Slate’s Next ‘Slow Burn’ Podcast Tells Stories of Roe v. Wade

(Bloomberg) -- Slate News Director Susan Matthews heard from a friend's text that the Supreme Court had drafted an opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. She was at her apartment when she scrambled to get online and talk to her colleagues about how to handle the news. They had been working on the newest season of their popular “Slow Burn” podcast for months, and it was already set to feature the landmark 1973 court decision.

“I felt like I had to make an argument for this series ever since I pitched it,” said Matthews, who hosts this season of “Slow Burn.” “With this leak, everyone realizes it's a really big deal.”

Matthews and her colleagues quickly reworked the podcast's trailer to include the draft opinion and moved up their timing for announcing the show's next topic. The four-episode installment on Roe v. Wade will be the seventh season for “Slow Burn.” Prior topics have included the Los Angeles riots, Watergate and the war in Iraq.

The show, which explores consequential moments in U.S. history, has been downloaded more than 85 million times, according to Slate. In addition to advertising revenue, this season is also being paid for with a grant from the nonprofit International Women's Media Foundation. The series will be released weekly this June as the Supreme Court wraps up its term.

This season primarily focuses on the years leading up to the Roe v. Wade ruling that protected a woman's right to have an abortion. It features the stories of individuals like Shirley Wheeler, the first woman to be convicted of manslaughter for having an abortion.

“This is a story about really interesting human characters, and you should care about them outside of caring about abortion,” Matthews said.

She said the show will discuss how Republicans primarily supported abortion rights in the 1970s and that working-class Democrats, many of whom were Catholic, opposed it. She said reporting these stories helped her understand the “deeply moral belief” held by some anti-abortion proponents.

“As somebody who has worked at Slate since ‘Slow Burn' launched, sometimes the connections feel really eerily familiar,” Matthews said. “This season feels really on the nose.”