Slow Burn
In Slow Burn’s 10th season, host Josh Levin takes you back to a crucial inflection point in American history: the moment between 2000 and 2004 when Fox News first surged to power and a whole bunch of people rose up to try and stop it.You’ll hear from the hosts, reporters, and producers who built Fox News, many who’ve never spoken publicly. You’ll also hear from Fox’s biggest antagonists—the political operatives, journalists, and comedians who attacked it, investigated it, and tried to mock it into submission. And you’ll hear from Fox’s victims, who are still coming to terms with how a cable news channel upended their lives.
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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?
Our Editor's Take
Slow Burn is an award-winning, acclaimed podcast. It's a narrative series that retells stories that captured the American public's attention in the past.
The story for one of the Slow Burn seasons discusses abortion. That's one of the perennial news items that get America talking. The famous Roe v. Wade case entered the Supreme Court in the 1970s. Yet many people do not know the history of it. It all began when a young Shirley Wheeler faced a severe criminal charge for having an abortion. In the first episode, host Susan Matthews interviews the famous lawyer Nancy Stearn. Stearn started the world-renowned struggle for abortion rights in a New York courtroom. Thanks to audio from those who were there, every detail is captivating. This series is unique because it guides listeners through what it was like to live through it all.
Back in 2017, the first Slow Burn season started with the Watergate scandal. Listeners will hear interviews from people who were there at the time. Did they know that impeachment was a possibility for President Nixon? Did anyone see it coming? Across eight episodes, listeners are sure to find out.
Slow Burn hosts have changed over the series to address different topics. Journalist Leon Neyfakh wrote two seasons on Watergate and the Clinton impeachment. Joel Anderson took over to study the unsolved murders of hip-hop artists Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. He was also the host of the sixth season, which discussed the Los Angeles riots. Here he looked at how the police's assault on Rodney King led to a movement across Los Angeles and beyond. In the fourth season, editor Josh Levin introduces listeners to David Duke. He is a former leader of the Klu Klux Klan who later ran for governor. The fifth season discusses the Iraq War.
Slow Burn brings listeners on a journey to explore some of the most compelling scandals in American history.
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Season 10
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