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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has attracted national praise for his buck-stops-here leadership throughout the pandemic. But he's made some major missteps in his coronavirus response - the lack of transparency around COVID-related deaths in nursing homes is only the latest example. And his efforts to evade scrutiny have drawn fire from critics and constituents.  Guest: Jimmy Vielkind , reporter fo...

Over the last week, millions of Texans have been forced to live without power or heat. At least 16 have died since Monday. In a state that’s no stranger to extreme weather and high power demand, how did it all go so wrong? Guest:  Josh Rhodes , research associate at the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin   Host Lizzie O’Leary   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Over the last week, millions of Texans have been forced to live without power or heat. At least 16 have died since Monday. In a state that’s no stranger to extreme weather and high power demand, how did it all go so wrong? Guest:  Josh Rhodes , research associate at the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin   Host Lizzie O’Leary   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Rush Limbaugh’s radio show provided a roadmap that the Republican Party has been following, more or less faithfully, for decades.  Guest: Nicole Hemmer, author of Messengers of the Right and co-host of This Day in Esoteric Political History .  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the year since the pandemic began, the number of attacks against Asian Americans has skyrocketed. The most recent wave of assaults left a number of victims injured and one man dead. Many Asian American activists say the attacks reflect a pattern of violence “as old as America itself.”  Guest: Kim Tran , an anti-oppression consultant and the author of the forthcoming book, The End of Allyship: A...

Gustavo Arellano’s father is what he would call a ‘pandejo’ - someone who doesn't take COVID safety seriously. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Gustavo has been fighting the uphill battle to dissuade him of his skepticism. And two weeks ago, his father finally got vaccinated.  We all know a ‘pandejo.’ What can we learn from Gustavo’s relationship with his father? Guest: Gustavo Arellano, colum...

For most of the last year, Clubhouse—the audio-only social media app—has been dominated by conversations about business, branding, and Elon Musk. But as users picked up the app around the globe, something extraordinary happened.   Censors in mainland China overlooked it. And for two weeks in February, it hosted a series of unusual, unfiltered conversations. Han Chinese, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, an...

For most of the last year, Clubhouse—the audio-only social media app—has been dominated by conversations about business, branding, and Elon Musk. But as users picked up the app around the globe, something extraordinary happened.   Censors in mainland China overlooked it. And for two weeks in February, it hosted a series of unusual, unfiltered conversations. Han Chinese, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, an...

On Tuesday, workers in an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama started voting on whether or not to form a union. Amazon has been fighting the vote on multiple fronts. A “yes” vote could possibly spark unionization drives in warehouses all across the country.  Guests: Jay Greene , tech reporter for the Washington Post Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Ho...

As soon as the Democrats won a slim 50-50 majority in the senate, the jokes about President Joe Manchin started flying. The Senate's self described “conservative Democrat” from West Virginia is in a key position to influence legislation during the Biden administration. How will he wield that power?  Guests: Jim Newell, senior politics reporter for Slate Ken Ward Jr. , co-founder of Mountain State...

After the insurrection at the nation's capitol on January 6th, the House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump for a second time. The only article charges him with high crimes and misdemeanors for inciting a riot. There's no shortage of evidence backing up that claim, but the politics make it an open question if the senate will convict.  Guest: Dahlia Lithwick, host of Slate’s Amicus podcast ...

The COVID-19 vaccine roll-out has been a mess across the country, but the failure has been particularly egregious in Philadelphia. The city entrusted a large part of its vaccine distribution to a start-up company run by a 22-year-old with zero medical experience. It wound up with a shuttered clinic and stolen vaccine doses.  Guest: Nina Feldman , health reporter for WHYY. Slate Plus members get bo...

Last week, in response to protests by farmers outside New Delhi, India, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi restricted access to the mobile web in areas where the protests were unfolding. The move is the latest in the Indian government’s long history of throttling internet access and censoring speech online.  Why is the Modi government increasingly shutting down the internet and stiflin...

Last week, in response to protests by farmers outside New Delhi, India, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi restricted access to the mobile web in areas where the protests were unfolding. The move is the latest in the Indian government’s long history of throttling internet access and censoring speech online.  Why is the Modi government increasingly shutting down the internet and stiflin...

The pandemic has hit many of us in different ways. But women in particular find themselves at the intersection of multiple crises. Across the economy, jobs in female-dominated industries are disappearing. Inside the home, moms are often shouldering the brunt of the extra childcare burden that comes with school closures.  How are women getting by right now? And will the setbacks they’re experiencin...

This week, Senate Republicans offered President Biden a stimulus deal one-third the size of the administration’s plan. With a compromise looking less likely, Democrats might have to resort to reconciliation to get it passed - a process fraught with headaches.  Guest: Jordan Weissmann, Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent.  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast fe...

Dubbed “the QAnon candidate,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has her Republican colleagues doing some major handwringing. But does her presence on Capitol Hill actually represent a war within the GOP or more of a polite disagreement?  Guest: Greg Bluestein , political reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Ho...

Thousands of people are signing a petition to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom. The Democrat was praised for his response to the coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic, but he has started to lose his constituents’ trust. Now, it could take just one big endorsement to end his term.  Guest: Angela Hart, correspondent at California Healthline.  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and a...

The story of how GameStop went from the verge of a bankruptcy to a $15 billion market value isn’t an easy one to wrap your head around. But it helps to go back to the beginning; almost three years ago, in a subreddit called r/wallstreetbets. Guests:  Brandon Kochkodin , reporter at Bloomberg Host Lizzie O’Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The story of how GameStop went from the verge of a bankruptcy to a $15 billion market value isn’t an easy one to wrap your head around. But it helps to go back to the beginning; almost three years ago, in a subreddit called r/wallstreetbets. Guests:  Brandon Kochkodin , reporter at Bloomberg Host Lizzie O’Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back in March, nobody knew how long kids would be learning from home and isolating from their peers. Now, with some kids returning to schools after 10 months away, one school counselor says getting kids back into physical classrooms is just the start to healing from the massive toll the pandemic has had on their mental health.  Guest: Jan Desmarais-Morse, school counselor in Goshen, Indiana. Slate...

Republicans used to lead the way on environmental legislation. Are they about to come back around on the urgency of climate change?   Guest: Carlos Curbelo , former Republican congressman from Florida. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s a lot riding on the working relationship of President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. They are bonded by their service in the U.S. Senate, their ideological flexibility, and their respect for norms -- unless those norms stand in the way of their ambitions.  Guest: Alex Thompson , White House reporter for Politico.  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free pod...

Back in 2015, Farai Chideya was a senior writer covering politics at FiveThirtyEight. Her time there was instructive in understanding how the media failed to take Trump’s presidential candidacy seriously. Now that she has her own show, she’s speaking up about how journalists -- and the news outlets that employ them -- could better serve the public.  Guest: Farai Chideya , host of Our Body Politic....

Most people thought developing the vaccine in record time would be the hard part. That, or shipping millions of doses at subzero temperatures to every corner of the country. But nobody--or, almost nobody--guessed that the biggest barrier between U.S. citizens and vaccination would be … online scheduling.  What went wrong with the vaccine websites? And what will it take to get them right? Guests: ...