Slate News

OpenAI is shutting down its video generator Sora less than six months after it launched, and just three months since it signed a deal with Disney. Is this an A.I. company fine tuning its offerings, or the long-awaited popping of the A.I. bubble?

Guest: Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media.

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

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Artificial intelligence is working its way into every aspect of our lives, including law and immigration enforcement, and the industry is spending millions of dollars to ensure it can continue to do so unregulated. But as evidence of bias appears in this nascent tech, this congresswoman wants to ensure we’re not just recreating our historical biases and problems all over again—which is to say, she wants guardrails. 

Guest: Summer Lee, U.S. representative for Pennsylvania’s 12th district.

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.

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On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick checks in with Protect Democracy co-founder Ian Bassin about the United States’ speedy retreat from democracy, and how lawyers seeking to protect the constitution are adapting their strategies for Trump 2.0. While Trump’s second term is following an authoritarian playbook, some courts are acting as speed bumps, while others (we’re looking at you, SCOTUS), are increasingly pickled in right-wing brine. The velocity of America’s descent into illiberalism is startling and dangerous, but Bassin argues it is also potentially self-defeating, thanks to Trump’s historic unpopularity that is growing faster than his ability to consolidate power. The two discuss Protect Democracy’s shift from a litigation-heavy strategy to combining court fights with coalition-building, and Ian outlines threats to the 2026 elections—“deceive, disrupt, deny”—including efforts like the SAVE Act and why the President’s decision to deploy ICE to stand around in airports around the country is a clear effort to normalize their presence at polling places in November. But he also stresses that overwhelming participation and public organizing are the ultimate backstops if election results are contested.

Suggested reading: protectdemocracy.org/executive-override/

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This week: Just minutes before Trump posted about talks with Iran, oil markets saw a flurry of activity. Conspiracy theories followed. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck dissect the suspicious timing of those trades and the possibility of insider trading within the Trump administration. Then, the hosts react to the surprising ruling on Meta and social media addiction. And: OpenAI’s sudden decision to shut down its consumer-facing video generation platform, Sora. 

In the Slate Plus episode: The treasury market rom-com

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Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

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 Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries!

Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the intersection of culture and finance. On this episode, Nadira and Felix take a trip to a bathhouse for spirits in 2001’s Spirited Away.

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the film follows a girl named Chihiro, who becomes trapped in the spirit world and must save her parents, encountering soot sprites, river spirits, a giant baby, and many more wonderful and terrifying beings along the way.

The film is a masterpiece of storytelling and technical animation, but as Felix explains, it also works as a highly developed metaphor for capital and the Japanese economy at the close of the millennium: the bathhouse stands in for a stable but exploitative economic system, beset by outside capital forces, with workers stripped of their names and identities.

This is the final episode of the Money On Film miniseries. Thanks for listening!

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What YouTube and Meta’s loss in the “social media addiction trial” could mean for your feed.

Guest: Ryan Mac, business and technology reporter for the New York Times.

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.

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This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss why politicians keep failing to solve the escalating crisis of American air travel as massive lines and ICE agents disrupt airport operations, what could happen to the 2026 elections when the Supreme Court decides the fate of a state law on mail-in ballot deadlines, and how two jury verdicts provide new legal hooks to hold social media companies liable for harms to children.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the new book This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History with author and historian Beverly Gage. They talk about the value of exploring U.S. historical sites in all their complexity as the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence approaches this summer.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, David Plotz talks with journalist Gabriel Sherman about his new book Bonfire of the Murdochs: How the Epic Fight to Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke a Family—and the World. Sherman, who also wrote the bestselling biography of Fox News chief Roger Ailes, spent 15 years reporting on the Murdoch empire. In this book he turns his lens on the family itself — the rivalries, the wounds, and the secret Nevada courtroom battle that finally forced Rupert’s hand.

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

Podcast production by Nina Porzucki

Research by Emily Ditto

You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here.

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Find out more about David Plotz's monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.  

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Trump’s unpredictability injects uncertainty into the economy, foreign policy, and everything else he touches. Even as his war messaging varies wildly moment to moment, the world economy is certain of one thing: it’s bad for the Strait of Hormuz to close.

Guest:  Justin Wolfers, professor of economics at the University of Michigan. 

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

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Leftist political commentator Hasan Piker feels the Democrats have missed an opportunity to articulate their opposition to Trump’s foreign policy—in Venezuela, Iran, and, from the sound of it, soon enough in Cuba, where Piker just visited. 

Guest: Hasan Piker, political commentator on Twitch who recently joined the Nuestra América convoy to Havana, Cuba.

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

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Welcome to a very special Money On Film miniseries!

Over three episodes, Slate Money’s Felix Salmon and Slate culture writer Nadira Goffe revisit three films at the intersection of culture and finance. On this episode, Felix and Nadira discuss dating and money in Celine Song’s 2025 romantic comedy Materialists, which centers on a love triangle between a millionaire matchmaker (Dakota Johnson), a hunky financier (Pedro Pascal), and an old flame and out-of-work actor (Chris Evans). While not particularly romantic or comedic, the film raises questions about the role money plays in modern dating, how we select partners based on financial viability, and whether romance itself might be a bit overrated.

Next time on Money On Film: Spirited Away. See you then!

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