Slate News

The stage is set for the president’s party to take a real shellacking in this year’s midterm elections—that is, if the Democrats can put together a compelling pitch. What might that look like? Guest: Sarah Longwell, author of “ How to Eat an Elephant ,” political consultant and publisher of The Bulwark.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole Wha...

While the What Next team enjoys the holiday, hear this episode from our friends at Question Everything . Mary will be back in the feed with a new episode of What Next tomorrow. In June, disgraced former Florida Congressman turned right-wing One America News Network anchor Matt Gaetz peddled a novel and dangerous conspiracy to his audience: that using sunscreen causes skin cancer. Gaetz’s guest was...

This week: Nvidia joined Silicon Valley’s A.I. investment frenzy and bought Hugging Face for $12.93 billion. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck discuss what this deal signals about the astounding amounts of money being thrown around the relatively niche market of A.I. investment. Then, bond yields are on the rise and the hosts discuss why global concern is rising with them. And final...

It’s past time to say it. This Supreme Court is helping President Donald J. Trump evade accountability. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the Berkeley School of Law, joins Dahlia Lithwick to break down the conservative majority's procedural toolkit—standing, ripeness, the Purcell principle, and inscrutable rulings on the shadow docket —and how these doctrinal headfakes are being used to ensure Trump alwa...

Does Meta’s $17 billion (give or take) settlement address people’s concerns about social media and its impact on teenagers… or is it already too late? Guest: Paresh Dave , senior writer for WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how a narrow Supreme Court majority used aesthetic standing to greenlight Trump's ballroom construction, why bond yields are rising around the world and how that impacts everyone with guest Jason Furman , and how the extradition showdown between Texas and Minnesota over an ICE officer involved in a shooting betrays fraying relations...

Extraditing someone who was arrested in one state for a crime committed in another state is an extremely routine process—or at least it was. But an ICE officer charged in a shooting in Minnesota was arrested in Texas and, rather than being sent to Minnesota for trial, he was simply released 90 days later. Guest: Quinta Jurecic , staff writer at The Atlantic. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate...

Inflation is up, borrowing is up, debt is rising. If the bond market is offering a review of the new US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, it seems to be saying “This guy may not know what’s going on.”  Guest: Catherine Rampell , economics editor at The Bulwark, author of the Receipts and anchor at MS NOW. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole W...

The WNBA is enjoying its most profitable and popular season in league history. At the same time, it’s become another front in the culture war.  Guest: Matreyi Anantharaman , staff writer at Defector.  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clic...

One-hundred-million-year-old bones are so hot right now. In this Money Talks , Felix Salmon is joined by Salomon Aaron, director of an antiquities gallery specializing in fossils, to explain everything you ever wanted to know about dealing in dinosaurs and why the market has exploded in recent years. Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all...

Donald Trump, Supreme Court justices, states, and even the Post Office are all trading legal salvos over mail-in voting. Where does it stand now? And what’s Trump’s end goal in making mail-in voting—something rural and elderly voters rely on—more difficult? Guest: Richard Hasan , Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science, Director, Safeguarding Democracy Proje...

This week: Meta settles with the U.S. states suing the company over teen safety concerns. Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Scarlet Fu of the new Bloomberg Money (while Felix is stuck on a tarmac somewhere in Canada) to discuss if Meta’s $17 billion settlement is as big of a deal as it sounds, and what this outcome really means for the social media guardrails overall. Then, they turn t...

With Amicus on a brief summer break, we’re bringing you the final installment of Slow Burn’s latest season, Becoming Justice Gorsuch. Host Susan Matthews enlists Slate’s jurisprudence team—Amicus co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern—to discuss Neil Gorsuch’s key rulings to date, his unpredictability, and how this textualist will shape this court (and our country) for decades to come. In...

The idea of a big ol’ group of friends taking a vacation sounds so fun…in theory. In practice, though, the museum friends and the beach friends are forming opposing factions, and the vegetarian friend is hovering between malnourishment and total banishment. But these problems have one elegant solution: the parallel play vacation. Guest: Luke Winkie , Slate staff writer and author of “ There’s Only...

Through stealing your job or simply tanking the stock market—whichever comes first—the rise of artificial intelligence (companies) is a very futuristic sounding problem. It may have some very old-fashioned sounding solutions however. Guest: Cory Doctorow , sci-fi author, journalist, blogger and author of “ The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI. ” This episode originally aired June 26. TBD w...

This week, John Dickerson, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss this week's Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to move forward for now with his order restricting mail-in voting, the likely effects of trade wars with Canada and Iran, and what we humans can do about safety as A.I. models rapidly get more sophisticated and autonomous. For this week’s Slate Plus bonu...

From the trade war with Canada to the literal war with Iran, US foreign policy seems to have become “flail at whatever Trump says to flail at, no matter the cost.” But the American people are the ones left holding that bill—and it’s adding up. Guest: Adam Kinzinger , former Republican congressman and an Air Force veteran, host of The Kinzinger Report , writes about news, politics, and Trump on ada...

Intertwined with many Americans’ contempt for data centers is their suspicion of artificial intelligence itself, which is being used to spy on you, being forced on anyone who still has a job, and will eventually, we’re promised, put them out of it. Seems like the Democrats easily could stake a claim as the party that won’t let A.I. wreck the economy—alas, there’s a lot of money in looking the othe...

As the trial of Lindsay Clancy over the murder of her three children goes into closing arguments this week, the reactions to the case reveal just how little the general public understands about postpartum psychosis. Guest: Meghan Cliffel , writer, mindfulness teacher, postpartum psychosis survivor and maternal mental health advocate. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free l...

Since losing the 2024 presidential election, Democrats have been doing a lot of finger pointing. But with the midterms this fall, it’s time to stop pointing and start saying what you actually believe and why people should vote for you. Guest: Amanda Litman , author of “ When We’re in Charge ” and head of Run for Something. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to...

This week: the Slate Money hosts ask all their burning A.I. questions to someone who can actually answer them. Felix Salmon , Elizabeth Spiers , and Emily Peck sit down with A.I. expert Noah Brier and pick his brain about the reality of all our A.I. fears, the arms race with China, and how businesses are using it now. In the Slate Plus episode: What’s Up With Robots? Want to hear that discussion a...

With Amicus on a brief summer break, we’re bringing you the second installment of Slow Burn’s latest season, Becoming Justice Gorsuch. When Justice Antonin Scalia died in February of 2016, the Supreme Court appeared to be headed for a 5-4 liberal majority. Instead, a staggering blockade by Senate Republicans and a shocking electoral upset helped steal a seat and clear the way for today’s conservat...

Nobody objected to Jon Ossoff calling the president disinterested in doing his job. But an off-hand mention of Trump’s “human printer”? That, for some reason, took things way too far. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next —you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Sla...

Hundreds of millions of dollars, desperation for insider info, fury and accusations of conspiracy when it doesn’t go your way—is this gambling or elections? Through the magic of prediction markets, it’s both!  Guest: David Gilbert , reporter at WIRED covering disinformation, online extremism, and how these trends impact people’s lives across the globe. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Sl...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz answer listeners' questions of all kinds: the political, the personal, and everything in-between.   Many thanks to all question contributors: Daniel, Karen, Kelly, Jason, Phoebe, Phil, Alex, Adrian, and Dale!    For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David answer a few more listener questions, just to tide...