Slate News
Daily news updates from across the Slate Podcast network.
Episodes
December 9, 2025 • 39 mins
In this Money Talks: Elizabeth Spiers is joined by Tim Wu to discuss his new book, The Age of Extraction, which breaks down how we ended up with an economy dominated by Big Tech and its purely profit-seeking mindset. They’ll get into the slow erosion of optimism around the internet as a democratizing force, the state of antitrust enforcement in America, and what it might look like if we stop allowing big companies to nickel and dim...
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December 9, 2025 • 29 mins
This week, Senate Democrats will hold a vote on extending expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits to try to prevent health insurance premiums from skyrocketing for millions of Americans. That vote is basically guaranteed to fail.
Where did these credits come from, and what’s likely to happen when they (almost) inevitably lapse?
Guest: Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News and host of the podcast “What ...
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December 8, 2025 • 72 mins
Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh discuss last week’s bizarre and pandering World Cup draw with The Athletic’s Adam Crafton. Next, the team talks about the obviously controversial College Football playoff rankings, and finally the latest in an antitrust trial that involves NASCAR and Michael Jordan.
On the bonus episode available exclusively for Slate Plus members, the gang talks about the Oklahoma City Thunde...
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December 8, 2025 • 24 mins
Ten years ago, the alt-right’s talking points about immigration used to be too toxic to even post on the internet under your own name. So how did they turn into something President Trump regularly fires off on social media?
Guest: Zack Beauchamp, senior correspondent for Vox.
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. Subscrib...
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December 7, 2025 • 23 mins
Donald Trump—or at least the tech guys who have his ear—is ready to clear the regulatory runway for A.I. but other Republicans aren’t too sure. Can he bring them around? Or will the bubble burst first?
Guest: Gerrit De Vynck, tech reporter for the Washington Post.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on ...
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December 6, 2025 • 55 mins
This week: Netflix has agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck are joined by the New York Times’ Nicholas Kulish to discuss the ricochet effect of such a massive media merger on the film and television industries. Then, Michael and Susan Dell have announced a $6.25 billion donation to the so-called “Trump accounts” for children. Nick, who has been covering the story, helps the host u...
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December 6, 2025 • 59 mins
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by culture writer Mikala Jamison to talk about the rise in online concern about celebrities’ bodies. Mikala writes the newsletter Body Type, and her forthcoming book The Forever Project details her recovery from an eating disorder. Following the premiere of movies like Wicked: For Good, fan concern and speculation about celebrity bodies has culminated in a larger discussion about the ...
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December 6, 2025 • 67 mins
While the Secretary of Defense pursues lawless boat strikes with a laser focus on maximum trolling, the Supreme Court is working to undermine voting rights with a laser focus on maximum support for Republicans.
In this week’s episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick and co-host Mark Joseph Stern discuss the news that Trump’s extra-constitutional attempt to restrict birthright citizenship is heading back to the Supreme Court. They also ...
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December 5, 2025 • 25 mins
A tech mogul who made bank from Paypal with his Stanford buddies and has endeared himself to right-wing politicians and enriched himself the same way? No not him; this one’s South African..no, not him either.
Guest: Ryan Mac, reporter for the New York Times.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Pod...
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December 4, 2025 • 73 mins
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why the killing of survivors in a US military strike on an alleged drug boat is so dangerous for Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration, what the results of this week’s special election in Tennessee could portend for the upcoming midterms, and the adoption of self-driving cars as a public health measure.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and ...
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December 4, 2025 • 30 mins
Today, the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee will be meeting to vote on recommendations for childhood vaccinations. But under RFK Jr.’s leadership, this committee looks much different now than it did a year ago.How is the impact from the HHS secretary being seen across America today?
Guest: Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hos...
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December 3, 2025 • 30 mins
Some presidents use their pardons for large groups of people. Some presidents use them for personal reasons. If you were to sum up Donald Trump’s use of the power of the pardon, the only word for it is “brazen.”
Guest: Benjamin Wallace-Wells is a staff writer at The New Yorker.
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December 2, 2025 • 28 mins
Just after the Trump administration threw a fit over a video reminding the military that they have an obligation to refuse unlawful orders, the Washington Post published reporting alleging the orders to blow up a boat in the Caribbean on Sept. 2 were in fact patently unlawful.
Guest: Steven J. Lepper, retired Air Force major general and former deputy legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Want more What Next...
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December 1, 2025 • 32 mins
Conservatives have long complained that teaching American history with slavery and genocide and systemic oppression is just too negative, and the Trump administration has gone as far as attacking the Smithsonian for focusing too much on “how horrible our country is.” But omitting the shameful aspects of America’s past doesn’t just distort history—it impairs our ability to understand the present.
Guest: Clint Smith, staff writer ...
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November 30, 2025 • 28 mins
As the U.S. upgrades and updates its defense and military systems, the question isn’t whether A.I. will be integrated, but where, how much, and how much decision-making are we ceding to the machine?
Guest: Josh Keating, senior correspondent at Vox and a fellow at the Outrider Foundation where he’s reporting on nuclear weapons and AI.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Ne...
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November 29, 2025 • 54 mins
By design – and also by dint of unbridled, undisciplined extremist exuberance – Donald Trump’s second stint in the White House is thus far a tricky thing to characterize. While many of the administration’s moves seem copy/pasted from a manual for authoritarian takeover, they’re also deeply rooted in longstanding structural democratic deficits in America. For their part, The administration’s boosters argue this whiplash-inducing di...
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November 28, 2025 • 53 mins
This week: Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee joins Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck for an in-depth discussion on what exactly the Fed does. They’ll get into how voting and deliberation works at the FOMC, the different eras of the Fed’s communication strategy, his response to the Fed haters, and Data Dogs vs Data Cats.
In the Slate Plus episode: Austan Goolsbee Interview Post-Mortem.
Want to hear that discussi...
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November 28, 2025 • 34 mins
Note: This episode was originally published on July 27, 2025.
There’s an entire economy devoted to seeing what products are trending—clothing, skin care, even Greek Islands—and delivering you a cheaper knock-off to buy.
Guest: Mia Sato, reporter for The Verge
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple P...
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November 27, 2025 • 66 mins
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what happens when the government is untrustworthy as a strong pattern of DOJ lying under oath emerges, why the NYC mayor-elect and the president were so cordial with each other in the Oval Office, and how MAGA world continues to fracture as Marjorie Taylor Greene announces her resignation and the Fuentes/Carlson controversy continues.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonu...
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November 26, 2025 • 29 mins
With the release of Wicked: For Good, spectacle is back in theaters and back on the press circuit: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are again “holding space” along with each other’s individual fingers and other quirks they picked up along the way. This is, apparently, how movies are promoted now.
Guest: Michael Schulman, staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears.
...
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