Slate News

Is it censorship for social media platforms to moderate their content, or is censorship when the state tells social media platforms how to moderate their content? 

Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, Slate writer on courts and the law. 

Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and 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.

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

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign; the Supreme Court’s boost for Donald Trump and review of social media’s content moderation; and Senator Mitch McConnell’s decision to time out as minority leader. Join us for our next Political Gabfest Live show in Washington, D.C. on March 27! Tickets are on sale now. Planning to attend? Submit a Listener Chatter to [email protected] and you might be picked to chatter live. 

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

Ezra Klein for The New York Times Ezra Klein Show podcast: Democrats Have a Better Option Than Biden

Jamelle Bouie for The New York Times: It’s Not as Easy as Just Getting Biden to Drop Out

Yasmeen Abutaleb and Marianne LeVine for The Washington Post: Biden wins Michigan primary but faces notable showing by ‘uncommitted’

Thomas L. Friedman for The New York Times: Israel Is Losing Its Greatest Asset: Acceptance

Karl Rove for The Wall Street Journal: Trump Goes on Fox and Shows His Weakness

Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: Supreme Court skeptical of Texas, Florida regulation of social media moderation

G.S. Hans for Balls and Strikes: How the Supreme Court’s Latest Big Tech Case Pits Cancel Culture Hysteria Against Corporate Power

Michael C. Dorf for Dorf on Law: The Partial Facial Challenge Option in the Netchoice Cases

Alan Feuer for The New York Times: In Taking Up Trump’s Immunity Claim, Supreme Court Bolstered His Delay Strategy

John Dickerson for CBS News: Examining Mitch McConnell’s legacy as Senate Republican leader

The Long Game: A Memoir by Mitch McConnell

Mariana Alfaro for The Washington Post: Here’s who could replace Mitch McConnell as Senate’s top Republican

Mark Sumner for the Daily Kos: Watch Tim Scott utterly humiliate himself for Trump

Katelyn Caralle and Sarah Ewall-Wice for the Daily Mail: Lindsey Graham is mercilessly BOOED at Trump’s South Carolina victory party: Ex-president brings Senator on stage after introducing him as a ‘little further to the left’

Saturday Night Live: Trump Victory Party Cold Open

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Molly Ryan for WRKF 89.3 Baton Rouge Public Radio: House lawmakers advance bills targeting early release from prison – and more

John: Aliza Chasan for CBS News: Cardboard box filled with unopened hockey cards sells for more than $3.7 million at auction and Joshua Rapp Learn for Discover: Schrődinger’s Cat Experiment and the Conundrum That Rules Modern Physics

David: Plainsong by Kent Haruf and City Cast: Work with us.

Listener chatter from Jacob in Chicago, Illinois: citiesbydiana on TikTok: Top 6 Best Stroads in America

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, John, and Emily discuss the Republican obsession with Hunter Biden and the possibility of impeaching President Joe Biden. See Matthew Yglesias for Slow Boring: Republicans can’t stop swallowing Russian propaganda. See also Ken Tran for USA Today: Hunter Biden denies Joe Biden involved in family business: ‘Destructive political charade’; Amy Taxin and Alanna Durkin Richer for AP: Ex-FBI informant charged with lying about Bidens to remain jailed while he awaits trial, judge rules; and Philip Bump for The Washington Post: Evaluating the anti-Biden case House Republicans offered on social media. 

In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with Kiley Reid about her book, Come and Get It.

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

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

With Biden losing thousands of votes to “uncommitted” and Trump unable to pull incumbent numbers, the Michigan primaries seemed to show that the electorate isn’t exactly enthusiastic about either candidate. What options remain for two known quantities to win votes?

Guest: David Faris, political science professor and Slate politics writer.

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, Madeline Ducharme, Anna Phillips, Paige Osburn, and Rob Gunther.

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

Sixteen-year-old Nex Benedict died one day after being beaten in an Oklahoma high school bathroom. His death has drawn attention to the more-than 50 bills that have been introduced in the state legislature targeting queer and trans people. 

Guest: Jo Yurcaba, reporter for NBC Out.

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.

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

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… are journalists killing democracy?

Mainstream news outlets are starting to move away from horse race election coverage and toward policy substance. Though it’s a slow change, it’s heralded by much of the news industry as a good one. But what if the horse race was never really the problem? 

Journalist and writer Chris Cillizza joins us to defend the horse race.

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.

You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus! Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The situation for Ukraine is slipping from a stalemate to again losing territory to the Russian invasion. After two years of combat, will American and EU allies support the Ukrainian cause for as long as it takes?  

Guest: Fred Kaplan, Slate’s war stories correspondent.

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.

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

Is RNC chairperson Ronna McDaniel to blame for Republicans’ poor fundraising and recent underperformance in elections? 

Guest: Shelby Talcott, reporter covering Trump and national Republicans for Semafor.

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.

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

Fertility doctors and their patients trying to conceive via in vitro fertilization (IVF) were stopped in their tracks this week, as the Alabama Supreme Court declared that embryos have the same rights as people. The decision has left doctors wondering if they can be sued for carrying out standard IVF procedures, and experts worry the ruling could have ramifications for IVF around the country. 

Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Constance, reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist in Omaha, Nebraska.

Want more What Next TBD? 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.

Check out Compiler here.

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

Stress is all around us, but that doesn’t mean it needs to run our entire lives. According to Dr. Romie Mushtaq – a neurologist turned corporate wellness consultant – the main culprit behind our culture of stress is what she calls a “busy brain.”

This week on Well, Now Dr. Kavita Patel and Maya Feller, RDN talk with Dr. Mushtaq about curing our busy brains and her latest book The Busy Brain Cure: The Eight-Week Plan to Find Focus, Tame Anxiety and Sleep Again.

If you liked this episode, check out: What We Get Wrong About Love

Podcast production by Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Alicia Montgomery.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The American obsession with categorizing people by race isn’t just a problem for our institutions. For multi-racial and multi-ethnic Americans, it can be intensely personal. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by journalist Natasha Alford. She shares her own unique experience navigating America’s complicated ideas about race in her new book, American Negra: A Memoir. Alford shares how her African American and Puerto Rican heritage shaped her understanding of race in her early life, and how those ideas were challenged when she attended Harvard University and later became a journalist.  

Guest: Natasha Alford, author of American Negra: A Memoir

Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola

Want more A Word? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately 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/awordplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices