Slate Race and Identity

On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario talks to comedian and activist Aida Rodriguez about the state of women in comedy. They dig into Aida’s background and what it was like to come up as a woman of color in comedy. They also unpack the sneaking suspicion that women of color are getting fewer and fewer chances these days, and how to turn trauma into comedy. In Slate Plus, Aida and Daisy talk about whether it’s feminist to not stand up for yourself in a loud way.Catch Aida’s comedy Fighting Words on HBO Max. Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former NFL star Deion Sanders turned the struggling Jackson State University Tigers into a winning team, and brought a national spotlight to football at historically Black colleges and universities. That’s why his decision to take a coaching job at the University of Colorado sparked a debate among HBCU fans. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by University of Houston Professor Billy Hawkins about why Sanders’ time at JSU had such an impact, and whether HBCUs can retain some of the momentum that Sanders helped to build.Guest: University of Houston Professor Billy Hawkins, author of The New Plantation: Black Athletes, College Sports, and Predominantly White NCAA Institutions. Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-MakanjuolaYou can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York’s Rikers Island is infamous for its violence and danger, even to prisoners who haven’t been convicted of any crime. At least 18 detainees have died there under questionable circumstances this year alone. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by attorney Olayemi Olurin. She shares more about what led to these deaths, and why political leaders like New York Mayor Eric Adams may be standing in the way of closing Rikers or making it safer.Guest: Olayemi Olurin, a public defender at The Legal Aid Society in New York City. Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate senior supervising producer of audio Daisy Rosario is joined by sisters and authors Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar. Amber and Lacey just released their second book, The World Record Book of Racist Stories, a collection of humorous and sometimes heartbreaking essays about the racism they and the people they know experience every day. Daisy, Amber and Lacey talk about needing to write a second book (because they didn’t fit all the stories in the first book), the importance of family in surviving micro and macro aggressions, and why humor is the only way to get through the pain. In Slate Plus, Daisy, Amber and Lacey talk about why Omaha actually is a great place to live.  Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery.Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For many years, tech professionals dismissed the threat of disinformation. Christopher Bouzy was one of them, until the 2016 election changed his mind. Bouzy founded and leads the organization Bot Sentinel to fight online disinformation. On today’s episode of A Word, he talks with host Jason Johnson about how best to detect lies and false narratives in social media, and how Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter complicates his mission. Guest: Christopher Bouzy, founder and C.E.O. of Bot SentinelPodcast production by Kristie Taiwo-MakanjuolaYou can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month.Thanks Avast.com! Learn more about Avast One at Avast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, David Plotz, Emily Bazelon, and John Dickerson discuss Trump hosting prominent antisemites Ye (f/k/a Kanye West) and Nick Fuentes; Chinese protestors challenging their authoritarian government–with Sheena Chestnut Greitens; and Congress legislating to protect marriage equality through the Respect For Marriage Act.  Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:Sheena Chestnut Greitens for Foreign Affairs: “Xi Jinping’s Quest for Order”Sheena Chestnut Greitens and Julian Gewirt for Foreign Affairs: “China's Troubling Vision For The Future Of Public Health”Here are this week’s chatters:John: Darby Saxbe and Magdalena Martínez García for The Conversation: “Fatherhood Changes Men’s Brains, According To Before-And-After MRI Scans”Emily: A compilation of Gabfest listeners favorite salad dressing recipes. David: City Cast is expanding to new cities; Nicole Eustace for The New York Times: “300 Years Ago, There Was a Brutal Murder. We Could Learn From the Treaty That Followed.”Listener chatter from Richard Medlicott: The Economist:”Shyam Saran Negi Never Failed In His Democratic Duty”; Alex Binley for the BBC: “Shyam Saran Negi: Man Dubbed 'india's First Voter' Dies Aged 105”For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, David, and John discuss the Supreme Court challenge to the Biden administration’s immigration policy in United States v. Texas.  Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.Research by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1942, federal officials targeted a group of Black Americans who were allegedly hoping for a Japanese invasion. They uncovered a plot that included stockpiles of weapons and secret passwords—but was any of it true? This week, Joel Anderson tells the story of a shadowy organization in East St. Louis, Illinois, the group’s mysterious leader, and an alleged conspiracy against America during World War II.This episode of One Year was produced by Evan Chung, Sophie Summergrad, Sam Kim, Joel Anderson, Sol Werthan, and Josh Levin.Derek John is executive producer of narrative podcasts and Merritt Jacob is senior technical director.Slate Plus members get to hear more about the making of One Year. Get access to extra episodes, listen to the show without any ads, and support One Year by signing up for Slate Plus for just $15 for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During the 2022 midterms, four states voted to ban slavery, which is still legal—and practiced—in the form of forced prison labor. The ballot initiatives are designed to keep people from having to work against their will and could provide prisoners with the opportunity to sue for higher wages, and better working conditions, including medical exemptions for those who are pregnant and postpartum. Guest: Candace Bond-Theriault Esq., Director of Racial Justice Policy & Strategy at Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender & Sexuality Law. 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 Amicus—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

“A Kitchen Sink Approach to Constitutional Claims”On this week’s Amicus, - the case that threatens the Indian Child Welfare Act, but also threatens domino effects on tribal sovereignty and land rights. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Rebecca Nagle, a Cherokee writer, advocate & language learner. Nagle is host of This Land podcast. Season 2 of the podcast was a deep and broad investigation into the background of the case at hand. Maggie Blackhawk also lends her expertise to the discussion, Professor Blackhawk (Find du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) is professor of law at NYU and an award-winning interdisciplinary scholar and teacher of constitutional law, federal Indian law, and legislation, Together, they delve through a veritable grab bag of constitutional challenges from the plaintiffs in Brackeen v Haaland. Listen up, you’re about to learn a lot, we did. In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Mark Joseph Stern to talk about how a Georgia judge overturned that state’s abortion ban, President Biden’s record and prospects for confirming judges, and death penalty cruelty on the shadow docket again.  Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Want a behind-the-scenes look at how we create the show? Check out Slate's Pocket Collections for research and reading lists, as well as additional insights into how we think about the stories behind the episodes. Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25% discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The eagerly awaited World Cup starts on Sunday. While the sport features star athletes from across the African diaspora, many Black people in the U.S. still consider soccer a white sport. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson speaks with Jermaine Scott. He’s an African American Studies professor at Florida Atlantic University, a life-long soccer player and fan, and an expert on Black soccer history. They discuss why so few African Americans have historically embraced the sport, what’s being done to turn that around, and whether the U.S. team has a chance of success at this year’s tournament.Guest: Jermaine Scott, professor of African American studies at Florida Atlantic University. Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-MakanjuolaYou can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for just $1 for your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices