Here's Episode 1 of Slow Burn Season 4: David Duke. Subscribe here. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a white supremacist became an American political phenomenon. David Duke’s rise to power and prominence—his election to the Louisiana legislature, and then his campaigns for the U.S. Senate and the governorship—was an existential crisis for the state and the nation. The fourth season of Slate’s Slow Burn will explore how a Nazi sympathizer and former Klansman fashioned himself into a mainstream figure, and why some voters came to embrace his message. It will also examine how activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens confronted Duke’s candidacy, and what it took to stop him. The season is hosted by Josh Levin, host of The Queen and native Louisianian. Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn every season, early access to episodes 2 and 3, plus zero ads. Sign up now to listen and support the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slate Presents

Slow Burn S4 Ep. 1: White Knight

If you have any school-aged children in your life, you know that lockdown and active shooter drills have become a routine part of their school experience. These drills now take place in 95 percent of American schools. What you’re about to hear is a collaboration between Slate and The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in the United States. It’s an audio project featuring firsthand accounts from kids of all ages about what it’s like to go through these drills. We hear a lot about school shootings, but we’re only starting to have a larger conversation about how they affect even those kids who may never go through one.  You can hear more from the students at slate.com/lockdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slate Presents: Lockdown

Listen to the first chapter of the audiobook version of The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth. Narrated by January LaVoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus | The Queen: An Audiobook Preview

In this excerpt from the second bonus episode of The Queen, Dan Kois talks to Josh Levin about the process of writing the reporting-intensive book the podcast series is based on. They’re joined by a panel of three distinguished authors, who share their own lessons about what it takes to write a book-length investigation: David Grann, a New Yorker staff writer and the author of Killers of the Flower Moon; James Forman Jr., winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for his book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America; and Eliza Griswold, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for her book, Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America. To hear the full episode, join Slate Plus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus | The Queen: How to Write This Book

Is it possible that Linda Taylor perpetrated one of the most infamous child abductions in American history? In this excerpt from the first bonus episode of The Queen, Josh Levin talks to Paul Joseph Fronczak about how Taylor could be connected to the April 1964 kidnapping of a 1-day-old boy born to Paul’s parents, Dora and Chester Fronczak. They also discuss Paul’s search for his true identity. To hear the full episode, join Slate Plus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus | The Queen: The Kidnapping of Baby Fronczak

Linda Taylor had a tendency to emerge from out of nowhere, upend everything in her path, then vanish without leaving a forwarding address. The final episode of The Queen focuses on two different stories about the lives Taylor changed. In one case, she helped a vulnerable family escape the degradations of the Jim Crow South. In the other, she kidnapped a child and may have been responsible for her own husband’s death. This podcast is based on Josh Levin’s new book, The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Queen | Ep. 04: Bobbie and Diana

A decade before she became known as the “welfare queen,” Linda Taylor put herself at the center of a different Chicago scandal. Upon the death of gambling kingpin Lawrence Wakefield, Taylor posed as the heir to his sizable fortune. The ensuing court proceeding was full of lies and surprise witnesses. That heirship hearing would ultimately reveal Taylor’s real identity and offer a window into her troubled past. This podcast is based on Josh Levin’s new book, The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Queen | Ep. 03: Constance

In the 1970s, a pair of very different men fought to define Linda Taylor’s image. For presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, Taylor epitomized the brokenness of the federal bureaucracy and the broader trend of poor people getting rich off the public dime. Taylor’s defense lawyer, the civil rights attorney R. Eugene Pincham, believed she was a scapegoat, and that her actions were crimes of survival. This podcast is based on Josh Levin’s new book, The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Queen | Ep. 02: An Incredible Con

Linda Taylor became the “welfare queen” in 1974 when the Chicago Tribune publicized her outrageous exploits. The reporter who introduced her to the world was a Pulitzer Prize winner named George Bliss. He stumbled into the Taylor story while investigating waste and fraud in the public aid system, and his fixation on a single welfare recipient may have been more damaging than he ever realized. This podcast is based on Josh Levin’s new book, The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Queen | Ep. 01: Coronation

Linda Taylor was a con artist, a kidnapper, maybe even a murderer. She was also America’s original “welfare queen,” the villain Ronald Reagan needed to create a vision of a country being taken advantage of by its poorest citizens. In The Queen, Josh Levin reveals the never-before-told story of a woman whose singular life was forgotten in the rush to create a vicious American stereotype. Each season of Slate Presents brings you a new narrative mini-series.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Season 3 Trailer | The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth

We check in with Tarari and others as they complete their time in the diversion program and look toward their futures. We hear from the people inside the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office about their plans to reshape their slice of the criminal justice system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charged | Ep 6: The Other Side

A standalone episode about one of the voices featured in our series who is introduced to listeners as an expert but who goes through his own harrowing experience with the system when he’s sent to Rikers a few days shy of completing his parole. We document his ordeal and its surprising aftermath. Additional music for this episode by Lee Rosevere.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charged | Ep 5: The Long Tail

Tarari enters a diversion program which saves him from jail but puts his life — and the lives of other defendants like him — on a knife’s edge. We hear from social workers who run the program about the many ethical quandaries of trying to help their clients inside of a system built to punish them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charged | Ep 4: The Escape Hatch

Tarari faces a very long prison sentence before he’s offered the chance at mercy — with many strings attached. An episode from Eric’s past comes back to haunt him as he campaigns for D.A. and thinks through the consequences of extending mercy to people like Tarari. Additional music for this episode by Lee Rosevere.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charged | Ep 3: The Ghost of Tyrone Howard

As his family and friends hustle to come up with his bail money, Tarari ends up at one of the most infamous jails in the country: Rikers Island. Eric runs for his own term as district attorney just as the demands to close Rikers heat up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

hubhopper

Slate Presents

hubhopper