Slate Debates

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: make the friendship bracelets. Or don’t. 

Like all relationships, friendships can grow, change… and, yes, end. Sometimes for good reason. But we romanticize the BFF as the goal – to find your person – and that might not be realistic. 

Author and podcast host Kristen Meinzer joins us to make the case for not needing a best friend forever.

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.

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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.

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Few drugs in the last century have changed the landscape of healthcare and weight management like GLP-1 agonist drugs — drugs like Ozempic and WeGovy.

On this week’s episode of Well, Now we talk with Harvard professor and clinician Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford. 

Her research revolutionized obesity medicine and helped pave the way to get a diabetes drug approved for treating a condition millions have in the U.S.

If you liked this episode, check out – Doctors Agree: Obesity is a Disease. The Public Needs to Catch Up.

Well, Now is hosted by Dr. Kavita Patel and registered dietitian nutritionist Maya Feller.

Editing and podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry. 

Production assistance from Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola. 

Editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.

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

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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

For years, psychiatrists have been researching new methods to help people with treatment-resistant mental illness. These include severe cases of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other debilitating diagnoses.

One type of drug has seen some positive results in clinical trials: psychedelics like psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, and LSD.

In professional medical settings, they’re used as a part of a multifaceted approach to mental health treatment, including supervised therapy sessions while a patient is on a drug.

Recently the pharmaceutical manufacturer Lykos petitioned the FDA to approve the psychedelic MDMA as a part of caring for treatment-resistant PTSD.

Earlier this month, an advisory committee to the FDA released their vote of rejecting to approve the drug. 

Now it’s up to the FDA to make the final call, but the odds are not in the favor of Lykos and many psychiatrists and patients who’ve seen positive outcomes as a result of these MDMA-assisted trials.

Psychiatrist and entrepreneur Dave Rabin is one of the doctors pushing to approve psychedelic-assisted therapy. 

On this week’s episode of Well, Now we ask him about the results of his trials using psychedelics in therapy as well as what he thinks the future holds for this field as we wait for the FDA’s final verdict.

If you liked this episode, check out: “As Little Regulation As Guns”: How Social Media Hurts Youth Mental Health

Well, Now is hosted by Dr. Kavita Patel and registered dietitian nutritionist Maya Feller.

Editing and podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry, with support this week from Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola.

Editorial oversight from Alicia Montgomery, Vice President of Slate Audio.

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

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.

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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