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We’re re-running some of our favorite episodes from the past year. This episode originally aired in September 2021.

Who are the people seeking a religious exemption to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate? What are their religious claims? And how do workplaces decide who has a real claim to belief versus a convenient letter from a pastor-for-hire? 

Guest: Ruth Graham, 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. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Danielle Hewitt, Elena Schwartz, Davis Land, and Carmel Delshad.

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This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Stacy-Marie Ishmael talk all about retirement with Teresa Ghilarducci, retirement expert and professor at the New School for Social Research. They dig into what’s wrong with the retirement system and who is currently benefiting from its brokenness, how people can get the most out of retirement investments and the role gender plays in retirement planning. 

In the Plus segment: Succession’s Logan Roy’s retirement plan. 

Email: [email protected]

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth

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

On this week’s episode of The Waves, it’s a very special reunion episode. Original hosts of The Waves, June Thomas, Noreen Malone, and Hanna Rosin gather together to catch up on everything that’s happened since their last episode in July 2019. They talk about topics they wish they could have covered, how the workforce has changed for women, bits of culture they’ve loved over the last couple of years, and how hosting The Waves made them more interesting people. 

In Slate Plus: Are the holidays sexist?

Recommendations:

June: Showtime’s Yellowjackets

Noreen: Hulu’s series Only Murders in the Building

Hanna: The Electricity of Every Living Thing, by Katherine May, and The Great British Baking Show

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Susan Matthews and June Thomas. 

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

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This episode originally aired in September.

In the U.S., the PCR test is the gold standard for COVID testing. Common knowledge would have it that the test is more accurate—and therefore more effective at containing the spread of the disease—than the rapid antigen test. 

What if that isn’t quite true? 

Guest: Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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

This episode originally aired in September.

In the U.S., the PCR test is the gold standard for COVID testing. Common knowledge would have it that the test is more accurate—and therefore more effective at containing the spread of the disease—than the rapid antigen test. 

What if that isn’t quite true? 

Guest: Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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

It’s the holiday season, which means it’s time to press play on your favorite Christmas movies. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by essayist and pop culture critic Rebecca Theodore-Vachon to talk about what really makes a Black Christmas movie, and which classics they recommend. 

Guest: Rebecca Theodore-Vachon, essayist, pop culture critic, and host of The Spectrum Lounge podcast. 

Podcast production by Jasmine Ellis

 You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month.

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We’re re-running some of our favorite episodes from the past year. This episode originally aired in July 2021.

Brittany Hogan worked in diversity and inclusion for the Rockwood School District for eight years. As public debate intensified over the way race is discussed in schools and threats were made against her, Hogan eventually was pushed to resign.

Guest: Brittany Hogan, former director of educational equity and diversity for the Rockwood School District in St. Louis County.

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 Mary Wilson, Danielle Hewitt, Elena Schwartz, Davis Land, and Carmel Delshad.

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

We’re re-running some of our favorite episodes from the past year. This episode originally aired in July 2021.

Brittany Hogan worked in diversity and inclusion for the Rockwood School District for eight years. As public debate intensified over the way race is discussed in schools and threats were made against her, Hogan eventually was pushed to resign.

Guest: Brittany Hogan, former director of educational equity and diversity for the Rockwood School District in St. Louis County.

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 Mary Wilson, Danielle Hewitt, Elena Schwartz, Davis Land, and Carmel Delshad.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz discuss the future of the Democratic party's agenda, Omicron's spread across the United States and they're joined by investigative journalist Azmat Khan to talk about the deaths of civilians overseas and the lack of accuracy from the U.S. military.

Give the gift of Plus to a fellow Slate fan and they’ll receive all the benefits of membership: unlimited reading, ad-free listening, bonus content, and so much more.

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

Matthew Yglesias for Slow Boring: “$1.75 Trillion Is Plenty of Money to Write a Good Build Back Better Bill Here Are Some Solid Options”

Simon Bazelon and David Shor for Slow Boring: “A Permanent CTC Expansion With a Sharper Means-Test Would Protect Poor Kids Better And Be More Popular”

Jonathan Chait for New York Magazine: “Biden Should Take Manchin's Deal Right Now”

David Wallace-Wells for New York Magazine: “Gauteng’s Omicron Wave Is Already Peaking. Why?”

Derek Thompson for the Atlantic:”Is Omicron Milder?”

Azmat Khan for The New York Times: “Hidden Pentagon Records Reveal Patterns of Failure in Deadly Airstrikes”

Azmat Khan for The New York Times Magazine: “The Human Toll of America’s Air Wars”

Azmat Khan for The New York Times Magazine: “The Uncounted”

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad

Here’s this week’s chatter:

Emily: Katie Benner, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Charlie Savage for the New York Times: “Some Inmates Can Stay Confined at Home After Covid Emergency, Justice Dept. Says”

John: The Power of Meaning, by Emily Esfahani Smith, Mozhan Marno, and On the Meaning of Life, by Will Durant

David: Hard Knocks In Season: The Indianapolis Colts

Listener chatter from Mo Trent: stuffin.space

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, John, and David discuss their most and least useful years of formal education. Special thanks to listener Sean McPherson for the suggestion.  

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 Jocelyn Frank.

Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.

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

We’re re-running some of our favorite episodes from the past year. This episode originally aired in May 2021.

A year after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, residents near the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue—now dubbed George Floyd Square—continue to keep the area closed off. The city wants to reopen the intersection, but activists say they aren’t giving in until the community’s demands for justice are met.

Guest: Marcia Howard, security volunteer and organizer in George Floyd Square.

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 Mary Wilson, Danielle Hewitt, Elena Schwartz, Davis Land, and Carmel Delshad.

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