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On this week’s episode of The Waves, the Las Vegas Aces beat the New York Liberty to win their second WNBA championship in a row. But more impressive is that they played in front of one of the biggest crowds to ever attend a WNBA game. Slate senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario is joined by sports journalist and founder of the Power Plays newsletter Lindsay Gibbs to unpack the recent surge in popularity for women’s sports, why you should make an effort to support women’s basketball, and more.

In Slate Plus: Lindsay tries to convince Daisy to get into women’s college basketball

If you liked this episode, check out: Watch The Women’s World Cup, Damnit! 

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth and Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery.

Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to [email protected].

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Albert and Sue Sommers met, fell in love and got married in their 40s. Albert is a rancher whose family has worked the same land in Pinedale, Wyoming for over 100 years, and Sue is a writer and multimedia artist who grew up in New Jersey. Since they married later in life and don’t have kids, that raised big questions about what would happen to Albert’s family ranch once they were gone. 

Ranching is a tough business, and the Sommers family land is in a part of Wyoming where property values have soared as very wealthy people have moved in. That increases development pressure to turn that land into cash. In 2010, Albert and his family decided on a different, novel path that both preserved the Sommers’ family land from development and enabled them to pass the business to a young neighbor who’s no relation. 

Albert and Sue tell Anna about how they got together and took on these big family decisions, and despite their offering differing opinions, how they “continue the conversation.” 

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In the mid-1990s, the prime time drama Melrose Place became a home to hundreds of pieces of contemporary art—and no one noticed. In this episode, Isaac Butler tells the story of the artist collective that smuggled subversive quilts, sperm-shaped pool floats, and dozens of other provocative works onto the set of the hit TV show. The project, In the Name of the Place, inspired a real-life exhibition and tested the ability of mass media to get us to see what’s right in front of our faces. 

Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. This episode was written and reported by Isaac Butler and produced by Benjamin Frisch. Derek John is executive producer. Joel Meyer is senior editor/producer. Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director.

Thank you to Jamie Bennett, JJ Bersch, Mark Flood, and Cynthia Carr, whose book On Edge: Performance at the End of the 20th Century inspired this episode.

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On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim dive into the saga of Jon Romano. At the age of 16, Romano walked into his high school with a shotgun in an attempt, he says, to commit law-enforcement-assisted suicide. Though no one was killed in the ensuing violence, a teacher was shot and injured. Romano pled guilty to attempted murder and reckless endangerment. He served 17 years in prison and was released in 2020. Since his release, he’s been a public advocate for mental health reform and gun control. Since 2022, TikTok has been a part of that advocacy work for Romano, a choice that landed Romano in the headlines once again after many decried his public platform of more than 275,000 followers.

Romano’s presence on TikTok and his large public profile raise thorny questions around the possibility of redemption and life online for those who commit violent acts. To help answer those questions, Hampton and Lim are joined by Dr. Teiahsha Bankhead, the executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth and an expert in restorative and racial justice.

This podcast is produced by Se’era Spragley Ricks, Daisy Rosario, Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim.

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This week, the panel begins by reviewing Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s film based on David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction book about the plot of white Americans to steal the Osage Nation’s headrights in the 1920s, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone. Then, the three are joined by Dan Kois, writer and editor at Slate and author of Vintage Contemporaries, to puzzle over Slayers: A Buffyverse Story, a scripted audio series based on Buffy: The Vampire Slayer that’s written and performed by many of the original cast, with one glaring omission: creator and showrunner Joss Whedon. Finally, the trio asks: Why is the internet no longer fun? The once utopian dream of democracy has turned into a hellscape, according to Kyle Chayka’s essay in The New Yorker, “Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore.” 

In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel shares their relationships (or lack thereof) with audiobooks, inspired by Paul Grimstad’s essay “Confessions of an Audiobook Addict for The New Yorker.” 

Email us at [email protected]. 

Endorsements:

Dana: The Genius Behind Hollywood’s Most Indelible Sets, a profile of Jack Fisk, the master production designer behind Killers of the Flower Moon and many other films. 

Julia: While watching Sleepless in Seattle with her husband, Julia discovered her new favorite sound clip: When Meg Ryan dishes with Rosie O’Donnell about her budding romance with Tom Hanks, O’Donnell responds comically while chomping a bite of egg salad into her mouth, in a way that deserves to become a meme.

Stephen: The little-known, up-and-coming writer Shakespeare (according to Stephen, he’s “very good” if not “a little antique-y”), specifically in the context of Killers of the Flower Moon. The film’s final scenes recall The Tempest in many ways. 

Outro music: “Back to Silence” by OTE.

Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Kat Hong. 

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The spooky season is upon us, so hosts Christina Cauterucci, Jules Gill-Peterson, and Bryan Lowder discuss Living for the Dead, the new queer ghost-hunting reality show from the creators of Queer Eye. The show, now streaming on Hulu, is narrated by the disembodied voice of Kristen Stewart, a haunting many of us would welcome. The hosts end the show, as always, with some new additions to the Gay Agenda.

Please note, starting in November, Outward will be appearing in your feeds more often, so be sure to subscribe.

Items discussed in the show:

Trans Data Library

Living for the Dead, on Hulu

Gay Agenda

Christina: Autostraddle’s coverage of Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger’s divorce

Jules: JewishCurrents’ “Dispatches From Gaza”

Bryan: Queer witch @Riotaddams

This podcast was produced by Palace Shaw and June Thomas.

Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to [email protected].

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On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… when silence is violence. 

The war in Israel and Palestine is a rapidly-evolving situation – and one that’s bringing up a lot of emotions for a lot of people. Couple that with the flood of mis-and-disinformation on social media, and “to post or not to post” becomes an extremely loaded question. 

Are you ever required to speak up on social media? Even if you don’t know the whole story? And if you elect not to say anything, is that inherently choosing a side — and causing harm to others in the process? 

Social strategist and writer Rachel Greenspan joins us to say that, as a Jewish woman, she doesn’t expect her friends to post about this moment in history… and maybe, neither should you.

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

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Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, are joined by Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley to talk about allegations that the Michigan football team is running a sign-stealing operation. They also discuss flag football becoming an Olympic sport. Finally, ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski comes on for a conversation about the National Hockey League’s ban on rainbow-colored Pride Tape.

Michigan (1:54): Are the Wolverines cheating? And what does a guy named Connor Stalions have to do with it?

Flag football (23:12): Will NFL players take the field at the 2028 Games?

Pride Tape (41:54): The Arizona Coyotes’ Travis Dermott defied the ban. What happens now?

Afterball (01:05:41): Stefan on the first woman kicker in college football who’s also a rated tournament Scrabble player.

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In this episode of the Movies series, the Slate Money gang talks with BNN Bloomberg’s Amanda Lang about “BlackBerry”. Are there really vampires in Waterloo, Ontario? Why are all movie business guys just people who yell? 

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and an additional segment of our show every week. You’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Slate Money. Sign up now at slate.com/moneyplus to help support our work.

Podcast production by Patrick Fort.

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This week, guest-host Kristen Meinzer talks to Margalit Fox, a longtime writer of obituaries for the New York Times and now a full-time writer of nonfiction books, like The Confidence Men. In the interview, Margalit discusses the delicate art of documenting notable deaths, including the practice of pre-writing and continually updating the obituaries of living people. She also explains how her work as an obituary writer has influenced her work as a nonfiction author. 

After the interview, Kristen and co-host June Thomas talk about the terrifying work of cold-calling sources. 

In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Margalit discusses why women and people of color have been underrepresented in the obituary section. 

Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to [email protected] or give us a call at (304) 933-9675.

Podcast production by Cameron Drews.

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