Slate Debates
A feed from the Slate podcast network featuring episodes with enlightening conversations, opposing views, and plenty of healthy disputes. You'll get a curated selection of episodes from programs like What Next, The Waves, and the Political Gabfest, with deep discussions that go beyond point-counterpoint and shed light on the issues that matter most.
Episodes
April 24, 2024 • 30 mins
Protests at Columbia University have become a talking point across national media, but does the situation on campus actually resemble the one in the press?
Guest: Aymann Ismail, Slate staff writer.
Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page....
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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 12, 2024 • 42 mins
Commentator Candace Owens’ messy fall from grace in conservative media coincided with her appearances on popular Black chat shows. That includes The Breakfast Club, led by radio host and personality Charlamagne tha God.
Once a minor social media personality who condemned Donald Trump as racist, Owens became one of the former president’s chief defenders, and a leading Black voice of anti-Black rhetoric. So is Owens saying anything n...
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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 15, 2024 • 33 mins
On our second C&F After Dark episode: we know that Valentine’s has come and gone. But we’re not done talking about grownup stuff!
Elizabeth, Zak and Lucy each sit down with their spouses — Jeff, Shira and Geno — to talk through a problem they’ve had as a co-parenting couple. The hosts chime in on each others’ problems, too. It’s an advice extravaganza… and, dare we say, a love-fest?
Then, we’ll wrap up by testing how in-sync our...
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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 7, 2024 • 24 mins
Yesterday, a jury found Jennifer Crumbley guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the mass-shooting carried out by her son Ethan at his high school in Oxford, Michigan.
How will this conviction change the way school shootings are prosecuted? Can future violence be prevented by holding the parents accountable?
Guest: Quinn Klinefelter, host and Senior News Editor for 101.9 WDET in Detroit.
If you enjoy this show, please consider ...
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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 22, 2024 • 22 mins
On this episode Elizabeth Newcamp, Zak Rosen, and Lucy Lopez weigh in on a classic question: what school is right for your family? Our letter writers’ kid is gifted and their family has fallen in love with a local private school — but they’re also grappling with some guilt. How important is it to give your kid the best, if it also means putting them in a privilege bubble?
They also share some products and activities they’re lovin...
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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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