Hey everyone, it's me, Emily Bazlon.

Charged is over, but I'm really excited to introduce you to the next show to come out of Slate Presents.

It's called The Queen.

You see, each season of Slate Presents will be a new narrative mini series.

So joining me at the mic is the host of the next series,

Josh Levine.

Josh, all right, I'm going to ask you some questions about your show.

It's about Linda Taylor, who is this incredibly distinctive character in American political

culture.

So why did you want to write about Linda Taylor?

I started writing about her when I learned that the term welfare queen was actually based on a real person.

I hadn't known that.

And Linda Taylor was a woman in Chicago who was reputed to have stolen an enormous amount of welfare money and also drove a Cadillac and wore fur coats.

And she was the template for this really vicious and racist stereotype.

And I wanted to know who was this person who had been

forgotten, totally forgotten, and I've spent years looking into her life

and I've spent years looking into her life

and who she was and what became of her.

So Linda Taylor perpetrated like some pretty serious welfare fraud, right?

That is fair to say, yes.

And does that make her the norm or the exception?

Definitely makes her the exception.

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