Slate News

India Walton won the Democratic primary for Mayor of Buffalo, New York, in June. Her victory put her on track to become the first socialist mayor in the city’s history, and the first nationwide in more than half a century. The only problem is, her opponent - current mayor Byron Brown - refuses to bow out, and is waging a well-funded write-in campaign in the hopes of keeping his post.

How has a self-styled socialist gotten so close to running Buffalo? And why are some Democrats standing in her way?

Guest: Ross Barkan, a contributing writer to The Nation and the author of The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York.

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Slate Money is obsessed with Succession, HBO's wonderful drama about the lives of the superrich Roy family. So, every Monday, we'll be discussing the previous night's episode with spoiler-filled glee. For Episode 3, Felix Salmon and Emily Peck are joined by Matt Haber, Newsletter Editor for the Alta Journal, to armchair psychoanalyze Kendall, talk about the daddy issues of the Roy children, and debate whether Tom will actually go to prison.

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. 

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The public scrutiny applied to Facebook has been building for years, as the company grows its user base faster than its ability to regulate its content. But distrust among Facebook employees is also building, as evidenced by the remarkable disclosure of internal Facebook documents by whistleblower Frances Haugen. A crisis of trust could be what undoes Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to dominate the internet of the future.

Guest: Steven Levy is editor-at-large at WIRED and author of numerous books, including, most recently, Facebook: The Inside Story. 

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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School is supposed to be a safe environment for students to thrive. But too many school policies put non-white and disabled students on the path to prison. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson speaks with professor and author Lori Martin, about fighting the school-to-prison pipeline, and how parents can protect their children from falling into the criminal justice system.

Guest: Lori Martin, sociology professor at Louisiana State University and author of Big Box Schools: Race, Education, and the Danger of the Wal-Martization of Public Schools in America

Podcast production by Jasmine Ellis

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This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Stacy-Marie Ishmael talk about Facebook’s transformation to Metaverse, how the billionaire income tax would work (and why it won’t happen), and Hertz’s new deal with Tesla. 

In the Plus segment: How a butt dial blundered a coup.

Mentioned In the show: 

“Why Hertz’s big Tesla deal is such a blockbuster” by Rebecca Heilweil

“Democrats’ billionaire tax would heavily target 10 wealthiest Americans, but alternative plan is emerging” by Jeff Stein, Andrew Van Dam and Tony Romm

“How the Billionaires Income Tax Would Work” by Richard Rubin 

“What the Metaverse Is, Who’s in It and Why It Matters” by Nate Lanxon 

“Facebook’s Doppelganger ETF Rakes in Cash on Mistaken Identity” by Vildana Hajric and Claire Ballentine

“Facebook just revealed its new name: Meta” by Kim Lyons 

“Rogers Chairman Fires Board for Firing Him for Firing CEO” by Matt Levine 

Email: [email protected]

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth

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On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate senior editor Allegra Frank and Waves producer Cheyna Roth embrace the Halloween season and talk about horror movies. They get into the mainstays of horror and slasher movies that continue to haunt the genre to this day, ask whether the “final girl” trope is feminist, and question whether it’s possible to remake a classic without all its original (often sexist) baggage. 

In Slate Plus, Allegra and Cheyna keep the Halloween theme going and discuss whether sexy Halloween costumes are feminist. 

Recommendations:

Allegra: A very specific TikTok sound.

Cheyna: Hulu’s series Only Murders in the Building.

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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The bots aren’t just buying cool sneakers. They’re buying concert tickets. Tickets to basketball games and Broadway shows. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were buying hand sanitizer and face masks. And later, they were booking vaccine reservation spots.

Why are bots taking over certain markets? And is there anything we can do to slow them down?

Guests: 

Derreck Johnson, designer at Slate

Eric Budish, economics professor at the University of Chicago

Host: Seth Stevenson

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The bots aren’t just buying cool sneakers. They’re buying concert tickets. Tickets to basketball games and Broadway shows. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were buying hand sanitizer and face masks. And later, they were booking vaccine reservation spots.

Why are bots taking over certain markets? And is there anything we can do to slow them down?

Guests: 

Derreck Johnson, designer at Slate

Eric Budish, economics professor at the University of Chicago

Host: Seth Stevenson

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

The bots aren’t just buying cool sneakers. They’re buying concert tickets. Tickets to basketball games and Broadway shows. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were buying hand sanitizer and face masks. And later, they were booking vaccine reservation spots.

Why are bots taking over certain markets? And is there anything we can do to slow them down?

Guests: 

Derreck Johnson, designer at Slate

Eric Budish, economics professor at the University of Chicago

Host: Seth Stevenson

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

Emily, John and David talk about the Facebook Papers; Building Back (somewhat) Better; and are joined by author Pamela Paul to talk about the trivial and serious sides of her new book: 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet.

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

Casey Newton for Platformer on Substack: “How The American Internet Is Turning European”

Farhad Manjoo for The New York Times: “Facebook Is Bad. Fixing It Rashly Could Make It Much Worse.”

Adrienne LaFrance for The Atlantic: “‘History Will Not Judge Us Kindly’”

Nitish Pahwa for Slate: “The Facebook Crisis in India Might Be the Worst Facebook Crisis of All”

Alan Rappeport and Jim Tankersley for The New York Times: “Hunting for Money, Democrats Rush to Rewrite Tax Code”

100 Things We've Lost to the Internet, by Pamela Paul 

Here’s this week’s chatter:

Emily: Alix Wall for Berkeleyside: “This Couple Loves Berkeley Bowl So Much, They Took Their Engagement Photos There” (hat tip: Cyrus Farivar @cfarivar)

David: Andrea Salcedo for The Washington Post: “A Hiker Got Lost In Colorado, Then Ignored Rescuers’ Calls Because They Came From An Unknown Number”

John: Bailey Vogt for Washington City Paper: “Iconic D.C. Barber Diego D’Ambrosio Died At 87”; The Lost Daughter

Listener chatter from Kerry Donovan @KerryDonovanCO: Bill Chappell for NPR: “A Mysterious 'A Team' Just Rescued Dogs From a Volcano's Lava Zone in La Palma”

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment John, Emily, and David discuss the best things the internet has given them.

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.

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