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As Democrats try to find an economic message that can win in 2020, a group of like-minded millionaires is making the rounds, telling any politicians who will listen, “We want to pay more in taxes.” Why, though?Guest: Morris Pearl, chair of Patriotic Millionaires. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Washington and Connecticut set out to change health care in their own states using “public option” legislation. With the 2020 candidates discussing Medicare for All, these two states may serve as an example on the kinds of resistance the idea will meet in practice.Guest: Jordan Weissmann, writer at Slate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, April Glaser revisits an interview with Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who released a policy paper proposing possible regulations for U.S. social media and technology companies. In the interview, April and her former co-host Will Oremus talk to Senator Warner about what worries him most about the largely unregulated tech industry, which can’t seem to keep our data private and stop muddying our elections. They also ask him what he thinks congress can do to rein in these companies and why lawmakers haven’t been quick to act. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The strange tale of how a group of Trump supporters started building the border wall themselves, and why the southern border has become a proving ground and businesses and politicians who want to catch the president’s eye.Guest: Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger. Read his latest story from the Southern border. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Hofeller was a dedicated Republican operative, committed to achieving GOP political dominance and doing it with utmost discretion. Now, his political legacy is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court—and all because his daughter shared his old computer archives with the wrong group of lawyers. Guests: Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina. David Daley, author of Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Notre Dame basketball coach Muffet McGraw wasn’t planning on making a speech about feminism and gender equality. But at a press conference before the Final Four tournament, that’s just what she did, launching into a screed about the dearth of women in government, politics, corporate C-suites, and sports. “We don’t have enough female role models,” McGraw said. “Men run the world!” The viral moment was a lifetime in the making. Guest: Muffet McGraw, head coach of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“California is full.” That’s effectively what some residents and lawmakers in the state said when they chose to punt on a bill that would build more financially sane housing across its biggest metropolitan areas. What does the story of that bill tell us about policymaking for housing and transportation in America? And in a state where homelessness is increasing at an alarming rate, how long will it take California to build the housing it desperately needs?Guest: Farhad Manjoo, a New York Times opinion columnist, who covers technology, global affairs, and culture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller breaks his silence to reiterate the conclusions of his investigation’s report -- and remind the American people to read it. Guest: Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick, host of the Amicus podcast. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode April Glaser is joined by Max Read, an editor and writer at New York Magazine who writes the column Life in Pixels.First, April and Max talk to Patri Friedman, founder of the Seasteading Institute, which he started in 2008 with seed funding from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Seasteading is the process of forming new societies on the open ocean, and it’s getting a lot of attention from Silicon Valley. Then Robert Vicino joins the show to talk about his company, Vivos, which designs and builds high-end bunkers to help people ride out natural disasters and other potential catastrophes. Vicino talks about his clientele and the concerns that drive people to buy fancy underground apartments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was the election that was never supposed to happen in the UK in the first place. Several delays, a few milkshakes, and a resignation later the British found themselves voting over the weekend for European Parliament. How did Brexiteers and Remainers fare in this past weekend’s vote? And what does it mean for the UK and Europe writ large?Guest: Josh Keating, International Editor at Slate Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everywhere President Trump turns, he’s finding himself hemmed in by the courts. But could upcoming rulings from the Supreme Court make lower court judges take a more expansive view of the president’s executive powers? Guest: Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. forces scoured Afghanistan for Taliban fighters. They weren’t expecting to find John Walker Lindh, a young man from California who had converted to Islam and moved abroad to study the Quran. Lindh was dubbed the “American Taliban,” but his case ended in a plea deal, leaving his treatment while in custody a secret. At the time, Lindh’s story seemed uncomplicated: He was associating with extremists. Now, years later, his case feels like a missed opportunity. How did it happen that he went through our criminal justice system, but we learned so little about extremism and the nation’s treatment of detainees?Guest: Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law. Her book is Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, Georgia joined the wave of states passing stringent anti-abortion laws in a bid to topple Roe v. Wade. One Democratic state senator says she hasn’t lost her resolve to fight for women’s bodily autonomy. Guest: Georgia state Sen. Jen Jordan, representing parts of Atlanta and its northwestern suburbsPodcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode April Glaser is joined by co-host Kim-Mai Cutler, a partner at Initialized Capital, an early-stage venture firm. She’s also a former full-time journalist at TechCrunch. First, April and Kim-Mai discuss the lack of affordable housing in California and the political battles that are hindering progress. Then they talk about the upcoming wildfire season with Faith Kearns from the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Lizzie Johnson from the San Francisco Chronicle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sheriff’s offices across the country are signing up to beta-test a facial recognition tool made by Amazon. Law enforcement proponents say the technology helps find perpetrators who otherwise may go free. But civil liberties advocates have questions about the accuracy —and the constitutionality—of these tools.Guest: Reporter Drew Harwell. Read his latest in the Washington Post. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the weekend, billionaire Robert F. Smith ended his commencement address to the Morehouse Class of 2019 with an extraordinary pledge: He would pay off the entire class’s student debt. Smith’s pledge will undoubtedly transform the lives of those students, but what about everyone else? What does student debt relief look like on a national scale? And what can we learn from studying the Morehouse Class of 2019? Guest: Jordan Weissmann, Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would run for president, the mockery was swift. City tabloids were typically disdainful (New York Post: “Everyone Hates Bill!”). New York’s attorney general quipped, “Why?” Even de Blasio’s former staffers have declined to voice support for their old boss’s presidential bid. Here, now, an explanation for why New Yorkers are so sure their mayor would be a bad fit for the White House. Guest: Henry Grabar, Slate staff writer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the past couple years, politicians in Florida have been raising concerns about election security and making vague allusions to Russian hackers gaining access to voter databases. With the Mueller report, we finally got confirmation—but that’s about all we got. Are voters ever going to get the full picture of how Florida election information networks might have been compromised in 2016? And, if we want our systems to remain secure … should we want the full picture to be available, even to our enemies?Guests: Politico reporter Gary Fineout, and Leon County Elections Supervisor Mark Earley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ronald Sullivan joined Harvey Weinstein’s defense team in January. This set off a wave of protests and sit-ins across the Harvard campus asking for the removal of Sullivan as faculty dean at the university. And those student protests worked. On Saturday, Harvard University announced that it was declining to renew the appointments of Ronald Sullivan and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, as faculty deans of Winthrop House. What precedent does this decision set? And is it fair for the university to strip them of their positions?Guest: Lara Bazelon, an associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law.Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, April Glaser is joined by guest co-host Max Read, an editor at New York magazine who covers technology and the internet.First, April and Max talk about Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes’ apostasy. Last week, Hughes wrote a long op-ed in the New York Times about why he thinks the company that made him so wealthy should be broken up.Then Katherine Lo joins the hosts to discuss how Facebook’s redesign will change how we communicate on the platform. These days she leads the content moderation team at a nonprofit called Meedan, which works with journalists on disinformation. While we talk a lot about how large social networks are governed—and misgoverned—it’s less frequent that we talk about how these platforms are designed, and how that can lead to toxic behavior. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If the U.S. stumbles into a war with Iran, it’ll be largely one of John Bolton’s making. The national security adviser appears to be running the foreign policy show at the White House and has a taste for regime change in several countries, including Iran. Who’s the surprising person inside the administration reining him in? And can the U.S. recover from four years of antagonizing our allies and expanding our enemies list?Guest: Dexter Filkins, staff writer at the New YorkerPodcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Monday marked another escalation in the trade war with China. And yes, even by the academic definition, our guest says this is a full-blown trade war. Who’s feeling the effect most, and how is the administration handling the fight it began with the world’s second biggest economy? Plus, how are the politics of tariffs playing out for Trump?Guest: Jordan Weissmann, senior writer at SlatePodcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anti-abortion activists in Alabama are rushing to topple Roe v. Wade. But have they crafted an abortion ban that’s too extreme, even for Alabama’s Republicans? Guest: Brian Lyman, reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last weekend, Slate published an obituary for Rachel Held Evans, the blogger who championed liberal values and challenged evangelicals on their politics. She was known to her devoted readers as RHE, and she represented something new in evangelical Christian communities, as some began to shift toward a progressive ideology nevertheless rooted in faith. That movement is now expanding beyond churches and into the political sphere, where Christians are no longer assumed to be conservative.Guest: Slate staff writer Ruth Graham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On May 2nd, Catherine Pugh resigned as mayor of Baltimore - making her the second mayor in less than ten years to leave office amid corruption allegations. The scandal forcing her to step down involved a children’s book, an FBI raid, and a host of ethically dubious business relationships at the highest levels of city government. What happens next for Charm City? Guest: Luke Broadwater, reporter at the Baltimore Sun. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode April Glaser is joined once again by guest co-host Meredith Broussard, a data journalism professor at NYU and author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. First, historian Mar Hicks joins the show to talk about the tech industry’s long-time aversion to organized labor and how that’s clashing with recent worker actions at major tech companies like Google and Uber. Then Alexis Madrigal joins the hosts to talk about his recent piece in the Atlantic called “The End of Cyberspace” where he argues that the 90s dream of an unregulated internet is starting to fade. According to Madrigal, it’s time to create a new alluring vision for what cyberspace should be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The House Judiciary Committee is set to vote on holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, for failing to provide a full and unredacted copy of the Mueller report. It’s the latest in a series of clashes between the legislative and executive branches—clashes that don’t show any signs of letting up. Was our 230-year-old Constitution designed for this highly partisan, highly confrontational moment?Guest: Noah Feldman, Harvard Law School professor and host of Deep Background, available on Luminary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We got our files mixed up this morning! This is the corrected show for Tuesday, May 7. The proposed Equal Rights Amendment is simple: It would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. To become part of the U.S. Constitution, the ERA has to be passed not just in Congress, but in 38 state legislatures. In 2017, Nevada became the 36th state to pass it. Last year, Illinois became the 37th. And last week, Congress held a hearing on the plan. Guest: Carol Jenkins, co-president and CEO of the ERA Coalition and the Fund for Women’s Equality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With all the breathless enthusiasm for the presidential race, no one seems very interested in the U.S. Senate. Why not?Guest: Slate writer Jim Newell. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin, with help from Samantha Lee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deutsche Bank was the one lender that couldn’t quit Donald Trump. Now the bank holds the key to understanding President Trump’s finances. Guest: David Enrich, finance editor for the New York Times. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin, with help from Samantha Lee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Attorney General William Barr showed up to the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify, but the spotlight was also on his colleague, Special Counsel Robert Mueller. What will it take to resolve the growing divide between these two men and their views of the Mueller investigation?Guest: Jeremy Stahl, senior editor at Slate. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin, with help from Samantha Lee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode April Glaser is joined by co-host Meredith Broussard, a data journalism professor at NYU and author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. First they talk about the history of Silicon Valley’s decades-long quest to replace teachers with computers. Then the hosts have a conversation with Nellie Bowles, tech reporter for the New York Times, about a Kansas town that’s struggling with the implementation of Summit Learning, a personalized web-based education program funded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan. Also joining the show is Tom Henning, a parent in Kansas who pulled his son out of his local public school after Summit Learning was adopted. Henning discusses how he and other parents organized to try to bring human-centered learning back to their schools, citing the physical and emotional problems their kids came home with after being stuck in front of a computer all day. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back in 1991, when a 35-year-old law professor named Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, it was Joe Biden who got to decide how to handle the allegation. Why does Hill think Biden failed her and all subsequent women who would bring a harassment allegation before the Senate? And what does Biden owe those women now, as he seeks the Democratic nomination for president?Guest: Dahlia Lithwick, writer for Slate and host of the Amicus podcast. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin, with help from Samantha Lee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At Brigham Young University, students and alumni are forcing a conversation about the severe enforcement of the school’s strict Honor Code. How did BYU’s high standards lead to some students feeling less safe? Guest: Erin Alberty, reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The NRA is in a financial mess of its own doing. A number of executives, vendors, and contractors have used their positions to enrich themselves, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars from the organization in the process. How did secrecy, poor judgement, and sweetheart deals toss the NRA into an existential crisis?Guest: Mike Spies, reporter at The Trace. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Back in 2014, a mysterious hashtag started trending on Twitter: #EndFathersDay. The accounts tweeting the extremist sentiments appeared to be the accounts of black women. But black feminists on Twitter knew something was amiss. So they got to the bottom of the hashtag—and used their own to fight back. Guest: Rachelle Hampton, Slate writer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Immigration judges walk into work everyday knowing that the system they operate in is broken. It has been for decades, through multiple administrations. So what’s the fix? The answer isn’t as radical as you might think.Guest: Judge A. Ashley Tabaddor, immigration judge in Los Angeles and president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode April Glaser is joined once again by co-host Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. They start by talking about the Sri Lankan government’s shutdown of Facebook and WhatsApp after the Easter attacks on churches and hotels. Then they talk to Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, a staff writer for Motherboard and producer for CYBER, a Motherboard podcast about hacking. In their conversation Franceschi-Bicchierai talks about the time he corresponded directly with hackers who infiltrated the servers of the Democratic National Committee. Those hackers initially tried to pass themselves off as a lone Romanian hacker named Guccifer 2.0. Then slate writer Rachelle Hampton joins the show to talk about her cover story, The Black Feminists Who Saw the Alt-Right Threat Coming. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Trump administration wants to add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census, and the proposal has former Census directors up in arms. If the Supreme Court votes to allow the citizenship question, what could happen to the nation’s decennial headcount?Guest: NPR correspondent Hansi Lo Wang. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For a long time, Brandon Flood kept his criminal history quiet: He worked in the Pennsylvania state government and didn’t want his former convictions to detract from his career success. But now, that history makes him uniquely suited for his new job as secretary of the state’s Board of Pardons. How did he go from submitting his own pardon application to, one year later, leading the body that helps make those clemency decisions?Guest: Brandon Flood, secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’ve heard the legal argument for starting impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Maybe you’ve heard the moral argument supporting impeachment. But what is the political case for impeachment? What could House impeachment proceedings possibly achieve, given that the Senate is controlled by the President’s party?Guest: Jamelle Bouie, New York Times opinion columnist.Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is Washington to do with a report that is damning, but doesn’t condemn? Slate’s legal team takes a look at the case made by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Guests: Dahlia Lithwick, Jeremy Stahl, and Mark Joseph Stern.Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show.Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The new head of the Department of the Interior has close ties to industry and a penchant for relaxing environmental regulations. He’s also the subject of an ethics investigation. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt represents a new phase in the Trump administration: the shift from a cabinet of flashy, venal outsiders to savvy, ideological insiders. Guest: Lance Williams, senior reporter for Reveal and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode April Glaser is joined by guest host Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia and author of several books about social media and the internet, including a recent one on Facebook, “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” First they talk about the ongoing elections in India and how fake news and propaganda on Facebook and WhatsApp is wreaking havoc on an electoral process that’s otherwise celebrated for working quite well in the world’s largest democracy. Then they discuss Uber’s recent IPO filing and the litany of ways the company’s reliance on a contractor workforce and business in only a handful of major cities could destabilize the rideshare company’s hopes of ever being profitable. After that, author and WIRED writer Andy Greenberg joins the show to talk about the recent indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, threats the case poses to press freedom, and how Assange’s ideology has been much more fluid than his alleged co-conspirator, Chelsea Manning. Greenberg is the author of This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange, the Cypherpunks, and Their Fight to Empower Whistleblowers.This episode of IF Then is brought to you by LinkedIn. Post a job today at LinkedIn.com/IFTHEN and get fifty dollars off your first job post. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did a March speech by Rep. Ilhan Omar get shrunk down to a single phrase and turned into an attack on her character?Guest: Aymann Ismail, Slate writer and host of the upcoming podcast, Man Up. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

President Donald Trump has floated the idea of nominating former presidential candidate Herman Cain and conservative pundit Stephen Moore to policy seats on the Federal Reserve’s board. Would Cain and Moore alone swing interest rates? Probably not. But their appointments could erode non-partisan standards that make the Fed one of the most important economic institutions in the world. Guest: Jordan Weissmann, Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race got ugly, fast. The Republican favorite, Judge Brian Hagedorn, eked out a win by about 6,000 votes. Our guest today says it’s hard to overstate the political fallout from this result. It could mean that conservatives dominate Wisconsin for years to come.Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, covers the courts and the law for Slate.Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show.Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To understand what’s happening on the border, you have to look at the policies and leaders on both sides of it. So, how has Mexico, under its new president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, changed its approach to refugees and migrants fleeing north? And how has the Mexican president changed, himself?Guest: León Krauze, columnist for Slate, co-host of Trumpcast, and news anchor for Univision.Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show.Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here’s something you may not know. You (listener) are a member of the global trash trade. Every time you recycle a Coke bottle or throw a banana peel away, you’re entering a market of buyers, sellers, and fierce competition. Today on the show, why the market for your trash crashed and how American recyclers are course correcting.Guest: Meleesa Johnson, president of the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin and Marathon County’s director of solid waste disposal.Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show.Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

April Glaser is joined by Gizmodo investigative reporter, Kashmir Hill, to talk about an ambitious British proposal to regulate content on social media sites. Then they discuss Airbnb’s efforts to kick White Nationalists off its platform ahead of a national summit in Tennessee. After that they talk to Pat Brown, CEO and founder of Impossible Foods, about his company’s eerily realistic fake meat products and his vision for a more environmentally sustainable food system. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.