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PODCAST

Slow Burn

Slow Burn illuminates America’s most consequential moments, making sense of the past to better understand the present. Through archival tape and first-person interviews, the series uncovers the surprising events and little-known characters lurking within the biggest stories of our time. Want more Slow Burn? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Slow Burn and your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slow Burn show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or,

history documentary

All Episodes

1:15

Introducing Supercommunicators

Slow Burn ·

2025/02/22

In a new miniseries inspired by Charles Duhigg’s bestseller, the former host of Slate’s How To! podcast sits down with psychologists, social scientists, and even a Hollywood writer to explore how to ask the right questions, communicate without words, and find meaningful connections in our lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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30:02

Introducing Planet Money: Can Money Buy Happiness?

Slow Burn ·

2025/01/01

People often say that money can't buy you happiness. Sometimes, if you ask them to tell you more about it, they'll mention a famous 2010 study by Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton. That study found that higher household income correlates with greater emotional well-being, but only up to around $75,000 a year. After that, more money didn't seem to matter.This was a famous study by two famous academics. The result stood for over a decade. And it feels good, right? Maybe the rich

en

52:38

Decoder Ring | Mailbag: Fruit Snacks, Waterbeds, and...

Slow Burn ·

2024/12/18

It’s our annual mailbag episode! We get a lot of wonderful reader emails suggesting topics for the show — and at the end of the year we try to answer some of them. This year, we’re tackling four fascinating questions. Why do grocery stores keep live lobsters in tanks, unlike any other animal? How did candy get rebranded as “fruit snacks” when fruit is already a snack? Whatever happened to perfumed ads in magazines? And what was the waterbed all about? We’ll get an answer from the waterbed’s inventor

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32:18

Introducing SNAFU with Ed Helms

Slow Burn ·

2024/12/11

While the Slow Burn team is hard at work on our next season, we are excited to share the first episode of the second season from our friends at SNAFU with Ed Helms: MEDBURG.In March 1971, Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger receives a mysterious envelope full of classified documents. Soon, what's inside will change the way America sees the FBI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

54:18

Decoder Ring | Mystery of the Mullet (Encore)

Slow Burn ·

2024/12/04

The mullet, the love-to-hate-it hairstyle, is as associated with the 1980’s as Ronald Reagan, junk bonds, and breakdancing. But in at least one major way, we are suffering from a collective case of false memory syndrome. In this episode we track the rise and fall of the mullet, and also the lexical quandary at its heart: Who named the mullet? We learn how David Bowie, hockey players, the Oxford English Dictionary, the Beastie Boys, a mysterious Reddit user named Topsmate, and a group called Annoy

en

64:20

Decoder Ring: Reconsidering One of the “Worst” TV...

Slow Burn ·

2024/11/20

In 1980, a variety show debuted on NBC called Pink Lady and Jeff. Its stars were a pair of Japanese pop idols known for catchy, choreographed dance numbers. Pink Lady was inescapable in Japan: selling millions of records, appearing on TV daily, and filling arenas. But their American TV show left audiences completely bewildered. Pink Lady and Jeff acquired legendary status as one of television’s most notorious bombs, a show that managed to kill off the entire variety show genre. Or at least—that’s

en

53:19

Decoder Ring: Selling Out (Encore)

Slow Burn ·

2024/11/04

Whatever happened to selling out? The defining concern of Generation X has become a relic from another era. How that happened is best illustrated by one of the idea’s last gasps, when in 2001, Oprah Winfrey invited author Jonathan Franzen to come on her show to discuss his new novel The Corrections. A month later, she withdrew the invitation, kicking off a media firestorm.The Oprah-Franzen Book Club Dust-Up of 2001 was a moment when two ways of thinking about selling out smashed into each other,

en

77:01

The Rise of Fox News | 6. What Hath We Wrought?

Slow Burn ·

2024/10/23

The 2004 presidential race would be the first fully Fox News election—a contest that was framed by Fox, and fought on its terms. But the fight over Fox News was about more than just partisan politics. It also launched covert ops against reporters and let loose a secret army of online trolls. And when a Fox producer made serious allegations against Bill O’Reilly, the network showed just how far it would go to defend its biggest star—no matter the cost.To read our full reporting on the most recent

en

64:35

The Rise of Fox News | 5. Ludacris Has Been Fired

Slow Burn ·

2024/10/16

As Fox News gathered strength, progressive activists turned to comedian Al Franken and fledgling online communities to punch back. But could the left put up a real fight without a Fox News of its own? And what did Fox’s critics miss when they focused only on its politics?Want more from Slow Burn? Join Slate Plus to unlock full access to all seasons, including members-only bonus episodes from The Rise of Fox News. You'll also enjoy ad-free listening to all of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe

en

44:05

Decoder Ring: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie… Will He...

Slow Burn ·

2024/09/11

Adults have a long history of trying to find morals and lessons in children’s literature. But what happens when a seemingly innocent book about a boy and a hungry mouse becomes fodder for the culture wars? Over the last decade, Laura Joffe Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie has been adopted by some on the right as a cautionary tale about government welfare. In this episode, we explore the origins of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the history of adults extracting unintended meaning from

en

2:09

Season 10 Trailer: The Rise of Fox News

Slow Burn ·

2024/09/10

In Slow Burn’s 10th season, host Josh Levin takes you back to a crucial inflection point in American history: the moment between 2000 and 2004 when Fox News first surged to power and a whole bunch of people rose up to try and stop it. You’ll hear from the hosts, reporters, and producers who built Fox News, many who’ve never spoken publicly. You’ll also hear from Fox’s biggest antagonists—the political operatives, journalists, and comedians who attacked it, investigated it, and tried to mock it into

en

50:42

Decoder Ring: Chuck E. Cheese Pizza War (Encore)

Slow Burn ·

2024/08/28

In the late 1970s, a new and unusual concept for a restaurant chain emerged in California—video games plus bad pizza plus animatronic characters. The result was Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre, an immensely popular chain with a pizza rat for a mascot. But the strangeness only starts there. Decoder Ring dives into the formation of Chuck E. Cheese’s and its rival, ShowBiz Pizza Place; the conflict between the two; and the odd personalities of the mechanical animatronics that inhabited both stores

en

40:42

Decoder Ring: The Hysteria Over Mass Hysteria

Slow Burn ·

2024/08/14

“Hysteria” is an ancient word carrying thousands of years of baggage. Though the terminology has changed, hysteria has not gone away, and in its most baffling instances it can even be contagious. The idea of a mass psychogenic illness can be hard to wrap your head around. A group of people begins experiencing physical symptoms, because of something that started in one of their minds? In today’s episode Dan Taberski, the host of Hysterical, a new podcast about mass hysteria, walks us through the past

en

35:20

Decoder Ring: Standing Up for Sitting Down

Slow Burn ·

2024/07/31

If you’re lucky, it’s possible you’ve never thought much about sitting. It’s just something your body does, like breathing or sleeping. But in the last decade or so, sitting has stepped into the spotlight, as a kind of villain. In today’s episode, Slate’s Dan Kois tells us about his radical experiment to go without sitting for an entire month. Then to understand why sitting is under attack we look back at an earlier posture panic around slouching, and explore the role of hostile architecture.This

en

27:50

Gays Against Briggs | The Story Behind Our Cover Art

Slow Burn ·

2024/07/26

In this special bonus episode host Christina Cauterucci interviews Silvana Nova and Larry Hermsen. Silvana is the person you see raising a fist on this season’s cover art — and Larry is the one who made the photo in 1978. We hear about how they turned it into a poster to raise money to fight the Briggs Initiative, and how gender non-conforming gays like Silvana and Larry (aka "street queens") had their own flourishing culture in San Francisco outside the mainstream gay scene.Learn more about your

en

51:06

Decoder Ring: The Secret Life of Lawn Ornaments

Slow Burn ·

2024/07/17

Lawn ornaments are everywhere—but for something so ubiquitous, they’re also mysterious. What’s the person with the flamingo or the gargoyle in their yard trying to say—and why do they want to say it so publicly? From the garden-variety to the not so common, the adorable to the odious—lawn ornaments speak volumes, without saying a word. In this episode, we travel from Germany to England and back home to look at the history and meaning behind three specific lawn ornaments: the garden gnome, the lawn

en

95:02

Gays Against Briggs | Tribeca Festival Live Show

Slow Burn ·

2024/07/15

Listen in as host Christina Cauterucci joins special guests, Eric Marcus, host of Making Gay History, DeRay Mckesson, activist and host of Pod Save the People, filmmaker Sam Feder, and Esther Fallick, comedian, singer and musical theater writer, for an exclusive live taping at the 2024 Tribeca Festival.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

51:56

Gays Against Briggs | 7. Turn Around. Fight Back.

Slow Burn ·

2024/07/03

For the two years leading up to May 21, 1979, gay activists followed the rules. They engaged in civil debates. They sought justice at the ballot box. They peacefully mourned the assassination of Harvey Milk. But the verdict in Dan White’s murder trial changed everything.(If you—or anyone you know—are in crisis, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, anytime: Dial 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.) Season 9 of Slow Burn was written and produced by Christina Cauterucci. Slow Burn is produced

en

56:13

Gays Against Briggs | 6. The Murders at City Hall

Slow Burn ·

2024/06/26

On election night in 1978, gays and lesbians in California braced themselves for the statewide vote on Proposition 6. Less than a month after the results came in, a pair of killings shocked San Francisco and the nation.Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock all episodes of Slow Burn: Gays Against Briggs. Your subscription also gets you ad-free access to all your favorite Slate podcasts, plus other member exclusive content. Join now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Subscribe” at the top of our

en

57:14

Gays Against Briggs | 3. Harvey Milk vs. the Machine

Slow Burn ·

2024/06/05

After decades of wandering and job-hopping, Harvey Milk found his purpose as a gay community leader with growing political ambitions. But his historic election was just the beginning. As John Briggs’ gay teacher ban gained momentum, it was up to Supervisor Milk and his allies to figure out how to stop him. Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock all episodes of Slow Burn: Gays Against Briggs. Your subscription also gets you ad-free access to all your favorite Slate podcasts, plus other

en

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