What Next | Daily News and Analysis

It’s been more than three weeks since Russia declared war on Ukraine. Here’s how each country is preparing for the next brutal stage of this conflict. Guest: Fred Kaplan covers national security for Slate and is the author of The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War .  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits li...

A very strange bankruptcy case is coming to a close. Its settlement hinges not on payments rendered or bills neglected, but on the pain of millions of American families who slid into the jaws of the opioid crisis. Now, the people who set off the crisis are about to settle their debts.  Guest: Brian Mann , reporter on addiction for NPR. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate P...

In just two years, the mental-health startup Cerebral has grown to operate in 50 states, registered more than 200,000 patients, and reached a $4.8 billion valuation. Has it prioritized growth over patient care? Guest: Caleb Melby Host: Lizzie O'Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hong Kong's zero-COVID policy got enviable results, but inadvertently set the stage for disaster. What will it take to change course? Guest: Dr. Karen Grépin , Associate Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong Host: Lizzie O'Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, the Texas Supreme Court handed down a decision: Abortion providers can no longer sue state medical licensing offiicials to challenge Texas’ six-week abortion ban. Senate Bill 8, as it’s known, went into effect six months ago with ongoing legal battles in local, state and federal courtrooms. As abortion access is further restricted in the state, abortion rights advocates are doing everyt...

Russian state propaganda has kicked into overdrive as its war on Ukraine continues. State news depicts Ukrainians as the aggressors and the Kremlin’s military as a heroic force. In times like these, how can Russians get accurate information? Guest: Kevin Rothrock , managing editor of the English side of Meduza and host of the podcast “ The Russia Guy. ” If you enjoy this show, please consider sign...

While the U.S. ban on Russian oil correlates with rising prices in the U.S., it’s still subject to a global market that was on the upswing anyway. In the long run, could the rising prices, whether the result of the ban or not, actually help accelerate decarbonization efforts and move the U.S. to more sustainable forms of energy? Guest: Robinson Meyer , staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the autho...

In early 2020, reports of violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders began to go up. More alarming is that two years later, the attacks don’t seem to be going anywhere. Why, after so much time passed, hasn’t the story changed?  Guest: Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director of the Asian American Federation . If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members g...

When Minnesota's Operation Safety Net, a coordinated effort among nine Minnesota law enforcement agencies, was announced in February 2021, its mission was to ensure the trial of Derek Chauvin would proceed peacefully. It also promised to protect people's right to gather and demonstrate peacefully. Did Operation Safety Net keep its promise? Guest: Tate Ryan-Mosley , reporter for MIT Tech review Hos...

Vladimir Putin has always regarded the internet with suspicion. Now, with western tech companies pulling out of Russia and control of the war narrative slipping, he sees an opening. Will Putin wall off Russia from the rest of the digital world? Guests: Yana Pashaeva , Moscow-based journalist Justin Sherman , fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

What it’s been like for one Ukrainian-American journalist to cover the Russian attack on his homeland: “The first couple of days of the war, I threw myself into work, and then after that, I couldn't function for a day or two. And I quickly figured out that if I keep working, then I have to abstract it on some level.” Guest: Romeo Kokriatski , managing editor of The New Voice of Ukraine and co-host...

The congressional committee investigating January 6th has outlined potential criminal charges against former President Trump. Why did the Department of Justice let someone else beat them to it? Guest: Ankush Khardori is a DC-based lawyer and a former federal prosecutor who specialized in financial fraud and white-collar crime. He’s a contributing writer for Intelligencer and a contributing editor...

How Volodymyr Zelensky went from being one of Ukraine’s most successful entertainment moguls to its much-heralded wartime president.  Guest: Franklin Foer , staff writer at the Atlantic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Biden administration’s new pandemic rules and countermeasures intend to bring us into a “new phase of the pandemic.” The CDC also released new guidelines for masking, and now about 70% of Americans can go mask free. What do these new guidelines actually say about what stage of the pandemic we’re in?  Guest: Megan Ranney , emergency room doctor at Brown Emergency Medicine.  If you enjoy this sh...

Second Sight restored partial vision to hundreds of patients around the world through retinal implants. Then, on the verge of bankruptcy, they abandoned the project. Now, over 300 patients with Second Sight technology in their bodies are asking: what will happen to us? Guest: Eliza Strickland , senior editor at IEEE Spectrum Host: Lizzie O'Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...

Up against one of the world's most effective propaganda operations, Ukraine has taken control of the online narrative. With Russian troops closing in, how important is winning the information war? Guest: Casey Newton , writer at Platformer Host: Lizzie O'Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flee to safety in neighboring countries and beyond, the UN says this may become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century. But it’s hard not to notice the stark difference between how the EU is welcoming Ukrainian refugees versus the non-European refugees who came before them. Guest: Serena Parekh , professor at Northeastern University in Boston and the di...

No one knows what’s going on in Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s head – and while that’s a worrisome idea during the best of times, it’s an especially grim one during a war of his own creation. Putin is increasingly isolated, away from his inner circle and the oligarchs who once had some influence with him.  Guest: Ben Judah is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the author of This Is Londo...

Texas’s Republican governor and attorney general are pursuing a new crackdown on trans kids and their families. Their directive compelling Child Protective Services to treat gender-affirming care as child abuse is raising alarms among trans rights advocates, who say the order, if enforced, will prove dangerous for a vulnerable population. Why did Republican leaders pick this moment to trumpet an a...

President Biden has nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill Justice Breyer’s seat on the Supreme Court. If confirmed, she would be the first Black woman to hold a seat on the court. What does her backstory say about her as a jurist?  Guest: Mark Joseph Stern , senior writer for Slate.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zer...

Russia went all in last week, sending troops across the border with Ukraine and raining shells on the country. Experts are saying Putin’s brash invasion of his neighbor is shifting the world order in significant ways. In the face of this aggression, how should NATO respond? Can history serve as a guide? Guest : Fred Kaplan , Slate’s War Stories correspondent. If you enjoy this show, please conside...

Peter Thiel spent the better part of two decades molding the tech industry in his image. Now, he's leaving Facebook behind and turning his attention to politics. Is Thiel the next kingmaker for the populist right? Max Chafkin , writer for Bloomberg and is the author of The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For seven years, Ukraine has served as a virtual testing ground for a generation of cyber weaponry capable of taking down power grids, networks, and supply chains. With an invasion of Ukraine underway, will these weapons come into play? Guest: Andy Greenberg , senior writer at WIRED and the author of the book  Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers  H...

Earlier this month in Northern California, a militia-backed anti-government group won a recall vote that will effectively give it control over a county’s local government. The recall ousted a Republican politician from his supervisor seat and was preceded by two years of threats and contentious county meetings stemming from pandemic precautions. Could this style of government takeover become a blu...

President Vladimir Putin has begun sending Russian soldiers into Ukraine after spending months massing troops on the country’s borders. Why is Putin risking so much to take the Donbas region? And does this latest incursion signal a failure of the west’s foreign policy approach to Russia?  Guest: Josh Keating , global security reporter at Grid . If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up fo...