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
1
Decoder Ring | Off-the-Wall Stories of Off-Labe...
47 min
2
Decoder Ring | How “Chicken Soup” Sold Its Soul
The self-help book series’s strange journey from best-seller to meme stock.
44 min
3
Decoder Ring | Spring Break Forever
How spring break became the party that never ends.
43 min
4
Decoder Ring | How Books About Things That Chan...
Whether it’s cod, kudzu, or nutmeg, authors love to claim their subjects shaped history. Did they really?
51 min
5
Supercommunicators | 3. How to Have the Hardest...
The inside story of how Netflix encouraged employees to talk about the hard stuff.
29 min
6
Decoder Ring | Truck Nutz (Encore)
Why would someone dangle plastic testicles from their bumper?
34 min
7
Supercommunicators | 2. How to Communicate With...
What we can learn about nonverbal cues from The Big Bang Theory.
27 min
8
Decoder Ring | Jerry Lewis’ Lost Holocaust Clow...
How "The Day The Clown Cried" became notorious—and notoriously impossible to see.
52 min
9
Supercommunicators | 1. How to Talk to Anyone
The art and practice of asking the right questions.
30 min
10
Introducing Supercommunicators
The art and science of meaningful connection, inspired by the bestselling book.
1 min
11
Decoder Ring | The Scratch-Off Ticket’s Instant...
Ian Coss shares how scratch-off tickets became a part of American life.
33 min
12
Decoder Ring | Jump, Jive and Fail: The ’90s Sw...
Why the swing revival sizzled and then fizzled almost as quickly as it started.
59 min
13
Decoder Ring | I am Tupperware, I Contain Multi...
The storage container, a stealthy star of the modern home, started with Tupperware.
39 min
14
Introducing Planet Money: Can Money Buy Happiness?
Does more money mean fewer problems?
30 min
15
Decoder Ring | Mailbag: Fruit Snacks, Waterbeds...
How fruity candy got a “healthful” rebrand, the rise and fall of the softest (and sexiest) bed, and more listener questions.
45 min
16
Introducing SNAFU with Ed Helms
Season 2: MEDBURG
32 min
17
Decoder Ring | Mystery of the Mullet (Encore)
The history of the mullet is weirder than you think.
46 min
18
Decoder Ring: Reconsidering One of the “Worst” ...
In 1980, “Pink Lady and Jeff” flopped spectacularly—but was it really that bad?
57 min
19
Decoder Ring: A Feel-Good Story About the End o...
NASA’s bold mission to save Earth from a killer asteroid.
36 min
20
Decoder Ring: The Wrongest Bird in Movie History
The “Pygmy Nuthatch” in Charlie’s Angels has bedeviled birders for the last 25 years.
44 min
21
Decoder Ring: Selling Out (Encore)
How we all became sellouts.
47 min
22
Decoder Ring: Calling Dick Tracy! It’s Warren B...
Why is Oscar-winner Warren Beatty still playing comic book detective Dick Tracy, 30 years later?
42 min
23
The Rise of Fox News | 6. What Hath We Wrought?
Some of the people who built Fox News now wonder how much they’re to blame for what it’s become.
71 min
24
The Rise of Fox News | 5. Ludacris Has Been Fired
For the American left, Fox News was an enemy to be destroyed—but maybe also emulated.
58 min
25
The Rise of Fox News | 4. Beacon of Truth
The Daily Show Ridiculed Fox News. And Fox News Loved It.
59 min