Are You “Numbing Out”?
ICYMI
Slate Podcasts
3.9 • 800 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Andrea González-Ramírez, a senior writer at The Cut whose recent piece explores why so many people have stopped reading the news. Instead, we’re “numbing out” after years of constant bad news on social media, to the point that even an assassination attempt on President Trump doesn’t earn a mention in our group chats. But how do we draw the line between necessary self care and privileged ignorance?
This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate Lindsay.
Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, I'm Kate Lindsay, and you're listening to I-C-Y-M-I, or in case you missed it, |
| 0:19.2 | Slate's podcast about internet culture. |
| 0:21.8 | And today we are joined by my former co-worker Andrea Gonzalez-Remirez. |
| 0:26.9 | Hello, Andrea. |
| 0:28.3 | Hi, Kate. |
| 0:29.1 | How are you? |
| 0:30.2 | I am so good. |
| 0:32.2 | This is probably our first time talking in years, right? |
| 0:35.6 | I know. |
| 0:36.2 | It's kind of weird. |
| 0:37.3 | I feel like we haven't worked together in like two months. |
| 0:41.2 | Yeah. |
| 0:41.5 | But it sounds like clearly being like years. |
| 0:43.3 | Yeah, I know. |
| 0:44.4 | Because now Andrea is a senior writer at The Cut, where she recently wrote about the |
| 0:49.0 | Great Numbing Out, which is about how the constant horrors of the news cycle have caused |
| 0:53.8 | some people to completely check out of the news cycle have caused some people to |
| 0:54.6 | completely check out of the news entirely. |
| 1:01.6 | But first, since you are here and since I don't think this came up during our, I think, |
| 1:06.6 | like four years together when we were in office, I need to know what is your first internet memory? |
| 1:13.2 | Is you seeing MSN Messenger? |
| 1:15.9 | That's like the first time I remember being like consciously using the internet. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.