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Hear Me Out

Hear Me Out

Slate Podcasts

Hear Me Out is Slate's destination for tough, topical discussions with integrity, and without cliches. Join host Celeste Headlee and a guest each week for a smart, fair debate on issues that matter.
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Top 10 Hear Me Out Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Hear Me Out episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Hear Me Out for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Hear Me Out episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Hear Me Out - Trump Isn’t a Bug. He's a Feature.
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05/14/24 • 44 min

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: live from Seattle.

Hear Me Out had its first-ever live show on May 4, 2024 — and it was such a great conversation that we wanted to make sure our podcast listeners heard it, too.

The Cascade PBS Ideas Festival was full of smart, unconventional thinkers on the biggest issues facing this country... so what better place to have a conversation about Donald Trump, and the future of this country?

It’s tempting to think of the MAGA ideology as an unprecedented threat to democracy. But is it? Or are the authoritarian, anti-democratic ideas percolating into our mainstream politics a feature, rather than a bug?

Historian and author Heather Cox Richardson joined us in Seattle.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

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

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On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: prosecuting parents.

Ethan Crumbley’s parents didn’t pull the trigger that killed 4 students in 2021 — but they’ve been sentenced to prison time for it all the same.

School shootings are devastatingly common in this country, but punishing the parents of the killer is a new tactic of handling the aftermath. Even if you think the Crumbleys were bad parents, though, the questions should be posed: why are we punishing them under the law? And is this the best way to address, or even prevent, mass tragedies?

Professor, writer, and legal contributor for ABC News Kim Wehle joins us to urge for a look at the bigger picture.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

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

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Hear Me Out - Tradwives Show Us Feminism’s Failures
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06/25/24 • 43 min

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: aprons off.

Has there ever been a better time to be a woman in America? Probably not... but that’s a low bar. Modern feminism is having trouble making a case for itself, in the face of a challenging economy and backslides in reproductive rights. So when women on social media present themselves as traditional wives and homemakers, achieving the self-actualization of heteronormativity, have they given up? Or are they showing us what feminist thought might be missing?

Dr. C. Nicole Mason joins us to share her journey into the minds of tradwives... and her realization that they might have a point.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

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

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Hear Me Out - Interracial Marriages Can Still Be Racist
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04/09/24 • 36 min

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: [email protected]

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

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On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: all aren’t welcome.

Pride Month festivities have a complicated legacy. On the one hand, being out, proud and supportive in public has been a game-changing force for the LGBTQ+ community; on the other hand, pride began as a protest, and the movement has been, and is, at odds with the status quo and acceptability politics.

So, should uniformed cops be welcome at Pride? Should politicians like Jill Biden be invited, or encouraged, to make Pride a campaign stop?

Jessie Sage, a Pittsburgh-based columnist and sex worker, joins us to argue: no.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

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

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Hear Me Out - The House Should Elect The President
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03/05/24 • 44 min

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out... Parliamentary America?

It’s Super Tuesday, and the process by which we elect a president is on full display (warts and all). Americans on both sides of the aisle agree that the electoral college has to go. But what should replace it?

Maxwell Stearns, author of Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy (out 3/5/2024), presents his case for restructuring American government to look more like a parliamentary system — and, in the process, to take presidential elections out of the hands of voters and conventions and into the hands of elected coalitions.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

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

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Hear Me Out - Horse Race Journalism Is Good, Actually
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02/27/24 • 44 min

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out... are journalists killing democracy?

Mainstream news outlets are starting to move away from horse race election coverage and toward policy substance. Though it’s a slow change, it’s heralded by much of the news industry as a good one. But what if the horse race was never really the problem?

Journalist and writer Chris Cillizza joins us to defend the horse race.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

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

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Hear Me Out - Un-Cancel Woodrow Wilson
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02/20/24 • 44 min

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out... making (fourteen) points.

A piece in this month’s issue of the Atlantic argues that it’s time to re-evaluate the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. President Wilson was indisputably a productive president — but he’s now reviled by the left as a racist and the right as a tyrant. Is there room to meet somewhere in the middle?

David Frum of the Atlantic joins us to argue that, yes: it’s time to un-cancel Woodrow Wilson.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

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

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Hear Me Out - The Constitution Can’t Save Us
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02/13/24 • 37 min

Though most Americans have problems with the way this country is run, the Constitution remains popular — and untouchable, in our nation of laws. But it’s often difficult to solve 21st century problems with an 18th century document.

Aaron Tang, author and professor of law at UC Davis, joins us once again to argue that, instead of aligning with the Constitution, courts should try to cause the least permanent harm possible.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

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

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Hear Me Out - Biden Is Courting Voters Who Don’t Exist
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06/11/24 • 48 min

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: base instincts.

Democratic strategists are reportedly freaking out about Joe Biden. Despite his opponent’s felony convictions, Biden remains unpopular and isn’t polling well in swing states. Young voters are mad about his handling of the war in Gaza; many Americans remain convinced that the economy is bad and the president is to blame for it.

So if strategists’ worst fears come to pass... how much of this wound is self-inflicted?

Hayes Brown of MSNBC joins Hear Me Out to argue that Biden is falling into a classic triangulation trap... and that it probably won’t be worth it.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

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

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FAQ

How many episodes does Hear Me Out have?

Hear Me Out currently has 79 episodes available.

What topics does Hear Me Out cover?

The podcast is about News, News Commentary and Podcasts.

What is the most popular episode on Hear Me Out?

The episode title 'Horse Race Journalism Is Good, Actually' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Hear Me Out?

The average episode length on Hear Me Out is 39 minutes.

How often are episodes of Hear Me Out released?

Episodes of Hear Me Out are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Hear Me Out?

The first episode of Hear Me Out was released on Mar 16, 2023.

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