Author: Slate Podcasts

A shortage of basic chemotherapy drugs to treat cancer is jeopardizing the care of hundreds of thousands of patients. The drugs aren’t expensive, or patented—so where are they? 

Guest: Ed Yong, science journalist at The Atlantic.

Host: Lizzie O'Leary

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To shore up sagging enrollment, the U.S. military is doing what American industry does—looking to immigrants to fill out their numbers. Once a faster way to citizenship, serving in the armed forces has become another place where being an immigrant can carry harsh penalties—and can instead be a step on the way to deportation.

Guest: Sofya Aptekar, associate professor of urban studies, school of labor and urban studies, CUNY. Author of Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Madeline Ducharme, Anna Phillips, Paige Osburn, and Rob Gunther with help from Laura Spencer.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s politics, such as they can be parsed, are a mix of conspiracy theories and vibes. But in a post-Trump landscape, and with RFK polling at 20 percent among Democratic presidential candidates, cranky contrarians have to be taken seriously—right?

Guest: Vera Bergengruen, investigative correspondent at Time magazine.

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Kevin McCarthy has always had his eyes on one job - Speaker of the House. But after Republicans won Congress’s lower chamber by a razor thin majority, the party’s right wing extracted major concessions before handing over the gavel. When the GOP accepted a deal with the Biden administration to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, House hardliners felt betrayed. Now McCarthy faces renewed attacks on his leadership from within his own party. With important legislation that still needs to be passed, and little wiggle room for dissent, how does McCarthy hang on?

Guest: Rachael Bade, POLITICO Senior Washington Correspondent

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

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For months, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has been railing against his own country’s military leadership. It all came to a head this weekend – when the mercenary leader gathered his troops, took over a Russian city, and started to march towards Moscow. Then – as suddenly as it began – it stopped. Russia says Prigozhin has fled to Belarus, and his troops will all be granted amnesty. But an independent Russian journalist in exile doubts the official narrative, and speculates on Vladimir Putin’s future.. 

Guest: Mikhail Zygar, Russian journalist and author of the upcoming book, “War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine” 

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

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Semaglutide, better known by its brand name Ozempic, has been making headlines as a weight loss drug – despite only having FDA approval to treat diabetes. Now, some say it doesn’t just quell cravings for food – it helps quiet cravings for alcohol, drugs, and other compulsive behaviors. For years, researchers have been studying semaglutide's effectiveness as an addiction cure in animals. What have they found? And – does it actually work? 

Guest: Sarah Zhang covers health and medicine for The Atlantic

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