Hot Measles Summer
It’s a record-breaking year for America: we’ve now had the most reported cases of measles since the disease was declared “eradicated” in 2000. How did public health backslide so hard that it undid dec...
11 Jul 202523min
Stage Managing Sex in Hollywood
In the wake of #MeToo, Hollywood productions began hiring “intimacy coordinators,” people who work to ensure sex scenes are safe and comfortable for performers. How are they working out so far? Guest:...
10 Jul 202527min
Was the Flash Flooding in Texas Preventable?
After one of the deadliest floods in American history in central Texas, people are looking at cuts to the National Weather Service and FEMA’s absence contributing to the devastation. But one looming p...
9 Jul 202521min
Is Trump Running the Fugitive Slave Act Playbook?
A federal force—often defying local governance—coming to take people away without due process has happened before. What lessons can be drawn from parallels between a law that led to the Civil War and ...
8 Jul 202520min
The Spectacle of “Alligator Alcatraz” Is the Point
Built in just eight days, Donald Trump and Kristi Noem toured “Alligator Alcatraz,” a migrant detention facility built on a disused airstrip in the Florida Everglades. Even before Trump touched down i...
7 Jul 202523min
How A.I. Lost (and Won) the Big Beautiful Debate
As the One Big Beautiful Bill bounced around Congress, one provision—the 10-year moratorium on states making laws to regulate artificial intelligence—fell out. But AI-fans don’t need to worry, there’s...
6 Jul 202524min
Bonus: When the Internet Stopped Being Fun
Is anyone having fun on the internet anymore? Let’s all go touch grass.Guest: Scaachi Koul, Slate senior writer and author of “It’s Time to Log Off.”This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now ...
4 Jul 20254min
Rerun: Death of the Weather Forecast?
This episode was originally published on April 27, 2025. The Trump administration has already begun cutting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the U.S. National Weathe...
4 Jul 202523min
