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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure as HHS Secretary has meant turmoil for the CDC: thousands of employees have either been let go, or are unclear on their employment status; leadership has been stepping down; and there was a shooting at their Atlanta building in August. The result is RFK being yelled at in the Senate, thousands of CDC employees calling for his resignation, and a country less prepared for the next pandemic. 

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, science and global health reporter at the New York Times. 

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

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An Inflation Reduction Act subsidy for electric vehicles is being shut down by the Trump administration at the end of September, and automakers are preparing for sales of EVs to slow. Can this nascent industry survive? 

Guest: Ryan Felton, reporter covering the automotive industry for the Wall Street Journal

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An Inflation Reduction Act subsidy for electric vehicles is being shut down by the Trump administration at the end of September, and automakers are preparing for sales of EVs to slow. Can this nascent industry survive? 

Guest: ⁠Ryan Felton⁠, reporter covering the automotive industry for the Wall Street Journal

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On today’s episode, hosts Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay are joined by Spitfire News writer Kat Tenbarge, who came to the defense of the Gaylor fandom (people who believe Taylor Swift is secretly queer) after they were accused of “crashing out” in light of her engagement to Travis Kelce. But who are the Gaylors, really? And why are they always the butt of the joke?

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This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, Candice Lim, and Kate Lindsay.

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There is a “stuckness” to American political life right now, which has become a seemingly inexorable centrifuge of polarization, victimization and power grabbing. The constitution is brandished as sword and shield, and also as though it is the word of God. Americans, it seems, have lost the ability to think creatively and expansively about the constitution, and our ability to amend it. On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is in conversation with Jill Lepore, whose new book “We The People: A History of The U.S. The Constitution is a thorough and bold excavation of a central, but utterly neglected part of America’s constitutional scheme: the amendment process. In her book, and in this interview, Lepore challenges Americans to rekindle their constitutional imaginations and really think about what the act of mending, repairing, or amending has meant through the nation’s history, and could mean for a country on the brink. 

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This week: Tesla offered Elon Musk an incentive package worth a trillion dollars.   Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck discuss Tesla's motivation and why Musk, already the richest man in the world, would be tempted by the outrageous number. Then, the big antitrust case against Google went out with a whimper, with the Judge ruling that they are a monopoly but they don’t need to break up the company if they follow a few new rules. The hosts discuss the logic behind the decision and what the ruling might signal to other companies. And finally, with the prospect of Trump’s tariffs being ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, traders are buying up tariff refund rights. So, Felix gets to nerd out about litigation finance. 

In the Slate Plus episode: Tilting at Wind Turbines 

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Podcast production by Jessamine Molli and Cheyna Roth.

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We’ve been told that artificial intelligence can write, code, generate images—it can do everything…except feasibly turn a profit. But investing in A.I. has nevertheless become a pillar of the U.S. economy. Where is this leading us?

Guest: Ed Zitron, author of the newsletter Where’s Your Ed At and host of the podcast Better Offline.

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This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what the spate of legal defeats for the Trump administration portends as cases wind toward the Supreme Court, the real world effects of RFK Jr. gutting the CDC with guest Dr. Josh Sharfstein, and whether Democrats should compel government shutdown or avoid it now that Congress is back.

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss NASA Voyager’s journey through space as it reaches a new milestone and wax philosophical about the immensity of the universe and Earth’s place in it.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Jonathan Mahler about his new book, The Gods of New York. They discuss the unraveling of Mayor Ed Koch’s New York City; how the city’s current mayoral race is mirroring the past; and more.

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

Podcast production by Kevin Bendis

Research by Emily Ditto

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From the gold accents going up in the White House, to his orders to bring back classical design to federal buildings, Donald Trump is a president with a very specific aesthetic sensibility—which often is a manifestation of his politics.

Guest:  Abdallah Fayyad, policy correspondent at Vox

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

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Donald Trump has been working to expand his presidential influence into places that are supposed to operate independently, like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve, and even into Congress’s constitutionally appointed “power of the purse.” As Congress returns to Washington, is this nominally co-equal branch of government willing to wrest its power back?

Guest: Luke Broadwater, reporter covering the White House for The New York Times. 

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

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