Slate News

The hunt for the new chair of the Democratic National Committee is on and the winning candidate will be the one that party officials believe can guide Democrats back to the White House. So who’s throwing their hat into the ring? Guest: Gabriel Debenedetti is a national correspondent at New York Magazine and the author of The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama . Want m...

Daniel Penny’s trial over the death of Jordan Neely hinged on the question of how and when a “reasonable person” would feel threatened. Does the jury’s non-guilty verdict deliver a clear answer?  Guest: Katie Way , writer-editor at Hell Gate. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from...

Last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO prompted an outpouring of glee online. A look into UnitedHealthcare’s business practices—and the American healthcare system as a whole—can help explain why. Guest: Dan Diamond , national health reporter for The Washington Post. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. Y...

In this Money Talks: The collapse of Synapse and resulting fallout highlights how regulators are failing fintech users. Felix Salmon is joined by CNBC’s Hugh Son who has been closely following the situation . They unpack the chain of events that led to thousands of users losing access to their funds, the complexities of FDIC insurance, and how regulators allowed this massive scandal. Want to hear...

After more than a decade of civil war, Syrian rebels have toppled President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in just about a week. How was the dictator finally deposed, and what comes next for the war-torn country?  Guest: Josh Keating , senior correspondent at Vox covering foreign policy. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate po...

Spotify is shaping listening habits, so much so that musicians are shaping themselves for Spotify. It makes your musical world a little more prescribed, a little smaller.  If it feels like everything’s getting a little stale, how do we get out? Guest: Tiffany Ng, culture and tech writer. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and...

What do people inside the Department of Justice think about their once-colleague and possible-future-overlord, Kash Patel? On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by former US Attorney Joyce White Vance to discuss the frightening implications of Patel's potential nomination as FBI Director under the incoming Trump administration. They explore Patel's contentious history , including his ti...

This week: South Korea and France are the latest governments to fall apart. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the public conversation around the failures of the US healthcare system that was sparked by the shocking murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Then, South Korea and France follow Germany in having a governmental meltdown. What’s going on with all of this pol...

From Dr. Oz to RFK Jr. to Donald Trump himself—the incoming administration looks like it will be populated with pitchmen and influencers. Will anyone take steps to divest from their businesses or avoid conflicts of interest—or will everyone just follow Trump’s lead from last time?  Guest: Drew Harwell , tech reporter for the Washington Post.  Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to acc...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss President Joe Biden’s pardon of son Hunter and President-Elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth; the Democrats’ debate on why they lost and how they might win in the future; and the Supreme Court case on treatment for transgender children.  For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David answer Conundrums....

During his first administration, Donald Trump tried naming Kash Patel as deputy director of the FBI, but members of the administration pushed back. Now with the second administration filled with loyalists, Trump has named Patel as his pick for FBI director. What does Trump see in this guy? Guest: Elaina Plott Calabro , staff writer at The Atlantic . Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock f...

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law late Tuesday, leading South Korea’s parliament to cross barricades to convene and vote it down. Though this episode resolved quickly and peacefully for the moment, where is the country’s government heading? Guest: Terence Roehrig , professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College specializing in Korean and East Asian sec...

How problematic is it for Joe Biden to pardon his son Hunter after promising, again and again, that he wouldn’t? Guest: Ankush Khardori , senior writer for POLITICO and a former federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next sh...

The House already voted to pass the “The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act.” But with Donald Trump returning to the White House next year, some Democrats are viewing the power that the bill gives the executive branch—to label non-profit organizations as “funding terrorism” and strip them of their non-profit status—in a new light. But is it too late?  Guest: Emily Tam...

Anyone stuck in a knotted snarl of interstate clovers knows that GPS is both important and imperfect. But if GPS fails while you’re bringing a 737 in for a landing it could be catastrophic.  Why is “GPS spoofing” on the rise—and how can airlines protect their flights against being caught up in conflict zones. Guest: Drew FitzGerald , telecom reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Want more What Nex...

When it comes to gender affirming care for teenagers, parents’ rights no longer matter. Doctors’ opinions no longer matter. Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in United States. v Skrmetti , challenging Tennessee’s ban on healthcare for trans kids, and upending half a century of gender protection doctrine.  Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBT &a...

This week: Felix back and we have some Felix-y topics to cover. Felix Salmon , Emily Peck , and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the latest Trump cabinet appointments and speculate if Scott Bessent will be able to rein in Trump’s economic plans. Then, much ink has been spilled over the sale of a conceptual artwork by Maurizio Cattelan for $6.2 million, yet no one really knows how to write about it. So, wh...

Whatever X is, it ain’t the Twitter so many users fell in love with. Since the election, Bluesky has been on the rise, but it’s still only a fraction of the number of users on Twitter—at its peak or even now—or even fellow upstart Threads.  Is Bluesky set to take over the role Twitter used to play, or is it just one of many networks in a Balkanized social media landscape?  Guest: Will Oremus, a te...

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs and his pick for Treasury Secretary; the next Federal Communications Commission Chair and free speech; and the “bro-economy” with The Atlantic’s  Annie Lowrey .  For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Emily, John, and David discuss the most fulfilling jobs in America. In the latest  Gabfest Reads...

While the What Next team is having a holiday, take this journey with our colleagues over at Decoder Ring. What Next will be back in your feed on Monday. Adults have a long history of trying to find morals and lessons in children’s literature. But what happens when a seemingly innocent book about a boy and a hungry mouse becomes fodder for the culture wars? Over the last decade, Laura Joffe Numerof...

As Thanksgiving approaches the price of eggs is spiking again. But it wasn’t just inflation this time – it was also the rising number of cases of avian flu. How can the USDA, FDA, and CDC contain an outbreak in a country that both hates taking preventative measures and won’t tolerate any disruption in their food supply chain?   Guest: Marcia Brown , food and agriculture reporter at POLITICO . Want...

The Supreme Court threw out the last attempt to ban mifepristone, the “abortion pill,” because they couldn’t figure out who in the case was being injured. Now three states are claiming they are being harmed, because abortion access is preventing population growth for them  Guest: Linda Greenhouse, Supreme Court reporter for the New York Times from 1978 to 2008, author and winner of the 1998 Pulitz...

In this Money Talks: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs are being targeted by “anti-woke” pundits.  Emily Peck is joined by Simone Foxman of Bloomberg to explain why DEI is under fire from conservatives, and what these programs might look like under Trump’s second term – if they exist at all.  Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus epi...

New curriculum for Texas public schools teaches vocabulary and reading through stories from the Bible and takes a noticeably Christian point of view towards history. When does teaching stop and preaching begin—and isn’t this a pretty clear violation of the First Amendment? Guest: Jaden Edison , public education reporter for the Texas Tribune. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad...

Last May, a 12-year-old with sickle cell anemia was the first person to receive a new gene therapy to treat the disease. The process is painful, expensive, and still frightening and uncertain, but biomedical researchers are cautiously calling it a “cure.” Guests: Gina Kolata, medical reporter for the New York Times Deb and Keith Cromer, parents to Kendric Cromer, the first person in the world to g...