Fast food prices are sky high, but chains will take losses to get you in the door. Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the economics of a new value meal trend. Also: millennials’ are taking secret “quiet vacations” and dicey geopolitics are affecting bond markets. In the Plus segment: Yankee Stadium is now card-payment only. Do Americans have the right to use cold hard cash? If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free ex...
Jun 22, 2024•50 min
Another major case for the “not a loss/not exactly a win” pile this term at SCOTUS. A majority of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority said what we knew all along - adjudicated domestic abusers shouldn’t hold onto second amendment rights and the guns that they are statistically, horrifyingly, apt to use to harm their intimate partners. In an 8-1 decision in United States v Rahimi, the Roberts Court looked frantically for a way to reverse out of – while still technically upholding – its bonk...
Jun 22, 2024•56 min
Amazon has installed digital palm readers at Whole Foods. The reader scans your palm, collecting biometric data, and links it to your credit card to pay for your groceries. What does exchanging vein mapping for eggs and butter mean for the future of data security and in-person shopping. Guest: Emily Moore, freelance tech and food journalist 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 to...
Jun 21, 2024•23 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the 2024 presidential debates; a possible warning on social media and another ban of smartphones in schools; and the future and failures of one-party rule. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Ashley Lopez for NPR: Biden vs. Trump remains close, so next week’s debate offers them an opportunity James Oliphant for Reuters: The Biden-Trump presidential debate: what to watch for Shane Goldmacher and Reid J. Epstei...
Jun 20, 2024•1 hr 2 min
The Supreme Court is soon expected to decide Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case where a town’s efforts to remove unhoused people from its parks became “cruel and unusual,” according to lower courts. Guest: Dr. Bruce Murray, chief medical officer for the Mobile Integrative Navigation Team (MINT) in Josephine County, Oregon. 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 Podcas...
Jun 20, 2024•33 min
Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, the Christian right seems to be setting its sights on banning in-vitro fertilization. But even though the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution against IVF, it’s a very popular and widely accepted procedure, which is why Senate Republicans signed a statement in favor of access to IVF, the same day almost all voted against protecting it by law. Guest: Megan Messerly, health policy reporter at Politico. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plu...
Jun 18, 2024•28 min
The American economy has gotten more consolidated and more reliant on algorithms—while also, according to most people, getting more expensive, slower, and worse. Is there some causality in this correlation? Guest: Matt Stoller, Research Director for the American Economic Liberties Project and author of Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favor...
Jun 17, 2024•23 min
The stereotype of Black fathers is that they’re largely absent, and uninvolved in their children’s lives. And that image persists, despite research that suggests that Black fathers are often more involved in the daily care of their kids than white fathers. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by Sean Williams, the founder of The Dad Gang, an organization that uplifts and supports Black and other marginalized fathers. They talk about the challenges of fatherhood, and building a c...
Jun 16, 2024•37 min
In 2021, one of the largest global law enforcement operations took place. It was all thanks to an encrypted phone service known as Anom, which was secretly run by the FBI. The program was a wild success. But did the agency take it too far? Guest: Joseph Cox, investigative reporter for 404 media and author of “Dark Wire, the Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all ...
Jun 16, 2024•33 min
Ever since it showed up on the Body Mass Index, the label “obese” has been used to judge and often shame people with larger bodies. Medical providers, family and friends, even strangers make assumptions about fat people’s health solely based on their size. At the same time, excess quantities of fat can lead to poor health outcomes such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. Over the decades, medical associations have evolved their understanding of obesity. The American Medical Asso...
Jun 16, 2024•52 min
This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss Tesla shareholders’ overwhelming support of Musk’s pay package, the return of the GameStop meme stock influencer, and why Governor Hochul killed New York’s congestion pricing plan. In the Plus segment: a Missouri restaurant has banned 20-somethings. Can they do that? If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and an additional segment of our re...
Jun 15, 2024•45 min
A bump stock is an attachment that converts a semi automatic rifle into a weapon that can fire as many as 800 rounds per minute - an intensity of gunfire matched by machine guns. The deadliest mass shooting carried out by a single shooter in US history - the October 2017 Las Vegas massacre - was enabled by a bump stock. On Friday, the US Supreme Court struck down a Trump-era bump stock ban introduced in the wake of that tragedy, in which 60 people were killed and hundreds more injured. Writing f...
Jun 15, 2024•51 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss President Biden’s new asylum policy; the recent European Parliament elections with The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum; and the jammed congestion pricing in New York City. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Corvid Research: Help, I’ve found a baby crow! Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz for The New York Times: In Shift, Biden Issues Order Allowing Temporary Border Closure to Migrants and Miriam Jordan: Biden Op...
Jun 15, 2024•58 min
On Monday, Tim Cook announced Apple was getting into artificial intelligence. Is Apple about to do for A.I. what it did for personal computers and smartphones? 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 Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get a...
Jun 14, 2024•25 min
Furtively recorded conversations with Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Alito’s wife Martha-Ann provided a window into what these powerful figures are saying behind closed doors. But do the means of getting these recordings undermine their ultimate goal? Guest: Lauren Windsor, journalist and executive producer for “The Undercurrent” and documentary filmmaker of “Gonzo for Democracy.” Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and...
Jun 13, 2024•27 min
Two years ago, the FDA announced it was banning JUUL nicotine vapes from sale in the U.S.—and then quickly announced it was holding off on the ban to allow for review. How did regulating ecigarettes end up playing catch-up? Guest: Jamie Ducharme, health correspondent at Time, author of Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul. 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 P...
Jun 12, 2024•26 min
Is Hunter Biden’s trial proof that the justice system doesn’t care about your last name? Or is the president’s son being targeted? Guest: Ankush Khardori, attorney and a former federal prosecutor in the US Justice Department. 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. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to...
Jun 11, 2024•23 min
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: base instincts. Democratic strategists are reportedly freaking out about Joe Biden. Despite his opponent’s felony convictions, Biden remains unpopular and isn’t polling well in swing states. Young voters are mad about his handling of the war in Gaza; many Americans remain convinced that the economy is bad and the president is to blame for it. So if strategists’ worst fears come to pass… how much of this wound is self-inflicted? Hayes Brown of MSNBC joins Hear M...
Jun 11, 2024•48 min
Joe Biden’s new executive order severely limits migrants from seeking asylum at the border. It’s a far cry from his campaign rhetoric and the New York Times called it the most restrictive immigration policy issued by any modern Democrat. What is he trying to accomplish? Guest: Jonathan Blitzer, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America and the Making of a Crisis.” Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free ...
Jun 10, 2024•27 min
Each week, we’ve explored wellness from different perspectives, but we haven’t talked about what it means to live a full life while grappling with the real possibility of death. Most of us hope for a full, long life with “good” health. But a serious, possibly fatal diagnosis changes everything: Our relationships with work, loved ones, and even the way we see ourselves. On this week’s episode of Well, Now we speak with author, journalist, and artist Suleika Jaouad. Many learned about her work in ...
Jun 09, 2024•40 min
“Petty.” “Jealous.” That’s what many male sportscasters are saying about the women competing against WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark. The former Iowa star is bringing a new level of attention to women’s basketball, but many men who ignored the league for years are now leading the coverage. So how is sexism and racism fueling the way they’re talking about Clark and the rest of the WNBA? On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by veteran sports journalist Jemele Hill to discuss the way the...
Jun 09, 2024•35 min
It’s hard to imagine music fans mourning a break-up of Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation, as a Department of Justice lawsuit requests. But even with this monopolistic middleman out of the way, touring musicians still seem destined to struggle financially. Guest: Laura Jane Grace, musician 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 Podcasts by clicking “Try ...
Jun 09, 2024•23 min
Even the Grey Lady struggles to profit from the news. This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Semafor founder Ben Smith to discuss media profit models, the impact of Google’s AI on the news biz, and the TikTok-ification of information. In the Plus segment: Vivek Ramaswamy comes for Buzzfeed. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and an additional segment of our regular sho...
Jun 08, 2024•47 min
Over the past 15 years, the journalist and author Katherine Stewart has been charting the rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. On this week’s Amicus, Stewart joins Dahlia Lithwick and Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State to discuss the worrying signs of the growing power of extremist christian ideologies at the highest court in the land. Together, they trace shifts in jurisprudence that have emboldened and empowered some of the most extreme fringes o...
Jun 08, 2024•57 min
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the fallout from Donald Trump’s felony conviction; the spin-up for Hunter Biden’s trial; and the upshot for college speech from campus protests with Charles Homans. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Nathaniel Rakich for 538: Trump’s conviction may be hurting him – but it’s early Sarah Longwell in The Atlantic: The Two-Time Trump Voters Who Have Had Enough Dafydd Townley for The Conversation: Trump guilty ve...
Jun 08, 2024•58 min
How well is the Biden administration coaxing semiconductor companies to build their chips in the United States? Compared to Taiwan, South Korea, Japan…or even mainland China, things are just okay. Guest: Asa Fitch, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, covering the semiconductor industry. 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 Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the t...
Jun 07, 2024•23 min
After waiting for two strikes to resolve, film and television crews across Hollywood were hungry to return to work. But the work has been slow to come back. As a number of crew union contracts expire at the end of July, how strong is their negotiating position? Guests: Diane Haithman, Senior Entertainment Business Reporter, TheWrap Diego Mariscal, IATSE local 80 dolly grip Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your f...
Jun 06, 2024•23 min
Days after Israeli airstrikes hit Rafah, President Biden touted a potential ceasefire agreement. How far away is the end of the war? And how does Gaza rebuild after this? Guest: Tariq Kenney-Shawa, U.S. policy fellow at Al-Shabaka and an editor and fact-checker for AJ+. 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 p...
Jun 05, 2024•30 min
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: placing bets. Betting on the results of elections is illegal in the United States – though that hasn’t stopped sportsbooks overseas from cashing in. And that doesn’t mean that Americans haven’t placed bets on election results in the U.S., either; that’s a tradition that dates back centuries. There’s a push now to make elections betting legal on American soil — and for American companies to run online casinos. Futures markets are complicated, and it might feel g...
Jun 04, 2024•37 min
It will be another chaotic June at the Supreme Court, as the nine justices race to deliver decisions impacting gun rights, abortion, presidential immunity, and more—all before summer vacation. Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, Slate senior writer covering law and the courts. 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...
Jun 04, 2024•29 min
