Episodes 211
Avg. Duration 40m
Activity Active
Apple Rating 4.6 (23,793)
Since Nov 2017
Latest Episode Dec 2025

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Schedule
Every 2 Weeks
Format
Serial
Consistency
82%
Hosting
feeds.megaphone.fm

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About This Podcast

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. Want more Slow Burn? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Slow Burn and your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slow Burn show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/slowburnplus to get access wherever you listen. Season 10: The Rise of Fox News How a cable news channel became a cultural and political force—and how a whole bunch of people rose up to try and stop it. Season 9: Gays Against Briggs A nationwide moral panic, a California legislator who rode the anti-gay wave, and the LGBTQ+ people who stepped up and came out to try and stop him. Season 8: Becoming Justice Thomas Where Clarence Thomas came from, how he rose to power, and how he’s brought the rest of us along with him, whether we like it or not. Winner of the Podcast of the Year at the 2024 Ambies Awards. Season 7: Roe v. Wade The women who fought for legal abortion, the activists who pushed back, and the justices who thought they could solve the issue for good. Winner of Apple Podcasts Show of the Year in 2022. Season 6: The L.A. Riots How decades of police brutality, a broken justice system, and a video tape set off six days of unrest in Los Angeles. Season 5: The Road to the Iraq War Eighteen months after 9/11, the United States invaded a country that had nothing to do with the attacks. Who’s to blame? And was there any way to stop it? Season 4: David Duke America’s most famous white supremacist came within a runoff of controlling Louisiana. How did David Duke rise to power? And what did it take to stop him? Season 3: Biggie and Tupac How is it that two of the most famous performers in the world were murdered within a year of each other—and their killings were never solved? Season 2: The Clinton Impeachment A reexamination of the scandals that nearly destroyed the 42nd president and forever changed the life of a former White House intern. Season 1: Watergate What did it feel like to live through the scandal that brought down President Nixon?

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Recent Episodes

The Slate Culture Gift Guide

Dec 17, 2025 49m

Hark, the holiday season is upon us—and with it the most solemn of festive traditions: a gift guide! In this video and podcast special, Slate hosts Dana Stevens, Chris Molanphy, and Willa Paskin…

Decoder Ring | Mailbag: Yo-Yos, Sandboxes, and Encores

Dec 17, 2025 1h 6m

Decoder Ring listeners write in with some excellent mysteries, and for our last episode of the year we’re solving three of them. Why do children play in boxes full of sand? Why do rock bands pretend…

Decoder Ring | “Videomate: Men” (Encore)

Dec 03, 2025 39m

Videomate: Men was a VHS tape released in 1987 featuring 60 single men pitching themselves as dates to women on the other side of the TV screen: “The love of your life could be on your TV tonight!”…

Decoder Ring | How Protein Muscled Its Way to the Top

Nov 19, 2025 44m

Americans are currently besotted with protein. It’s touted as being good for muscle growth, weight loss, skincare, mental acuity, longevity, and much else besides. It’s sold to men, women, children,…

Decoder Ring | Cozy Autumn Mysteries

Nov 05, 2025 55m

Autumn may have more cozy signifiers than any other season—though we all have our own favorites. Maybe for you it’s sweater weather, football games, spooky season, apple picking, leaf peeping, or…

Decoder Ring | The Red String Board Conspiracy

Oct 22, 2025 51m

There’s a ubiquitous prop in just about every police procedural and conspiracy thriller: a cork board pinned with documents, newspaper clippings, and Polaroid photos, all connected by a web of red…

When We All Get to Heaven | Setting the Table

Oct 15, 2025 25m

In 1993, more than 10 years into the AIDS epidemic, the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco (MCC-SF) tries to remember all they’ve lost. We think about remembering too after encountering…

Decoder Ring | What the Cuck?!

Oct 08, 2025 56m

Earlier this year, a tweet went out from the official account of the Democratic Party, tagging the Trump advisor Stephen Miller. It was an image of what appeared to be a simple hotel room chair. But…

Decoder Ring | Why Do Actors Act Like They Can Sing?

Sep 24, 2025 1h 1m

When an actor opens their mouth to sing in a movie, chances are high that the voice you hear will be their own. Even in music biopics, movie stars without much singing experience regularly go to…

Decoder Ring | Jane Fonda’s Workout, Part 2: Hanoi Jane’s VHS Revolution (Encore)

Sep 10, 2025 52m

In part two of our special two-part episode, we return to the 1982 VHS tape that created the at-home video industry: Jane Fonda’s Workout. On this episode, originally released in 2020, we deconstruct…

Decoder Ring | Jane Fonda’s Workout, Part 1: Jane and Leni (Encore)

Aug 27, 2025 58m

In 1982, the Jane Fonda Workout became the best-selling home video of all time. Over decades, it and its 22 follow ups would spawn a fitness empire, sell more than 17 million copies, and transform…

Decoder Ring | How to Hunt a Mammoth, and Other Experiments in Archaeology

Aug 13, 2025 57m

Experimental archeology is, simply put, archeology that involves running experiments. Where traditional archaeologists may study, research, analyze, and theorize about how artifacts were made or…

Decoder Ring | The Bad-Mouthing of British Teeth

Jul 30, 2025 51m

From The Simpsons’ Big Book of British Smiles to Austin Powers’ ochre-tinged grin, American culture can’t stop bad-mouthing English teeth. But why? Are they worse than any other nation’s? June Thomas…

Decoder Ring | Mailbag: Drug Names, Cow Abductions, and the “Ass-Intensifier”

Jul 16, 2025 48m

In this episode we’re opening our mailbag to answer three fascinating questions from our listeners. How did “ass,” a word for donkeys and butts, become what linguists call an “intensifier” for just…

Decoder Ring | The White Noise Boom

Jul 02, 2025 52m

White noise has a very precise technical definition, but people use the term loosely, to describe all sorts of washes of sound—synthetic hums, or natural sounds like a rainstorm or crashing…

Decoder Ring | The Boston Cinematic Universe

Jun 18, 2025 47m

This episode is a first for Decoder Ring: a live show, recorded at the WBUR Festival in Boston, Massachusetts. Given the setting, we decided to take on a Boston-based cultural mystery: namely, the…

Decoder Ring | The Laff Box (Encore)

Jun 04, 2025 36m

Decoder Ring is marking its 100th episode this year. To celebrate, we’re revisiting our very first episode from 2018, which asks: What happened to the laugh track? For nearly five decades, the laugh…

Decoder Ring | The Glaring Problem with Headlights

May 21, 2025 43m

Something seems to have happened to car headlights. In the last few years, many people have become convinced that they are much brighter than they used to be—and it’s driving them to the point of…

Decoder Ring | Off-the-Wall Stories of Off-Label Use

May 07, 2025 52m

Products often tell you exactly how they’re intended to be used. But why leave it at that? As a culture, we have long had a knack for finding ingenious, off-label uses for things. In this episode, we…

Decoder Ring | How “Chicken Soup” Sold Its Soul

Apr 23, 2025 48m

Chicken Soup for the Soul was the brainchild of two motivational speakers who preach the New Thought belief system known as the Law of Attraction. For more than 30 years, the self-help series has…

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Slow Burn have?

Slow Burn has published 211 episodes since November 2017, covering topics in Documentary, History.

Is Slow Burn still active?

Slow Burn is currently active with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 40m.

How do I contact Slow Burn for sponsorship or guest appearances?

Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Slow Burn, including email and social media links.

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