Slow Burn illuminates America’s most consequential moments, making sense of the past to better understand the present. Through archival tape and first-person interviews, the series uncovers the surprising events and little-known characters lurking within the biggest stories of our time.Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Slow Burn and your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe from the Slow Burn show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/slowburnplus to get access wherever you listen.Season 11: Becoming Justice GorsuchHow Neil Gorsuch laid the foundation for a SCOTUS supermajority and then became its mo...
Latest episodes
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36 min
Decoder Ring | Clown Panic (Encore)
Clowns have existed in various forms for thousands of years. From the big top to Bozo’s TV show, they used to be beloved figures of amusement and delight. What changed and made so…
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1 h 00
Decoder Ring | Gandhi Never Said “Be the Change”
Few inspirational phrases are quoted more often than Mahatma Gandhi’s “Be the change you want to see in the world.” It shows up on t-shirts, bumper stickers, even tattooed on peopl…
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1 h 03
Decoder Ring | Bridget in the Buff
In the early 1970s, a jigsaw puzzle of a cheerful, young, naked, fat woman known only as “Bridget in the Buff” arrived in stores all over America. It was just the first of countles…
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59 min
Decoder Ring | What Even Is a “Podcast” Anymore?
Podcasts are everywhere. They’re more popular and influential than they’ve ever been. But at the same time, what makes a podcast a “podcast” has never been more confusing.Until rec…
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43 min
Decoder Ring | McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime, Part 2 (Encore)
McGruff the Crime Dog arrived on the scene at the dawn of the 1980s, just as a firehose of anti-drug PSAs was inundating the youth of America. These messages didn’t always work as…
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34 min
Decoder Ring | McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime, Part 1 (Encore)
McGruff the Crime Dog arrived on the scene at the dawn of the 1980s, just as a firehose of anti-drug PSAs was inundating the youth of America. These messages didn’t always work as…
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52 min
Decoder Ring | The Fight Over Sunlight
The sun has always been a hot topic. For centuries, we’ve flip-flopped over whether our health depends on soaking up its rays—or shielding ourselves from them. The current conventi…
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49 min
Decoder Ring | Weapons of Map Destruction
Most of us use GPS—the Global Positioning System—on a daily basis: to find our location when we’re driving, running, shopping, dating, and so much more. But GPS is even more import…
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37 min
Introducing First America: “Merciless Indian Savages”
Here at Slow Burn, we explore the events and people who shaped America as we know it today. As the country marks its 250th birthday this summer, we want to introduce you to the fir…
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49 min
Decoder Ring | We Are Monumentally Bad at Statues
It seems like the only time you hear about new statues these days is when something goes horribly wrong. Unfortunate bronze renditions of Lucille Ball, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dwayne Wa…
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49 min
Decoder Ring | Tina Turner and the Dance That Conquered Australia
In Australia, no wedding or school dance is complete without the Nutbush, Australia’s unofficial national dance. The Nutbush – a simple line dance to the song “Nutbush City Limits,…
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54 min
Becoming Justice Gorsuch | 3. A Lunch Room for Life
In our final episode, it’s time to talk about Neil Gorsuch and the future of SCOTUS. Host Susan Matthews enlists Slate’s jurisprudence team—Amicus co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark…
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45 min
Becoming Justice Gorsuch | 2. The Stolen Seat
When Justice Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016, the Supreme Court appeared to be headed for a 5-4 liberal majority. Instead, a staggering blockade by Senate Republicans and a…
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37 min
Becoming Justice Gorsuch | 1. Man With a Plan
Neil Gorsuch may not be the most well-known justice on the Supreme Court, but he might just be the key to understanding how and why the current court has come to wield so much powe…
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2 min
Season 11 Trailer: Becoming Justice Gorsuch
Coming May 13: Host Susan Matthews traces the rise of Neil Gorsuch, from his formative years as a young conservative through his nomination to a “stolen seat” on the U.S. Supreme C…
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54 min
Decoder Ring | Mailbag: Spooky Strings, Phone Menu Options, and Eye Rolls
We are lucky to get fantastic questions from our listeners here at Decoder Ring, and in this episode, we’re going to open up our mailbag to answer three of them. What are the origi…
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35 min
Decoder Ring | How to Make Dollars Make Sense
Money is everywhere. Money influences just about everything. We think about money all the time. But how much do we really know about it? In this episode of Decoder Ring, we explore…
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59 min
Decoder Ring | Who Was Lonelygirl15?
In the summer of 2006, a teenage girl began posting video diaries to a then-new site called YouTube under the handle lonelygirl15. Within weeks she was a phenomenon—even though no…
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53 min
Decoder Ring | The Johnlock Conspiracy (Encore)
For over a century, fans of Sherlock Holmes have been analyzing, debating, and creating new texts with Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters. But when a fan theory emerged about the BBC…
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47 min
Decoder Ring | Was "Eyes Wide Shut" a Warning?
When Eyes Wide Shut opened in the summer of 1999, it was widely considered a disappointment. This final film from legendary director Stanley Kubrick had been sold as an erotic thri…