Slow Burn

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.


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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?

History
Documentary
Politics
101
Decoder Ring: McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime...
Did a trench-coat wearing dog’s catchy anti-drug anthems actually work?
42 min
102
Decoder Ring: McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Crime...
The unlikely origins of the trench-coat wearing bloodhound who tackled personal safety, guns and drugs.
32 min
103
One Year: 1986 | 7. The Man From Fifth Avenue
The stranger-than-fiction story of a mysterious American who starred in a Soviet propaganda film.
53 min
104
One Year: 1986 | 6. The Miracle of Cokeville
How the worst school attack in U.S. history was miraculously averted.
62 min
105
One Year: 1986 | 5. Herschel vs. the Blubber Bu...
How a cute story about a hungry sea lion became a fight over targeted animal killing.
46 min
106
One Year: 1986 | 4. A Boycott in Mississippi
The civil rights battle that divided a small Southern town, and captivated the nation.
54 min
107
One Year: 1986 | 3. The Mystery of Al Capone’s ...
How a live television special became a legendary American fiasco.
58 min
108
One Year: 1986 | 2. The Ultimate Field Trip
They competed for a spot on the Space Shuttle Challenger. Then they watched it explode.
55 min
109
Slow Burn presents... One Year: 1986 | 1. No Cr...
Would Isiah Thomas’ vision of a crime-free world set Detroit on a new path, or was it a recipe for failure?
50 min
110
Decoder Ring: The “Sex” Scandal That Made Mae West
Before she hit the big-screen, the sultry actress starred in a 1927 tabloid trial.
41 min
111
Decoder Ring: The First Alien Abductees
The alien abduction narrative started right here on Earth.
36 min
112
Decoder Ring: The Most Famous Poet No One Remem...
Searching for Rod McKuen.
43 min
113
Slow Burn presents: Decoder Ring - The Mall is ...
For a supposedly dying place, the mall keeps hanging around.
44 min
114
Roe v. Wade | 4. Roe Against Wade
How Justice Harry Blackmun became an accidental abortion rights hero.
10 min
115
Roe v. Wade | 3. Women vs. Connecticut
What it took to strike down one of the oldest abortion laws in the country.
8 min
116
Roe v. Wade | 2. Life or Death
How a doctor and nurse from Cincinnati irrevocably changed the debate over abortion in America.
10 min
117
Roe v. Wade | 1. Get Married or Go Home
In 1971, Shirley Wheeler became the public face of the fight for abortion rights.
52 min
118
The L.A. Riots | 8. Damages
How Rodney King and the city of Los Angeles tried to reckon with everything they’d suffered.
47 min
119
The L.A. Riots | 7. Into Ashes
April 30 felt like the calm after the storm. Then the fires started burning again.
37 min
120
The L.A. Riots | 6. No Peace
After the verdicts, Los Angeles erupted into fire and chaos.
39 min
121
The L.A. Riots | 5. The System
The officers who beat Rodney King had been caught in the act. Why wasn’t that enough to secure a conviction?
39 min
122
The L.A. Riots | Extra: Leading Up to the Riots
A few excerpts from Season 6's Slate Plus interviews.
16 min
123
The L.A. Riots | 4. Glen
Rodney King woke up in a prison hospital to find himself at the center of the biggest story in the world.
32 min
124
The L.A. Riots | 3. The Chief
In the aftermath of the Rodney King beating, the city wanted Daryl Gates out. Gates had other plans.
43 min
125
The L.A. Riots | 2. No Justice
With the beating of Rodney King still on America’s TV screens, the killing of a teenager in South Central further inflamed the tension in Los Angeles’ Black neighborhoods.
44 min