What Next | Daily News and Analysis

The war in Ukraine reordered the priorities of the country’s growing tech sector, and has become a place for foreign companies to test out new tools with less regulation or scrutiny. Guests:  Vera Bergengruen , senior correspondent at Time If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows l...

Israeli Defense Forces have extended their campaign to Rafah, the southern-most city in Gaza, and where many Gazans have been gathering to escape the war.  Guest: Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib , Middle East political analyst, founder and executive director of Project Unified Assistance If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Sl...

How did America end up back in a Gilded Age of incredible wealth disparity, and how did a new generation of oligarchs bend society to their vision?  Guest: Tim Murphy , senior reporter for Mother Jones. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and y...

The special election for George Santos’s vacated U.S. House seat has attracted tons of spending and a lot of attention—all to hold the position for less than a year. Who’s running, and what can this vote tell us about what to expect in November?  Guest: Mark Chiusano , writer, journalist, and author of The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos...

The special prosecutor’s report into Biden’s classified documents case is out… and it says Joe Biden’s memory is too bad for a jury to convict him. Is the report a politically motivated hit job, or an honest assessment of one of the two very old men running for president?  Guest: Ben Mathis-Lilley , Slate senior writer. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus...

For a while, it seemed like the only place to meet potential partners was through an app—Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, etc. But as the apps are trying to monetize their matchmaking—and some users now with a whole decade of striking out under their belts—old-fashioned meet-cutes-in-bars or, say, debutante balls look more and more appealing. Guests:  Katherine Lindsay , culture writer and cofounder of Embe...

The NFL's concussion settlement was meant to provide financial support and medical help for players who developed traumatic brain injuries from the sport. So why are so many players denied the help they need? Guest: Will Hobson, sports reporter for the Washington Post. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podc...

The Supreme Court now has to decide if the 14th amendment’s provision to keep insurrectionists off the ballot applies to Donald Trump. Guest: Jamelle Bouie , New York Times opinion columnist . If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be s...

Yesterday, a jury found Jennifer Crumbley guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the mass-shooting carried out by her son Ethan at his high school in Oxford, Michigan.  How will this conviction change the way school shootings are prosecuted? Can future violence be prevented by holding the parents accountable? Guest: Quinn Klinefelter , host and Senior News Editor for 101.9 WDET in Detroit. If you...

Pediatrician Dr. Seema Jilani’s work has taken her from Sudan to Afghanistan. Last month, she was in Gaza for two weeks, where she worked tending to the wounded in the besieged Al-Aqsa Hospital. Guest: Dr. Seema Jilani, senior technical adviser at the International Rescue Committee If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on a...

Donald Trump was, if nothing else, a boon for the news business. But this election cycle, even the “Trump bump” isn’t slowing the shrinking of the audience. Guest: Max Tani , media reporter at Semafor. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and yo...

The number of TV streaming services is going up—and so is the cost and so are the number of ads. Cordcutters are finding themselves back to cable prices and inconveniences. And these changes don’t just impact the TV viewing experience - they impact the types of shows that get made in the first place.  Guest: Alex Cranz, managing editor at the Verge.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing...

For all the promise of the technology, one use-case for artificial intelligence reared its ugly head last week: non-consensual pornographic images. As millions of users saw abusive A.I. generated images of Taylor Swift proliferate across X, the pitfalls of this technology became clear.  Guest: Emanuel Maiberg, journalist and co-founder of 404 Media If you enjoy this show, please consider signing u...

Vince McMahon is walking away from professional wrestling, again. The WWE looks to continue without the man that built it into an institution—and shrouded it in scandal.  Guest: Dave Scherer, founder of the pro-wrestling news site, PWinsider.com. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of...

One of Donald Trump’s codefendants in the Georgia election subversion and racketeering case has filed a motion to dismiss his case due to an improper relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and a prosecutor she has hired to work on the case. How can Willis address the allegations and what does it mean for the case?  Guest: Ankush Khardori, attorney and former federal prose...

With the execution of Kenneth Smith, Alabama became the first state to carry out the death penalty with nitrogen gas. According to Smith’s spiritual advisor, who witnessed the execution, this is not a “humane” future for capital punishment  Guest: Rev. Jeff Hood, pastor, theologian and activist living and working in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Convener of Clergy United Against the Death Penalty...

Support for a “two-state solution” has been declining among both Israelis and Palestinians for years. If it’s time to give up on that plan, what’s the alternative?  Guest: Dov Waxman , professor of political science and the director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies . If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero a...

Are we still paying off our pandemic-induced “immunity debt,” or is there another reason that it feels like we’re all sniffling and coughing and just feeling sick? Guest: Keren Landman , senior health reporter at Vox If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear...

In the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary, voters received a robocall purportedly from Joe Biden. Authorities have now determined the call was likely A.I.-generated.  In the era of A.I., how can voters tell what’s real and what’s not? And will the general election be thrown into chaos by artificial intelligence-created disinformation?  Guest: Makena Kelly , senior writer at Wired coverin...

Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade , Democrats have found wins after standing up for abortion. But can they ride this issue to a second Biden term, when the administration isn’t offering a clear plan for reproductive rights—and Joe Biden has a history of ambivalence about the issue?  Guest: Grace Panetta , political reporter at The 19th News . If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for...

How has Donald Trump managed to turn multiple indictments into a nigh unassailable lead in the Republican primary—and what looks like a dead heat for the general election? Guest: Isaac Arnsdorf , national political reporter for The Washington Post covering former-president Trump. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any...

Ships are avoiding the Suez Canal at great expense; Iran has launched attacks in Iraq and Pakistan; Israel is exchanging fire with Hezbollah as well as Hamas—has the regional conflict that leaders were worried about already begun? Guest: Josh Keating , senior correspondent at Vox covering foreign policy and world news with a focus on the future of international conflict. If you enjoy this show, pl...

Once, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was Trump’s biggest rival. Now, his campaign is over – and Trump seems to be sailing to the Republican presidential nomination. How did DeSantis squander his lead? And if Trump’s nomination is preordained – what does that mean for the general election?   Guest: Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate senior writer If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus....

How much of our lives—our tastes, preferences and choices—have been fed to us through an interlocking, impersonal network of algorithms?  Guest: Kyle Chayka, staff writer at the New Yorker and author of Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes...

When a cyberattack knocked the British Library out of commission in October of last year, a nation's researchers, scholars, students, and bookworms were left high and dry. Months later, the library is starting to come back online in limited capacity, but the attack has laid bare just how fragile our digital systems are.  Guest: Sam Knight , staff writer at the New Yorker If you enjoy this show, pl...