Hear Me Out
Hear Me Out is Slate's destination for tough, topical discussions with integrity, and without cliches. Join host Celeste Headlee and a guest each week for a smart, fair debate on issues that matter.
Episodes
May 14, 2024 • 44 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: live from Seattle.
Hear Me Out had its first-ever live show on May 4, 2024 — and it was such a great conversation that we wanted to make sure our podcast listeners heard it, too.
The Cascade PBS Ideas Festival was full of smart, unconventional thinkers on the biggest issues facing this country… so what better place to have a conversation about Donald Trump, and the future of this country?
It’...
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May 7, 2024 • 39 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: prosecuting parents.
Ethan Crumbley’s parents didn’t pull the trigger that killed 4 students in 2021 — but they’ve been sentenced to prison time for it all the same.
School shootings are devastatingly common in this country, but punishing the parents of the killer is a new tactic of handling the aftermath. Even if you think the Crumbleys were bad parents, though, the questions should be posed: ...
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April 30, 2024 • 44 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: solidarity?
College campuses across the country are grappling with protests and occupations in the name of a free Palestine. Many hundreds of students, faculty, and outside community members have been arrested in tense clashes with police — called onto campuses by the universities themselves.
Student protestors have shaped public discourse on matters like war and the environment for many decade...
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April 23, 2024 • 35 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: nobody wins with two parties.
A competitive presidential election draws closer every day – and as ever, every vote will count. So is it fair to accuse third-party voters of wasting a vote, as often happens? Or are third-party candidates actually preserving what little we have left of a competitive democracy?
Bernard Tamas of Valdosta State University joins us to make the case for the power of t...
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April 16, 2024 • 36 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: blaze it.
Ahead of the honorary stoner holiday that is 4/20, we’re taking a look at the marijuana landscape. Public opinion has warmed considerably to legal weed in the past few decades – both medicinal and recreational – even though it remains a Schedule 1 drug on the federal level.
But some public health experts are still sounding the alarm, because this has all happened very quickly… and thou...
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April 9, 2024 • 36 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: amore, but make it anti-racist.
Honoring interracial marriage has only been the law of the land for a few decades in this country; there are couples alive today whose relationships were illegal within their lifetimes.
There are now more mixed-race couples – and children – in the U.S. than ever before, and interracial love is overwhelmingly supported by all Americans. But is that an indication t...
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April 2, 2024 • 37 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: housing the nation.
We have an affordable housing problem — and an affordability problem, period, but that’s another show.
When we talk about solutions to homelessness and cost burden for renters and homeowners alike, many progressives lean toward government intervention… because capitalism seems to have failed us. But has it, really? Or is for-profit development the surprising answer to affor...
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March 26, 2024 • 35 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: getting the jab.
Vaccine hesitancy is not a new phenomenon in the United States, but it is a growing one… particularly in conservative Evangelical circles.
At the same time, there’s a lot for all of us to dislike, and distrust, about the American healthcare system. So, for those of us who have a hard time working up any sympathy for the vaccine-skeptical crowd, it’s worth asking: what if this i...
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March 19, 2024 • 44 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: talk it out.
Talking about therapy isn’t taboo anymore — and that’s great, because everyone deserves help when they need it. The question is… do you really need it?
Dr. Richard Friedman of Weill Cornell Medicine wrote a piece for The Atlantic last month, headlined ”Plenty of People Could Quit Therapy Right Now.” So why is that the case… and what are the consequences of getting therapy when you d...
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March 12, 2024 • 37 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: the purity test.
Purity, in political science, doesn’t have anything to do with morality. It has to do with whether your policy aligns with your principles.
From “Bernie Bros” to the uncommitted vote against Biden, we’ve seen progressives protect ideological purity… and punish stances that don’t align. An all-or-nothing stance on issues like universal healthcare and student loan forgiveness mig...
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March 5, 2024 • 44 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… Parliamentary America?
It’s Super Tuesday, and the process by which we elect a president is on full display (warts and all). Americans on both sides of the aisle agree that the electoral college has to go. But what should replace it?
Maxwell Stearns, author of Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy (out 3/5/2024), presents his case for restruc...
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February 27, 2024 • 44 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… are journalists killing democracy?
Mainstream news outlets are starting to move away from horse race election coverage and toward policy substance. Though it’s a slow change, it’s heralded by much of the news industry as a good one. But what if the horse race was never really the problem?
Journalist and writer Chris Cillizza joins us to defend the horse race.
If you have thoughts you want to ...
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February 20, 2024 • 44 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… making (fourteen) points.
A piece in this month’s issue of the Atlantic argues that it’s time to re-evaluate the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. President Wilson was indisputably a productive president — but he’s now reviled by the left as a racist and the right as a tyrant. Is there room to meet somewhere in the middle?
David Frum of the Atlantic joins us to argue that, yes: it’s time to un-canc...
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February 13, 2024 • 37 mins
Though most Americans have problems with the way this country is run, the Constitution remains popular — and untouchable, in our nation of laws. But it’s often difficult to solve 21st century problems with an 18th century document.
Aaron Tang, author and professor of law at UC Davis, joins us once again to argue that, instead of aligning with the Constitution, courts should try to cause the least permanent harm possible.
If you ha...
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February 6, 2024 • 36 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… dear colleague.
The way universities and colleges handle sexual assault cases has changed a lot in the last 13 years. Part of that is because of the sheer vastness of the higher education system; everyone does everything differently.
But federal guidance has also shifted with each of the last three administrations… and our guest today argues that none of those systems have worked. In fact, they...
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January 30, 2024 • 38 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… folie à deux (again).
A few weeks ago, Frank Buckley joined us to argue that Trump voters aren’t delusional. And a lot of you disagreed.
One of you, though, turned out to be an expert in the nature of delusion. So who better to join us, and make the case that we got it wrong?
Barry Mauer, a Hear Me Out listener and associate professor at the University of Central Florida, joins us to argue that...
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January 23, 2024 • 35 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… which wave is this, anyway?
There’s no denying that the feminist movement looks different now than it did 50 years ago — and in some ways, that’s a good thing. But there’s an argument to be made that the modern movement skews politically progressive… so much so that it’s leaving some women, and some issues, behind.
Phyllis Chesler, author and second-wave feminist, joins us.
If you have thought...
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January 16, 2024 • 43 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… yas, queen?
It’s been hard to avoid an onslaught of memes about bad people lately. People like Gypsy-Rose Blanchard and George Santos have been punished for their misdeeds in one way… but now, it seems, they’re being rewarded by the attention economy. The question is: is it our fault?
Rachel Greenspan, writer and social strategist, joins us once again to argue for discretion in memeing.
If you ...
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January 9, 2024 • 41 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… delusion is not the solution.
Welcome to a presidential election year, where everyone will surely be cool and normal. We know, we know — the prospect of dealing with electoral discourse is one that most of us aren’t looking forward to. But we’re here to prove that it’s possible to talk.
For Democrats, and liberals writ large, it’s hard to understand why anyone would want another Trump presidenc...
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January 2, 2024 • 47 mins
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… new year, new you?
If you’ve resolved to make 2024 your happiest, healthiest, most organized, most peaceful, etc. year yet? You’re not alone. And if you’re pretty sure the people who have made resolutions are doomed to abandon ship before January is over… you’re not alone, either. Nor are you wrong, exactly.
In the season of giving, getting, and evaluating self-improvement advice, there’s a lin...
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