In 1993, MTV aired an unusual music video for the song “Runaway Train” by Soul Asylum, featuring the names and photos of real young people who were labeled missing. The video’s director calls it “the single most important thing that happened in the history of MTV” because it helped recover some of those missing youths. Was he right?
Nick Keppler tracked down some of those people the music video “saved”—and they don’t remember things that way.
Plus: For a look at how the “stranger danger” panic of the 1980s helped set the stage for the “Runaway Train” music video, revisit this article by Paul M. Renfro on the kidnapped paper boys who became the first missing children featured on the sides of milk cartons.
Bomb bombshell
Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Bettman.
Amid the huge success of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, newly declassified documents reveal a chilling secret about the development of the atom bomb, Fred Kaplan writes. Released ahead of Hiroshima and Nagasak’s 78th anniversary, the cache shows that Gen. Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project, lied repeatedly to Congress and the American public about the dangerous health effects of radiation.
DeSantis does it again
Ron DeSantis’ attempt to erase trans people from Florida schools is now underway. Mark Joseph Stern analyzes two new state laws that target trans students, staff, and teachers—and explains what kind of legal challenges the legislation may face.
The Zoom boom goes bust
Illustration by Slate. Images via Zoom Video Communications, Inc. and Tatiana Kiseleva/iStock/Getty Images Plus.
For a while, Zoom was the most important company in America. But things look a lot different now. Nitish Pahwa explains how things went so wrong for the videoconferencing app.
Posting through it
Do Trump’s social media threats count as witness tampering? Dahlia Lithwick interviews Stanford Law professor David Alan Sklansky about the limits of Trump’s First Amendment rights and whether he crossed the line.
Today, Slate is … * PLAYING CATCH NEAR A CORNFIELD
… much like Ron DeSantis and his son in Iowa. Ben Mathis-Lilley checks up on the candidate’s perpetually rebooting campaign.
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Music investment fund Round Hill swoops on hits from country music star Carrie UnderwoodBy Daily Mail City & Finance Reporter Updated: 18:15 EDT, 8 August 2023 Songs performed by country music star Carrie Underwood have been sold to London-listed music royalty firm Round Hill Music. The music investment fund bought the rights from New York based Big Loud Shirt Industries. As a result, Round Hill owns popular songs such as Before He Cheats and Undo It by the 40-year-old 2005 American Idol […]
