Among the nilpotent orbits in a simple Lie algebra are the special nilpotent orbits, which play an important role in representation theory. Some of the geometry of the closure of a nilpotent orbit can be understood by taking a transverse slice to a smaller orbit in the closure. This talk concerns a classification of two types of such transverse slices: (1) those between adjacent special nilpotent orbits; and (2) those between a special nilpotent orbit and a certain non-special nilpotent orbit in its closure. The slices in part (1) exhibit a duality, which extends an observation of Kraft and Procesi for type A. The slices in part (2) are related to a conjecture of Lusztig on special pieces. This talk is based on two preprints with Baohua Fu, Daniel Juteau, and Paul Levy.