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How Donald Trump is attempting to shape the arts to his own liking, from installing himself as head of the Kennedy Center to canceling grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, throwing organizations and projects of all sizes into uncertainty and chaos. Guests: Alisa Solomon [https://journalism.columbia.edu/faculty/alisa-solomon], director of the Arts & Culture concentration at the Columbia Journalism School Katy Waldman [https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/katy-waldman], staff writer for the New Yorker.   Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus [http://slate.com/whatnextplus] to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Isabel Angell, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Kate Lindsay and Candice Lim check in with the “Caveman Skincare [https://www.tiktok.com/@tiazakher/video/7496907692007525687]” method and they pour one out for Skype. Then, they dive into the internet controversy [https://www.fastcompany.com/91327937/read-the-room-girl-running-influencer-kate-mackz-faces-backlash-over-her-white-house-interview] surrounding a TikTok running influencer and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Kate Mackz is the host of a TikTok series [https://www.tiktok.com/@katemackz/video/7428985899251289387] called The Running Interview Show where she jogs with celebrities. Last week, Mackz — who up until this point, did not discuss politics much on her page — interviewed Leavitt for the series and it ended up creating a huge controversy. ICYMI breaks down Kate and Karoline’s video and why this collaboration was a possible failed attempt at being apolitical. This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, Candice Lim, and Kate Lindsay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Products often tell you exactly how they’re intended to be used. But why leave it at that? As a culture, we have long had a knack for finding ingenious, off-label uses for things. In this episode, we take a close look at a few examples of products that are ostensibly meant for one thing, but are better known for something else entirely. We explore Q-tips, which we are explicitly told not to put into our ears; the Hitachi Magic Wand, the iconic sex toy marketed as a body massager; the musical washboard; and the children’s electrolyte solution Pedialyte that many adults swear by as a hangover cure. You’ll hear from Hallie Lieberman [https://www.hallielieberman.com/], author of Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy; Jacqui Barnett of the Columbus Washboard Company [https://columbuswashboard.com/]; Christopher Wilson [https://profiles.si.edu/display/nWilsonC1102006], curator and chair of the Division of Home and Community Life at the Smithsonian; musician and educator Súle Greg Wilson [https://www.sulegregwilson.com/mo-trad-afro-american-percussion.html]; zydeco musicians C.J. Chenier [http://www.officialcjchenier.com/] and Steve Nash; Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/43258/shaughnessy-bishop-stall/], author of Hungover: The Morning After and One Man’s Quest for the Cure; as well as writers Roberto Ferdman [https://robertoferdmanswebsite.godaddysites.com/], Dan Brooks [https://bydanbrooks.com/], and Kaitlyn Tiffany [https://www.theatlantic.com/author/kaitlyn-tiffany/]. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin, Max Freedman, Katie Shepherd, and Evan Chung, Decoder Ring’s supervising producer. We had additional production from Sofie Kodner. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Special thanks to Kate Sloan, Dr. Carol Queen, Bryony Cole, Amber Singer, Molly Born, Laura Selikson, and Nell McShane Wulfhart. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at DecoderRing@slate.com [DecoderRing@slate.com], or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281. Sources for This Episode Bishop-Stall, Shaughnessy. Hungover: The Morning After and One Man’s Quest for the Cure [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/317079/hungover-by-shaughnessy-bishop-stall/], Penguin, 2018. Brooks, Dan. “Letter of Recommendation: Pedialyte [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-pedialyte.html],” New York Times Magazine, Jan. 26, 2017. Comella, Lynn. Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure [https://www.dukeupress.edu/vibrator-nation], Duke University Press, 2017. Dodson, Betty. “Having Sex with Machines: The Return of the Electric Vibrator,” Dodson and Ross, June 9, 2010. Feran, Tim. “Pedialyte Is Not Just For Kids [https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2015/07/19/pedialyte-is-not-just-for/24193243007/],” Columbus Dispatch, July 19, 2015. Ferdman, Roberto A. “The strange life of Q-tips, the most bizarre thing people buy, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/20/we-have-a-q-tips-problem/]” Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2016. Kushner, David. “Inside Orgasmatron,” Village Voice, March 26, 1999. Lieberman, Hallie. Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy [https://www.hallielieberman.com/what-we-do], Pegasus Books, 2017. Lieberman, Hallie. “Selling Sex Toys: Marketing and the Meaning of Vibrators in Early Twentieth-Century America [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/enterprise-and-society/article/selling-sex-toys-marketing-and-the-meaning-of-vibrators-in-early-twentiethcentury-america/22E463A1B220B723BEFE776F605DB64B],” Enterprise & Society, June 2016. Russel, Ruth. “Hangover Remedies? I’ll Drink to That!,” Idaho Statesman, Jan. 1, 1978. Sloan, Kate. Making Magic [https://makingmagicseries.com/], 2024. Tiffany, Kaitlyn. “How Pedialyte got Pedialit [https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/10/17819358/pedialyte-hangover-marketing-strategy-instagram-influencers],” Vox, Sep. 10, 2018. Williams, Dell. “The Roots of the Garden [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224499009551572],” Journal of Sex Research, August 1990. Wulfhart, Nell McShane. “The Best Hangover Cure [https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/08/hangover-cure-pedialyte-freezer-pops-are-more-pleasant-than-a-saline-solution-iv.html],” Slate, Aug. 29, 2013. Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/decoder-ring/id1376577202] show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus [https://slate.com/podcast-plus?utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=plus_pod&utm_content=Decoder_Ring&utm_source=episode_summary] to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

On this week’s show, it’s one of the Gabfest’s most cherished traditions: the yearly call-in show. Dana, Julia, and Stephen answer listen-submitted questions that run the gamut – can cooking for one be a joy? Should philosophy be studied more? And how did you make your most recent friend?  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel gets into Lena Dunham's latest addition to the canon of "writers writing about moving out of New York." Email us at culturefest@slate.com [culturefest@slate.com].  Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong and Palace Shaw. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Outward’s Bryan Lowder and Christina Cauterucci talk to Alden Jones, editor of the new anthology, Edge of the World. With essays from Alexander Chee, Daisy Hernández, Edmund White, and more, the collection makes clear that queer travel writing isn’t just overdue—it’s transformative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]