Slate Business

By Slate Podcasts

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Get the latest from Slate Money and the entire Slate network's takes on the latest in the world of business and business news.

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Slate Business episodes:

04.19.2024
What Next TBD: What’s Driving Tesla’s Layoffs?
Tesla’s market cap has dropped. The company had its biggest round of layoffs ever. The Cybertruck doesn’t seem to be taking off. And Elon’s posting through it. Is Tesla in serious trouble? Guest: Dana Hull, Bloomberg reporter and contributor to the...
04.18.2024
What Next: Is It Too Late to Escape “Forever Chemicals”?
Man-made per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, are found in all sorts of industrial and consumer products, including carpets, rain jackets, and makeup. They’re also in our drinking water—and in our blood. The EPA has recently announced plans to regulate...
04.16.2024
Money Talks: Felix Wins His Crypto Bet
Five years ago, tech investor Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz bet our own Felix Salmon a 100-year-old bottle of wine that 10% of Americans would be using Bitcoin to pay for something by now. Ben lost, of course, but he’s...
04.14.2024
What Next TBD: Is America Ready for Legal Psychedelics?
How the semi-legalization of marijuana has drawn a road map for legalizing psychedelics—and also provided a list of pitfalls to be avoided. Guest: Jane C. Hu, science journalist and author of the newsletter The Microdose. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to...
04.13.2024
Slate Money: Why America’s Internet Sucks
This week, Slate Money hacks the mainframe! Washington Post tech writer Shira Ovide joins Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers to discuss what’s wrong with America’s internet industry, how YouTube became the media empire no one talks about, and...
04.12.2024
What Next TBD: Does Google Suck Now?
Why lately our search engines just don’t seem to deliver results. Guest: Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media and co-host of the 404 Media Podcast. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What...
04.10.2024
Decoder Ring: Can the “Bookazine” Save Magazines?
Magazines have fallen on hard times – especially the weekly news, fashion, and celebrity mags that once dominated newsstands. The revenue from magazine racks has plummeted in recent years, and many magazines have stopped appearing in print or shut down...
04.08.2024
What Next: How Young Is Too Young to Work?
In response to a spike in child labor violations, some states are strengthening their laws against the practice—while 16 states have weakened laws against child labor. What’s going on? Guest: Lauren Kaori Gurley, labor reporter for the Washington Post. Want more What...
04.07.2024
What Next TBD: America Needs More Power
The demand for electricity is surging in the U.S. With increasing amounts of power going towards artificial intelligence, manufacturing and electric vehicles, can the grid keep up? Guest: Evan Halper, business reporter covering the energy transition for the Washington Post Want more...
04.06.2024
Slate Money: EVs Need a Charge-Up
This week: Americans are less revved up about EVs. Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss if Elon Musk’s mischief has played a role in slowing sales. Also: the crisis in the wine industry, and how a combination investigative...
04.05.2024
What Next TBD: Truth Social’s Rocky Week
Donald Trump got a huge financial boost when Truth Social went public last week—or did he? Guest: Nitish Pahwa, associate writer on business and tech for Slate. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the...
04.02.2024
Slate Money: How to Escape the Invisible Factory
For this edition of Money Talks: Are you feeling trapped in Zoom/Teams/Slack purgatory? Author Cal Newport’s book Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout has a way forward. Host Emily Peck speaks with him about how the digital...
04.02.2024
Hear Me Out: Don’t Blame Capitalism For The Housing Crisis
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: housing the nation. We have an affordable housing problem — and an affordability problem, period, but that’s another show. When we talk about solutions to homelessness and cost burden for renters and homeowners alike, many...
03.31.2024
What Next TBD: The Psychological Toll of Mars
From science fiction writers to American presidents to Elon Musk, everyone’s eager to send people to Mars. But, even if you could nail the physical aspects, are Earthlings cut out for life on Mars mentally? Guest: Nathaniel Rich, contributing writer for...
03.30.2024
ICYMI: To Ban or Not to Ban TikTok
Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim ask their most pressing questions about the bipartisan bill that would require TikTok’s parent company to sell the app or face a ban on all devices in the U.S. While the bill is not expected...
03.30.2024
Slate Money: How Do You Bribe a President? Meme Stocks.
This week: Truth Social is the latest meme stock, and buying it could win favor with a president. Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss what Truth Social means for Trump, whether Sam Bankman-Fried’s 25-year sentence is too harsh,...
03.29.2024
What Next TBD: Can Boeing Pull Out of This Tailspin?
How supply chains, the pandemic, and a steady stream of Wall Street money led to a crisis at Boeing. Guest: Jon Ostrower, editor-in-chief of the website the Air Current. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening...
03.24.2024
What Next TBD: The Next Round of the Union Fight
After organized-labor victories at Amazon, with automakers, and in Hollywood, big corporations are striking back by, among other things, suing the National Labor Relations Board. Guest: Noam Scheiber, reporter for the New York Times covering working and workers. Want more What Next...
03.23.2024
Slate Money: Is Apple’s Monopoly Good for Us?
This week: Biden’s comin’ for your iPhone! Or at least, his administration wants to make it less restrictive to third-party developers. Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the new Apple DOJ lawsuit, how Reddit can leverage its massive...
03.22.2024
What Next TBD: Reddit’s IPO Gamble
Despite the blackouts, moderator revolts, and long string of controversies, Reddit remains an active, healthy website. As the site goes public this week, can it remain that way? Guest: Priya Anand, Bloomberg News tech reporter. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to...
03.19.2024
Slate Money: What Happens When a Country Won’t Pay Its Debt?
For this edition of Money Talks, Felix Salmon chats with Jay Newman, the former hedge fund manager who helped Ellis Management recover $2.4 billion from Argentina after that country defaulted on its loans. Jay shares his philosophy on sovereign debt...
03.17.2024
What Next TBD: When Private Equity Gets in to Health Care
Private equity firms have been buying up doctors’ offices and hospitals around the country. But if profits are the primary goal, what happens to the cost and quality of healthcare for patients? Guest: Gretchen Morgenson, senior financial reporter for the NBC...
03.16.2024
Slate Money: Work is Mid
This week: Americans don’t care as much about work. They have better things to do. Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the prospect of a four-day workweek and what it could mean for the economy. Also: How Liquid Death...
03.15.2024
What Next TBD: Is TikTok Cooked This Time?
TikTok’s connection to the Chinese government has been a Washington talking point since the Trump administration, but earlier this month lawmakers in the House introduced a bill requiring the app’s parent company to either divest the company into American hands—or...
03.13.2024
Decoder Ring: Why Stylists Rule the Red Carpet
Like a manager or an agent or a publicist, a stylist has become a kind of must-have accessory for well-dressed, A-list celebrities. It’s just expected that they will have hired someone to select the clothes they’ll wear at public appearances....
03.12.2024
Death, Sex & Money: Who’s Driving Your Uber?
This week, we’re revisiting an episode about the transitional lives of Uber drivers. Anna and then-producer Katie Bishop hitched multiple rides in the Bay Area and heard stories about immigration, domestic violence, personal finance, and more. Death, Sex & Money is...
03.12.2024
What Next: Biden's War on Junk Fees
Extra charges and fees for everything from booking a hotel to buying concert tickets have become an insidious part of daily life. President Biden is hoping that by outlawing so-called “junk fees,” he can win some goodwill with voters before...
03.12.2024
Slate Money: Her Boyfriends Couldn’t Handle Her Success
In a special episode of Money Talks, Emily Peck chats with writer/director Chloe Domont, whose feminist thriller Fair Play explores what happens when an ambitious woman outshines her well-meaning but insecure partner. It was inspired by Chloe’s experience surpassing the...
03.10.2024
What Next TBD: Instagram’s Pedophile Problem
As the debate around child safety online rages on, an investigation by The New York Times found a seedy world of pedophiles interacting with child influencer accounts, often run by their parents, on Instagram. Guest: Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, investigative reporter at the...
03.09.2024
ICYMI: Protecting Child Influencers From Their Parents
Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim are joined by writer and journalist Fortesa Latifi who has been reporting extensively on child influencer legislation for Teen Vogue. In August 2023, the governor of Illinois passed an amendment to the state’s child labor law that...
03.09.2024
Slate Money: Are Wallets Obsolete?
The New York Times declared that physical wallets are on the outs. But is digital enough? Felix Salmon Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers discuss! Also: Steve Mnuchin’s heroic $1 billion bailout of New York Community Bank, and new rules requiring...
03.08.2024
What Next TBD: Why TikTok Went Silent
Thousands of songs have disappeared from TikTok in recent months as music giant Universal Music Group, or UMG, has pulled its catalog from the app. UMG claims that TikTok is a music platform, and that TikTok needs to pay more...
03.05.2024
Slate Money: Citibank’s Kid Millionaire
In this Money Talks. Felix Salmon chats with former trader Gary Stevenson, author of The Trading Game: A Confession. In the book and conversation, Gary tells how a card game made him Citibank’s youngest trader…and how betting on economic downfall...
03.03.2024
What Next TBD: Google’s Scam Obituary Problem
Why scam obituaries are edging out earnest ones, with the help of artificial intelligence and an adept Google game. Guest: Mia Sato, reporter for The Verge. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole...
03.02.2024
Slate Money: Musk vs. the AI Overlords
This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers ponder the future of computers, cars, and…fast food? They discuss why Elon Musk is suing Sam Altman and OpenAI and the altruistic origins of ChatGPT. Also: Wendy’s “surge pricing” gaff had...
03.02.2024
ICYMI: Rachel Karten on Snark Subreddits and Ryan Sheckler
Candice Lim is joined by Link in Bio writer Rachel Karten, whose Substack breaks down how Stanley Cups went viral, why the Duolingo owl got a BBL and how “seemingly ranch” hit supermarket shelves. Karten was a social media manager who started...
03.01.2024
What Next TBD: The Supreme Court Takes on Content Moderation
Is it censorship for social media platforms to moderate their content, or is censorship when the state tells social media platforms how to moderate their content? Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, Slate writer on courts and the law. Want more What Next TBD?...
02.28.2024
Decoder Ring: The Gen X Soda That Was Just "OK"
Thirty years ago, a new kind of soda arrived in select stores. Instead of crowing about how spectacular it was, it offered up a liquid shrug, a fizzy irony. OK Soda was an inside joke for people who knew soda...
02.25.2024
What Next TBD: Alabama’s IVF Mess
Fertility doctors and their patients trying to conceive via in vitro fertilization (IVF) were stopped in their tracks this week, as the Alabama Supreme Court declared that embryos have the same rights as people. The decision has left doctors wondering...
02.24.2024
Slate Money: Is Capital One’s Discover Deal Doomed?
This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers come with 0% interest and no fees! They discuss what the proposed merger between Capital One and Discover would mean for the rest of us and why the government probably won’t...
02.23.2024
What Next TBD: The Coasts are Sinking
Studies have found that, in tiny increments, America’s East Coast is sinking into the ground thanks to climate change. Can a new approach to urban planning mitigate the effect? Guest: Matt Simon, senior staff writer at Wired. You can read Matt’s reporting...
02.20.2024
Slate Money: I Was a Billionaire’s Right Hand
Felix Salmon sits down with Carrie Sun, whose book Private Equity: A Memoir recalls her life as the right-hand woman of a billionaire hedge fund manager. Burnt out on corporate life, Carrie wanted a low-key day job while she pursued...
02.18.2024
What Next TBD: Apple Vision Pro: The Ultimate Surveillance Device?
Apple Vision Pro goggles might be a crime against fashion but with the amount of data they can collect—both on the world around the user and on the users themselves—they have the potential to invade privacy right down to where...
02.17.2024
ICYMI: The Turbulence of Air Force Taylor
Rachelle Hampton and Candice Lim catch up on the latest stories churning the Taylor Swift media machine, from her lawyers sending a cease and desist letter to a college student, to her possibly leading a groundbreaking case against AI deepfakes. Then, they...
02.17.2024
Slate Money: America is Beating Everyone
This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers explain why factories, energy, stimulus money, and immigration have helped the U.S. economy succeed where its rivals struggle. Also: The failed Universal Music deal that silenced Taylor Swift music on TikTok,...
02.16.2024
What Next TBD: Warfare Enters the A.I. Era
The war in Ukraine reordered the priorities of the country’s growing tech sector, and has become a place for foreign companies to test out new tools with less regulation or scrutiny. Guests: Vera Bergengruen, senior correspondent at Time If you enjoy this show,...
02.14.2024
ICYMI: The State of Dating Apps
Candice Lim is joined by dating culture researcher Lakshmi Rengarajan and culture writer Kate Lindsay to discuss the past, present and future of dating apps. Online dating has been around since the days of dial-up. But apps like Tinder disrupted...
02.14.2024
What Next: The American Oligarch Class
How did America end up back in a Gilded Age of incredible wealth disparity, and how did a new generation of oligarchs bend society to their vision? Guest: Tim Murphy, senior reporter for Mother Jones. If you enjoy this show, please consider...
02.14.2024
Decoder Ring: Why Do So Many Coffee Shops Look the Same?
The eerie similarity of coffee shops all over the world was so confounding to Kyle Chayka that it led him to write the new book Filterworld: How Algorithms Are Flattening Culture. In today’s episode, Kyle’s going to walk us through...
02.11.2024
What Next TBD: Breaking Up with Dating Apps
For a while, it seemed like the only place to meet potential partners was through an app—Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, etc. But as the apps are trying to monetize their matchmaking—and some users now with a whole decade of striking out...

What's Slate Business about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Slate Business episodes:

What Next TBD: What’s Driving Tesla’s Layoffs?

What Next: Is It Too Late to Escape “Forever Chemicals”?

Money Talks: Felix Wins His Crypto Bet

What Next TBD: Is America Ready for Legal Psychedelics?

Slate Money: Why America’s Internet Sucks

What Next TBD: Does Google Suck Now?

Decoder Ring: Can the “Bookazine” Save Magazines?

What Next: How Young Is Too Young to Work?

What Next TBD: America Needs More Power

Slate Money: EVs Need a Charge-Up

What Next TBD: Truth Social’s Rocky Week

Slate Money: How to Escape the Invisible Factory

Hear Me Out: Don’t Blame Capitalism For The Housing Crisis

What Next TBD: The Psychological Toll of Mars

ICYMI: To Ban or Not to Ban TikTok

Slate Money: How Do You Bribe a President? Meme Stocks.

What Next TBD: Can Boeing Pull Out of This Tailspin?

What Next TBD: The Next Round of the Union Fight

Slate Money: Is Apple’s Monopoly Good for Us?

What Next TBD: Reddit’s IPO Gamble

Slate Money: What Happens When a Country Won’t Pay Its Debt?

What Next TBD: When Private Equity Gets in to Health Care

Slate Money: Work is Mid

What Next TBD: Is TikTok Cooked This Time?

Decoder Ring: Why Stylists Rule the Red Carpet

Death, Sex & Money: Who’s Driving Your Uber?

What Next: Biden's War on Junk Fees

Slate Money: Her Boyfriends Couldn’t Handle Her Success

What Next TBD: Instagram’s Pedophile Problem

ICYMI: Protecting Child Influencers From Their Parents

Slate Money: Are Wallets Obsolete?

What Next TBD: Why TikTok Went Silent

Slate Money: Citibank’s Kid Millionaire

What Next TBD: Google’s Scam Obituary Problem

Slate Money: Musk vs. the AI Overlords

ICYMI: Rachel Karten on Snark Subreddits and Ryan Sheckler

What Next TBD: The Supreme Court Takes on Content Moderation

Decoder Ring: The Gen X Soda That Was Just "OK"

What Next TBD: Alabama’s IVF Mess

Slate Money: Is Capital One’s Discover Deal Doomed?

What Next TBD: The Coasts are Sinking

Slate Money: I Was a Billionaire’s Right Hand

What Next TBD: Apple Vision Pro: The Ultimate Surveillance Device?

ICYMI: The Turbulence of Air Force Taylor

Slate Money: America is Beating Everyone

What Next TBD: Warfare Enters the A.I. Era

ICYMI: The State of Dating Apps

What Next: The American Oligarch Class

Decoder Ring: Why Do So Many Coffee Shops Look the Same?

What Next TBD: Breaking Up with Dating Apps