Author: Slate Podcasts

In 2013, Anna Wiener moved from New York to San Francisco to join the city’s booming tech scene. Over the course of four years, she worked at three companies: an e-book startup, a data analytics company, and an open-source software platform. Then, her infatuation with the tech industry took a turn.

On this week’s show, an insider’s perspective on the intoxicating promise and disappointment of Silicon Valley during the mid-decade boom.

Guest: Anna Wiener: author of Uncanny Valley and contributing writer for the New Yorker. 

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After Tuesday’s Democratic debate, the beef between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders spilled over onto national television. Derecka Purnell has been following the primary — she says the way this fight ends depends on how we think about identity politics. 

Guest: Derecka Purnell, lawyer and writer.

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Australia and the United States have a lot in common: politicians who still deny climate change, a supremely powerful energy industry, and a growing sense of dread about climate catastrophes. 

Guest: Journalist Emily Atkin. Check out her newsletter, HEATED. 

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has had some serious staying power in the Trump administration. Now with the impeachment trial on the horizon, he’s become even closer to the president. How has he managed to keep his position in President Donald Trump’s inner circle for so long? 

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Before President Donald Trump took office, Lindsey Graham was willing to reach across the aisle to work on big issues like immigration reform and climate change. Now, his total loyalty to the Trump administration is baffling close friends and political observers alike. Look a little deeper, and you'll see that this is just one more step in Graham's fight for relevance.

Guest: Mark Binelli writes for Rolling Stone and New York Times Magazine. 

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In 2019, for the first time, more advertising money went toward targeted digital ads in the U.S. than on radio, television, cable, magazine, and newspaper ads combined. The moment was the culmination of a decadeslong journey that has completely transformed media, politics, and privacy.

How did the targeted ad come to hold so much power? And what did we lose along the way?

Guest: Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies at the University of Virginia.

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Over a year ago, Florida residents approved the restoration of voting rights for approximately 1.4 million ex-felons in the state. But in the months since, lawmakers have tried to implement new hurdles for former convicts trying to access the ballot box. Now, advocates in some counties are trying to find a solution to register voters anyway. 

Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, Justice reporter for Slate

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Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, Danielle Hewitt, and Mara Silvers.

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Presidents have always skirted the rules when it comes to gaining authorization from Congress to use military force. President Donald Trump’s direction to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani takes it to a whole new level and exposes just how weak the War Powers Act has become.

Guest: Oona Hathaway, Author of The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World.

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Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, Danielle Hewitt, and Mara Silvers.

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