In a blow to the Justice Department, a federal judge tosses the charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Pentagon announces it’s investigating Sen. Mark Kelly. And a death on a cruise ship prompts questions about the victim’s own stepbrother.
For decades governments have found minimum-wage rises a politically expedient means of redistribution. But the onward economic distortions have at last become clear. Of course AI can write a faster cover letter — perhaps even a better one. But there are knock-on costs when everyone is doing it. And a look at Florida’s bold experiment in the free choice of unbundled education.
The holidays are an unusually social time, filled with parties and family get-togethers. But for most of the year, we feel isolated and unsatisfied with our social lives. Our society isn’t structured to support connection year-round. So it’s an apt time to re-air this episode — a conversation with the writer Sheila Liming about rediscovering the lost art of hanging out.
Liming is an associate professor of professional writing at Champlain College and the author of “Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time.” In the book, Liming investigates the troubling fact that we’ve grown much less likely to simply spend time together outside our partnerships, workplaces and family units. What would it look like to reconfigure our world to make social connection easier for all of us?
I spoke to Liming in April 2023. But I find that this conversation provides a clearer sense of what’s gone wrong in our social lives — and how to make “hanging out” with others more fulfilling.
Note: We're still gathering questions for an upcoming "Ask Me Anything" episode we'd like to record. If you have any questions for Ezra, please email ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com using the subject line "AMA."
This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Annie Galvin, with Jeff Geld, Rogé Karma and Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Mixing by Jeff Geld. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Special thanks to Sonia Herrero and Kristina Samulewski.
For over a century, people have enjoyed the thrill of visiting an amusement park and riding roller coasters.
The very first thing we can point to and call a proto-roller coaster had neither rollers nor did it coast. It was more of a slide.
Over time, Roller coasters have evolved into massive steel giants, testing the limits of physics and engineering to create thrilling, unique rides that thrill some and terrify others.
Learn more about the history and development of roller coasters on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Few lines in the Constitution have provoked as much passion—or confusion—as this one:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
What did the Founding Fathers mean by “well regulated”? What did they mean by “Militia”? And, do any of those definitions hold in 21st-century America?
Guns are one of the most divisive symbols in the country. At the same time, the idea of surrendering weapons and trusting the state feels dangerous, and to many, guns are not symbols of violence, but symbols of freedom.
Still, the question remains: freedom at what cost? With mass shootings now a fixture of American life, with countless families being wrecked by gun violence—what exactly are we protecting?
This debate is about what the Second Amendment really means, what its limits should be, what the root causes of our gun violence are. And how, if at all, we can address them.
We think about this subject a lot: Would America be safer without the Second Amendment?
To debate this topic we brought together Dana Loesch and Alan Dershowitz recently in Chicago—a city that has had more than its fair share of gun violence.
Alan argued yes, that America would be safer without the Second Amendment. Alan is a lawyer, a law professor for 50 years at Harvard, and the author of too many books to mention. He has litigated and won hundreds of cases in multiple countries, including his pro bono defense of dissidents such as Natan Sharansky, Václav Havel, and Julian Assange. And he is a fierce advocate for tighter gun control in the United States.
Dana Loesch argued no, that America would not be safer without the Second Amendment. Dana is one of the country’s top nationally syndicated talk radio hosts with The Dana Show, a television commentator, preeminent Second Amendment advocate, and author of several books, including the best-selling Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America. She is also a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association.
It wasn’t long after Melody Warnick moved to Blacksburg, Va., that she realized its nickname—“Bleaksburg”—wasn’t a joke. Feeling stuck, she devised a research-based experiment to acclimate to her new city. On this episode: Melody explains how she went from hating Blacksburg to loving it (and how you can deepen your connection to the place where you live).
Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
The show is produced by Rosemary Belson and Sophie Summergrad. Our technical director is Merritt Jacob and our supervising producer is Joel Meyer.
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Despite twenty-first-century fears of nuclear conflagrations with North Korea, Russia, and Iran, the Cuban Missile Crisis is the closest the United States has come to nuclear war. That history has largely been a bilateral narrative of the US-USSR struggle for postwar domination, with Cuba as the central staging ground--a standard account that obscures the shock waves that reverberated throughout Latin America. The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Hemispheric Cold War (UNC Press, 2025), as the first hemispheric examination of the Cuban Missile Crisis, shows how leaders and ordinary citizens throughout the region experienced it, revealing that, had the missiles been activated, millions of people across Latin America would have been at grave risk. Traversing the region from the Southern Cone to Central America, Renata Keller describes the deadly riots that shook Bolivia when news of the Cuban Missile Crisis broke, the naval quarantine that members of Argentina's armed forces formed around Cuba, the pro-Castro demonstrations organized by Nicaraguan students, and much more. Drawing on a vast array of archival sources from around the hemisphere and world, The Fate of the Americas demonstrates that even at the brink of destruction, Latin Americans played active roles in global politics and inter-American relations.
Congress is not exactly a barrel of fun at the best of times. Still, after the unexpected exit of Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene last week, the vibes have reportedly never been worse. According to the Congressional Record, the 119th Congress has spent fewer days in session, held fewer votes, and done less procedurally than any Congress in years. And in the meantime, many Representatives are spending their time trying to censure one another. But some people, for whatever reason, still want to join the party like Aftyn Behn, who's running for the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election next Tuesday. She's hoping to flip a Tennessee district that hasn't elected a Democrat since Ronald Reagan's first term. We spoke to her about why she's running for office and who she wants to see vote for her.
We'll tell you why criminal charges against President Trump's opponents were dropped and what's expected to happen next.
Also, what to know about tornadoes that left behind a trail of destruction, and where the threat is heading now.
Plus, what to expect from the holiday travel rush, which scams to avoid during Black Friday shopping, and how the White House is celebrating Thanksgiving today.
Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes!
Join us every Mon-Fri for more daily news roundups!