Trumpcast
A quasi-daily podcast from Slate chronicling Donald Trump's rise to the presidency and his current administration. Journalists Virginia Heffernan and León Krauze talk to reporters, historians, psychiatrists, and other experts to help explain who this man is and why this is happening, right now, in the United States of America.
Episodes
May 6, 2021 • 35 min
In one sense maybe we should be thankful we’ve never had to grapple with these perplexing issues because a President has never run as wild as Trump did. But there’s a real precedent being set in the government’s approach to presidential criming. It’s not just about Mueller or Trump or Biden or Merrick Garland. It’s about renovating the whole system to make plain when and how a president is held to account.
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May 3, 2021 • 28 min
Hey Trumpcast listeners! Your host Virginia has some big news. Her next podcast—After Trump—is a guidebook alongside legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer—both former Trumpcast guests—to reforming our laws, norms, and ethical codes so we never get in that fix again. It's coming out in this feed, and you can subscribe and learn more at AfterTrumpPod.com. While you're at it, we want you to check out What Next, a daily n...
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April 27, 2021 • 64 min
Hey Trumpcast listeners! Your host Virginia has some big news. Her next podcast—After Trump—is a guidebook alongside legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer—both former Trumpcast guests—to reforming our laws, norms, and ethical codes so we never get in that fix again.?To learn more, go to AfterTrumpPod.com. But first, there's another show we hope you'll check out: Amicus, Slate's podcast about the courts and the law...
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April 26, 2021 • 32 min
The pardon power was designed to be a tool for correcting wrongs. Any system of justice applied to a whole nation is going to have failures. A pardon is there to correct miscarriages of justice—and injustice. It was always believed that if a president abused his pardon authority, it would be so appalling to so many, at such a gut level, that the checks on the President would instantly kick in: He'd be impeached, forced to resig...
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April 19, 2021 • 41 min
In this episode, we consider the problem of foreign interventions in American political campaigns—and what to do about it. And we’re also going to look at how Trump blocked and tackled the free press, especially when it reported on Trump’s foreign ties.
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April 12, 2021 • 42 min
Virginia Heffernan is here to introduce the first episode of her new podcast. After Trump is a guidebook alongside legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer—both former Trumpcast guests—to reforming our laws, norms, and ethical codes so we never get in that fix again. In this first episode, they explore some of President Trump’s most brazen transgressions—the conflicts of interest, the self-dealing, and those elusive tax returns....
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April 9, 2021 • 27 min
Hey Trumpcast listeners! Your host Virginia has some big news. Her next podcast—After Trump—is a guidebook alongside legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer—both former Trumpcast guests—to reforming our laws, norms, and ethical codes so we never get in that fix again. After Trump is coming soon to a podcast app near you. To learn more, go to AfterTrumpPod.com. But first, Virginia is here to introduce an episode of a show she ho...
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April 2, 2021 • 24 min
Hey Trumpcast listeners! Your host Virginia has some big news. Her next podcast—After Trump—is a guidebook alongside legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer—both former Trumpcast guests—to reforming our laws, norms, and ethical codes so we never get in that fix again. After Trump is coming soon to a podcast app near you. To learn more, go to AfterTrumpPod.com.
But first, Virginia is here to introduce an episode of a new show ...
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March 26, 2021 • 25 min
Hey Trumpcast listeners! Your host Virginia has some big news. Her next podcast—After Trump—is a guidebook alongside legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer—both former Trumpcast guests—to reforming our laws, norms, and ethical codes so we never get in that fix again. After Trump is coming soon to a podcast app near you. To learn more, go to AfterTrumpPod.com.
But first, Virginia is here to introduce an episode of a show she ...
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March 19, 2021 • 28 min
Hey Trumpcast listeners! Your host Virginia has some big news. Her next podcast—After Trump—is a guidebook alongside legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer—both former Trumpcast guests—to reforming our laws, norms, and ethical codes so we never get in that fix again. After Trump is coming soon to a podcast app near you. To learn more, go to AfterTrumpPod.com.
But first, Virginia is here to introduce an episode of a show she ...
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March 8, 2021 • 25 min
Hey Trumpcast listeners! Your host Virginia has some big news. Her next podcast—After Trump—is a guidebook alongside legal scholars Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer—both former Trumpcast guests—to reforming our laws, norms, and ethical codes so we never get in that fix again. After Trump is coming soon to a podcast app near you. To learn more, go to AfterTrumpPod.com.
But first, Virginia is here to introduce an episode of a new show...
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January 30, 2021 • 65 min
For our series finale, Virginia Heffernan kicks off the show with Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at NYU, who talks about why and how journalists came to normalize the extreme wrongs of the Trump presidency. Trumpcast producer Melissa Kaplan then joins Virginia for a series wrap, or Trumpcast cast, remembering some of our best shows and lessons learned.
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January 21, 2021 • 33 min
For the penultimate episode of Trumpcast, Virginia Heffernan welcomes back Dr. Ibram Kendi, director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, to talk about his anti-racist work, the Biden era ahead, and a question that’s been on Virginia’s mind since Dr. Kendi came on the show four years ago.
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January 14, 2021 • 38 min
Virginia Heffernan talks to former Trump troll David Weissman about his experiences overcoming trauma as a war veteran, his relationship with white supremacist personality Baked Alaska, the right-wing calls for civil war, the different factions of MAGA, and what’s going on in the minds of the insurgents.
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January 7, 2021 • 28 min
For this emergency episode reviewing today’s violence against Congress, we reached out to historian Joanne Freeman, author of The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress & the Road to Civil War. Dr. Freeman and Virginia Heffernan review the history of political violence in Congress and why these events had a different implication.
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December 31, 2020 • 38 min
Virginia Heffernan talks to cyberwarfare expert Molly McKew, author of the Great Power newsletter, about the Russian SolarWinds attacks, digital spies, 5G, lizard people, and other conspiracy theories.
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December 25, 2020 • 14 min
In this Trumpcast Plus preview, Virginia Heffernan talks to comedian Kathy Griffin about the beheading performance art piece seen round the world, which spiraled into a nightmare scenario of harassment, the cancellation of her comedy tour, subsequent Hollywood blacklisting, and frequent check-ins with the FBI.
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December 17, 2020 • 39 min
Virginia Heffernan welcomes back Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to talk about how Trump champions cheating and has a sour response to empathy, and why Schiff’s colleagues are so afraid to speak out against Trump’s misdeeds and behavior.
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December 11, 2020 • 48 min
As his presidential term draws to a close, Virginia Heffernan does an overview of Donald Trump’s impact on U.S. foreign policy with Mieke Eoyang, senior vice president for Third Way’s National Security Program.
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December 4, 2020 • 48 min
Virginia Heffernan talks to former FBI special agent and CNN analyst Asha Rangappa about the case for Federalism and why even with pardons, Trump won’t get off completely scot-free.
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