320 episodes

A feed from the Slate podcast network featuring episodes with enlightening conversations, opposing views, and plenty of healthy disputes. You'll get a curated selection of episodes from programs like What Next, The Waves, and the Political Gabfest, with deep discussions that go beyond point-counterpoint and shed light on the issues that matter most.

Slate Debates Slate Podcasts

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.6 • 2.8K Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
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A feed from the Slate podcast network featuring episodes with enlightening conversations, opposing views, and plenty of healthy disputes. You'll get a curated selection of episodes from programs like What Next, The Waves, and the Political Gabfest, with deep discussions that go beyond point-counterpoint and shed light on the issues that matter most.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Legalize Weed, But Not Like This

    Legalize Weed, But Not Like This

    On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: blaze it.

    Ahead of the honorary stoner holiday that is 4/20, we’re taking a look at the marijuana landscape. Public opinion has warmed considerably to legal weed in the past few decades – both medicinal and recreational – even though it remains a Schedule 1 drug on the federal level.

    But some public health experts are still sounding the alarm, because this has all happened very quickly… and though hard-line illegality was harmful, what we’re doing now might be causing harm, too.

    Dr. Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, joins us.

    If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

    Podcast production by Maura Currie.

    Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 36 min
    A Word: Candace Owens: Back to Black?

    A Word: Candace Owens: Back to Black?

    Commentator Candace Owens’ messy fall from grace in conservative media coincided with her appearances on popular Black chat shows. That includes The Breakfast Club, led by radio host and personality Charlamagne tha God.
    Once a minor social media personality who condemned Donald Trump as racist, Owens became one of the former president’s chief defenders, and a leading Black voice of anti-Black rhetoric. So is Owens saying anything new in Black media, and were those outlets doing the right thing by inviting her?
    On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by Michael Harriot. He’s a columnist for The Grio, and the author of Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America. Harriot recently wrote for The Guardian, criticizing the choice to platform Owens in African American media.
    In this interview and an earlier version of this episode description, we incorrectly stated and implied that Candace Owens’ interviews on Joe Budden’s podcast and The Breakfast Club happened after The Daily Wire announced her separation from the outlet on March 22. They both occurred before, with the Budden interview recording the week of February 27, and being published in mid-March. The Breakfast Club discussion was recorded on March 18 and aired on March 21. We regret the error.

    Guest: Writer Michael Harriot

    Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola

    Want more A Word? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/awordplus to get access wherever you listen.
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    • 42 min
    Interracial Marriages Can Still Be Racist

    Interracial Marriages Can Still Be Racist

    On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: amore, but make it anti-racist.

    Honoring interracial marriage has only been the law of the land for a few decades in this country; there are couples alive today whose relationships were illegal within their lifetimes. 

    There are now more mixed-race couples – and children – in the U.S. than ever before, and interracial love is overwhelmingly supported by all Americans. But is that an indication that we’ve actually made progress toward racial equality? 

    Jamilah Lemieux, writer and contributor to Slate’s Care & Feeding, argues no: and that unless a couple has done the work to be truly anti-racist, their children will pay the price.

    If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

    Podcast production by Maura Currie.

    Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 36 min
    Don’t Blame Capitalism For The Housing Crisis

    Don’t Blame Capitalism For The Housing Crisis

    On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: housing the nation. 

    We have an affordable housing problem — and an affordability problem, period, but that’s another show. 

    When we talk about solutions to homelessness and cost burden for renters and homeowners alike, many progressives lean toward government intervention… because capitalism seems to have failed us. But has it, really? Or is for-profit development the surprising answer to affordable housing?

    Jon McMillan of TF Cornerstone – and author of a chapter in Housing The Nation – joins us.

    If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

    Podcast production by Maura Currie.

    You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus! Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 37 min
    Anti-Vaxers Aren’t Just Extremists

    Anti-Vaxers Aren’t Just Extremists

    On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: getting the jab.

    Vaccine hesitancy is not a new phenomenon in the United States, but it is a growing one… particularly in conservative Evangelical circles. 

    At the same time, there’s a lot for all of us to dislike, and distrust, about the American healthcare system. So, for those of us who have a hard time working up any sympathy for the vaccine-skeptical crowd, it’s worth asking: what if this is a symptom of the problems we’re all experiencing?

    Johanna Richlin of the University of Maine joins us.

    If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

    Podcast production by Maura Currie.

    You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus! Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 35 min
    You Probably Don’t Need Therapy Forever

    You Probably Don’t Need Therapy Forever

    On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: talk it out.

    Talking about therapy isn’t taboo anymore — and that’s great, because everyone deserves help when they need it. The question is… do you really need it?

    Dr. Richard Friedman of Weill Cornell Medicine wrote a piece for The Atlantic last month, headlined ”Plenty of People Could Quit Therapy Right Now.” So why is that the case… and what are the consequences of getting therapy when you don’t need it? 

    Dr. Friedman joins us to discuss.

    If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

    Podcast production by Maura Currie.

    You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus! Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 44 min

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
2.8K Ratings

2.8K Ratings

Tulip.be ,

Podcast on mental health

Waow ! This was an outstanding exchange. Not sure it is about agreeing or disagreeing but embracing the fact that the human mind is unique and that we are creatures of nuance and contradictions that need to be handled so that we can move forward. In the US, we like black & white solutions and placing people and their issues into boxes. It comes as reassuring but real life and real people - whether psychotic or not - are always evolving shades of grey.

Engineer Doug ,

Had Enough

When someone is stupid enough to argue that interracial marriages can still be racist if they don’t hew to radical leftist anti-racism ideology, I won’t waste my time on this show any longer.

Elbowpatched ,

This podcast is awful!

I don’t even know where to begin, but Celeste Headlee is such an absurd arguer. Almost all of my positions are very liberal, and I come into every debate on Celeste’s side, but she argues them so poorly and with terrible tactics like cutting off the guests for an ad breaks but only after she gets the last word in, making blatantly false claims, and throwing in unrelated tangents that the guests don’t have a chance to defend. I almost always sympathize much more with the guests by the end of the show. I usually still don't agree with their opinions, but I feel like they at least made an honest effort. Celeste makes such poor and unfair arguments. I think most of the topics are still very important to debate, but not with her as the host. However, I think I get even angrier at the topics she has that should not even be in this feed. Are cruises cool? Christmas should be tacky? These are 100% debates of people’s preferences with no larger policy or society implications. Instead they just makes me hate her more. This is not a good approach to having real debates where people learn from each other. This is just another example of a self important liberal blowhard giving those of us with a sincere desire to understand different opinions a bad name.

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