Slate Money

The Burger CEOs Are Beefing

The U.S. started a war in Iran, Pete Hegseth is feuding with Anthropic, and the McDonald’s CEO went viral for his tiny bite of burger.

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Episode Notes

This week: The U.S. started a war in Iran. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck break down why the war is bumping the US dollar and threatening the UAE’s image as a safe haven, with a notable lack of “oil-shock.” Then, the hosts get into why Pete Hegseth’s Department of War is clashing with Anthropic, as modern warfare becomes increasingly reliant on AI. And finally, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski went viral for taking a very small bite of a very big burger. So, Emily dares to eat a Big Arch—the whole thing—and the hosts talk about how this kind of PR cannot be bought.

In the Slate Plus episode: Daylight Saving Forever.

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Podcast production by Jessamine Molli and Justin Wright.

Bonus Episode

Bonus: Daylight Saving Forever

British Columbia boldly does away with the biannual clock change.

About the Show

A weekly roundup of the most important stories from the worlds of business and finance, hosted by Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers.

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Hosts

  • Emily Peck is the co-host of Slate Money and a markets correspondent for Axios.

  • Felix Salmon is a host of the Slate Money podcast.

  • Elizabeth Spiers is Slate’s Pay Dirt columnist. She was the founding editor of Gawker and the former editor in chief of the New York Observer. Prior to Gawker, she was a financial analyst.