Slate News

After months of negotiation, an infrastructure bill is finally on its way to the Senate floor. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are touting their one big successful bipartisan move, but what’s actually in the legislation? And why are Republicans willing to sign off on a win for Joe Biden? 

Guest: Jordan Weissmann, Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent.

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Why aren’t people returning to jobs they lost during the pandemic? The answer is more complicated than generous unemployment checks. 

Guest: Bram Sable-Smith, investigative reporter at Wisconsin Watch. 

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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Why aren’t people returning to jobs they lost during the pandemic? The answer is more complicated than generous unemployment checks. 

Guest: Bram Sable-Smith, investigative reporter at Wisconsin Watch. 

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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Gun violence kills thousands of Americans every year, and that pain is especially sharp in the nation’s Black communities. And during the last year of the Trump Administration, Black gun purchases surged. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by Kenn Blanchard, a minister and gun rights activist who has branded himself as a “Black Man with a Gun.” Blanchard shares how he reconciles his gun advocacy with his faith, and how he thinks Black gun owners can make themselves safer from police violence. 

Guest: Kenn Blanchard, gun rights advocate, and host of the Black Man with a Gun podcast

Podcast production by Ahyiana Angel and Jasmine Ellis

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Continuing Amicus’ summer season of deep dives into books, films, and ideas beyond the confines of the Supreme Court chamber, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by historian and chair of African American studies at Emory University professor Carol Anderson to talk about her book The Second. They discuss the long anti-Black history of gun laws in the United States and how race defines gun rights today. 

Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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On this week’s episode of The Waves, it’s all about the Olympics. Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of history and African American studies at Penn State University and co-host of the feminist sports podcast Burn it All Down, is joined by Slate’s gymnastics reporter Rebecca Schuman. The pair start with a discussion of the racial and gender inequalities that have permeated the Games, past and present. Then they get into whether it’s time for us all, like Simone Biles, to “nope” out of this complicated tradition. Davis also talks about a recent piece she did for Slate, in which she interviewed several Black women Olympians about their experiences in the Games.

Recommendations:

Amira: Rooting for Guan Chenchen on the beam. She also recommends the podcast Blind Landing, about a disastrous equipment error that had a massive impact on the gymnastics competition in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Rebecca: Watching Anna Cockrell in the 400-meter hurdles and Idalys Ortiz in judo. She also loves Ted Lasso.

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 week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, are joined by Cezary Podkul of ProPublica to talk about his in-depth article on unemployment insurance fraud, Robinhood’s IPO and ambitions of being a “super app,” and everything that’s going on with private companies in China and the stock market in Hong Kong. 

In the Plus segment: Payment for order flow. 

Mentioned in the show:

“How Unemployment Insurance Fraud Exploded During the Pandemic” by Cezary Podkul for ProPublica 

“U.S. SEC says Chinese IPO hopefuls must provide additional risk disclosures” by Echo Wang, Scott Murdoch, and Kane Wu for Reuters

“Hong Kong's Status as a Financial Center Seems Safe” by Felix Salmon for Axios

“The Time Tax” by Annie Lowrey for The Atlantic

Email: [email protected]

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

Twitter: @felixsalmon, @EmilyRPeck

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Whether it’s a phone screen or a coffee machine, why is it so hard to fix our own stuff? And what can we do to make it a bit easier?

Guest: Jason Koebler, editor-in-chief of Motherboard and contributor to the CYBER podcast

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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

Whether it’s a phone screen or a coffee machine, why is it so hard to fix our own stuff? And what can we do to make it a bit easier?

Guest: Jason Koebler, editor-in-chief of Motherboard and contributor to the CYBER podcast

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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

Whether it’s a phone screen or a coffee machine, why is it so hard to fix our own stuff? And what can we do to make it a bit easier?

Guest: Jason Koebler, editor-in-chief of Motherboard and contributor to the CYBER podcast

Host

Lizzie O’Leary

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