ICYMI

As soon as Jane Doe filed her civil suit against Cornell University, the internet was up in arms. Everyone from Florence Pugh to Love Island contestants took to social media to share their disgust, imploring men to do better when it comes to preventing sexual assault. For those who lived through #MeToo, it all feels eerily familiar. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by writer and creator Kat Tenbarge to talk about how the internet is organizing in response to this news moment, and how we can avoid repeating #MeToo’s mistakes.

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay, with help from Kevin Bendis.

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

What if I told you there was a machine that, using powerful energy and frequencies, could cure everything from common colds to cancers to missing limbs? Well, I’d be lying. And yet, a not-insignificant part of the internet is waiting with baited breath for the arrival of “medbeds,” a QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theory that President Trump has even acknowledged himself. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Slate staff writer Molly Olmstead, who spent a year investigating how the myth of medbeds came to be, and found the man behind it all. He regrets everything.

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

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

There are some controversies that can only happen on Threads. Discussions about mermaid trauma, for instance, or Pepsi having to apologize for their post about Wild Cherry. The platform is home to particularly unhinged users, but why? On today’s show, host Kate Lindsay is joined by creator, podcaster, and reluctant Threads lover Franchesca Ramsey to discuss why Threads got its reputation, and how it still manages to be the best alternative to Twitter.

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

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.

Comment sections are dying. At least, when it comes to digital media. Platforms like Twitter have become the new place for discourse, and apps like TikTok are changing what the comment section is even for. Slate’s comments, however, are special. On today’s show, host Kate Lindsay is joined by staff writer Luke Winkie, who dove into the lore of Slate’s decades-old commenter community, and even called up his biggest hater to find out what keeps him coming back.

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

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.

Dumbphones are a popular recommendation for people looking to reduce their screen time, but it’s not as simple as it looks. When writer Stephanie Murray made the switch, while she found it did solve many of her problems, it created them for pretty much everyone else around her. On today’s show, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Murray, who wrote about her experience for The New York Times, to discuss how the outside world is also too smartphone-dependent, and what people should know before taking the dumbphone plunge.

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay, with help from Kevin Bendis.

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.

Like clockwork, another article has created a moral panic about so-called “sickfluencers,” or people—usually women—who share online about their illnesses and disabilities. Critics argue that the rise of these diagnoses and creators is some kind of social contagion, with participants faking their symptoms for social media attention. But these fears are not just overblown—they’re harmful. On today’s show, host Kate Lindsay is joined by social psychologist Devon Price, author of Unmasking Autism and Laziness Does Not Exist, to discuss the realities of this trend, and why so much of the criticism is rooted in sexism.

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

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.

A former Anthropic employee claimed AI would lead to the end of humanity, and soon. In the weeks since, the “whistleblower” has done a full press tour, with even Anthropic and OpenAI themselves seeming to cosign this claim. As a result, hysteria has ensued—and that’s exactly what these AI companies want. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Better Offline host and #1 AI Hater Ed Zitron to debunk the doomsdayers, and explain why, exactly, these companies are so interested in the end of the world. 

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

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Pregnant werewolves and surprise quadruplets are just two of the tropes you might find while watching what might be the next evolution of TV: vertical microdramas. Told in 90 second clips, these stories are soap operas for the smartphone era, and are keeping the industry afloat during an otherwise turbulent time for Hollywood. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Yahoo senior culture reporter Kelsey Weekman to hear why dedicated fans are tuning into such ridiculous stories, and how AI is already threatening to bring this rare good thing to an end. 

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

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

“Curtain for Zoosha! K-smog and Batboy caught flipping a grunt.” If that’s also what every headline sounds like to you, then you’re in the right place. Alex Earle and Stella Lefty are taking over For You Page discourse, but are two pop culture figures we somehow know everything and nothing about. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Hip Replacement’s Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick to get to the bottom of exactly who these women are, and how the ambient, “nothing” nature of their digital footprint is precisely the point. 

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay, with help from Evan Campbell.

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

How many apps does it take to raise a child in 2026? Not only are parents navigating countless WhatsApp groups and summer camp platforms, there’s also a whole world of Reels, subreddits, and Facebook groups filled with advice. Often, however, the answers just lead to more questions. On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by What Next: TBD host Lizzie O’Leary to talk about the parenting side of the internet, and how understandable anxieties play out online. 

This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.

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.