Slate News

The Department of Justice announced this month that they were investigating allegations that leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention mishandled sexual abuse accusations for decades. How have abusers exploited the church’s decentralized structure and notions of forgiveness to avoid accountability, and how have church teachings about sexuality and “purity culture” allowed the abuse to continue?

Guest: Robert Downen, reporter at the Houston Chronicle. 

Jules Woodson, co-Founder & COO of Help;Hear;Heal, a nonprofit providing therapy funding for survivors of sexual abuse.

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Despite its fraught history of botched executions, the state of Oklahoma is preparing to begin a 29 month execution spree this week. 25 dates have been set for men with severe mental illness, personal histories of childhood abuse, inadequate legal representation, or claims of innocence. Though these inmates have been deemed "the worst of the worst," activist nun Sister Helen Prejean implores the world to look at fuller pictures of their lives, and seek out an alternative to the death penalty.

Guest: Sister Helen Prejean, anti-death penalty activist and author of Dead Man Walking, The Death of Innocents, and River of Fire.

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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As part of a stunt to protest the Biden administration’s immigration policies, the governors of Texas and Arizona have been sending bus-loads of migrants to DC and New York without any support. Immigrant advocate groups are scrambling to take care of these people, who were vulnerable well before being used as political props.

Guest: Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director at New York Immigration Coalition & NYIC Action

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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There's no way to remove politics from public health.

Guest: Tim Requarth

Host: Lizzie O'Leary

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David Plotz talks with author Mat Johnson about his new novel Invisible Things. Johnson’s novel tells the story of a group of astronauts that land in a bubble colony on Jupiter's biggest moon.

They talk about the challenges of writing satire when reality feels fake, how mediocre people rise up by sucking up, and why we need to look at the invisible things in our daily lives.  

Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at [email protected]. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth

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The U.S. has some of the worst maternal mortality rates in the industrialized world. And African Americans are three times more likely to die in childbirth than whites. The documentary Aftershock focuses on how the healthcare system is failing Black mothers at the most vulnerable time of their lives, and how their families are fighting to change that. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson speaks with the film’s co-director and co-producer Tonya Lewis Lee about the history of the crisis and the movement to solve it.

Aftershock is currently streaming on Hulu.

Guest: Tonya Lewis Lee

Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola

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This week, Felix Salmon, and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Eric Newcomer to discuss his piece on Marc Andreessen’s surprising choice to back Adam Neumann’s new company Flow, the current VC landscape, and Bed, Bath & Beyond’s wild meme-stock moment.

In the Plus segment: Eric’s interview with Uber’s former business chief.

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

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On this week’s episode of The Waves, the streaming wars have come for us all. The Daily Beast’s Allegra Frank sits down with Inkoo Kang of The Washington Post to talk about what happened at HBO and where gender fits into it all. HBO Max recently canceled the nearly done Batgirl, and has been quietly removing content from its streaming service as it prepares to merge with Discovery+. Allegra and Inkoo talk about how streaming services reducing their content offering likely spells trouble for non-white, non-male voices. 

In Slate Plus, is Batman feminist? 

Recommendations:

Allegra: Never Have I Ever on Netflix

Inkoo: The Harley Quinn series on HBO Max

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Shannon Palus, Alicia Montgomery and Daisy Rosario.

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

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The Inflation Reduction Act is spurring progress towards new climate technology that, at times, sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. Will it make a dent in the fight against climate change?

Guest: Pranshu Verma

Host: Lizzie O'Leary

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This week, David Plotz, Emily Bazelon, and Benjamin Wittes discuss the Trump investigations; Liz Cheney’s defeat; and Dana Goldstein’s reporting on controversies over how to teach kids to read.

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

Jack Goldsmith for Lawfare: “Prosecuting Trump: A Reply to Josh Marshall”

Dana Goldstein for The New York Times: “An Old and Contested Solution to Boost Reading Scores: Phonics”

Dana Goldstein The New York Times: “In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat”

Dana Goldstein The New York Times: “New Reading Curriculum Is Mired in Debate Over Race and Gender”

Belinda Luscombe for Time: “Inside the Massive Effort to Change the Way Kids Are Taught to Read”

Ronald Brownstein for The Atlantic: “Liz Cheney’s Kamikaze Campaign”

Invisible Things by Mat Johnson

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Sam Levine for The Guardian: “Memphis Prosecutor Who Charged Black Woman Over Voting Error Loses Re-Election Bid”; Kim Bellware and Lateshia Beachum for The Washington Post: “Desantis Sued By Prosecutor Suspended Over Stance On Abortion-Related Crime”

Ben: The Lawfare Podcast: Allies

David: Dwight Garner for The New York Times: “Jared Kushner’s ‘Breaking History’ Is a Soulless and Very Selective Memoir”

Listener chatter from Josh Forsythe: Elizabeth P. Derryberry, Jennifer N. Phillips, Graham E. Derryberry, Michael J. Blum, and David Luther for Science: “Singing In A Silent Spring: Birds Respond To A Half-Century Soundscape Reversion During The Covid-19 Shutdown”

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, David, and Ben discuss Ben’s performance art protests at the Russian embassy in D.C.

Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at [email protected]. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.

Research by Bridgette Dunlap.

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