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This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers chat with Henry Farrell, author of Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy. Henry explains how American hegemony shifted from guns and tanks to SWIFT codes and internet policies. Can China or Russia beat it at its own game?

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 Jared Downing.

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While the What Next: TBD team spends some time with their families during the holidays, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes in January.

Pedestrian deaths in America have been rising for the last decade, while dropping in Europe and Japan. What makes the U.S. so dangerous for pedestrians?

Guest: Jessie Singer, author of There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster―Who Profits and Who Pays the Price. 

Originally aired July 16th, 2023.

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

While the What Next team spends some time with their families this week, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes Jan. 2.

For all of his success, Steven Spielberg has a spotty record at the Oscars. He’s been nominated 22 times, but he’s only won three. Is it a curse?

 This Sunday could mark a shift for the King of Hollywood’s five decades in the industry. And with The Fabelmans this year, it’s personal. 

Guest: Michael Schulman, New Yorker staff writer and the author of Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears.

Originally aired on March 9.

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Amicus—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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This week, Emily Bazelon and David Plotz are joined by Wesley Morris, critic at large for The New York Times and co-host of the Still Processing podcast, to cogitate on Conundrums 2023. 

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

Thanks to everyone who submitted Conundrums, especially Alex, Brian, Mitchell Kosht, Patricia Gonzalez, Kali Rocha, Becca Nagorsky, Kevin Maginnis, Kevin Collins, Beth Kirsch, Brian Cechnicki, Chuck Terhark, Howard W, Brian, Mike Daugherty, Alan Dybner, Tim Falzone, Matthew Gill, Cynthia Weiner, and the incomparable Phil Goldstein. 

Benjamin Wittes for Dog Shit Daily: My encounter with a shit-throwing neighborhood Karen

Jon Mendelsohn for American Songwriter: The Real Reason Why Van Halen Asked Venues For Bowls of M&Ms Containing ‘No Brown Ones’ 

The Sellout: A Novel by Paul Beatty

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel

Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry

In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom

Amy Bloom for This American Life: Exit Strategy

Gabfest Reads: He Wanted to Die Holding Hands

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, Emily, and Wesley tackle three more Conundrums. 

In the latest Gabfest Reads, John talks with Brad Stulberg about Master of Change: How to Excel When Everything Is Changing – Including You.

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

Podcast production by Jared Downing and Cheyna Roth with live show support from Katie Rayford

Research by Julie Huygen

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

While the What Next team spends some time with their families this week, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes Jan. 2.

In a recent public hearing, three government officials told Congress that not only are “unidentified anomalous phenomena” real, they’re a major national security concern. But one witness took his testimony even further, claiming the government possesses materials of “non-human origin.” How much do we really know about UAPs – or, as they’re more commonly known, UFOs? And now that Congress is involved, are we about to learn a whole lot more? 

Guest: Garrett Graff, contributor at WIRED magazine; author of the forthcoming book, “UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There”

Originally aired July 7.

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Amicus—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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

While the What Next team spends some time with their families this week, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes Jan. 2.

Everybody loves pandas—and China knows it. As we say goodbye to the National Zoo’s pandas, we look back at 50 years of “panda diplomacy” and consider its uncertain future.

Guest: E. Elena Songster, author of Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China’s Modern Icon and professor of environmental history of modern China at St. Mary’s College of California.

Originally aired Sept. 27.

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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

While the What Next team spends some time with their families this week, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes Jan. 2.

Not all of the Cardinals who elected Pope Francis are pleased with the changes he’s made, or his vision for where the Catholic Church goes next. Both the 86-year-old Francis and his detractors are preparing for his successor. Who’ll prevail?

Guest: David Gibson, Director of Fordham's Center on Religion & Culture

Originally aired Feb. 2.

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Amicus—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Carmel Delshad, and Madeline Ducharme, with help from Anna Phillips, Jared Downing, and Laura Spencer.

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

While the What Next: TBD team spends some time with their families during the holidays, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes in January.

Twitter’s “blue check” verification went from something you applied for, to something you could pay for, to something you had to pay for…to something that many celebrities wouldn’t even accept for free. Master of horror Stephen King told us he wouldn’t pay for a blue check, but he’s not going to fight it either—he just doesn’t really understand what’s going on. Does anyone at Twitter understand?

Guests: 

Alex Heath, deputy editor of The Verge

Jon Favreau, co-founder of Crooked Media, speechwriter for President Barack Obama

Stephen King, author

Originally aired April 28th, 2023.

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

On this week’s episode of The Waves, we say goodbye by contemplating a key word of the podcast - feminism. Slate senior producer Cheyna Roth and original Waves host June Thomas discuss what feminism means, the historical problems with the word, who should get to call themselves feminist, and so much more. 

Endorsements and Discussed in Episode:

A Place of Our Own by June Thomas

Between Two Wars by Cheyna Roth

In Defense of Lean In Feminism on The Waves

We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian

What the Hart Family Murders Reveal About Foster Care on The Waves

The Lady Vanishes

In Slate Plus: What is the most feminist holiday?

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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The man who rose to fame –some would say infamy– as H. Rap Brown has a uniquely American story, inventing and reinventing himself over the course of decades. He turned himself from a teenage tough guy into a civil rights leader. He abandoned the philosophy of non-violence to become a Black Power pioneer. He underwent a jailhouse conversion to Islam, and became Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a guiding force of an insular Black Muslim community. And then, almost 40 years after he stepped into the public consciousness, he was convicted of fatally shooting a cop. 

But was Imam Jamil being punished for his actions, or his past?

In today’s episode of A Word, host Jason Johnson dives into the tangled history of the man once known as H. Rap Brown, and the murder case that landed him in jail for life. His guest is Mosi Secret, journalist and the host of the Radical podcast, which explores the case and the complicated search for justice.

Guest: Mosi Secret, investigative journalist and host of the Radical podcast 

Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola

You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for $15 for your first three months.

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