Slate News

This week, David Plotz, Emily Bazelon, and Heather McGhee discuss the primaries and Kansan voters’ defense of abortion; Alex Jones on trial; and Annie Lowrey’s story of surviving pregnancy in the United States. 

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

Sam Adler-Bell for The New York Times: “The Violent Fantasies of Blake Masters”

Jason Beeferman for The Texas Tribune: “How Sandy Hook Lies and the Jan. 6 Inquiry Threaten to Undo Alex Jones”

Annie Lowrey for The Atlantic: “American Motherhood”

Annie Lowrey for The Atlantic: “The Most Important Study in the Abortion Debate”

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, by Heather McGhee

The Sum of Us podcast

Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, by Emily Bazelon

Black Reconstruction in America, by W. E. B. Du Bois 

Forbidden City, by Vanessa Hua

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: The Law & Justice Journalism Project

Heather: A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas

David: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke; Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke; Testament of Youth, by Vera Brittain

Listener chatter from Mohamed El-Sheik: Adriana E. Ramírez for The Atlantic: “Everyone Loses on Jeopardy Eventually”

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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In the primaries of purple states like Michigan, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, Trump-backed, far-right candidates have been getting a boost from a surprising source: the Democrats. Calculating that it will give their party the edge in general elections, local and national Dems have spent thousands elevating extremists. But will the strategy pay off? 

Guest: Jim Newell, senior politics writer for Slate

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Known as the “Merchant of Death,” Viktor Bout illegally ferried weapons, diamonds, and even UN peacekeepers around the world. The man who wrote the book on Bout thinks it’s time to send him home, if it can free Brittney Griner.

Guest: Douglas Farah, co-author of Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible.

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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Following a 2017 state supreme court decision, the right to an abortion is recognized by Kansas’s state constitution. But with some suspect scheduling and seemingly deliberately confusing language, citizens of Kansas are voting today on whether to return control over reproductive healthcare to the state’s deeply Republican legislature. 

Guest: Stephen R. McAllister, former U.S. district attorney and University of Kansas law professor.

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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Like many families during the Trump years, the Reffitts fought about politics. But not many families had a son calling the FBI on his father. Now Guy Reffitt is facing a 15-year sentence for domestic terrorism for his actions on Jan. 6 while his loved ones pick up the pieces.

Guest: Ilya Marritz, senior reporter at WNYC, co-host of the Wondery podcast “Will be Wild”.

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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Researchers have untangled a world of illicit trade that threatens ecosystems and endangers species.

Guest: Dr. Alice Hughes, Richard Stewart

Host: Lizzie O'Leary

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People are back in the office; schools are planning full classes in the fall; masks are seen less and less frequently. It’s the third COVID summer, but the latest variant of the virus is causing another surge in infection rates and hospitalizations. What do we need to do to protect ourselves now? And how can we be prepared for monkeypox, and the next pandemic?

Guest: Dr. Ebony Hilton, practicing physician, and a frequent medical analyst for MSNBC.

Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola

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In the second of Amicus’ Summer Series of interviews that step out of the day to day of jurisprudence to look at justice and the Supreme Court through a wide-angle lens, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by actor and playwright Heidi Schreck. Schreck created and starred in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award - nominated “What the Constitution Means to Me” and is a fierce advocate for abortion rights. Together, they try to locate the spot at the intersection of politics, law, culture, media and art that might provide a space to adequately describe the impacts of the Dobbs decision. And that is where they find the galvanizing forces and creative feats of imagination that have served previous generations in the fight for equal rights, and that will fuel the fight to come. 

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This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the merits of the Inflation Reduction Act and Larry Summers’ role in moving it along, the low GDP numbers, and a listener question about corporate landlords.

In the Plus segment: This week’s Slate piece on the sham that is college financial aid.

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

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On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate senior producer Cheyna Roth is joined by staff writer Molly Olmstead to talk about the much-hyped threat against the Catholic Church in the wake of Roe’s dismantling. They talk about Molly’s piece, “Is the Catholic Church Under Attack” and where the vandalism against churches stacks up against other religious persecution. Then they take a look at “Cafeteria Catholics” - those who follow the religion, but not all the teachings at the top of the male hierarchy.   

In Slate Plus, is the “Little Miss” meme feminist?

Recommendations:

Cheyna: Apple+ series Stillwater

Molly: Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith 

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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