Slow Burn

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 alway

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 alway

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 curren

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 m

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

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,

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 Ci

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 Lithwic

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 Republi

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

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.

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

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,

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

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 abou

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 e

Decoder Ring | A Prune by Any Other Name

The delicious, healthful prune has long had a cross to bear: It’s best known for making people poop. In the late 1990s, the California Prune Board set out on a quixotic m

Decoder Ring | Making Coal Cute Again

Three weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum shared an unusual tweet: a cartoon image of himself with his arm draped around a giant, anthropomorphized lump

Decoder Ring | Is Culture Stuck?

It’s a weird time for culture. There is more of it than ever before, it’s more accessible than ever before, but so little of it feels original. New movies are based on ol

Decoder Rings Back | Why the Mona Lisa?

We are really lucky to get lots of listener suggestions for the show, more good questions than we can possibly answer in a mailbag episode once or twice a year. So we’re