62 episodes

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.

Hear Me Out Slate Podcasts

    • News
    • 3.8 • 57 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

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.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Punishing A Shooter’s Parents Misses The Point

    Punishing A Shooter’s Parents Misses The Point

    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: hearmeout@slate.com

    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.
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    • 39 min
    Student Protests Can Backfire (Badly)

    Student Protests Can Backfire (Badly)

    On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: solidarity?

    College campuses across the country are grappling with protests and occupations in the name of a free Palestine. Many hundreds of students, faculty, and outside community members have been arrested in tense clashes with police — called onto campuses by the universities themselves. 

    Student protestors have shaped public discourse on matters like war and the environment for many decades. But without a clear, sympathetic goal, they can also lead to political backlash that far outlasts a four-year degree. 

    So are today’s student protestors instigating change in Gaza… or teeing up a crackdown on speech and protest here at home? 

    Prof. Steven Mintz of UT Austin joins us, and urges a cautionary look at the history books. 

    If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

    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

    • 44 min
    Third Parties Are Saving Democracy

    Third Parties Are Saving Democracy

    On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: nobody wins with two parties.

    A competitive presidential election draws closer every day – and as ever, every vote will count. So is it fair to accuse third-party voters of wasting a vote, as often happens? Or are third-party candidates actually preserving what little we have left of a competitive democracy? 

    Bernard Tamas of Valdosta State University joins us to make the case for the power of the third party.

    If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

    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

    • 35 min
    Legalize Weed, But Not Like This

    Legalize Weed, But Not Like This

    On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: blaze it.

    Ahead of the honorary stoner holiday that is 4/20, we’re taking a look at the marijuana landscape. Public opinion has warmed considerably to legal weed in the past few decades – both medicinal and recreational – even though it remains a Schedule 1 drug on the federal level.

    But some public health experts are still sounding the alarm, because this has all happened very quickly… and though hard-line illegality was harmful, what we’re doing now might be causing harm, too.

    Dr. Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, joins us.

    If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

    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

    • 36 min
    Interracial Marriages Can Still Be Racist

    Interracial Marriages Can Still Be Racist

    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: hearmeout@slate.com

    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

    • 36 min
    Don’t Blame Capitalism For The Housing Crisis

    Don’t Blame Capitalism For The Housing Crisis

    On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: housing the nation. 

    We have an affordable housing problem — and an affordability problem, period, but that’s another show. 

    When we talk about solutions to homelessness and cost burden for renters and homeowners alike, many progressives lean toward government intervention… because capitalism seems to have failed us. But has it, really? Or is for-profit development the surprising answer to affordable housing?

    Jon McMillan of TF Cornerstone – and author of a chapter in Housing The Nation – joins us.

    If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

    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

    • 37 min

Customer Reviews

3.8 out of 5
57 Ratings

57 Ratings

Sheff1234 ,

Great

Awesome show

No DRM ,

Objectivity as a form of Cowardice

In theory, a host of a podcast discussing myriad societal issues with people from across the political spectrum, and pushing back equally on their assertions and dogma regardless of their party or background would be a good thing.

However, this is another show platforming people who would’ve been seen as dangerous ideologues only a few years ago, and massively expanding the Overton window by acting as though apologists for extremists are only as misguided (and quite possibly as deep-down-good) as people who spend all their time trying to protect democracy and prevent the systematic undermining of fundamental rights and norms.

elizschles ,

Purity episode

I really liked this episode. Shaniqua McClendon was a great guest.

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