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On this week’s episode of The Waves, it’s rush time! Host Kat Chow is diving deep into the #BamaRush phenomenon that has taken over the internet recently. She’s joined by professor and New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom to talk about her recent article, “In Alabama, White Tide Rushes On” They dig into the very specific “type” of college student that joins the Alabama sorority, the race and gender implications of the Greek “Machine” and the cuteness of it all. 

Fighter Reading:

Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting by Sianne Ngai

HBO documentary Bama Rush (2023) directed by Rachel Fleit

In Slate Plus: Unpacking Tressie’s piece The Enduring, Invisible Power of Blond, and all the internet chaos it caused.

If you liked this episode, check out: How Drake Betrayed Megan Thee Stallion 

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].

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/thewavesplus to help support our work.

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Kwamé Holland started his music career at the dawn of the hip-hop era. But after decades in the business, the rapper and producer is reconnecting with his first creative love – toys! And he’s building a community of Black toy lovers who don’t just collect action figures, but build and even play with them. On today’s episode of A Word, Kwamé Holland talks with host Jason Johnson about his unique path to becoming a prophet of playtime, and his work with Let’s Be Onyx, an organization that promotes the art of collectable toys.

Guest: Rapper, producer and writer Kwamé Holland, co-founder of Let’s Be Onyx

Podcast production by Ahyiana Angel

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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Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Marc Elias, who has litigated more election and voting cases than almost anyone, to talk about Alabama’s disregard for SCOTUS’ decision in the big Voting Rights Act case of last term, and why the lawlessness is the point. They also delve into the dangers of tying the disqualification of former President Donald J Trump from office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the outcomes in his criminal trials. And why, when it comes to defending democracy, depending on the courts may make sense in the short term, but faces serious problems in the long term.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to discuss Justice Samuel Alito’s chosen venue to publish a love letter to Senator Dick Durbin, Chief Justice John Roberts’ chosen venue to publish a love letter to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and why a major religious freedom case is looking more and more like a fake spike.  

Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. 

Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25 percent discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout

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This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Coco Krumme to discuss her book Optimal Illusions: The False Promise of Optimization. 

In the Plus segment: The story in Felix’s newsletter today on why the city of Birmingham in the UK has gone bankrupt.

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

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COVID’s still here but the public’s appetite for masking, social distancing, or remote learning is long gone. One palatable way to stop the spread: improving air circulation indoors. 

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, science and global health reporter for the New York Times

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 TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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When Howard County signed a $27 million contract with the start-up Zum, the company promised to modernize the way schools provide transportation. But when the school year started, that’s not what happened.

Guest: Daniel Zawodny, covering transportation for the Baltimore Banner and corps member of Report For America.

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 TBD. 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 The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer to discuss Joe Biden’s White House and The Last Politician; the war in Ukraine and the possible meeting of Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin; and Americans’ views on the value of higher education. Join us for Political Gabfest Live in Madison, Wisconsin on October 25!

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

The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future by Franklin Foer

Seung Min Kim, Stephen Groves, and Farnoush Amiri for AP: “How Biden and McCarthy struck a debt limit deal and staved off a catastrophe”

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias: “This was Biden’s core promise …”

Jasmine Wright for CNN: “Kamala Harris found her voice on abortion rights in the year after Dobbs. Now she’s making it central to her 2024 message”

Imtiaz Tyab for CBS News: “Ukraine counteroffensive makes “notable” progress near Zaporizhzhia, but it’s a grinding stalemate elsewhere”

Paul Tough for The New York Times Magazine: “Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault Is That?”

Ramesh Ponnuru in The Washington Post: “How to restore intellectual diversity on college campuses 

Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. in The Washington Post: “Could income-share agreements help solve the student debt crisis?”

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber 

Sarah Wood for U.S. News & World Report: “Paying for Meals at College: What to Know About Costs”

Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court’s Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences by Joan Biskupic 

Here are this week’s chatters: 

Emily: Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim for The New York Times: “Georgia Judge Says Two Defendants in Trump Case Will Get Early Trial Together” and Sam Gringlas for NPR: “In the Trump Georgia case, conflicting legal strategies complicate the path to trial”

Frank: The Dan Patrick Show: “Does Messi Make MLS Appear Inferior?”; How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization by Franklin Foer; Essays on Music by Theodor Adorno; and On Late Style: Music and Literature Against the Grain by Edward W. Said 

David: One Life: Frederick Douglass at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.; Michel Martin for NPR’s All Things Considered: “Picture This: Frederick Douglass Was The Most Photographed Man Of His Time”; and NPR: “’What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?’: Descendants Read Frederick Douglass’ Speech”

Listener chatter from Nicole Dorn: Jennifer Senior for The Atlantic: “The Ones We Sent Away” 

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Frank, Emily, and David discuss the writing of The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future. 

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily, David, and John talk with Barbara Kingsolver about her best-selling book, Demon Copperhead. 

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected] or X us @SlateGabfest. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth 

Research by Julie Huygen

Hosts

Franklin Foer, Emily Bazelon, and David Plotz

Follow

@SlateGabfest on X / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfest

Slate Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/

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Math and reading scores plummeted during the year of virtual learning. Kids are now back in the classroom—but they aren’t back on track. What will it take to catch up a generation —and do schools have the will and resources to make it happen?

Guest: Alec MacGillis, reporter for ProPublica.

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.

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The problem with a Congress that is statistically so much older than the country it represents is systemic and—like almost everything in Washington—much of the issue can be traced back to money in politics.

Guest: Walt Hickey, Deputy editor for data and analysis for Insider who worked on their “Red, White, and Gray” reporting project.

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.

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

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On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… supreme hubris.

The Supreme Court is currently unpopular to a historic degree. That popularity is, of course, contingent on political opinion – and whether the court has bucked it recently. But most people agree that something’s wrong with the Supreme Court as an institution.

And, according to Aaron Tang, it’s not partisanship… even though that’s a popular scapegoat. It’s overconfidence and egos running wild.

Professor and author Aaron Tang joins us to discuss what’s wrong with SCOTUS, and how we might start to fix 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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