Slow Burn: The Clinton Impeachment

Season 2: Bonus Episode 8
Content Locked for Slate Plus members

Flytrap

Revisting Slate’s coverage of the Clinton-era.

View Transcript

About the Show

The saga of Bill Clinton’s impeachment is rich with forgotten characters, surprising subplots, and opportunities to reflect on just how much America has changed over the past 20 years. Whether you’re well-versed in the tale of Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, or you’re fuzzy on the details, this season of Slow Burn will take you further into the story than you’ve ever been.

From its origins in the Whitewater real estate controversy, the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, and the suicide of Vince Foster, Clinton’s near-removal from office was the culmination of a process that remains poorly understood—and continues to reverberate through our political system today.

While Season I of Slow Burn captured what it was like to live through Watergate, Season II offers a fresh reexamination of the choices, circumstances, and manipulations that nearly destroyed the 42nd president and forever changed the life of a former White House intern.

Read Leon Neyfakh’s introduction to Season 2.

Read the announcement on Season 3.

All episodes

Hosts

Episode Notes

Leon Neyfakh talks to David Plotz, Seth Stevenson, and Emily Yoffe about working at Slate during the late 1990s and what it was like to cover the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Neyfakh and Slate senior producer Mary Wilson also discuss the making of Episode 8.

Some of the articles mentioned during the discussion of Slate’s Clinton-era coverage:

“Fiddling Around“ by Emily Yoffe
“An Innocent Romance” by Seth Stevenson
“The Logistics of Presidential Adultery” by David Plotz
“Name That Scandal: And the Winner Is …” by Mickey Kaus

Season Two of Slow Burn was produced by Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons. Research assistance from Madeline Kaplan. Bonus episodes for the season were produced by Jeff Friedrich and Mary Wilson.