I Have To Ask

Judd Apatow is a comedian, writer, director, and producer. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss his new documentary on the life of Garry Shandling, which comedians are actually “normal” people, and having your friends accused of bad behavior in the age of #MeToo. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Corn and Michael Isikoff are the authors of Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump.  In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, they discuss what new details of Trump's trip to a Vegas nightclub can tell us about the Steele dossier, the history of Trump’s Putin crush, and why reporting on the Russia scandal is such a minefield. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod  Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Barro is a senior editor at Business Insider, as well as contributor to MSNBC, and the host of KCRW’s Left, Right, and Center podcast.  In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, they discuss how Trump uses comedy to sugarcoat his cruelty, how to think about the president’s intelligence, and why centrism has been on such a political losing streak.    Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at slate.com/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Benjamin Wittes is a writer and national security expert, and the editor-in-chief of Lawfare. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, he discusses how to read the tea leaves of the Mueller investigation, why people are too critical of James Comey, and why even the Trump administration hasn’t changed his (positive) opinion of the national security state.    Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at slate.com/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chuck Klosterman is a writer and essayist. In a wide-ranging conversation with Isaac Chotiner, he discusses the costs of politicizing pop culture, the roots of Trump’s shamelessness, and why music is such a subjective art form.    Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Please fill out the Slate podcast survey at slate.com/podcastsurvey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steven Pinker is the author of the new book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss why he thinks life is improving despite the worldwide rise of demagogues, what Trump tells us about America’s relationship to Enlightenment ideals, and whether global warming and nuclear weapons should call into question our notion of progress. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod  Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katie Roiphe is a writer and essayist. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss her controversial Harper’s essay on #MeToo, why she thinks the movement has gone too far, and whether people who speak out against feminism are really at risk of being “silenced.”  Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod  Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wesley Morris is a critic-at-large at The New York Times.  He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how social media is changing criticism, his complicated feelings about artists who behave deplorably, and why ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ is the most overrated movie of the year. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod  Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker.  She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the backlash to the #MeToo movement, generational differences between feminists, and the importance of viewing each woman’s story on its own terms. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod  Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Frum is a senior editor at The Atlantic, and the author of the new book Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the state of democracy after a year of Trump, why the president’s buffoonery doesn’t make him less dangerous, and his own journey from famous neocon to Trump critic. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod  Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Margaret Sullivan is the Washington Post’s media critic. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the problems with Michael Wolff’s new book on the Trump administration, the state of the Post and the New York Times, and how the media should cover the president’s mental health. Email: ask@slate.comTwitter: @IHaveToAskPod  Podcast production by Max Jacobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A.O. Scott is a film critic at The New York Times. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the year in movies, being a film critic in the age of Rotten Tomatoes, and wrestling with Hollywood in a post-Harvey Weinstein world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Lilla is the author of The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to debate why Democrats keep losing elections, whether America really used to be more united than it is today, and how much of the Republicans’ recent success is owed to racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill Kristol is the editor-at- large of The Weekly Standard. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how and why Republicans have rationalized Donald Trump, how he has re-examined his own past in light of Trump’s rise, and just where the Republican Party went awry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Kotkin is a historian and the author of Stalin: Waiting For Hitler, 1929-1941. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss Stalin’s differences from the autocrats of today, what Stalin and Hitler did and didn’t share, and the secret to getting inside the head of a dictator. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawrence O’Donnell is the host of ‘The Last Word’ on MSNBC, and the author of a new book, Playing With Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss whether JFK’s death really changed his brother, Bobby, how the Democratic Party was permanently transformed by 1968, and why the history of “collusion” in American elections is much older than we think. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laura Kipnis is an author, essayist, and professor at Northwestern University who writes frequently about sexuality and feminism. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the importance of training women to push back against creepy men, whether the current wave of sexual misconduct reckonings count as a movement, and why she still doubts Bill Clinton’s accusers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jelani Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss how the media can prevent the normalization of white nationalism, what Obama did and didn’t get right about our current moment, and why Trumpism is guaranteed to survive Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rebecca Traister is a writer-at- large for New York magazine. She sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss what she has learned reporting on sexual harassment and assault, whether Hillary Clinton should have to answer for her husband’s sins, and the coming societal backlash to women speaking out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of Between the World and Me, and now, We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy. He sits down with Isaac Chotiner to discuss the costs of writing off your fellow citizens as “deplorable,” why he chose writing over activism, and how Trump is both uniquely dangerous and a predictable consequence of American racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices