I Have to Ask: Recent Episodes
Slate Podcasts
As Slate’s resident interrogator, Isaac Chotiner has tangled with Newt Gingrich and gotten personal with novelist Jonathan Franzen. Now he brings his pointed and smart interview style to “I Have to Ask.”
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… popping the question.
By The Knot’s estimates, we’re officially entering peak wedding season. And we know there are many, many controversial opinions we could tackle about weddings, but let’s start with that thing that precedes most weddings: the engagement ring.
The ring – especially a diamond one – is an institution that feels like a foregone conclusion for couples taking the next step in their relationship. But does it need to be?
Belinda Luscombe, author of Marriageoloy and editor-at-large at TIME Magazine, joins us to argue for the end of the engagement ring.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Niky just isn’t jibing with Spanish. She’s tried courses, podcasts, apps, and even private tutors in order to make a connection with Spanish speakers around Toronto, at her job, and while traveling. But years into her language-learning journey, she’s not even close to being fluent. On this episode of How To!, Carvell Wallace introduces Niky to Luca Lampariello. A speaker of 14 languages, Luca is a teacher and the founder of the Smart Language Learning Academy. He offers up tons of insight into why we learn the way we do, making what we learn actually stick, and how to have fun along the way.
If you liked this episode, check out: How To Remember Everything
Do you have a question we can help you solve? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001. We might invite you on the show! Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Joel Meyer, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, we’re talking about The Kiss. Scaachi Koul is joined by Women’s World Cup reporter for The Athletic and freelance sports reporter, Tamerra Griffin to talk about Spanish Soccer President, Luis Rubiales forcibly kissing player Jennifer Hermoso after Spain’s World Cup final win. They dig into the internal strife that was already going on within the Spanish team, Rubiales’s history of alleged misconduct, where the sport can go from here, and more.
In Slate Plus: How female players express themselves on the pitch. If you liked this episode, check out: Watch the Women’s World Cup, Damnit!
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Scaachi Koul, Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery.
Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… preventing the preventable.
At best, the rate of epidemic of drug overdose deaths in this country is slowing — but by many metrics and in many jurisdictions, the situation remains as dire as ever.
Which begs the question: what tactics will work to prevent these deaths, if nothing has yet?
Laura Guzman, Executive Director of the National Harm Reduction Coalition, joins us to say that harm reduction strategies like clean needles, clean pipes, and Narcan distribution are the way forward… because criminalizing drug use isn’t.
RESOURCES FOR PREVENTING OVERDOSES: Access guidance and emergency mental health support via Overdose Lifeline. Find Naloxone near you here. You may be able to receive Naloxone through the mail; check here. Find harm reduction centers near you here.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It’s a family joke that Dave and his 13 year-old son are the same person. So when his son found out he is autistic, Dave realized that he, too, is on the autism spectrum. The label is a comfort—a reassurance that his personality “quirks” have an explanation. But, at the same time, it’s led to all of these questions like should he tell people? What does this change, if anything? And how does he learn to navigate a neurotypical world? On this episode of How To!, Carvell Wallace brings in journalist and podcast host, Lauren Ober. Lauren documented her own autism journey on The Loudest Girl In the World. She has lots of advice for living life as a newly diagnosed neurodivergent person.
If you liked this episode, check out: How To Love Your Face
Do you have a question we can help you solve? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Brian Lehrer (host of WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about how roommates should handle mismatched levels of COVID caution, how to split a check when your friends forget they had appetizers, and how to settle a debate about going braless around teenage sons. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. Podcast production by Se’era Spragley Ricks and Daisy Rosario, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, why can’t celebrities and sports organizations leave trans people alone? On the heels of the International Chess Federation excluding trans women from competing, and some terrible statements from singer Ne-Yo (remember Ne-Yo?) Waves host Scaachi Koul wants to know why everyone is so obsessed with trans people. She talks with cartoonist and author of the graphic novel, Boys Weekend, Mattie Lubchansky about why celebrities can’t help but get involved, why trans women continue to take the brunt of these types of attacks, and what hope there is for the future of trans rights.
In Slate Plus: It’s the season finale of And Just Like That…season 2.
If you liked this episode, check out: How a Drag Queen Recreated the American Dream
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Scaachi Koul, Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Additional help from Victoria Whitley-Berry.
Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… main character syndrome.
As concerts and movie theaters have roared back to life this summer, so has a disturbing trend: bad behavior. You’ve seen the videos, probably — picking fights with neighbors, throwing things onstage, and taking videos during Barbie.
Some of these behaviors have higher stakes than others, obviously. But it’s clear that we’re in a new frontier of public behavior… and that it might be more difficult, and more dangerous, to chide our neighbors.
Freelance writer Sara Stewart joins us to argue that times have changed… and it’s time for venues to step up.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Susan never really got over saying goodbye to her eldest daughter, who left for college four years ago. She knew it would be sad, but she didn’t expect to be nauseous. Now her youngest is applying to college, and she’s already dreading drop-off next fall which makes her feel like a "pathetic loser." What can Susan do to prep herself for more heartbreak and a completely empty nest? On this episode of How To!, Amanda Ripley brings on Kelly Corrigan, best-selling author and host of the podcast Kelly Corrigan Wonders. She recently dropped her youngest daughter off at college, which she wrote about in an essay for the New York Times called “How to Let Go of Your Irreplaceable, Unstoppable Daughter.” She shares some hard-earned wisdom about how to handle major life transitions with grace. If you liked this episode, check out: “How To Get Your Kid to Finally Grow Up” Do you have a question with no easy answers? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Lori Gottlieb (advice columnist and co-host of the Dear Therapists podcast) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers about postpartum depression, wedding-planning anxiety, and what to do when you think neurodivergent people are getting away with way too much. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. Podcast production by Se’era Spragley Ricks and Daisy Rosario, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, Tory Lanez has been sentenced for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, and we have THOUGHTS. Scamfluencers co-host and former BuzzFeed reporter Scaachi Koul is joined by Refinery29 reporter Kathleen Newman-Bremang to unpack why so many people turned against Megan despite Tory Lanez being a wasteman. They explain what exactly is a “Toronto Mans” and why this dangerous subsection of man is crossing American borders in the forms of Drake, the Weeknd, and more.
In Slate Plus: Episode 10 of our And Just Like That…recap.
If you liked this episode, check out: The World Record Book of Racist Stories
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Scaachi Koul, Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This month, hosts Christina Cauterucci, Jules Gill-Peterson, and Bryan Lowder discuss Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s best-selling queer rom-com Red, White & Royal Blue. They also speak with intersex activist and educator Pidgeon Pagonis about their memoir Nobody Needs to Know and the campaign to end nonconsensual surgeries on intersex kids. The hosts end the show, as always, with some new additions to the Gay Agenda.
Items discussed in the show: Red, White, & Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston Red, White & Royal Blue on Amazon Prime Outward’s December 2019 special episode on The Inheritance Nobody Needs to Know: A Memoir, by Pidgeon Pagonis Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen Interconnect.support, a support group for intersex people
Gay Agenda
Christina: John Early: Now More Than Ever, on Max Jules: “O’Shae Sibley Was Killed While Voguing at a Brooklyn Gas Station. Last Weekend New Yorkers Rallied to Honor His Memory,” in Vogue Bryan: Miriam and Alan Lost in Scotland on PBS, and “Who’s Afraid of Social Contagion,” by Hugh Ryan, in the Boston Review
This podcast was produced by June Thomas.
Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… choosin’ cruisin’.
There seem to be two types of people in this world: those who love going on cruise ships, and those who wouldn’t be caught dead on one. Whichever you are, you probably feel pretty strongly about this.
The cruise industry has come roaring back from the brink since the lifting of pandemic restrictions, and there’s never been more to do while you’re at sea. So for the slight majority of you who, statistically, aren’t cruise fans, today’s guest poses a question: why not?
Ezra Dyer, senior editor at Car and Driver, joins us to argue that cruises are the kind of tacky fun that you might just like… in spite of yourself.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Have you ever wanted to move to a new country? Picking up and starting over internationally can be rewarding, but also nerve-wracking. Our listener Sara has lived overseas for more than a decade, but she recently moved to Switzerland and is struggling to fit in. On this episode of How To!, founding host Charles Duhigg brings in Dr. Nassim Assefi who, amongst all of her interesting professional accomplishments, is a self-identified “global nomad.” She’s lived in over 10 countries and draws on her extensive personal experience to help Sara—and anyone thinking about moving abroad—make a smooth transition.
If you liked this episode, check out: How To Uproot Your Life
Do you have a question we can help you solve? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, guest-host Nate Chinen talks to Miguel Cervantes, the actor currently playing Alexander Hamilton on Broadway. In the interview, Miguel explains why he’s not trying to mimic or channel the original performances by Lin-Manuel Miranda. He also shares how a personal tragedy changed his life and continues to impact his art.
After the interview, Nate and co-host June Thomas talk about repetition and ritual as tools for creative work.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Miguel tells the story of an embarrassing mishap on stage.
Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675.
Podcast production by Cameron Drews.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Joel Anderson (the host of the latest season of Slate’s Slow Burn) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters about persistent friend requests from colleagues, allegations of white supremacy surrounding graduation attire, and what to do when your biggest relationship issue is cat litter in the bed. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. Podcast production by Se’era Spragley Ricks and Daisy Rosario, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, former Buzzfeed reporter and current Scamfluencers host, Scaachi Koul is taking over hosting The Waves for the next few weeks. This week she’s digging deep into the life of First Lady hopeful, Casey DeSantis. Scaachi is joined by Washington Post reporter, Ruby Cramer. Ruby wrote a masterpiece on Casey DeSantis, “Tracing the power of Casey DeSantis.” They get into why Casey DeSantis scares Scaachi, how to properly make fun of Ron’s wife, and why the Ron and Casey two-some is so exclusive.
In Slate Plus: continuing our And Just Like That…recap with episode 9.
If you liked this episode, check out: Your Period Deserves Respect
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Scaachi Koul, Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… almost affirmative.
We don’t yet know what the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action is going to do, tangibly, to college admissions — or how long those impacts will last. But, based on past experiments, we have a decent idea. And many advocates say the implications here are urgent and dire.
But affirmative action might not have been the great equalizing force that a lot of people believe it was.
Bertrand Cooper, freelance journalist and policy researcher, joins us to elaborate on his belief that poor Black kids were failed by affirmative action.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As the massive Caldor fire blazed towards South Lake Tahoe in 2021, Joyce knew she had to get out. “The sky was red. It was like hell on earth,” she remembers. Her family got to safety and her house was miraculously spared. But, even now, it can be jarring to remember the fire. Climate-related extreme weather events are on the rise and another disaster is seemingly right around the corner. Especially with freakish flash floods, a scorching heatwave and wildfire smoke blanketing much of the country. On this episode of How To!, guest-host Cheyna Roth brings on Dr. Britt Wray, author of Generation Dread: Finding Purpose In an Age of Climate Crisis. Dr. Wray explains why we need to treat climate anxiety differently and how we can create resilience both internally and within our communities as we face climate change, together.
Resources Mentioned: Climate Psychology Alliance Climate Psychiatry Alliance Good Grief Network Climate Awakening Gen Dread Substack
If you liked this episode, check out: How To Save the Planet (And Still Use a Plastic Straw)
Do you have a question we can help you solve? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, host June Thomas talks to writer Madeleine George, who recently adapted the classic Alison Bechdel comic Dykes to Watch Out For into an audio drama that stars Jane Lynch, Carrie Brownstein, Roberta Colindrez, and Roxane Gay. In the interview, Madeleine discusses the challenges of turning a piece of visual art into an audio-only narrative. She also talks about the 1980’s setting of the story and the continued relevance of the characters’ personal and political lives.
After the interview, June and co-host Isaac Butler explain how to set rules for your creative projects.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Madeleine talks about her work on the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building.
Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675.
Podcast production by Cameron Drews.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Jasmine Guillory (a New York Times bestselling author) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers who are obsessing about what happens when an affair partner becomes a coworker, girls’ trip drama, and friends with benefits who also have benefits with other friends. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. Podcast production by Se’era Spragley Ricks and Daisy Rosario, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, we’re talking the Hollywood strikes. Slate senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario is joined by longtime journalist and author of Burn It Down, Maureen Ryan to unpack the systematic oppression that has taken place behind the scenes of your favorite movies and television shows for decades. They dig into the structures in place to keep women and marginalized voices from getting to the top of the ladder, and how none of these stories are examples of one bad apple. They also explore how the ongoing writers and actors strikes are an inevitable result of years of injustice - and what they need to bargain for to make true change in Hollywood.
In Slate Plus: A recap of episode 8 of Max’s And Just Like That…
If you liked this episode, check out: How to Survive in Hollywood
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Additional help from Paige Osburn.
Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… let’s get it on.
Whether you watch porn or not — admit it, or not — adult entertainment shapes the way we think about sex, gender, and power.
Our guest today argues that porn is an industry, but it’s also a genre, and it’s much closer to fantasy than it is to reality. But if we abandoned porn and replaced it with watching real people have real sex, we might not just shake off taboos; we might also become better lovers, and better people, too.
Cindy Gallop, CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn, joins us.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When Gwendolyn found out her friend was diagnosed with cancer, she knew she wanted to help. She just didn’t know how. Her friend lives hundreds of miles away. How can she help in a way that’s more meaningful than sending a meal and a few encouraging texts? On this episode of How To!, guest-host Courtney Martin brings on Mia Birdsong, author of the book How We Show Up. Mia went through her own cancer journey and figured out structures of support that not only helped her but made supporting easier for her friends.
If you liked this episode, check out: How To Solve Your Own Medical Mystery
Do you have a question we can help you solve? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, host Isaac Butler talks to actor Arian Moayed, who played Stewy on the hit HBO series Succession and more recently played Torvald Helmer in a production of A Doll’s House on Broadway. In the interview, Arian talks about his early career in theater and the valuable acting techniques that he learned in college. He also discusses his experiences playing unlikeable characters, his pivot from stage to screen, and the overwhelming amount of feedback that actors receive.
[NOTE: This interview was recorded before the SAG-AFTRA Union began its strike.]
After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas discuss the benefits and downsides of high-intensity creative work.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Arian explains how he got the hang of Succession’s unique tone.
Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675.
Podcast production by Cameron Drews.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Damon Young (a writer, critic, and a self-proclaimed “professional black person”) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer letters from readers who are obsessing about their lackluster high school tennis careers, their awkward interaction with their crushes, and whether participation in civil war reenactments is a dating deal breaker. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. This week she answers a question about what to do when a grandparent food-polices a toddler. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. Podcast production by Se’era Spragley Ricks and Daisy Rosario, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, drag queens are under attack and being labeled bad for families and kids. But RuPaul’s Drag Race and Drag Race All Stars contestant Mrs. Kasha Davis is making people rethink the American Dream. She sits down with Slate senior supervising producer, Daisy Rosario to talk about the real life inspiration for the character of Mrs. Kasha Davis, her new music video showcasing the importance of Drag Story Hour, and why more people need to see happy queer families like hers.
In Slate Plus: Recap of episode 7 of HBO’s And Just Like That…
If you liked this episode, check out: Why Barbie Lives On
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on The Waves. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… safety on.
July sees the most accidental shootings involving children of any month on the calendar — but there’s not really a month where these tragedies don’t happen.
So put aside your feelings on gun control for a moment and consider: how, in the world we live in right now, can we protect children from their own curiosity?
Our guest, author Yehuda Remer, argues that teaching kids what guns can do — and how they can keep themselves safe — is the best solution.
NOTE: Slate reached out to Everytown for comment regarding allegations that they “skew” data. At the time of this publication, we have not received a response — but we’ll update you if and when we do.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Every year J. and her parents fly thousands of miles, meeting in the middle for their family vacation. A vacation that often leads to shouting and tears. J. and her father have a rocky relationship. Little disagreements often lead to her dad yelling and dredging up the past. It would be easy, in theory, to cut off the relationship before it got even more toxic. But J. wants to make it work. The question is, how? On this episode of How To!, host Carvell Wallace brings on Nibarna Kannathasan, a psychotherapist who has helped people navigate tricky intergenerational conflict, especially when factoring migration and differing cultural expectations. She helps J. parse what she really wants from her father and figure out a way to start down that road while protecting herself along the way.
If you liked this episode, check out: How To Walk Away From an Impossible Parent.
Do you have a question we can help you solve? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, guest-host Nate Chinen talks to Maria Schneider, winner of multiple Grammy Awards for her big band jazz compositions, including the song “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime),” which she composed with David Bowie. In the interview, Maria discusses her two mentors Gil Evans and Bob Brookmeyer and the wisdom that helped her find her voice as an artist. She also talks about her tools for composing, what it means to “trust your enthusiasm,” and her unforgettable collaboration with David Bowie.
After the interview, Nate and co-host Isaac Butler explain how to respect the inner logic of your work. They also talk about how artists can borrow wisdom from other art forms.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Maria explains why most of her music isn’t available on streaming services.
Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Jessica Valenti (a feminist columnist and author) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer readers’ letters about whether it’s okay to ghost friends who don’t respect your reproductive choices, how to deal with a spouse who is a slob, and when to tell your kids you’ve had an abortion. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. This week she answers a question about what to do when a grandparent food-polices a toddler. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. Podcast production by Se’era Spragley Ricks and Daisy Rosario, with help from Maura Currie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, it’s all about Barbie. Slate senior producer Cheyna Roth sits down with M.G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie and co-host of “LA Made: The Barbie Tapes” from LAist and So Cal Public Radio. They discuss the history of the Barbie doll and how she’s managed to endure, how Barbie might actually be feminist, and what the new Greta Gerwig movie gets right about Barbie.
In Slate Plus: Episode 6 of our And Just Like That…recap.
If you liked this episode check out Is The Wedding Dress Dead? Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… a spoonful of sugar helps the trade protectionism go down.
The Farm Bill is up for renewal this year — and there’s a chorus of voices now, as in years past, saying it’s time we stop favoring domestic sugar.
The U.S. has subsidized American sugar producers for almost as long as we’ve been a republic, but the current system is very complicated… and very costly for the average consumer. Some argue that it’s closer to a cartel than it is a regulatory model.
Colin Grabow, research fellow at the Cato Institute, joins us to argue for the end of the U.S. sugar program.
You can find Celeste’s other podcast, Big Sugar, wherever you listen to podcasts.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Josh Gondleman (author, producer, and stand-up comedian) joins Prudie (Jenée Desmond-Harris) to answer readers’ dilemmas about workplace coffee runs, unwanted birthday gifts, pets who steal food—and husbands who react really strangely when that happens. If you want more Dear Prudence, join Slate Plus, Slate’s membership program. Jenée answers an extra question every week, just for members. This week she answers a question about what to do when a grandparent food-polices a toddler. Go to Slate.com/prudieplus to sign up. It’s just $15 for your first three months. Podcast production by Se’era Spragley Ricks and Daisy Rosario, with help from Brandon Nix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, we’re talking about the Women’s World Cup and why you should be watching it (even if sometimes it’s a little tricky to find). Slate senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario is joined by investigative sports journalist Jessica Luther with a Waves guide to the cup. They discuss what players to look for, why nationalism can sometimes trump misogyny, Megan Rapinoe’s retirement, and why the US women’s soccer team is so good.
In Slate Plus: Episode 5 of our And Just Like That…recap.
If you liked this episode, check out: Is the Wedding Dress Dead?
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… royal pains.
The British Royals are far from the imperial power they once were. Whether you love the institution, hate it, or simply don’t care, it’s hard to deny that it feels like an artifact of another time.
Which is perhaps why Meghan Markle’s arrival on the scene – and subsequent departure, with Prince Harry at her side – threw so many people for a loop. Meghan continues to receive racist, sexist, and downright fabricated harassment from the public, and particularly the tabloids… and so do the people who defend her.
Kristen Meinzer, culture critic and host of The Daily Fail, joins us again to explain why we need to care about Meghan — and defend her.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When Gwen applied for unemployment during the early days of the pandemic, she never thought she’d still be waiting for her benefits years later. Despite hours on the phone, countless emails and even a court appearance, Gwen is haunted by her inability to get the money she was approved for. On this episode of How To!, co-host Amanda Ripley brings in Marina Nitze, author of Hack Your Bureaucracy. Not only does Marina help Gwen find shortcuts in her state’s unemployment system, but she has useful advice for untangling any bureaucratic nightmare.
If you liked this episode, check out: How To Fight Outrageous Medical Bills.
Do you have a problem that’s keeping you up at night? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate senior producer Cheyna Roth does a deep dive on wedding dresses. From the oldest family-run bridal shop in the United States, to a warehouse in New York, she explores what the modern wedding dress looks like. Along with brides-to-be Shannon Palus and Susan Matthews, Cheyna talks with Marteal Mayer, the owner of Loulette Bride in Brooklyn, and mother-daughter duo Shelly Mueller and Alyssa Pung, co-owners of Becker’s Bridal in Fowler, Michigan.
In Slate Plus: Our weekly And Just Like That…recap. This week it’s episode four with Cheyna Roth and Slate culture writer Heather Schwedel.
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Special thanks to Shannon Palus and Susan Matthews.
Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… don’t you know they’re talking ‘bout a revolution?
July 4th celebrates one of the least bloody milestones of the American Revolution. But we have a complicated relationship with overthrowing the powers that be in this country – not to mention when other nations do it.
We call what happened on January 6th, 2021 an insurrection. But what do we do with the George Floyd uprisings? Other efforts to buck the system? Who, as the “common man,” should we be rooting for?
Geo Maher, writer and political organizer, once again joins us to make the case for good-faith insurrection, even when it’s messy.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As this year’s LGBTQ Pride Month ends, transgender Americans find themselves under political attack. At the same time, a number of transgender creatives are thriving, building bright careers and awareness of their community. Actress and activist Angelica Ross is one of those artists. She joins journalist Aisha Mills, who is filling in as host, on today’s episode of A Word. Ross talks about her own journey from struggling teen, to military service, to groundbreaking performer and entrepreuer.
Guest: Actress Angelica Ross
Host: Journalist Aisha Mills, in for Jason Johnson
Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola
You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for $15 for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, we’re diving into fairy tales. Slate book critic Laura Miller talks with author Kelly Link about her collection of fairy tale inspired short stories, White Cat, Black Dog. They discuss how fairy tales have influenced Kelly’s work, the allure of the “searching for a beloved” story, finding a community of female writers.
In Slate Plus: Cheyna Roth and Luke Winkie discuss episode three of Max’s And Just Like That…
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the last of our Pride month mini-episodes, host Jules Gill-Peterson is joined by Evan Urquhart, the community manager for Slate's comments section who also covers anti-trans propaganda on assignedmedia.org. They discuss Evan’s piece “Don’t Look Away From Queer Despair,” which was part of Slate’s “Not Quite Pride” package. In a galvanizing conversation, they discuss the need to resist putting on a happy face in these genuinely challenging times; the compulsion to create work that will leave breadcrumbs of hope for the next generation of queer and trans people, and supporting one another. Items discussed in the show: “Don’t Look Away From Queer Despair,” by Evan Urquhart Slate’s “Not Quite Pride” package of stories Assigned Media This podcast was edited by Emily Charash and produced by June Thomas. Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… gendering, everywhere, all at once.
In the final days of Pride Month, we wanted to turn our attention to another complicated and contentious facet of the LGBT+ dialogue: gender identity. If gender isn’t a binary, but a fluid spectrum, what do we do with our notions of sexism, misogyny, and toxic masculinity?
As it turns out, we do very much live in a patriarchal society — but the truth of how that society operates, and who it advantages, might be more complicated than you think.
Robin Dembroff, assistant professor in Yale University’s philosophy department, joins us.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The last few years have been overwhelming for Tracy. Her career was demanding and she experienced multiple deaths in her family. Recently, she changed jobs and is in a better place with her mental health, but something is still missing from her life. She’s just not sure what. On this episode of How To!, co-host Carvell Wallace brings on Samantha Clarke, happiness consultant, speaker, and author of Love it Or Leave It: How To Be Happy At Work. Samantha will help Tracy (and all of us) design a plan to find fulfillment.
If you liked this episode, check out: “How To Style Your Home Like a Pro.”
Do you have a problem that’s keeping you up at night? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
During this LGBTQ Pride month, many members of the community are reflecting on a year of unprecedented political and legal attacks. One of the biggest battlefields has been in public schools and libraries, where books featuring LGBTQ stories have been the targets of censors. On today’s episode of A Word, guest host journalist Aisha Mills is joined by George M. Johnson, author of one of the most banned books, All Boys Aren’t Blue. They talk about the intersection of race and gender identity, and how Johnson has fought back against critics who call the book dangerous and inappropriate for children.
Guest: George M. Johnson, author of All Boys Aren’t Blue
Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola
You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for $15 for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, one year after the Supreme Court decision that set off a national crisis in reproductive health care, we’re taking a look at what the end of Roe has wrought. Countless lives have been affected: There's the people who've traveled across the country to get their lives back, the people who've been forced against their will into pregnancy and childbirth, and those who've been denied life saving medical care because their doctors are afraid of the law. There's also the people doing what they can to mitigate the damage—with ballot measures, and abortion funds, and the tools and knowledge to help someone manage an abortion on their own.
Slate senior writer Christina Cauterucci talks with Diane Horvath and Morgan Nuzzo, who opened an abortion clinic in Maryland just as Roe fell. She also sits down with Elaina Ramsey, who leads a faith-based pro-abortion group in Ohio that’s been charting new ways to use the specific assets of faith communities to help people get abortions, and Jessica Valenti, a journalist who’s been tracking the warp-speed rollback of abortion access across the country, and telling the stories of people whose lives have been upended because of it.
Some of Christina’s Writing on Abortion: Birth Control Is Next You Will Still Be Able to Get a Medication Abortion—Even if This Barbaric Ruling Stands What Anti-Abortion Advocates Really Think of Women’s Lives If the “Abortion Pill” Gets Banned, There’s Still One Good Move The Religious Left Has Found Its Mission
If you liked this episode, check out: What the F*** Do We Do Now? Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery.
Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This Pride month, many LGBTQ people are grappling with complicated feelings. Anti-gay and anti-trans political attacks are becoming all too common, Pride celebrations are being banned or canceled in some parts of the United States, and many of us are wondering how to put this in perspective. Hosts Christina Cauterucci, Jules Gill-Peterson, and Bryan Lowder wrestle with some of that complexity as they work through their feelings about corporate Pride. If rainbow capitalism never mattered in the first place, why does this year’s backtracking feel bad? Then they are joined by writer Delilah Friedler to discuss her piece “Tennessee Belongs to Trans People, Too,” which is part of Slate’s “Not Quite Pride” package. They end the show, as always, with some new additions to the Gay Agenda.
Items discussed in the show: J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell become the first nonbinary acting award winners at the Tony Awards “The Dirty Secret of Corporate Pride,” by Christina Cauterucci “Tennessee Belongs to Trans People, Too,” by Delilah Friedler Slate’s “Not Quite Pride” package of stories
Gay Agenda Bryan: Casa Susana, a documentary airing on PBS’s American Experience Jules: Chasing Chasing Amy, a documentary film by Sav Rodgers Christina: Dykette, a novel by Jenny Fran Davis
This podcast was edited by Emily Charash and produced by June Thomas.
Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com.
This Pride Month, make an impact by helping Macy’s and The Trevor Project on their mission to fund life-saving suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… an archaeology of grievances.
In honor of the third Juneteenth being celebrated as a national holiday, it’s worth unpacking symbolic gestures like Juneteenth — and, as many states are finding out, like Reparations.
The movement to compensate the descendants of slaves is gaining more traction than ever before, in many parts of the country. Could this be our chance to clear a massive, lingering blight on our nation’s history?
Our guest today argues no. Podcast host and columnist Coleman Hughes joins us to make the case that compensating the victims of slavery was something we should’ve done long ago – and now, it’s too late for it to be anything other than a problem. If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can now email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Most people have something they’re holding on to. For Lesley and Alex, that’s some old baseball and basketball cards that are collecting dust in their attic. For Kathy, that’s a house full of antiques. They’ve all been wanting to pare it down. But the big question is: how much is it worth? On this episode of How To! co-host Carvell Wallace is joined by Leila Dunbar, a veteran appraiser and frequent expert on Antiques Roadshow. Leila knows the stories and the value behind all kinds of collectibles and memorabilia. She’ll break down why we hold on to certain items and let go of others…and how to make money along the way.
If you liked this episode, check out: “How To Put Your Town on the Map.”
Do you have a problem that’s keeping you up at night? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work.
This Pride Month, make an impact by helping Macy’s and The Trevor Project on their mission to fund life-saving suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, we’re talking about menstruation. Period. Slate senior producer Cheyna Roth is joined by author and anthropologist Dr. Kate Clancy. Kate recently published her extensive study on menstruation, Period and they dig into why Western culture has constantly looked at menstruating bodies with shame, how this impacts scientific studies and healthcare for women and gender minorities, and how we can overcome the embarrassment.
In Slate Plus: Why language matters in science.
If you liked this episode, check out: The Hustle of Being Beautiful Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In celebration of Pride month, we’re bringing you some extra episodes of the Outward podcast. This week, host Christina Cauterucci talks to two people who recently visited every lesbian bar in the United States: Krista Burton, author of the newly published book Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America, and Naomi Gordon-Loebl, a writer and sommelier. They discuss the purpose of lesbian bars, trends in dyke-bar decor, and whether lesbian bars are still sexy. Items discussed in the show: Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America, by Krista Burton The Lesbian Bar Project’s list of U.S. bars Gay Agenda Krista: Tom Ford Tuscan Leather Naomi: Wear something that makes you feel spicy, like perhaps a leather harness or a Father Figure T-shirt by Tanner Shea This podcast was edited by Emily Charash and produced by June Thomas. Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… Racism Lite.
Racial politics is responsible for a lot of ugliness, in the United States and around the world. Humans want, and even need, to sort themselves into categories — and sometimes, that tribalism yields as much good as it can bad. So do we always need to be a melting pot?
Writer Damon Young joins us to make the case that we’re all racist, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can now email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amy and Sarah are high school English teachers who both want to quit the classroom, but for very different reasons. Amy has over 200 students, and tensions between teachers and parents are on the rise so she’s “beyond burned out.” Whereas Sarah has been teaching for over a decade and is itching for a change. On this episode of How To!, the second in a two-part series, co-host Amanda Ripley is joined by Daphne Gomez, a former teacher who’s now CEO of Teacher Career Coach. (She also hosts the Teacher Career Coach podcast.) Daphne has some wonderful advice for Sarah and Amy—and anyone else who has no choice but to leave a job they once loved.
If you liked this episode, check out Part 1: “How To Help Teachers Thrive.”
More career change episodes: How To Bounce Back From a Layoff How To Know When to Quit Your Job How To Make the Leap to Your Dream Job How To Bounce Back From Burnout How To Advance Your Career by Quitting Your Job How To Find a New Career Before It’s Too Late
Do you have a problem that’s keeping you up at night? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On this week’s episode of The Waves, we talk about living a life alone, but without loneliness. Slate senior editor Rebecca Onion talks with author Amy Key about her new book, Arrangements in Blue, and how Key has found fulfillment without romantic love.
In Slate Plus: The influence of Joni Mitchell’s album, Blue.
If you like this episode, check out: Why Medical Mysteries Plague Women Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work.
This Pride Month, make an impact by helping Macy’s and The Trevor Project on their mission to fund life-saving suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In celebration of Pride month, we’re bringing you some extra episodes of the Outward podcast. This week, host Bryan Lowder talks to Slate contributor John Culhane about his new book More Than Marriage: Forming Families After Marriage Equality. In the book, Culhane explores legal arrangements other than marriage that could protect people’s relationships and finances. While we might once have decried these options as consolation prizes, contracts such as designated beneficiary agreements offer exciting possibilities for queer and other nontraditional families.
We'd love to hear about your Pride plans in this challenging year. Please send a voice memo, along with feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com.
Items discussed in the show: More Than Marriage: Forming Families After Marriage Equality, by John C. Culhane
Gay Agenda John: Support your local drag performers.
This podcast was produced by June Thomas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… these gays are trying to murder my neutral palate. Pride Month festivities come at a time this year when LGBT+ rights are under attack across the country. Brands like Target and Bud Light are facing backlash for lifting up queer voices — but is this all a symptom of pride having gone a little too mainstream? Comedian, writer and podcast host H. Alan Scott joins us to discuss his vision for a pride to be proud of… and, at length, the trouble with rainbows.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can now email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie
You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Today there are about four million teachers in America, and nearly a third of them are thinking about leaving their jobs. It has become harder to be a teacher in the U.S. due to a lack of resources, political meddling, and teacher shortages, to name a few reasons. On this episode of How To!, the first in a two-part series, co-host Amanda Ripley talks with two teachers, Sarah and Amy, and Daphne Gomez, a former teacher and now the founder and CEO of Teacher Career Coach. They discuss challenges in and out of the classroom as well as changes that would actually support teachers.
If you liked this episode, check out: “How To Succeed When Everyone’s Mad at You”
Do you have a problem that’s keeping you up at night? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, Kevin Bendis, and Jabari Butler.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work.
This Pride Month, make an impact by helping Macy’s and The Trevor Project on their mission to fund life-saving suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nate Cohn covers polls and elections at the Upshot at The New York Times. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the meaning of Tuesday’s election results, whether Democrats should feel hopeful about the Midwest, and what the numbers tell us about Trump’s odds of being re-elected in 2020. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Leon Nayfakh and Andrew Parsons, the men behind Slate’s Slow Burn podcast, sit down with Isaac Chotiner to explain why they decided to take a deep dive into the Clinton scandals, the mechanics of creating a narrative podcast, and what it was like to interview Juanita Broaddrick. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zeynep Tufekci is an author and an expert on social media and fake news. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why the business model of the different social media giants is so dangerous, what Mark Zuckerberg refuses to do to fix the fake news problem, and why rightwing news is proliferating on Facebook. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lynsey Addario is a Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer whose work is collected in the new book Of Love And War. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss life in Afghanistan before 9/11, her abduction in Libya, and why journalists rely on the American government to speak up for press freedom. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Coral Davenport covers energy and the environment for The New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how we should read the U.N.’s terrifying new report on global warming, what other countries are doing to prevent the impending crisis, and the changing rhetoric of those opposed to taking action against climate change. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nate Silver is the editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight.com. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what effect the Kavanaugh controversy has had on the 2018 elections, the odds that Trump gets re-elected in 2020, and the political choices facing the Democratic Party. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs.Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jason Zengerle is a political correspondent for GQ Magazine and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, where last month he published a piece entitled “How the Trump Administration is Remaking the Courts.” Jordan Weissmann, Slate’s senior economics correspondent, sits in for Isaac Chotiner this week. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist whose new book is The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether young people are losing faith in the First Amendment, why he thinks identity politics is polluting our political conversation, and the best way to understand the rise of Trump. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Shane Bauer is a senior reporter for Mother Jones whose new book is American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his four months as a guard at a private prison in Louisiana, and what he learned about the American system of justice. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dara Lind covers immigration for Vox. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why it remains so difficult to unite certain children with their parents, the possible fate of the DACA program if Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, and how the Democrats plan to challenge Trump on immigration in 2020. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This Interview originally aired on May 1th, 2018. Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The New York Times and an analyst at CNN. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why Trump fears the Michael Cohen investigation, reporting in the age of Twitter, and whether the White House beat is changing Trump—or the people covering him. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Anand Giridharadas is the author of the new book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how the titans of Wall Street and Silicon Valley use their charitable contributions and political activism to entrench their own wealth, and exacerbate inequality. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michelle Goldberg is an op-ed columnist at the New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether liberals are too optimistic about the possibility of Trump being removed from office, what recent primaries tell us about the future of the Democratic Party, and whether her newspaper should hire pro-Trump columnists. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David D. Kirkpatrick is an international correspondent for the New York Times and the author of the new book Into the Hands of the Soldiers. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Egypt’s uprising against dictatorship went awry, the Obama administration’s role in undermining the Arab Spring, and what the future holds for the Middle East. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs.Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Martha Nussbaum is a moral philosopher and the author of The Monarchy of Fear. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how anger took over American politics, whether we underestimate the value of getting mad, and why she thinks civility and bipartisanship can still save us. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ottessa Moshfegh is a writer whose new novel is ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation.’ She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why she doesn’t like New York City, why writing about the female body makes people uncomfortable, and why she has had it with the politicization of art. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Annie Lowrey is the author of ‘Give People Money’ and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how a universal basic income could help American workers, whether we should be skeptical of an idea loved by Silicon Valley titans, and how to create a welfare state that is less vulnerable to political attacks. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chris Hayes is the host of ‘All In with Chris Hayes’ on MSNBC and the podcast ‘Why is This Happening?’ He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss Trump’s crucial insight into GOP voters, how the Trump presidency is changing the left, and what the civility debate tells us about the media. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Porochista Khakpour is a novelist and the author of Sick: A Memoir. She talks with Isaac Chotiner about how she was diagnosed with Lyme disease, why people who suffer from Lyme are often ignored or disbelieved, and how Americans still don’t understand how to communicate with people suffering from serious illnesses. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Listen to I Have to Ask via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Quinta Jurecic is the managing editor of the website Lawfare. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what Anthony Kennedy’s retirement means for abortion rights, what John Roberts’s travel ban decision signaled about his views of the Trump administration, and the future of a Supreme Court that had already stopped checking Trump. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
James Wood is The New Yorker’s chief literary critic, and the author of the new novel Upstate. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the complicated legacies of Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe, whether a critical eye is helpful in fiction writing, and the complications involved in reading the novels of very bad men. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Anthony Bourdain—the late chef and author—talks about his mistakes, the #MeToo movement, and Harvey Weinstein. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Judd Apatow is a comedian, writer, director, and producer. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new documentary on the life of Garry Shandling, which comedians are actually “normal” people, and having your friends accused of bad behavior in the age of #MeToo.Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Harry Enten is a polling expert and a political writer at CNN. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss California’s crucial importance to the 2018 election, where Trump is and isn’t politically vulnerable, and whether pollsters have corrected the mistakes they made in 2016. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of Between the World and Me, and now, We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the costs of writing off your fellow citizens as “deplorable,” why he chose writing over activism, and how Trump is both uniquely dangerous and a predictable consequence of American racism. This interview was first published November 8, 2017. Podcast Production by Audrey Dilling. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cecilia Muñoz was the director of the White House Policy Council Under Barack Obama, and an expert on immigration policy. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to talk about the mechanics of the Trump administration’s war on immigrants, the future of the Dreamers, and the campaign to abolish I.C.E. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The New York Times and an analyst at CNN. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why Trump fears the Michael Cohen investigation, reporting in the age of Twitter, and whether the White House beat is changing Trump—or the people covering him. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michelle Dean is the author of Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how a group of 20th century intellectuals—including Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Hannah Arendt, and Nora Ephron—changed the way we think about women in public life, and what they can tell us about today’s debates over feminism. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amy Chozick is the author of Chasing Hillary, a memoir about her experience covering the Clinton campaign for the New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how the press and the Clinton campaign exacerbated one another’s worst instincts, whether the media has learned from the 2016 debacle, and what really drives Hillary Clinton. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Adam Davidson is a staff writer at The New Yorker who has been examining the president’s tangled business dealings. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why people misunderstand Trump’s business skills, the real threat the Michael Cohen raid poses to Donald Trump, and whether we have reached the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why Americans thinks “mindfulness” will make them happy, whether smoking bans are a form of condescension towards the working-class, and the problems with Oprah’s very real ideology. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Parul Sehgal is a book critic at the New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the daily life of a book reviewer, looking hard at the novels of very bad men, and the current state of cultural criticism. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ross Douthat is an op-ed columnist at the New York Times, and the author of the new book To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what the pope and the president have in common, whether liberals are declaring too much commentary “beyond the pale,” and whether the Times should hire a pro-Trump columnist. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Judd Apatow is a comedian, writer, director, and producer. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new documentary on the life of Garry Shandling, which comedians are actually “normal” people, and having your friends accused of bad behavior in the age of #MeToo. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Corn and Michael Isikoff are the authors of Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, they discuss what new details of Trump's trip to a Vegas nightclub can tell us about the Steele dossier, the history of Trump’s Putin crush, and why reporting on the Russia scandal is such a minefield. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Josh Barro is a senior editor at Business Insider, as well as contributor to MSNBC, and the host of KCRW’s Left, Right, and Center podcast. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, they discuss how Trump uses comedy to sugarcoat his cruelty, how to think about the president’s intelligence, and why centrism has been on such a political losing streak. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at slate.com/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Benjamin Wittes is a writer and national security expert, and the editor-in-chief of Lawfare. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, he discusses how to read the tea leaves of the Mueller investigation, why people are too critical of James Comey, and why even the Trump administration hasn’t changed his (positive) opinion of the national security state. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at slate.com/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chuck Klosterman is a writer and essayist. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, he discusses the costs of politicizing pop culture, the roots of Trump’s shamelessness, and why music is such a subjective art form. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at slate.com/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Steven Pinker is the author of the new book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why he thinks life is improving despite the worldwide rise of demagogues, what Trump tells us about America’s relationship to Enlightenment ideals, and whether global warming and nuclear weapons should call into question our notion of progress. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Katie Roiphe is a writer and essayist. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss her controversial Harper’s essay on #MeToo, why she thinks the movement has gone too far, and whether people who speak out against feminism are really at risk of being “silenced.” Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Wesley Morris is a critic-at-large at The New York Times. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how social media is changing criticism, his complicated feelings about artists who behave deplorably, and why ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ is the most overrated movie of the year. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the backlash to the #MeToo movement, generational differences between feminists, and the importance of viewing each woman’s story on its own terms. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Frum is a senior editor at The Atlantic, and the author of the new book Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the state of democracy after a year of Trump, why the president’s buffoonery doesn’t make him less dangerous, and his own journey from famous neocon to Trump critic. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Margaret Sullivan is the Washington Post’s media critic. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the problems with Michael Wolff’s new book on the Trump administration, the state of the Post and the New York Times, and how the media should cover the president’s mental health. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A.O. Scott is a film critic at The New York Times. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the year in movies, being a film critic in the age of Rotten Tomatoes, and wrestling with Hollywood in a post-Harvey Weinstein world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark Lilla is the author of The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to debate why Democrats keep losing elections, whether America really used to be more united than it is today, and how much of the Republicans’ recent success is owed to racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bill Kristol is the editor-at- large of The Weekly Standard. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how and why Republicans have rationalized Donald Trump, how he has re-examined his own past in light of Trump’s rise, and just where the Republican Party went awry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stephen Kotkin is a historian and the author of Stalin: Waiting For Hitler, 1929-1941. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss Stalin’s differences from the autocrats of today, what Stalin and Hitler did and didn’t share, and the secret to getting inside the head of a dictator. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lawrence O’Donnell is the host of ‘The Last Word’ on MSNBC, and the author of a new book, Playing With Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether JFK’s death really changed his brother, Bobby, how the Democratic Party was permanently transformed by 1968, and why the history of “collusion” in American elections is much older than we think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Laura Kipnis is an author, essayist, and professor at Northwestern University who writes frequently about sexuality and feminism. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the importance of training women to push back against creepy men, whether the current wave of sexual misconduct reckonings count as a movement, and why she still doubts Bill Clinton’s accusers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jelani Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how the media can prevent the normalization of white nationalism, what Obama did and didn’t get right about our current moment, and why Trumpism is guaranteed to survive Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rebecca Traister is a writer-at- large for New York magazine. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what she has learned reporting on sexual harassment and assault, whether Hillary Clinton should have to answer for her husband’s sins, and the coming societal backlash to women speaking out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of Between the World and Me, and now, We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the costs of writing off your fellow citizens as “deplorable,” why he chose writing over activism, and how Trump is both uniquely dangerous and a predictable consequence of American racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ron Chernow is the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and author of Alexander Hamilton and Grant. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why Ulysses S. Grant was an important figure in civil rights history, why Robert E. Lee’s extremism has been papered over, and what it was like to watch his Alexander Hamilton biography became a musical smash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jennifer Egan is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit From The Goon Squad and Manhattan Beach. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what technology might do to fiction-writing, how she crafts her novels, and how her conception of American power has changed since 9/11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gabriel Sherman is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, and the biographer of Roger Ailes. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Fox News has changed since Ailes’ death, whether Trump has “lost a step,” and why Rupert Murdoch secretly “loathes” the president. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jodi Kantor is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how she began reporting the Harvey Weinstein story, why so many of his accusers came forward now, and whether the culture of Hollywood is really going to change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Masha Gessen is a journalist and activist and the author of the new book, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Putin exercises control over Russia, and why Trump’s chaotic governing style could still lead to autocracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker. In the second installment of a two-part interview, he sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Trump has changed his magazine, whether The New Yorker could ever go web-only, and what’s really killing the NFL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker. In the first installment of a two-part interview, he sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether Hillary hatred has gone too far, Ta-Nehisi Coates and writing about race in 2017, and why Obama is cashing in on Wall Street. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The author of Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo, sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what she learned from Margaret Atwood, the pain of writing about Nigeria’s turbulent recent past, and using fiction to challenge the idea that women must have children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
ABC’s Emmy-Winning anchor and host of the ‘Uncomfortable’ podcast, Amna Nawaz, sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the life of an embedded reporter in Pakistan, researching the roots of white nationalism, and what we can learn from talking to extremists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Author Claire Messud sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss her new novel, The Burning Girl, how Elena Ferrante opened up more space for writing about women, how New York City has changed since she wrote The Emperor’s Children, and what it’s like to be married to a literary critic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark Lilla is the author of The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to debate why Democrats keep losing elections, whether America really used to be more united than it is today, and how much of the Republicans’ recent success is owed to racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Orhan Pamuk is an author and Nobel Prize winner. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new novel, The Red-Haired Woman; the cultural scene in Turkey as it undergoes political purges; and how writing fiction functions as an escape from the real world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Glenn Greenwald is one of the co-founding editors of The Intercept. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether America is risking a new cold war with Putin’s Russia, Julian Assange’s complicated personality, and why Trump is less unprecedented in American history than we’d like to believe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Robert Wright is the best-selling author of books such as Nonzero and The Evolution of God. He down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new book, Why Buddhism Is True, what meditation can teach us about how to oppose Trump, and what Buddhist teachings have in common with evolutionary psychology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Olivia Nuzzi is the White House correspondent for New York magazine. She joins Isaac Chotiner to discuss what it’s like to be a woman working in Trump’s White House, how West Wing aides really view the president, and what she learned working for Anthony Weiner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zoë Heller is a novelist and essayist. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss Trump’s peculiar Americanness, lame defenses of Hillary Clinton, working on Fleet Street, and becoming friend’s with writers whose books you have savaged. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lydia Polgreen is the editor-in- chief of HuffPost. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss her decision to leave the New York Times, the real reason the media screwed up election coverage, and why diversity in newsrooms is so lacking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Matthew Heineman is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new movie, ‘City of Ghosts,’ about the journalists resisting ISIS, what he learned interviewing Mark Zuckerberg, and the similarities between extremist groups and drug cartels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Maggie Haberman is White House Correspondent for The New York Times and an analyst for CNN. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the anxiety and stress that come with reporting nonstop news, whether the media was fair to Hillary Clinton, and what people don’t get about the President. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss working in the White House, the threat Russia poses to American democracy, why Trump’s advisers can’t control him, and the successes and failures of the Obama presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Raúl Grijalva is a Democratic Congressman from Arizona’s Third Congressional district. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the unrelenting fear in immigrant communities, the divisions that threaten the Democratic Party, and whether the Trump administration is “unhinged.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
George Saunders is a short story writer and essayist who has just written his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what he learned while researching Abraham Lincoln, why spending time with Trump supporters is important for progressive writers, and the necessity of art in a society under siege. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Delia Ephron is a novelist, humorist, and screenwriter, whose credits include You’ve Got Mail. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what she learned about movies from Tom Hanks, why dating apps are ruining romance, and the challenge of being funny in the age of Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tom Cole is a Republican Congressman from Oklahoma’s 4th Congressional District. He speaks with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether Trump’s “ban” is religiously motivated, whether repealing Obamacare will cause 23 million people to lose health insurance, and how Fox News has changed the Republican Party. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ashley Parker is a political reporter at The Washington Post. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what it’s really like to cover this White House, how the President’s staffers manage his personality, and the stresses of waking up to Trump’s tweetstorms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pankaj Mishra sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new book on the roots of populist rage, the problem with critiques of “identity politics,” and whether Western liberal parties can ever win back the white working class. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jonathan Chait is a writer for New York magazine, and the author of Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy That Will Prevail. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss Obama’s surprisingly resilient legacy, why populists have trouble governing, and whether the Democratic Party is destined to move leftward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pamela Paul is the editor of the New York Times book review and the woman who oversees all of the paper’s books coverage. She sat down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what our books say about who we are and why giving someone a book is so fraught with meaning. She also discussed what it’s like to run the Times’ book review, the future of literary criticism, and the debate over pornography addiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Grann is universally recognized as one of the masters of longform journalism. Here, The New Yorker writer sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, the difficulty of reporting unsolved murders, and President Trump’s impact on the news media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ethan Sherwood Strauss has been covering the Golden State Warriors for several years for ESPN, during which time the team became the most popular and successful in the NBA. On the eve of the NBA Playoffs, he sat down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss life on the NBA beat, the strange life of Steph Curry, and fans who want ESPN personalities to “stick to sports” in the age of Donald Trump. And please take our brief survey: http://www.survey.panoply.fm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Andrew Sullivan has been writing about the menace of Donald Trump over the past year for New York Magazine, warning America about creeping authoritarianism and the danger Trump poses to American democracy. Born in England, Sullivan was for many years known as the most prominent gay conservative in America. He sat down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the rise of illiberalism, the role of racism in American politics, and dealing with Trump-induced depression. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Elif Batuman, is an author and staff writer for The New Yorker. She’s the daughter of Turkish immigrants and her first book, The Possessed, was about her experiences with Russian literature and her travels around the world. She sat down with Isaac Chotiner to talk about her work and her new novel, The Idiot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Isaac is joined by Emmy Award–winning news anchor Chris Hayes, host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC and author of the new book A Colony in a Nation, which argues that there are really two different Americas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the inaugural episode of Slate’s interview podcast, I Have to Ask, host Isaac Chotiner speaks with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Senator Schumer finds himself in a political climate unlike anything he has witnessed in his 38 years in Washington. The Democrats face a minority in both Houses and President Donald Trump has almost completely rebuked the protocols of his office, causing traditional politicians, like Schumer, to think differently about policy making and making their message heard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As Slate’s resident interrogator, Isaac Chotiner has tangled with Newt Gingrich and gotten personal with novelist Jonathan Franzen. Now he’s bringing his pointed and smart interview style to the new podcast “I Have to Ask.” Isaac will talk one-on-one with newsmakers, celebrities, and cultural icons to help us better understand them and our world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices