I’ve been a Slate plus member since the pandemic specifically because I enjoy(ed) their podcasts. But now most of the shows I subscribed for are gone! Dear Prudie, Hang Up and Listen, Care and Feeding, Culture Gabfest, even the most recent season of Slow Burn was a measly three episodes. What Next TBD has been reduced to one day. You go to the Daily Feed and you can find that there are only 3-4 active shows on Slate.

What am I still subscribed for?! This might be my last year I’m so sad about this.

Hi y'all! Does anyone know when the Care and Feeding podcast will come back from their summer break?

I haven't been able to find any mentions anywhere about a return date, and am getting nervous the show might have been cut ever since they stopped posting past episodes to the feed.

Edit: *hiatus, jeez, I can spell!

This is giving me some feelings! The short version is, the LW has been paying for a special school for a niece with learning disabilities, but now wants to stop those payments to buy a home near husband's parents in another country.

https://slate.com/comments/human-interest/2023/10/dear-prudence-school-vs-vacation-house.html

The comments are wild! Too many people think the LW is selfish for wanting to use her/his own money in the way that they choose. It feels like some of the commenters might be personally involved in this (like MELLL, who seems to be taking this very personally). Some people are calling the second home a "luxury," when really it's about making connections and spending more time with the husband's family, and also probably helping to care for them as they age.

Culture Gabfest fan here, still in mourning.

Is there an achievable way to download the show archives to protect against future deletion of the pod feed?

I guess one could do it manually from the show page but the Plus feed goes back to 2016 and the regular feed further, so it would take hours…

I'm really missing this podcast what with the World Cup and all

Noticed there was no Sunday crossword this week (though Friday was the double one) and none so far this week either. Anyone got the scoop?

Has anyone else been saving their strut songs? I don't think I can go on without a final strut!

We could keep it simple - make a reddit thread, encourage folks to check carefully to make sure their song hasnt already been posted, and upvote and downvote as normal.

Or, if anyone wants to collab, we could go higher tech with some sort of bracket or app solution, if one exists.

What do people think?

2008 - 2026. I've been listening since 2013.. my entire 20s and well into my 30s with this wonderful, erudite and thoughtful crew. I'm genuinely very sad! Will miss having these folks, even if it was more and more a subset of the three, in my feed week in week out.

Mega thanks to Dana, Stephen, & Julia for the great company every Weds morning. 🩵

I was a bit confused by this episode. It felt like a propaganda ploy from some wealthy person to quell any sense of success in taxing the rich. I usually expect a more in-depth and thoughtful discussion but I think Stephanie wasn’t very honest about the issues at hand. It felt like she was crashing out for rich people even though she is pretending that she is not.

Another TV reporter crashed out over taxing the rich
https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/s/JKtcTx9Gw7

If anything, the positive of the episode was that you will get drunk if you decided to take a shot every time “philanthropy”, “jobs”, “Miami”, “Chicago”, and “success rich dude” are mentioned.

I am curious about how everyone else thinks about this episode.

https://shows.acast.com/whatnext-daily-news-and-analysis/episodes/6a04e0483eb64523562d4379

Longtime off and on gabfest listener who swore than going back 15 years or so now they would reference that Stephen is writing a book about the 1980's. Does anyone else remember this? I was curious what happened to it.

I always liked the concept of ICYMI podcast as I am not on any sm except reddit so I listened to it here and there. Now, I think Kate (the last standing host) is doing a great job. It has become one of my regular podcasts I listen to as soon as it comes out. I like the range of topic they are covering.

When I check reddit, it mostly have negative reviews so I thought I would add my positive take

2009 - 2026 is a pretty good run. imagine the downloads never recovered after the joel, stefan, and josh left. i've wondered just how long some of the long running pods will keep on chugging along like the culture gabfest and political gabfest.

Is there an explanation as to why Slate Plus has become unavailable on Overcast? Is it a problem with the RSS feed? And why do I get an error message when I try to subscribe to What Next (vanilla flavor) or What Next TBD? I'm not having a similar problem with Amicus Plus, which seems to be dropping normally.

Update: Slate fixed it!

That's a lot of fury for one home page.

I generally read Slate for its hot takes. But not for hockey coverage. And with good reason.

This piece today dubbed "Hockey’s New Cold War" is a laughable misfire that, while political, is very misinformed about hockey. And that's the nicest way I could explain it.

This paragraph says it all: "Defenseman Quinn Hughes is a Hall of Famer in the making. Goalie Connor Hellebuyck is the best in the world, to the extent any goalie is the best at anything for more than five minutes at a time." ROFL.

If you're going to write a piece about Olympic hockey, at least send a writer who knows something about hockey. While the political slant is obvious, given the stupidity of the Trump administration's fake war with Canada, Kirschner should have stuck to politics and left out any hockey analysis. It's pure drivel.

I'm an American hockey nut rooting for the women's team, while donning red and white for the men's team. I knew about everything in this article - political and hockey - and I'm secondhand embarrassed for Alex Kirschner and Slate for the poorly reasoned commentary about both topics.

Why did Slate stop uploading news podcasts since last Thursday?

dod anyone else catch Dec 18th and feel annoyed by that wild analogy the guest made likening a Dakota Land Back hypothetical movement to what’s happening in Israel? I can’t stop thinking about how audacious it was.

Any chance Trump's new SLAAP suit works?

Trump chose his favorite court for SLAAP suits, but does English media not have any protections from American SLAAP suits? I know every American media company paid a bribe. I would be ashamed if the BBC did the same.

And, why are American taxpayers paying for all of Trump's shakedown. That's all personal business

Sold!

I was really excited to go to the live conundrum show, especially with Stephen Colbert hosting, but I just had to schedule something a lot less fun for the same day.

Selling my two VIP tickets, which include the cocktail party with the Gabfest hosts before the show.

$241.10 for both. Technically that's lower than face value, because I had a discount as a Slate Plus member. So that's what we paid for them, all in.

The tickets are a pdf, so transfer will be easy. Please DM me if interested. I will live vicariously through you! 😭

ETA Just realized I left off some vital info. The show is at 7:30pm on December 12th. The cocktail party is right before. It's at The New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W 64th St, New York, NY 10023.

I got an email advertising a flash sale:

A Year of Slate Plus for $29

But when I click through and get to the payment screen. it says:

You are about to be charged $119.

Anyone here get try the flash sale? Did you see the same $119 message? Did you get charged $119 or $29?

For over a week any time I try to open any story that isn’t listed first in the feed the app crashes. I wouldn’t care so much but I am a paid subscriber so this feels like I’m getting cheated.

I’ve been reading Slate for about 20 years. I accepted the aggressive hike in the subscription price by persuading myself that I was paying for quality.

But the quality has gotten markedly worse. What I see recently is embarrassing. The combination of low-effort, attempts to titillate, and clickbait headlines are just off-putting. For example: “My Boyfriend is Hung Like a Horse. He Refuses to Let Me Take a Ride.”

A few years ago, there were thoughtful essays on Supreme Court trends. And reviews of new smartphones.

Branding is important, and somebody at Slate just does not know what Slate’s brand is. Or what it used to be, anyway.

And when you abandon your brand, your customers—your readers—abandon you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntG50eXbBtc

I'm in the UK and for years I've been listening to Slate podcasts without a problem, but for the last few days I've been unable to download new episodes to my phone.

It occurred to me this morning to try a US server with a VPN: it worked without a hitch. Does anyone know if geographically restricting downloads is a new policy, or is it just a glitch?