On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: tried and Turing tested.

Coming into the 2024 election cycle, generative AI was one of the main concerns for democracy watchdogs; its power to create deceptive text, images and sounds at a rapid, unfettered pace seems ripe to spread misinformation. But of all the controversies and current events that have shaped the election thus far… AI, somehow, might not be one of them. 

Writer and social strategist Rachel Greenspan joins us to share what she’s hearing about the AI revolution that wasn’t.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: Bezos vs. the British invasion.

The Washington Post, like most legacy media outlets, can’t seem to catch a break. Right now, the newsroom is reeling under leadership changeups — and an editor who’s part of what appears to be a British invasion into American media leadership. 

It’s hard to imagine Jeff Bezos, a soon-to-be trillionaire, as anyone’s folk hero. When he bought the Post in 2013, many assumed his involvement would put the paper’s editorial integrity at risk. But could his active presence actually right the ship?

Journalist and writer Brian Stelter joins us, apropos of his recent reporting for The Atlantic.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: get back to work.

When your job becomes obsolete, is it the government’s job to teach you to do something else? 

That’s the theory behind federal workforce training programs – which have existed, in various forms, for a long time. The problem is that studies are starting to show that these programs don’t provide much of an edge to workers… and that the jobs they place for might not be good jobs.

Kevin Carey of New America joins us to argue for a retooling of federal work training.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: aprons off.

Has there ever been a better time to be a woman in America? Probably not… but that’s a low bar. Modern feminism is having trouble making a case for itself, in the face of a challenging economy and backslides in reproductive rights. So when women on social media present themselves as traditional wives and homemakers, achieving the self-actualization of heteronormativity, have they given up? Or are they showing us what feminist thought might be missing?

Dr. C. Nicole Mason joins us to share her journey into the minds of tradwives… and her realization that they might have a point.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: all aren’t welcome.

Pride Month festivities have a complicated legacy. On the one hand, being out, proud and supportive in public has been a game-changing force for the LGBTQ+ community; on the other hand, pride began as a protest, and the movement has been, and is, at odds with the status quo and acceptability politics.

So, should uniformed cops be welcome at Pride? Should politicians like Jill Biden be invited, or encouraged, to make Pride a campaign stop?

Jessie Sage, a Pittsburgh-based columnist and sex worker, joins us to argue: no. 

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: base instincts.

Democratic strategists are reportedly freaking out about Joe Biden. Despite his opponent’s felony convictions, Biden remains unpopular and isn’t polling well in swing states. Young voters are mad about his handling of the war in Gaza; many Americans remain convinced that the economy is bad and the president is to blame for it.

So if strategists’ worst fears come to pass… how much of this wound is self-inflicted?

Hayes Brown of MSNBC joins Hear Me Out to argue that Biden is falling into a classic triangulation trap… and that it probably won’t be worth it.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: placing bets.

Betting on the results of elections is illegal in the United States – though that hasn’t stopped sportsbooks overseas from cashing in. And that doesn’t mean that Americans haven’t placed bets on election results in the U.S., either; that’s a tradition that dates back centuries.

There’s a push now to make elections betting legal on American soil — and for American companies to run online casinos. Futures markets are complicated, and it might feel gross, or even dangerous, to gamble on democracy… but of all the types of gambling we do allow, what if this one is actually the biggest good to society?

Eric Zitzewitz of Dartmouth joins us to bet on the value of election betting.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: self-limiting.

Congress is historically unpopular; it’s one of the few things that people on both sides of the aisle can agree on. But what could be done to actually fix our legislature?

Term limits are often posed as a good potential start. But there are those who argue that that’s not the best way to fix our legislature — and the pool of people who feel that way isn’t exclusively career politicians, either.

Charlie Hunt, a professor at Boise State University, joins us to argue against term limits.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: don’t scare me like that, colonizer.

Understanding the legacy of colonialism is a project relatively few Americans have undertaken — and most have done so only relatively recently, at that.

But understanding the forces that led to the foundation of this country, and the creation of modern racism as we know it, is an important project. And it’s one that is also increasingly hard to bring into schools — especially in places like Florida.

Barry Mauer of UCF joins us once again to argue for teaching the ongoing project of colonialism… in the name of stopping it.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: live from Seattle.

Hear Me Out had its first-ever live show on May 4, 2024 — and it was such a great conversation that we wanted to make sure our podcast listeners heard it, too. 

The Cascade PBS Ideas Festival was full of smart, unconventional thinkers on the biggest issues facing this country… so what better place to have a conversation about Donald Trump, and the future of this country? 

It’s tempting to think of the MAGA ideology as an unprecedented threat to democracy. But is it? Or are the authoritarian, anti-democratic ideas percolating into our mainstream politics a feature, rather than a bug?

Historian and author Heather Cox Richardson joined us in Seattle.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices