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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo faces two investigations regarding accusations of sexual harassment and a culture of bullying in his office. Despite multiple calls to resign, the governor has clung to his office, hoping to ride out the scandals.     Guest: Karen Hinton , former press secretary and adviser to Andrew Cuomo. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus...

After the passage of Joe Biden’s big coronavirus stimulus package, economists expected to see a huge jobs report in May. In the end, only a quarter of the expected 1 million new jobs materialized. Why is that? And what are the chances that $1.9 trillion in stimulus funding is backfiring? Guest: Jordan Weissmann , Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent If you enjoy this show, please co...

On Thursday, the CDC announced that unvaccinated people can go unmasked in most situations. The decision was followed with many private companies dropping their mask requirements but not everyone is ready to go barefaced just yet.  Guest: Megan Ranney , ER Doctor at Brown Emergency Medicine If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero...

The Serum Institute of India was supposed to supply vaccines not just to India, but to the entire Global South. Now, with cases surging, there aren’t nearly enough vaccines for India’s population, not to mention the many countries that are relying on it. How did such a successful institution come up so short? And what are the costs of that failure? Guest: Samanth Subramanian , senior reporter at Q...

The Serum Institute of India was supposed to supply vaccines not just to India, but to the entire Global South. Now, with cases surging, there aren’t nearly enough vaccines for India’s population, not to mention the many countries that are relying on it. How did such a successful institution come up so short? And what are the costs of that failure? Guest: Samanth Subramanian , senior reporter at Q...

This week’s violence across Israel and the occupied territories points to a new era in Israeli-Palestinian relations. Palestinian observers find themselves wondering: Is it a changing diplomatic paradigm, thanks to a growing movement to acknowledge the human rights of Palestinians and find lasting peace? Or is it something more frightening, more deafening -- is it the beginning of unbridled war? G...

Does the looming ouster of a devoted Trump critic from House GOP leadership mean the party remains in thrall to the former president? Or does it just mean that Republican political leaders don’t want to keep talking about him? Guest: Eliana Johnson , Editor-in-chief at the Washington Free Beacon.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits li...

A complete recount of ballots from the 2020 election is underway in Maricopa County, where Arizona Senate Republicans still question the results of the general election. There’s no timeline or budget for the manual audit, and election experts say this effort is highly prone to errors. Guest: Andrew Oxford , reporter for the Arizona Republic.  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podca...

Omar Alshogre survived years of detainment in Syria when he was just a teenager. Now, he’s in the U.S. and is telling his story of survival so you don’t look away. Guest: Omar Alshogre , a Georgetown Student and the Director of Detainee Affairs at the Syrian Emergency Task Force. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Davis...

The question of Donald Trump’s banned account--to keep it blocked, or reinstate it--is one of the toughest that Facebook has ever faced. But the social network had a plan: punt the decision to its newly minted Oversight Board, a semi-independent “Supreme Court” tasked with making hard decisions about what content stays up, and what comes down.  Did that plan just backfire? Guest: Kate Klonick , pr...

The question of Donald Trump’s banned account--to keep it blocked, or reinstate it--is one of the toughest that Facebook has ever faced. But the social network had a plan: punt the decision to its newly minted Oversight Board, a semi-independent “Supreme Court” tasked with making hard decisions about what content stays up, and what comes down.  Did that plan just backfire? Guest: Kate Klonick , pr...

Divorces aren’t usually major news events. But in the case of Bill and Melinda Gates, the state of their union is in the public interest. For the last 20 years, the two have led one of the most influential philanthropic organizations in the world. What happens to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation once its founders are broken up? And what does it say about society’s dependence on billionaires t...

West Virginia was - and still is - decimated by the opioid addiction crisis. Now, one county is fighting to hold drug distributors accountable and get treatment for its residents.  Guest: Eric Eyer , senior investigative reporter at Mountain State Spotlight. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance recently announced the end to prosecuting some charges related to sex work, following decisions in other New York City boroughs. But is this policy shift something sex workers actually want? And does it go far enough?  Guest: Melissa Gira Grant , staff writer at The New Republic and the author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work. Slate Plus members get b...

California Governor Gavin Newsom faces a newly-qualified recall petition, with 1.6 million people saying they want to see an election held over whether the governor should be replaced. But the anger that motivated so many of those signatures now seems to be fading away. Is it enough to save Newsom’s political career?   Guest: Guy Marzorati, reporter and producer on KQED’s Politics and Government d...

There was a time—back when Steve Jobs ran Apple and Mark Zuckerberg was in his early days as Facebook’s CEO— that Apple and Facebook were friends.. Or, at worst, frenemies. But as the companies grew, so did two competing views of how the internet should work.  What led to the rift between Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook? And will Apple’s new privacy rules undercut Facebook’s vision for the internet?...

There was a time—back when Steve Jobs ran Apple and Mark Zuckerberg was in his early days as Facebook’s CEO— that Apple and Facebook were friends.. Or, at worst, frenemies. But as the companies grew, so did two competing views of how the internet should work.  What led to the rift between Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook? And will Apple’s new privacy rules undercut Facebook’s vision for the internet?...

India started 2021 with government officials repeatedly declaring victory over COVID-19. But the virus has overrun hospitals and crematoriums, in part due to massive gatherings and a slow vaccination rollout.  Guest: Chahat Rana , health reporting fellow at The Caravan magazine.  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy fo...

The national conversation about gun violence in America almost always focuses on mass shootings -- but these events tend to overshadow the more day-to-day violence that makes up the bulk of gun deaths in the U.S. What would our policy conversation look like if more attention was paid to the kind of gun violence that’s most prevalent?  Guest: Abené Clayton , reporter for Guns and Lies at the Guardi...

Tech workers from the Bay Area happily left their expensive apartments for Lake Tahoe during the pandemic, hoping to get some fresh air and a change of scenery. Towns around the lake soon became "Zoom-towns" -- areas where remote workers moved in and never left, raising prices and driving out longtime residents. Now, locals are fighting back. Guest: Rachel Levin , San Francisco-based journalist. S...

Masks are crucial to stopping the spread of COVID-19, especially indoors and during prolonged close contact. But after a year of the pandemic, evidence is growing that it’s time to rethink rules on wearing masks outdoors .  Guest: Shannon Palus , senior editor at Slate. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inf...

Last week, a Tesla Model S crashed into a tree in a neighborhood north of Houston. Both men inside the car were killed. But according to police, neither of them was in the driver’s seat.  This is not the first crash in which Tesla’s “autopilot” feature has likely played a role. Should we really be trusting this technology? Guest:  Missy Cummings , professor of electrical and computer engineering a...

Last week, a Tesla Model S crashed into a tree in a neighborhood north of Houston. Both men inside the car were killed. But according to police, neither of them was in the driver’s seat.  This is not the first crash in which Tesla’s “autopilot” feature has likely played a role. Should we really be trusting this technology? Guest:  Missy Cummings , professor of electrical and computer engineering a...

The country remains divided over the January 6th Capitol riot. The division is reflected in voter surveys, news coverage, and millions of social media posts. But the tension is also on display in small, idiosyncratic communities who realized some of their own were at the Capitol attack and may have cheered it on.  Guest: Matthew Rosenberg , reporter for the New York Times.  Slate Plus members get...

After just 10 hours of deliberation, jurors found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the murder of George Floyd. This is what happened inside the courtroom and out on the streets. Guests: Jon Collins , criminal justice reporter at MPR News. Aymann Ismail , staff writer at Slate. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. Se...