Slate Conversations
468 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 9 hours ago - ★★★★ - 179 ratingsA feed of the up close and the personal, drawn from Working and across the Slate podcast network. Let’s talk.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
James Wood
June 22, 2018 14:00 - 34 minutesJames Wood is The New Yorker’s chief literary critic, and the author of the new novel Upstate. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the complicated legacies of Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe, whether a critical eye is helpful in fiction writing, and the complications involved in reading the novels of very bad men. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Anthony Bourdain: A Previously Unaired Conversation from 2017
June 15, 2018 14:00 - 25 minutesAnthony Bourdain—the late chef and author—talks about his mistakes, the #MeToo movement, and Harvey Weinstein. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Judd Apatow (Re-Air)
June 08, 2018 14:00 - 43 minutesJudd Apatow is a comedian, writer, director, and producer. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new documentary on the life of Garry Shandling, which comedians are actually “normal” people, and having your friends accused of bad behavior in the age of #MeToo.Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Harry Enten
June 01, 2018 13:00 - 30 minutesHarry Enten is a polling expert and a political writer at CNN. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss California’s crucial importance to the 2018 election, where Trump is and isn’t politically vulnerable, and whether pollsters have corrected the mistakes they made in 2016. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Re-Air: Ta-Nehisi Coates
May 25, 2018 14:00 - 41 minutesTa-Nehisi Coates is the author of Between the World and Me, and now, We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the costs of writing off your fellow citizens as “deplorable,” why he chose writing over activism, and how Trump is both uniquely dangerous and a predictable consequence of American racism. This interview was first published November 8, 2017. Podcast Production by Audrey Dilling. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Learn ...
Cecilia Muñoz
May 18, 2018 11:00 - 31 minutesCecilia Muñoz was the director of the White House Policy Council Under Barack Obama, and an expert on immigration policy. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to talk about the mechanics of the Trump administration’s war on immigrants, the future of the Dreamers, and the campaign to abolish I.C.E. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Maggie Haberman
May 11, 2018 11:00 - 32 minutesMaggie Haberman is a White House correspondent for The New York Times and an analyst at CNN. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why Trump fears the Michael Cohen investigation, reporting in the age of Twitter, and whether the White House beat is changing Trump—or the people covering him. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Michelle Dean
May 04, 2018 14:00 - 32 minutesMichelle Dean is the author of Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how a group of 20th century intellectuals—including Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Hannah Arendt, and Nora Ephron—changed the way we think about women in public life, and what they can tell us about today’s debates over feminism. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amy Chozick
April 27, 2018 14:00 - 32 minutesAmy Chozick is the author of Chasing Hillary, a memoir about her experience covering the Clinton campaign for the New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how the press and the Clinton campaign exacerbated one another’s worst instincts, whether the media has learned from the 2016 debacle, and what really drives Hillary Clinton. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Adam Davidson
April 20, 2018 14:00 - 34 minutesAdam Davidson is a staff writer at The New Yorker who has been examining the president’s tangled business dealings. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why people misunderstand Trump’s business skills, the real threat the Michael Cohen raid poses to Donald Trump, and whether we have reached the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Barbara Ehrenreich
April 13, 2018 14:00 - 23 minutesBarbara Ehrenreich is the author of Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why Americans thinks “mindfulness” will make them happy, whether smoking bans are a form of condescension towards the working-class, and the problems with Oprah’s very real ideology. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....
Parul Sehgal
April 06, 2018 14:00 - 29 minutesParul Sehgal is a book critic at the New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the daily life of a book reviewer, looking hard at the novels of very bad men, and the current state of cultural criticism. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ross Douthat
March 30, 2018 14:00 - 51 minutesRoss Douthat is an op-ed columnist at the New York Times, and the author of the new book To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what the pope and the president have in common, whether liberals are declaring too much commentary “beyond the pale,” and whether the Times should hire a pro-Trump columnist. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...
Judd Apatow
March 23, 2018 14:00 - 44 minutesJudd Apatow is a comedian, writer, director, and producer. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new documentary on the life of Garry Shandling, which comedians are actually “normal” people, and having your friends accused of bad behavior in the age of #MeToo. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Corn and Michael Isikoff
March 15, 2018 10:00 - 33 minutesDavid Corn and Michael Isikoff are the authors of Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, they discuss what new details of Trump's trip to a Vegas nightclub can tell us about the Steele dossier, the history of Trump’s Putin crush, and why reporting on the Russia scandal is such a minefield. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about ...
Josh Barro
March 09, 2018 15:00 - 38 minutesJosh Barro is a senior editor at Business Insider, as well as contributor to MSNBC, and the host of KCRW’s Left, Right, and Center podcast. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, they discuss how Trump uses comedy to sugarcoat his cruelty, how to think about the president’s intelligence, and why centrism has been on such a political losing streak. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at slate....
Benjamin Wittes
March 02, 2018 15:00 - 40 minutesBenjamin Wittes is a writer and national security expert, and the editor-in-chief of Lawfare. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, he discusses how to read the tea leaves of the Mueller investigation, why people are too critical of James Comey, and why even the Trump administration hasn’t changed his (positive) opinion of the national security state. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at sla...
Chuck Klosterman
February 23, 2018 15:00 - 52 minutesChuck Klosterman is a writer and essayist. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, he discusses the costs of politicizing pop culture, the roots of Trump’s shamelessness, and why music is such a subjective art form. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at slate.com/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Steven Pinker
February 16, 2018 15:00 - 33 minutesSteven Pinker is the author of the new book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why he thinks life is improving despite the worldwide rise of demagogues, what Trump tells us about America’s relationship to Enlightenment ideals, and whether global warming and nuclear weapons should call into question our notion of progress. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more a...
Katie Roiphe
February 08, 2018 13:00 - 41 minutesKatie Roiphe is a writer and essayist. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss her controversial Harper’s essay on #MeToo, why she thinks the movement has gone too far, and whether people who speak out against feminism are really at risk of being “silenced.” Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Wesley Morris
February 02, 2018 15:00 - 39 minutesWesley Morris is a critic-at-large at The New York Times. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how social media is changing criticism, his complicated feelings about artists who behave deplorably, and why ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ is the most overrated movie of the year. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jia Tolentino
January 26, 2018 15:00 - 30 minutesJia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the backlash to the #MeToo movement, generational differences between feminists, and the importance of viewing each woman’s story on its own terms. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Frum
January 19, 2018 15:00 - 32 minutesDavid Frum is a senior editor at The Atlantic, and the author of the new book Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the state of democracy after a year of Trump, why the president’s buffoonery doesn’t make him less dangerous, and his own journey from famous neocon to Trump critic. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Margaret Sullivan
January 12, 2018 15:00 - 27 minutesMargaret Sullivan is the Washington Post’s media critic. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the problems with Michael Wolff’s new book on the Trump administration, the state of the Post and the New York Times, and how the media should cover the president’s mental health. Email: [email protected]: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A.O. Scott
January 04, 2018 17:00 - 41 minutesA.O. Scott is a film critic at The New York Times. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the year in movies, being a film critic in the age of Rotten Tomatoes, and wrestling with Hollywood in a post-Harvey Weinstein world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark Lilla (Re-air)
December 28, 2017 07:00 - 43 minutesMark Lilla is the author of The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to debate why Democrats keep losing elections, whether America really used to be more united than it is today, and how much of the Republicans’ recent success is owed to racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bill Kristol
December 21, 2017 07:00 - 38 minutesBill Kristol is the editor-at- large of The Weekly Standard. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how and why Republicans have rationalized Donald Trump, how he has re-examined his own past in light of Trump’s rise, and just where the Republican Party went awry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Stephen Kotkin
December 14, 2017 07:00 - 36 minutesStephen Kotkin is a historian and the author of Stalin: Waiting For Hitler, 1929-1941. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss Stalin’s differences from the autocrats of today, what Stalin and Hitler did and didn’t share, and the secret to getting inside the head of a dictator. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lawrence O'Donnell
December 07, 2017 07:00 - 36 minutesLawrence O’Donnell is the host of ‘The Last Word’ on MSNBC, and the author of a new book, Playing With Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether JFK’s death really changed his brother, Bobby, how the Democratic Party was permanently transformed by 1968, and why the history of “collusion” in American elections is much older than we think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Laura Kipnis
November 30, 2017 07:00 - 33 minutesLaura Kipnis is an author, essayist, and professor at Northwestern University who writes frequently about sexuality and feminism. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the importance of training women to push back against creepy men, whether the current wave of sexual misconduct reckonings count as a movement, and why she still doubts Bill Clinton’s accusers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jelani Cobb
November 22, 2017 17:00 - 20 minutesJelani Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how the media can prevent the normalization of white nationalism, what Obama did and didn’t get right about our current moment, and why Trumpism is guaranteed to survive Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Rebecca Traister
November 16, 2017 07:00 - 34 minutesRebecca Traister is a writer-at- large for New York magazine. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what she has learned reporting on sexual harassment and assault, whether Hillary Clinton should have to answer for her husband’s sins, and the coming societal backlash to women speaking out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ta-Nehisi Coates
November 09, 2017 07:00 - 41 minutesTa-Nehisi Coates is the author of Between the World and Me, and now, We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the costs of writing off your fellow citizens as “deplorable,” why he chose writing over activism, and how Trump is both uniquely dangerous and a predictable consequence of American racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ron Chernow
November 02, 2017 06:00 - 32 minutesRon Chernow is the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and author of Alexander Hamilton and Grant. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why Ulysses S. Grant was an important figure in civil rights history, why Robert E. Lee’s extremism has been papered over, and what it was like to watch his Alexander Hamilton biography became a musical smash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jennifer Egan
October 26, 2017 06:00 - 33 minutesJennifer Egan is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit From The Goon Squad and Manhattan Beach. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what technology might do to fiction-writing, how she crafts her novels, and how her conception of American power has changed since 9/11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Gabriel Sherman
October 18, 2017 19:00 - 37 minutesGabriel Sherman is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, and the biographer of Roger Ailes. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Fox News has changed since Ailes’ death, whether Trump has “lost a step,” and why Rupert Murdoch secretly “loathes” the president. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jodi Kantor
October 11, 2017 22:59 - 26 minutesJodi Kantor is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how she began reporting the Harvey Weinstein story, why so many of his accusers came forward now, and whether the culture of Hollywood is really going to change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Masha Gessen
October 05, 2017 06:00 - 39 minutesMasha Gessen is a journalist and activist and the author of the new book, The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Putin exercises control over Russia, and why Trump’s chaotic governing style could still lead to autocracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Remnick (Part 2)
September 28, 2017 06:00 - 44 minutesDavid Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker. In the second installment of a two-part interview, he sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how Trump has changed his magazine, whether The New Yorker could ever go web-only, and what’s really killing the NFL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
David Remnick (Part 1)
September 21, 2017 06:00 - 32 minutesDavid Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker. In the first installment of a two-part interview, he sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether Hillary hatred has gone too far, Ta-Nehisi Coates and writing about race in 2017, and why Obama is cashing in on Wall Street. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ayobami Adebayo
September 14, 2017 06:00 - 29 minutesThe author of Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo, sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what she learned from Margaret Atwood, the pain of writing about Nigeria’s turbulent recent past, and using fiction to challenge the idea that women must have children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Amna Nawaz
September 07, 2017 06:00 - 27 minutesABC’s Emmy-Winning anchor and host of the ‘Uncomfortable’ podcast, Amna Nawaz, sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the life of an embedded reporter in Pakistan, researching the roots of white nationalism, and what we can learn from talking to extremists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Claire Messud
August 31, 2017 06:00 - 29 minutesAuthor Claire Messud sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss her new novel, The Burning Girl, how Elena Ferrante opened up more space for writing about women, how New York City has changed since she wrote The Emperor’s Children, and what it’s like to be married to a literary critic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark Lilla
August 24, 2017 06:00 - 43 minutesMark Lilla is the author of The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to debate why Democrats keep losing elections, whether America really used to be more united than it is today, and how much of the Republicans’ recent success is owed to racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Orhan Pamuk
August 17, 2017 06:00 - 29 minutesOrhan Pamuk is an author and Nobel Prize winner. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new novel, The Red-Haired Woman; the cultural scene in Turkey as it undergoes political purges; and how writing fiction functions as an escape from the real world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Glenn Greenwald
August 10, 2017 06:00 - 52 minutesGlenn Greenwald is one of the co-founding editors of The Intercept. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether America is risking a new cold war with Putin’s Russia, Julian Assange’s complicated personality, and why Trump is less unprecedented in American history than we’d like to believe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Robert Wright
August 03, 2017 06:00 - 30 minutesRobert Wright is the best-selling author of books such as Nonzero and The Evolution of God. He down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new book, Why Buddhism Is True, what meditation can teach us about how to oppose Trump, and what Buddhist teachings have in common with evolutionary psychology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Olivia Nuzzi
July 27, 2017 23:26 - 28 minutesOlivia Nuzzi is the White House correspondent for New York magazine. She joins Isaac Chotiner to discuss what it’s like to be a woman working in Trump’s White House, how West Wing aides really view the president, and what she learned working for Anthony Weiner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Zoë Heller
July 20, 2017 06:00 - 30 minutesZoë Heller is a novelist and essayist. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss Trump’s peculiar Americanness, lame defenses of Hillary Clinton, working on Fleet Street, and becoming friend’s with writers whose books you have savaged. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Lydia Polgreen
July 13, 2017 06:00 - 32 minutesLydia Polgreen is the editor-in- chief of HuffPost. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss her decision to leave the New York Times, the real reason the media screwed up election coverage, and why diversity in newsrooms is so lacking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices