Hank Green , YouTuber, half of Vlogbrothers, host of Crash Course and SciShow and founder...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how policies of anger and dominance structure President Trump’s approach to adversaries, allies, and the independent press alike, how the dangers of the online sports-betting industry are outrunning limited guardrails with guest McKay Coppins , and how a federal judge just handed RFK Jr.’s war on vaccines its biggest setback yet. Fo...

The war in Iran is either already over, or almost over, or going to continue until Trump feels it is over in his bones? If you’re Congress, what are you supposed to do with that?  Guest: Adam Kinzinger, former Republican Congressman for Illinois’s 11th and 16th districts, Jan 6 Committee member, former lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus...

Israel and America’s war with Iran has spread, leading to the displacement of nearly 20 percent of people in Lebanon. What does that look like on the ground—and how will the conflict end? Guests:   Basma Alloush , Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Rescue Committee.  Joshua Keating , senior correspondent at Vox. Want more What Next? Subscribe t...

The Republican-led Senate prepares this week to tackle an issue that’s very important to the president, his diehards, and hardly anyone else: passing the SAVE Act in order to force people to prove citizenship before voting. Guest: Ari Berman , national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next...