Slate News

Is Hunter Biden’s trial proof that the justice system doesn’t care about your last name? Or is the president’s son being targeted? 

Guest: Ankush Khardori, attorney and a former federal prosecutor in the US Justice Department.

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

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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.

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Joe Biden’s new executive order severely limits migrants from seeking asylum at the border. It’s a far cry from his campaign rhetoric and the New York Times called it the most restrictive immigration policy issued by any modern Democrat. What is he trying to accomplish?

Guest: Jonathan Blitzer, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America and the Making of a Crisis.” 

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

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It’s hard to imagine music fans mourning a break-up of Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation, as a Department of Justice lawsuit requests. But even with this monopolistic middleman out of the way, touring musicians still seem destined to struggle financially.

Guest: Laura Jane Grace, musician

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Patrick Fort, and Anna Phillips.

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“Petty.” “Jealous.” That’s what many male sportscasters are saying about the women competing against WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark. The former Iowa star is bringing a new level of attention to women’s basketball, but many men who ignored the league for years are now leading the coverage. So how is sexism and racism fueling the way they’re talking about Clark and the rest of the WNBA?

On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by veteran sports journalist Jemele Hill to discuss the way the media treats Clark and the African American players who are competing with her. Hill is a contributing writer to The Atlantic, and wrote about the issue for them in the article, “The One Downside of Gender Equality in Sports.”

Guest: Veteran sports journalist Jemele Hill

Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola

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Each week, we’ve explored wellness from different perspectives, but we haven’t talked about what it means to live a full life while grappling with the real possibility of death. 

Most of us hope for a full, long life with “good” health. But a serious, possibly fatal diagnosis changes everything: Our relationships with work, loved ones, and even the way we see ourselves.

On this week’s episode of Well, Now we speak with author, journalist, and artist Suleika Jaouad. Many learned about her work in the Oscar-nominated documentary American Symphony – which chronicled her marriage to musician Jon Baptiste as his career soared and her leukemia re-emerged. 

But Suleika began documenting illness and identity long before starring in an award-winning film.

If you liked this episode, check out: “People Feel Like They’re Drowning”: The Long COVID Survivors Left Behind

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

Editing and podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.

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

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Over the past 15 years, the journalist and author Katherine Stewart has been charting the rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. On this week’s Amicus, Stewart joins Dahlia Lithwick and Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State to discuss the worrying signs of the growing power of extremist christian ideologies at the highest court in the land. Together, they trace shifts in jurisprudence that have emboldened and empowered some of the most extreme fringes of the extreme Christian right, and explain how the changing legal landscape is enabling right wing religious fever dreams to become explicit policy in a document like Project 2025. They all agree on this one thing: This is an episode about much more than flags. 

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Even the Grey Lady struggles to profit from the news. This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Semafor founder Ben Smith to discuss media profit models, the impact of Google’s AI on the news biz, and the TikTok-ification of information. In the Plus segment: Vivek Ramaswamy comes for Buzzfeed. 

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 regular 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 Jared Downing and Cheyna Roth.

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How well is the Biden administration coaxing semiconductor companies to build their chips in the United States? Compared to Taiwan, South Korea, Japan…or even mainland China, things are just okay.

Guest: Asa Fitch, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, covering the semiconductor industry.

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This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the fallout from Donald Trump’s felony conviction; the spin-up for Hunter Biden’s trial; and the upshot for college speech from campus protests with Charles Homans.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Nathaniel Rakich for 538: Trump’s conviction may be hurting him – but it’s early

Sarah Longwell in The Atlantic: The Two-Time Trump Voters Who Have Had Enough

Dafydd Townley for The Conversation: Trump guilty verdict: the fallout for US democracy

Politico Magazine: 22 Experts Predict What the Trump Conviction Will Mean for 2024 and Beyond

CBS News: Watch: Biden speaks at D-Day commemoration ceremony

Perry Stein for The Washington Post: Gun counts Hunter Biden faces are rarely stand-alone charges and Perry Stein, Devlin Barrett, and Matt Viser: How a fight over immunity unraveled Hunter Biden’s plea deal

Cris Barrish for WHYY: Lawyers spar in Wilmington court over whether Hunter Biden ‘knowingly’ lied on federal gun purchase form about drug use

Eugene Daniels for Politico: Biden issues a rare statement on his son’s criminal trial

Mini Racker for Time: How Hunter Biden’s Scandals Compare to Those of Trump’s Family Members

Matthew Yglesias for Vox: Nepotism and the 2020 election, explained

Emily Bazelon and Charles Homans for The New York Times: The Battle Over College Speech Will Outlive the Encampments

Here & Now on WBUR: Pro-Palestinian protesters at Brown reach deal with university

Emma H. Haidar and Cam E. Kettles for The Harvard Crimson: Harvard Will Refrain From Controversial Statements About Public Policy Issues

Paul Alivisatos in The Wall Street Journal: Why I Ended the University of Chicago Protest Encampment

Greta Reich and Caroline Chen for The Stanford Daily: Pro-Palestine protesters detained following occupation of president’s office, face immediate suspension

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Liz Goodwin for The Washington Post: Senate Republicans vote against making contraception a federal right and Ellen Wexler for Smithsonian Magazine: The 150-Year-Old Comstock Act Could Transform the Abortion Debate

John: Marco Hernandez, Jeffrey Gettleman, Finbarr O’Reilly, and Tim Wallace for The New York Times: What Ukraine Has Lost and Helena Skinner and Emma Ogao for ABC News: Satellite images show devastation in Sudan 1 year since conflict began

David: Alina Chan in The New York Times: Why the Pandemic Probably Started in a Lab, in 5 Key Points

Listener chatter from Kevin Cassidy in Sawyer, Michigan: Dyartorin Crafts: How to make Leonardo Da Vinci Bridge using popsicle sticks and HeyDadHey: How To Make A Da Vinci Bridge

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David talk about changes at the Washington Post and the state of journalism. See Oliver Darcy for CNN: Washington Post abruptly replaces executive editor Sally Buzbee in shakeup, David Folkenflik for NPR: New CEO of ‘The Washington Post’ puts former colleagues in power, and David Bauder for AP: With its top editor abruptly gone, The Washington Post grapples with a hastily announced restructure. See also Edward Helmore for The Guardian: ‘The final act’: fears US journalism crisis could destabilize 2024 election and Jack Shafer for Slate: The New Vanity Press Moguls. 

In the next Gabfest Reads, David talks with Sierra Greer about her new book, Annie Bot: A Novel.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected]. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth

Research by Julie Huygen

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