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Donald Trump is spending his second term trying to cement his legacy, but he still hasn’t zeroed in on what that should be: Is it his name on monuments? A ballroom decorated in his specific style? Owning Greenland or whatever?

Credit where credit is due, though, he’s already made a mark on the political discourse that will have the staying power of a jagged scar. 

Guest: Michael Scherer, staff writer at The Atlantic.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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

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

We are lucky to get fantastic questions from our listeners here at Decoder Ring, and in this episode, we’re going to open up our mailbag to answer three of them. What are the origins of an eerie horror film string motif? Why do companies insist on telling callers to “listen closely” to menu options that could not possibly have changed? And when did we start using the indispensable eye roll?

In this episode, you’ll hear from historical musicologist Frank Hentschel, as well as Eli Spindel, artistic director of the String Orchestra of Brooklyn. We also speak with writer Nick Greene, Holdcom CEO Andrew Begnoché, and linguist Dr. Rebecca Clift.

This episode was produced by Katie Shepherd and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.

Special thanks to Nicole Holliday, and to Leilehua Lanzilotti, whose website Shaken Not Stuttered is a fantastic resource about extended techniques for strings.

If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.

Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.

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

This week, Julia Turner and Dana Stevens are joined by Slate’s own Rebecca Onion to discuss The Devil Wears Prada 2, BEEF season 2, and the NYT’s best living songwriters package with Slate’s music critic Carl Wilson. 

Twenty years on, we return to the world of The Devil Wears Prada. In the sequel, Andy, Anne Hathaway’s character, must save Runway Magazine from the forces of capital, who are selling the Vogue-analogue for parts, as Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly struggles to hang on to her own power. The movie has a lot to say about the state of journalism and media with plot lines seemingly ripped from the gossip pages, but does it all come together in the edit? We discuss. 

Then, the second season of A24’s anthology series BEEF stars Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as a volatile millennial couple who enter into a feud with a younger couple, played by Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton. Set at a rich Californian golf resort and its environs, the show satirizes class and generational resentments as the characters scramble to claim the scraps of their betters at the expense of everyone else. The characters are mostly unlikeable, and the premise might be a little less original than the first season, but given BEEF’s stacked cast and pedigree, does the show sizzle? 

Finally we’re joined by Carl Wilson, Slate’s music critic and author of the newsletter “Crritic!” to discuss the New York Times package: The 30 Greatest Living Songwriters. Carl submitted a ballot for the list, and the polished version isn’t too far from his submission. He gets into his picks and discusses what the list is saying about the field of songwriting and the idea of a songwriter as it’s been expanded to include non-traditional instrumentation and digital composition. But like all lists it has sparked debate about the inclusions (Carole King, Stevie Wonder) the exclusions (Randy Newman, Liz Phair, David Byrne) and whether Taylor Swift’s inclusion was solely to get an interview. Together with Carl, we try and make sense of the list and talk about our favorites. 

As promised, here is Carl’s full ballot (The asterisks indicate people who Carl voted for but who have since died):

Willie Nelson

Smokey Robinson 

Bobby Braddock 

*Brian Wilson

Bob Dylan

Carole King

Randy Newman

Dolly Parton

Stevie Wonder

*Sly Stone

The Flatlanders (Butch Hancock/Jimmie Dale Gilmore/*Joe Ely)

Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan

Nile Rodgers

David Byrne

Mark Eitzel

Chuck D & the Bomb Squad

Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis

Stephin Merritt

Liz Phair

John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats)

Missy Elliott & Timbaland

The Love Junkies (Hillary Lindsey/Lori McKenna/Liz Rose)

Outkast (Big Boi/Andre 3000)

Josh Osborne/Brandy Clark/Shane McAnally

Phoebe Bridgers

Endorsements: 

Julia: The SNL sketch featuring Teana Taylor, Grandpa At The Wedding.

Rebecca: The new Lord Of The Flies adaptation on Netflix. 

Dana: The article in Vogue: Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour on Power, Fashion, and Acting the Part by Chloe Malle.

Email us your thoughts at [email protected]. 

Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.

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

On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Andrea González-Ramírez, a senior writer at The Cut whose recent piece explores why so many people have stopped reading the news. Instead, we’re “numbing out” after years of constant bad news on social media, to the point that even an assassination attempt on President Trump doesn’t earn a mention in our group chats. But how do we draw the line between necessary self care and privileged ignorance? 

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

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

Even with all that Democrats having going for them—mid-term elections typically favoring the out-of-power party, Trump’s sinking approval rates, even rising gas prices—it will be an uphill battle to wrest the Senate from GOP control. 

Guest: Jonathan Martin, POLITICO politics bureau chief and host of “On the Road” a podcast about the 2026 midterms.

Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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

We are lucky to get fantastic questions from our listeners here at Decoder Ring, and in this episode, we’re going to open up our mailbag to answer three of them. What are the origins of an eerie horror film string motif? Why do companies insist on telling callers to “listen closely” to menu options that could not possibly have changed? And when did we start using the indispensable eye roll?

In this episode, you’ll hear from historical musicologist Frank Hentschel, as well as Eli Spindel, artistic director of the String Orchestra of Brooklyn. We also speak with writer Nick Greene, Holdcom CEO Andrew Begnoché, and linguist Dr. Rebecca Clift.

This episode was produced by Katie Shepherd and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Decoder Ring is also produced by Max Freedman. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director.

Special thanks to Nicole Holliday, and to Leilehua Lanzilotti, whose website Shaken Not Stuttered is a fantastic resource about extended techniques for strings.

If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at [email protected] or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.

Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.

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

“Intersectionality” was one of those “DEI terms” that the Trump administration and Project 2025 were eager to do away with once they got back into power. But to understand what just happened to the Voting Rights Act, a little critical race theory would go a long way. 

Guest: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, civil rights advocate, co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), law professor at UCLA and Columbia, and author of many books including Backtalker: An American Memoir.

Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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

Kara Swisher has built an impressive career reporting on–and forcefully critiquing–the world of tech, especially the ultra-wealthy power players increasingly calling the shots. Since Steve Job’s death in 2011, she’s noticed a sharp uptick amongst those Silicon Valley elite doing all sorts of “wacky shit” to try and defy aging, extend their lifespan, and possibly even stop death itself.  

On her new CNN series Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever, Kara cracks jokes and tries out some of the buzziest longevity trends, but she takes very seriously the inequality of it all – how these unproven, but potentially ground-breaking treatments remain squarely out of reach for most of us, while proven medical care continues to get more expensive with worse outcomes.  

Listen to our 2024 interview with Kara at the Tribeca Festival here.  

Join us on June 10 for our 2026 Tribeca Festival live event with Peter Dinklage and Erica Schmidt. Get your tickets here. 

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].

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Can a Republican Lieutenant Governor be reborn as a Democratic Governor? After failing to create a GOP 2.0, and being harried by Trump for admitting Biden won Georgia in 2020, Geoff Duncan has changed sides—and many of his old political positions.  

Guest: Geoff Duncan, former lieutenant governor of Georgia and a current Georgia gubernatorial candidate who switched parties from Republican to Democrat last year. 

Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.

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