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In the year leading up the invasion, George W. Bush sketched his justification for the war: good vs. evil, us vs. them. The president wasn’t interested in fleshing out the details beyond that, but lots of other people were.How did intellectuals, on both the right and left, help bolster the Bush administration’s case for war? And how much responsibility should they bear for one of America’s deadliest mistakes?Season 5 of Slow Burn is produced by Noreen Malone, Jayson De Leon, and Sophie Summergrad. Mixing by Merritt Jacob.Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To start a war of choice, you need a casus belli—a case for war. Why did the Bush administration settle on weapons of mass destruction as their case for war? And how did they make that case to the American people?Season 5 of Slow Burn is produced by Noreen Malone, Jayson De Leon, and Sophie Summergrad. Mixing by Merritt Jacob. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just hours after 9/11, American decision makers had already started thinking about attacking Iraq. When the anthrax attacks began a month later, those ideas went into overdrive. Did Iraq have anything to do with mailing anthrax letters? Did it matter?Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.Season 5 of Slow Burn is produced by Noreen Malone, Jayson De Leon, and Sophie Summergrad. Mixing by Merritt Jacob. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eighteen years have passed since the United States invaded Iraq. It’s a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed America’s credibility on the world stage. How much can that war be traced to one Iraqi exile’s longstanding quest to return to Baghdad?Season 5 of Slow Burn is produced by Noreen Malone, Jayson De Leon, and Sophie Summergrad. Mixing by Merritt Jacob.Production help from Margaret Kelley.Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq without provocation. Most Americans supported the war—as did most politicians and intellectuals, both liberal and conservative. Today, it’s universally considered a disaster.Hosted by award-winning reporter Noreen Malone, the fifth season of Slow Burn explores the people and ideas that propelled the country into the Iraq war, and the institutions that failed to stop it. How did the Iraq catastrophe happen? And what was it like to watch America make one of its most consequential mistakes?Slow Burn Season 5 is hosted by Noreen Malone. Formerly, she was the editorial director of New York Magazine, and a host of Slate’s “The Waves.” Her magazine reporting has earned a George Polk Award.The season begins on Wednesday, April 21st. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're excited to introduce you to I Spy, a production of Foreign Policy. Each week on I Spy, a former intelligence operative from somewhere around the world tells the story of a single mission. They've featured guests from the CIA, Mossad, MI5, the KGB, and more. The host is three-time Emmy winner Margo Martindale, who played Claudia the KGB handler on FX’s hit show The Americans. In this first episode of season 3, DEA special agent Steve Murphy describes his role in the hunt for narco-terrorist Pablo Escobar in Colombia in the early 1990s. This is part one of a two-part episode. To hear part 2, make sure to look for I Spy wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A few excerpts from Season 4's bonus interviews, and a special Slow Burn announcement.Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn and ad-free episodes of all Slate podcasts. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the fall of 1991, David Duke looked like a real threat to become the governor of Louisiana.On the sixth and final episode of Slow Burn's fourth season: What arguments did David Duke's opponents make? Who did they hope to persuade? And what did it mean, in those four weeks in 1991, to stand up and be counted?Season 4 of Slow Burn is produced by Josh Levin and Christopher Johnson. Mixing by Paul Mounsey. Slow Burn’s production assistant is Madeline Ducharme and Sophie Summergrad is the podcast’s assistant producer.Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Edwin Edwards was a towering force in Louisiana politics. Buddy Roemer dethroned him and promised to modernize the state. In 1991, David Duke challenged both of them—and was soon on the verge of the biggest victory of his life.In Episode 5 of Slow Burn: How a Louisiana governor’s race became one of the most consequential elections in modern American history.Season 4 of Slow Burn is produced by Josh Levin and Christopher Johnson. Mixing by Paul Mounsey. Slow Burn’s production assistant is Madeline Ducharme and Sophie Summergrad is the podcast’s assistant producer.Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Duke wasn’t content being a state representative. He wanted to go national, and in 1990 he expanded his base of white voters to try to attain that goal.In Episode 4 of Slow Burn: How David Duke made himself a political sensation—and the message that his supporters sent when they cast their ballots.Season 4 of Slow Burn is produced by Josh Levin and Christopher Johnson. Mixing by Paul Mounsey. Slow Burn’s production assistant is Madeline Ducharme and Sophie Summergrad is the podcast’s assistant producer.Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1989, a Black 12-year-old girl in New Orleans found the David Duke phenomenon, and Duke himself, hard to comprehend. So she called Duke on the phone to ask him some questions.In this Slow Burn interlude: how a budding journalist outdid the professionals. Plus, why we won’t be interviewing David Duke for our series.Season 4 of Slow Burn is produced by Josh Levin and Christopher Johnson. Mixing by Paul Mounsey. Slow Burn’s production assistant is Madeline Ducharme and Sophie Summergrad is the podcast’s assistant producer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1989, David Duke got a foothold in American politics. To build on that victory, he’d have tofend off a Republican official determined to bring him down.In the third episode of our series: the people who tried to stop David Duke’s rise, and the oneswho accommodated him.Season 4 of Slow Burn is produced by Josh Levin and Christopher Johnson. Mixing by PaulMounsey. Slow Burn’s production assistant is Madeline Ducharme and Sophie Summergrad isthe podcast’s assistant producer.Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn every season, plus zero ads. Sign up now to listen and support the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Duke dreamed of becoming the charismatic leader who’d bring racism to the masses. Hetried to make that dream a reality by seizing on America’s most powerful symbol of whitesupremacist terror.On the second episode of Slow Burn’s fourth season: what David Duke’s years as a leader in theKu Klux Klan reveal about his beliefs and ambitions, and why Duke decided to leave the Klanbehind.Season 4 of Slow Burn is produced by Josh Levin and Christopher Johnson. Mixing by PaulMounsey. Slow Burn’s production assistant is Madeline Ducharme and Sophie Summergrad isthe podcast’s assistant producer.Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn every season, early access to episode 3, plus zero ads. Sign up now to listen and support the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the first half of the 1980s, it looked like David Duke’s career as a professional racist was over.But the former Ku Klux Klan leader had a comeback plan: He was going to keep quiet about hismost hateful beliefs—and run for the Louisiana House of Representatives.On the first episode of Slow Burn’s fourth season: the campaign that changed David Duke’s life,and that made him a threat to take control of Louisiana.Season 4 of Slow Burn is produced by Josh Levin and Christopher Johnson. Mixing by PaulMounsey. Slow Burn’s production assistant is Madeline Ducharme and Sophie Summergrad isthe podcast’s assistant producer.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

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.Slow Burn Season 4 is hosted by Josh Levin, Slate's national editor and a native Louisianian.The season begins on Wednesday, June 10. That day, Slate Plus members will get the first three episodes of Slow Burn, while non-members will get Episode 1. Subscribe to Slate Plus here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn every season, plus zero ads. Sign up now to listen and support the show.A special edition of Slow Burn features Joel Anderson live on stage, with legendary producers Nashiem Myrick and Easy Moe Bee, and Reverend Conrad Tillard, known in the 90s as "The Hip Hop Minister." Plus, a story from the season 3 cutting room floor.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slow Burn's Watergate season is now a TV docu-series, premiering Feb. 16 on Epix. Read more about it in this interview with host Leon Neyfakh. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey Slow Burn listeners. We have something special for you this week. It's an episode of Broken Record, a music podcast from Pushkin Industries, co-hosted by Malcolm Gladwell and music producer Rick Rubin. In the episode, Malcolm and Rick talk to Questlove about his memories of the MOVE police bombing in Philly, the music of his childhood, and Quest gets behind the drums to show the evolution of his playing. Being the music lover he is, Questlove can't help but turn the tables to ask Rick about his own Hip Hop history: working on the Beastie Boys' first album, License to Ill, and LL Cool J's first album, Radio. Then it all culminates in one of the best Obama stories ever. You can subscribe to Broken Record wherever you get your podcasts, and see some amazing studio session photos on Instagram, @TheBrokenRecordPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Slate Plus members get a bonus episode of Slow Burn every week. This is a preview of the bonus episodes released this season:—interviews with Slow Burn host Joel Anderson and producer Christopher Johnson about the making of the series, and extended interviews they conducted with Tupac's attorney Shawn Holley, hip-hop journalist Matty C, and Biggie biographer Cheo Hodari Coker.To listen to all eight bonus episodes from this season in full, sign up for Slate Plus now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Questions have swirled around the murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls ever since their deaths. Who killed them, and why? How come no one was ever charged in either case? Is Tupac still alive and hiding out somewhere?On the final episode of the season, we look at the investigations into the deaths of two rap legends and the competing theories of their cases. We also explore their enormous legacies, and what hip-hop lost when they died.Slate Plus members get bonus episodes of Slow Burn every season, plus zero ads. Sign up now to listen and support the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices