Slate News

Virginia Heffernan talks to Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor under President Barack Obama and host of the new podcast Missing America, about Trump on foreign policy over the last four years, the U.S. fixation on Iran, Vladimir Putin, and what’s next.This episode comes with a bonus segment at the end for Slate Plus members. Sign up now to listen, get every Trumpcast episode in full, and support the show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to investigative journalist Jean Guerrero, author of Hatemonger, about Stephen Miller's childhood and education, nurturing fringe white supremacist ideals, his relationship with anti-immigration activist David Horowitz, and how he's managed to survive so long and hold his power in Trump's ever-changing administrative line-up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to Katherine Eban, contributing editor for Vanity Fair and author of Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom, about her recent piece on Jared Kushner’s botched COVID-19 response, and what happened when she followed a suspicious trail of his receipts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to law professor Ekow Yankah about the different secrets in white and Black families, the archetypal uncles surfacing the disturbing truths about white supremacy from either side of it, Herman Cain, having opinions on scientific facts and living in a state of conspiracy-mindedness.Only Slate Plus members get to listen to every Trumpcast episode in full. Sign up now to access every Trumpcast episode and support the show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to Mary L. Trump, niece of Donald Trump and author of "Too Much and Never Enough," going further into family stories from the book and insights into the Trump family; Donald Trump's enablers and inability to laugh; his weird sexuality; and iceberg lettuce. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to Anne Applebaum, staff writer for the Atlantic and author of The Twilight of Democracy, about how collaborators and dissidents emerge during a regime like Trump’s — or East Germany’s, how anti-communists like herself moved away from the Republican party, and Laura Ingraham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to writer Molly McKew, who covers Russian influence and info warfare, about the story of a Russian military intelligence unit offering Taliban-connected militants cash bounties to kill American service members in Afghanistan; denial of the story by the Trump administration; the concept of being at war Russia; and cancel culture.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Trumpcast Plus preview, Virginia Heffernan talks to Mary Jordan, Pulitzer Prize-winning national correspondent for the Washington Post and author of The Art of Her Deal, about Melania Trump—getting to the mystery of who she was before she met Donald Trump, her education, the way she manufactures her image, where she fails as a FLOTUS, and the supportive role she plays in propping up her husband.Only Slate Plus members get to listen to every Trumpcast episode in full. Sign up now to access every Trumpcast episode and support the show.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan welcomes back Fordham law professor Jed Shugerman to get into the weeds about AG Bill Barr, Michael Flynn’s story up until this point, Geoffrey Berman of the Southern District of New York, and the Unitary Executive Theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to author Jared Yates Sexton about evangelical mythology, Bill Barr, rural understandings of globalism, the Confederacy, the coming Trump rally in Tulsa, how some Christian Trumpists may view COVID, and the “cult of the shining city.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices