Author: Slate Podcasts

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? 

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. 

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Right now, when it comes to fundraising, it certainly looks like Bernie Sanders is winning. In the last three months, his campaign has raised more money than any other Democrat in the field. And with just a few weeks left before the Iowa caucuses, Sanders is in a three-way tie for the lead alongside Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg. How is he pulling this off?

Guest: Ryan Grim, D.C. bureau chief at the Intercept. Read his latest story is about the Sanders campaign.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a little over a week, tensions in the Middle East have gone from high to fever pitch. What started with one American civilian contractor in Iraq being killed escalated to airstrikes on militia-controlled sites in Iraq and Syria, killing 24 people and wounding dozens more. Then, a siege at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad by pro-Iranian militia and a response by the Trump administration that killed Iran’s top military commander.

What went into the decision to assassinate Gen. Qassem Soleimani? And is the United States prepared for what comes next?

Guest: Fred Kaplan, Slate’s War Stories correspondent and author of The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War, out later this month.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Donald Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives just over two weeks ago. There’s just one hitch: The articles of impeachment that were passed haven’t made it to the Senate … yet. It’s part of a tactical hold by the Democrats seeking to ensure that the majority-Republican Senate holds a fair trial. What does that mean? And is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ready to do that?

Guest: Jim Newell, senior politics writer for Slate.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices