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Beat it, Barbie; outta the way, Oppenheimer—this summer’s biggest box office surprise is “The Sound of Freedom,” a low-budget search-and-rescue thriller that Hollywood doesn’t want you to see—or so the implication goes.Guests:Sam Adams, Slate senior editorWill Sommer, media reporter at the Washington Post and author of Trust the Plan The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite holding only twelve percent of Americans, the state of California is home to nearly one-third of the nation’s people experiencing homelessness. A landmark study from UCSF—the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness— produced an intimate look at who is living on the streets and in their cars in California, how they got there, and what actual aid would look like. Guests:Claudine Sipili, co-leader of UCSF’s Lived Expertise Advisory Board for the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness.Ethan Ward, founder of HEATDRAWN Media, and the host of Reputation, a podcast which challenges preconceived notions about the homelessness crisis.If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… royal pains.The British Royals are far from the imperial power they once were. Whether you love the institution, hate it, or simply don’t care, it’s hard to deny that it feels like an artifact of another time.Which is perhaps why Meghan Markle’s arrival on the scene – and subsequent departure, with Prince Harry at her side – threw so many people for a loop. Meghan continues to receive racist, sexist, and downright fabricated harassment from the public, and particularly the tabloids… and so do the people who defend her. Kristen Meinzer, culture critic and host of The Daily Fail, joins us again to explain why we need to care about Meghan — and defend her.If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.comPodcast production by Maura CurrieYou 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

The 4th of July was the hottest day yet—not just of the summer but of recorded human history. Between waves of Canadian wildfire smoke, malaria reappearing in the United States, and deaths from heat, this might be the year that we’re forced to reckon with what life will be like on our newly hotter planet.Guest: Jeff Goodell, contributing writer at Rolling Stone and the author of the upcoming book The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moms for Liberty call themselves a “parent’s rights group,” but the Southern Poverty Law Center calls them an “anti-government extremist” group. Even if they don’t all have kids, these “moms” do have goals for the future of education in America—and quite a bit of clout.Guest: Kiera Butler, senior editor at Mother Jones reporting on how purveyors of disinformation target online communities of women. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Madeline Ducharme, Anna Phillips, Paige Osburn, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Tate’s gross mix of self-help, toxic masculinity and misogyny captured the minds of young boys on the internet. It also led to indictments in Romania on human trafficking and rape charges.  Guest: Lisa Miller, contributing editor at New York magazine.If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It can take years for a water crisis in a predominantly Black city or town to make national news. But the harms of contaminated water often harm communities for generations. Beyond the ongoing health threats, dirty water can stifle business and economic development, driving down educational achievement, property values and investment. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by journalist Adam Mahoney who has reported extensively on how undrinkable water in hurting Black communities across the rural south. Guest: Reporter Adam Mahoney of Capital B NewsPodcast production by Ahyiana AngelYou can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for $15 for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate senior producer Cheyna Roth does a deep dive on wedding dresses. From the oldest family-run bridal shop in the United States, to a warehouse in New York, she explores what the modern wedding dress looks like. Along with brides-to-be Shannon Palus and Susan Matthews, Cheyna talks with Marteal Mayer, the owner of Loulette Bride in Brooklyn, and mother-daughter duo Shelly Mueller and Alyssa Pung, co-owners of Becker’s Bridal in Fowler, Michigan. In Slate Plus: Our weekly And Just Like That…recap. This week it’s episode four with Cheyna Roth and Slate culture writer Heather Schwedel. Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery. Special thanks to Shannon Palus and Susan Matthews. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate’s coverage of Supreme Court decisions. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. In our final Opinionpalooza episode of 2023, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern host the Amicus annual “breakfast table” round-up at the end of the Supreme Court term, and they’re joined by:  Jamelle Bouie, former chief political correspondent at Slate and current New York Times Opinion columnist and political analyst for CBS News. Sherrilyn Ifill, former President and Director Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and newly appointed head of Howard University’s inaugural Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights. Professor Stephen Vladeck, the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas School of Law, author of the New York Times bestselling book, "The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic."---In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia and Mark loosen their ties, pour a snifter of brandy and hit the cigar bar of jurisprudence for a final discussion of the term that was; why progressives are still struggling to find an answer to the court’s torque to the right, and resisting the media’s urge to put a moderate bow on each extreme term.Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz are on vacation, but Emily taped an extra episode of Gabfest Reads for everyone. She sits down with author Monica Potts to talk about her new memoir The Forgotten Girls. They discuss growing up in rural Arkansas, Monica’s childhood best friend Darci, and more.For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, David, Emily, and John chatter about what’s making them happy this summer, an article about how bad things really are, and more.In the June edition of Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Peter Singer @PeterSinger about his book, Animal Liberation Now: The Definitive Classic Renewed.  Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com or Tweet us @SlateGabfest. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Cheyna RothResearch by Julie Huygen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices