What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Is Hunter Biden’s trial proof that the justice system doesn’t care about your last name? Or is the president’s son being targeted?  Guest: Ankush Khardori, attorney and a former federal prosecutor in the US Justice Department. 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...

Joe Biden’s new executive order severely limits migrants from seeking asylum at the border. It’s a far cry from his campaign rhetoric and the New York Times called it the most restrictive immigration policy issued by any modern Democrat. What is he trying to accomplish? Guest: Jonathan Blitzer, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of “ Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central...

It’s hard to imagine music fans mourning a break-up of Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation, as a Department of Justice lawsuit requests. But even with this monopolistic middleman out of the way, touring musicians still seem destined to struggle financially. Guest:  Laura Jane Grace , musician Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What...

How well is the Biden administration coaxing semiconductor companies to build their chips in the United States? Compared to Taiwan, South Korea, Japan…or even mainland China, things are just okay. Guest:  Asa Fitch , reporter for the Wall Street Journal, covering the semiconductor industry. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family a...

After waiting for two strikes to resolve, film and television crews across Hollywood were hungry to return to work. But the work has been slow to come back. As a number of crew union contracts expire at the end of July, how strong is their negotiating position? Guests:  Diane Haithman , Senior Entertainment Business Reporter, TheWrap Diego Mariscal , IATSE local 80 dolly grip Want more What Next?...

Days after Israeli airstrikes hit Rafah, President Biden touted a potential ceasefire agreement. How far away is the end of the war? And how does Gaza rebuild after this? Guest: Tariq Kenney-Shawa , U.S. policy fellow at Al-Shabaka and an editor and fact-checker for AJ+. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favor...

It will be another chaotic June at the Supreme Court, as the nine justices race to deliver decisions impacting gun rights, abortion, presidential immunity, and more—all before summer vacation. Guest: Mark Joseph Stern , Slate senior writer covering law and the courts. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite...

She was a city clerk for Rochester Hills, Michigan. After Trump lost the state, the threats started coming. Guest: Tina Barton, Senior Elections Expert, The Elections Group 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 clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show...

“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat everything from IBS to autism. But if your doctor isn’t ready to fill you up with someone else’s poop, the internet will happily oblige.  Guest:  Luke Winkie , Slate staff writer who published “ The Poop Broker .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to...

His law firm won a $73 million dollar settlement against Remington on behalf of nine Sandy Hook families. Now he’s filing a lawsuit against the gunmaker Daniel Defense, the video game company Activision, and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, on behalf of families in Uvalde. Guest:  Josh Koskoff , attorney Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole Wha...

In light of late-breaking news, we present this conversation from our colleagues at Amicus: After six weeks of arguments and testimony and a little under 12 hours of deliberation, a Manhattan jury voted to convict former President Trump of 34 felony counts in his hush money trial. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl who was in court for the historic guilty verdic...

How one producer—now freed from his 20-year non-disclosure agreement—regrets his role shaping Donald Trump’s image on The Apprentice.  Guest: Bill Pruitt, producer for seasons 1 and 2 of The Apprentice. 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 clicking “Tr...

What do Israelis think of the war in Gaza and how their leadership is conducting it?  Guest: Tamar Harrel-Santis, student and combat reservist living in Ramat Yishai, Israel. 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 clicking “Try Free” at the top of our sh...

After inheriting a tricky, post-peak-pandemic economy, the Biden administration pulled off the double-feat of stalling inflation while also keeping unemployment low. Wages have risen, and so has purchasing power. But if you ask voters, they’ll tell you the economy is terrible.  Does Biden have a messaging problem or is an economy where the price of everything still seems too high simply impossible...

While the What Next team observes the holiday, enjoy the first episode of Slow Burn's new season. In the 1970s, San Francisco became a welcoming home for tens of thousands of new gay residents—and a modern-day Sodom for the American right. With a moral panic sweeping across the United States, a Florida orange juice spokeswoman inspired an ambitious California politician to launch his own campaign...

Last year saw a record number of healthcare hacks with more than 700 separate incidents. And with a subsidiary of United Healthcare forking over a $22 billion ransom this year, the problem isn’t going away. With so much sensitive personal information on file, why aren’t hospitals and their ilk better prepared? Guest:  Dina Carlisle, president of the local nurses union, OPEIU 40 in Michigan. Justin...

When OpenAI showed a demo for the latest version of ChatGPT —the one that you can chat with, you know, with your voice—one of the voices sounded eerily familiar. And instead of a victory lap, it was a reminder of all of the implications for intellectual property and one’s own basic human likeness that this technology carries with it. Guest: Sigal Samuel, senior reporter for Vox's Future Perfect an...

Allegations about Sean “Diddy” Combs had been circulating, but it wasn’t until surveillance footage of the mogul assaulting his then-partner Cassie began circulating on social media, that his response changed from defensive to apologetic.  Guest: Sidney Madden , reporter for NPR Music and co-host of Louder Than a Riot. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the...

Seven months into the war in Gaza, both the international community and many Israelis are demanding to know what Benjamin Netanyahu’s “day after” plan is. Observers are also wondering whether charges from the International Criminal Court will influence Israel’s approach—and whether the death of Iran’s president and foreign minister will change how Hamas fights. Guest: Yair Rosenberg , staff writer...

Daniel Perry was sentenced to 25 years in prison for murdering Garrett Foster at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott just pardoned Perry and restored his rights, including the right to own and carry a gun.  Guest: Christopher Hooks , contributing editor at Texas Monthly. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next...

Though their influence on voters seems to be between negligible and nonexistent, presidential debates are still important. And even if their past performances were sometimes hard to watch, it’s good for democracy that Trump and Biden will meet on stage this election cycle. But these debates will be a little different this time… Guest: Alan Schroeder , Professor Emeritus at the Northeastern Univers...

In theory, crowdfunding sites offer an opportunity for anyone to give to any cause, including, say, strangers facing huge medical bills. In practice, crowdfunding suffers from many of the same inequities that led to someone needing to crowdfund to begin with. Guest: Nora Kenworthy, author of Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare , associate professor at the University of Washingto...

The 2021 subreddit-coordinated effort to raise the price of Gamestop stock was, in some ways, a proof of concept: the little guy can get into the market and make some noise. Because even though that “meme stock” rose and fell, the idea of the meme stock went has changed the way our stock market works. Guest: Alex Kirshner, contributing writer for Slate. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate...

When Miss USA abdicated her throne, people noticed that the first letters of each sentence of her resignation letter spell out “I am silenced.” Shortly thereafter, Miss Teen USA stepped down with a letter that opens with a quote from Nietzsche.  What’s going on at the Miss USA organization? Has the idea of a national pageant outlived its usefulness? Guest: Constance Grady, senior Culture correspon...

Hit with an $800 million lawsuit, missing Tucker Carlson and Rupert Murdoch, and facing competition from fanatical fringe-right media, Fox News might look to some viewers like it’s slipping. But election years are the network’s bread and butter, and the old “everything is terrible and the Democrats are why” song still resonates with voters.    Guest: Justin Peters , Slate correspondent and author...