The British poet Raymond Antrobus was six years old when his parents and doctors realized that his ears couldn’t recognize a whole range of sounds. He was fitted with hearing aids and began a life of straddling the Deaf and hearing worlds, going to speech therapy and reading lips, learning British sign language, and attending both Deaf and hearing schools. By necessity, Raymond became an expert in communication and miscommunication, which are recurring themes in his poetry. 

This week, Anna talks to Raymond about his memoir The Quiet Ear: An Investigation of Missing Sound and what it was like growing up with a “panicky sensitivity to misunderstandings.”

This episode was produced by Cameron Drews.

Get more Death, Sex & Money with Slate Plus! Membership is 50% off, which means $59 for a whole year of ad-free listening and special episode drops across all Slate podcasts, PLUS unlimited reading on Slate.com and the Slate app, every Slate Game AND you’ll be supporting Slate’s independent journalism at a moment where independent journalism needs all the support it can get.

Go to slate.com/dsmplus and use the promo code DSM50. 

If you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Amos says the best way to describe her childhood is as a “nepo-baby fever dream.” She grew up in a pink mansion in Hawaii where celebrities often dropped by, and the fridge was always stocked with cookie dough made from her father’s famous recipe.

Wally Amos founded Famous Amos cookies in 1975, but by the time Sarah was in middle school, he had sold the company and their house was in foreclosure. As Sarah grew up, her father never stopped chasing the success he’d once had with Famous Amos, a pursuit that pushed them apart.

Listen to Sarah’s new podcast about her father from Vanity Fair: Tough Cookie: The Wally “Famous” Amos Story

Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.

And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the Metropolitan Community Church was founded in the late sixties, it was one of the first gay positive churches in America. When AIDS hit, it became a refuge for people who were sick and those who were mourning them. 

In this episode, Anna talks to researcher Lynne Gerber, about finding boxes of cassettes under the church floor in an MCC church in San Francisco, and how those recordings of sermons and songs became a podcast about finding community and comfort during a crisis. 

Lynne Gerber is the host of the 10-episode series When We All Get to Heaven.

Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.

And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even though the documentary Tig Notaro produced won the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance, she did not spend the festival hobnobbing with industry types. Instead she stayed holed up at the Airbnb she rented with friends and the film's crew. "We were calling it Snuggle Down because we were all sitting around the fire and having tea and just laughing so hard." Among the people at Snuggle Down was the subject of the documentary, poet Andrea Gibson, who was dying of ovarian cancer.

In this episode, Tig describes meeting Andrea, what made them click creatively, and how making a documentary about the end of Andrea's life brought an already tight-knit group of friends closer together. 

Watch: Come See Me In the Good Light

And we also want to acknowledge the passing of disability activist Alice Wong. She died on Friday in San Francisco at age 51. Alice and Anna first talked in 2020. 

Listen here: Alice Wong On Ruckuses, Rage And Medicaid

Podcast production by Andrew Dunn

Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.

And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/DSM⁠

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale are once again joined by Felix’s financial advisor Adrianna Adams from Domain Money to talk about…parents. They dig into the emotions of trying to take care of your aging parents while also growing your own wealth, the importance of setting goals, and how to deal with aging children AND aging parents at the same time. 

For a visual experience, you can watch this episode on YouTube.

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Video production by Micah Phillips.

Get more Death, Sex & Money with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of DSM and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Death, Sex & Money show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/dsmplus to get access wherever you listen.

If you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Country musician Luke Bell had swagger, talent, and a career on the rise, opening for Willie Nelson and Dwight Yoakam. Then mental illness took over. His mother Carol shares what it was like raising Luke, the fine line between his bold personality and paranoid delusions, and navigating his years of homelessness and psychosis before his death at 32. 

Listen to his posthumous album, The King Is Back. Proceeds go towards mental health treatment for people in Wyoming who can't afford it.

Song List:

The Great Pretender

Rattlesnake Man

Where Ya Been (Music Video)

Guitar Man

Sometimes

On Our Own

The Bullfighter

River

The King Is Back (Music Video)

Podcast production by Zoe Azulay

Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.

And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale dig into the stressful world of financial advice and planning for retirement. How do you know if you’re set up financially to retire? Is it possible to think about retirement without having a panic attack? How much should you track your 401k? They’re joined by Felix’s financial advisor Adrianna Adams from Domain Money, to dig into these questions and so much more.

For a visual experience, you can watch this episode on YouTube.

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Video production by Micah Phillips.

Get more Death, Sex & Money with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of DSM and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Death, Sex & Money show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/dsmplus to get access wherever you listen.

If you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This September when SNL announced its season 51 cast, Ego Nwodim made the cut. Then, just days later, she announced on social media that she was leaving the show. "The hardest part of a great party is knowing when to say goodnight," she wrote.

In this episode, she talks about learning to trust her body when making big decisions, growing up in a family of workaholics, and her 3 AM post-show ritual of eating an entire cake while FaceTiming her best friend. Plus, why her phone has been on silent for 11 years.

Listen: Ego’s podcast Thanks Dad where she talks about growing up without a father, and talks to other comedians about their dads, and gets their dad-like advice. 

See: Ego perform at Lincoln Center’s The Comedy Series, November 19 through November 23. 

Podcast production by Andrew Dunn and Zoe Azulay

Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus.

And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a new, very special Death, Sex & Money and Slate Money crossover, Felix Salmon and Anna Sale dig into the difficult decision of whether or not to have kids.

Child care? School? New vehicle? All the baby gadgets? Kids are expensive! Anna has two kids, and Felix is famously childless. Between the two of them they dig into their decisions to have and not have kids, the budgeting and balancing of all the emotional and financial costs of kids, how kids can be a benefit later in life, and more.

For a visual experience, you can watch this episode on YouTube.

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Video production by Micah Phillips.

Get more Death, Sex & Money with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of DSM and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Death, Sex & Money show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/dsmplus to get access wherever you listen.

If you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early-morning hours of October 2, 2023, progressive activist and organizer Ryan Carson was stabbed and killed by a stranger on a Brooklyn sidewalk. His girlfriend Claudia Morales—who witnessed the crime, attempted CPR, and dialed 911—quickly became the target of sensationalist online posting. Internet trolls falsely claimed that she didn’t cooperate with law enforcement and suggested that she and Ryan were, first and foremost, anti-police activists. 

This week, Claudia talks to Anna about what it’s like to become a flattened character in the online culture wars, and she explains what the online provocateurs get wrong about who she is and who Ryan was. 

This episode was produced by Cameron Drews.

Get more Death, Sex & Money with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of DSM and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Death, Sex & Money show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/dsmplus to get access wherever you listen.

If you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected].

Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.