What Next | Daily News and Analysis

There’s plenty to be learned from past pandemics. They tend to follow a dramatic arc: denial, blame, and mass mobilization. So far, the coronavirus tracks with some contagions of the past—but can history tell anything about where we’re headed? Guest: David S. Jones , professor of the culture of medicine at Harvard University. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up...

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsens, the United States might have to figure out how to hold an election in a time of social distancing. Will local, state and federal officials be able coordinate in time to transform our election infrastructure? Guest: Nate Persily, Stanford University Law Professor Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acas...

To understand where the country is right now in battling this pandemic you have to confront some pretty grim statistics. Roughly one in three Americans are under some kind of orders to stay at home. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 33,000. And a nearly $2 trillion dollar coronavirus rescue package is hanging in the Senate’s balance. With many Americans and health care workers needi...

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence.  Sign up now  to listen and support our work. Google has spent the last decade trying to find a foothold in the health care industry. Now they’re partnering with the federal government to build a website that will seek to address the crisis. Can Google be trusted with our medical data? Guest: Maso...

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence.  Sign up now  to listen and support our work. Google has spent the last decade trying to find a foothold in the health care industry. Now they’re partnering with the federal government to build a website that will seek to address the crisis. Can Google be trusted with our medical data? Guest: Maso...

Many Americans still can’t imagine how the coronavirus pandemic will upend their lives. In northern Italy, no imagination is needed. Coffins pile up in churches and cemeteries as funeral gatherings remain banned. Hospitals are overwhelmed. And those who die from COVID-19 die alone.  Guest: Greta Privitera , an Italian journalist on her fourth week of lockdown in Milan.  Slate Plus members get bonu...

As the novel coronavirus spreads sickness and anxiety around the U.S., it’s tempting to point fingers at government agencies that seemed wholly unequipped for the crisis. And, to be clear, Washington was not prepared. But here’s what decision makers can be doing right now to figure out what comes next.   Guest: Beth Cameron , vice president for global biological policy and programs at the Nuclear...

When Senator Elizabeth Warren announced the end of her presidential campaign, she was asked about the role of sexism in the race. Warren didn’t venture an answer, promising she’d have more to say later. In the meantime, we have some thoughts.  Guest: Rebecca Traister , writer for New York Magazine and author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger .  Slate Plus members get bonus...

In the face of the coronavirus outbreak, U.S. political leaders are moving faster than they have in years. But it still might not be fast enough. Guest: Jordan Weissmann , Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent.  Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Open or closed? Across the country, state governors and mayors are asking themselves that question: Are we safer staying open, or are we safer closing down?  Over the weekend, more cities and states ordered shutdowns to temper the spread of COVID-19. But we’re dealing with a threat we haven’t seen before. How are we supposed to make decisions when we’re lacking basic information about how this cor...

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence.  Sign up now  to listen and support our work. Last week, the superintendent of the Northshore school district near Seattle made a difficult decision. With the coronavirus spreading rapidly in the area, she closed all 34 schools in her district and moved all classes online. But for many schools, re...

Last week, the superintendent of the Northshore school district near Seattle made a difficult decision. With the coronavirus spreading rapidly in the area, she closed all 34 schools in her district and moved all classes online. But for many schools, remote learning at this scale simply isn’t an option.  With new cases appearing around the country, how will schools respond? And what happens when yo...

We talk about polls a lot on this podcast. State polls, national polls, polls that make you shrug and vote for the other guy. Today, we’re talking about one of the most unusual polls we’ve ever seen: Slate teamed up with The Marshall Project to conduct a survey of incarcerated people across the country. We received 8,000 responses about political awakenings, party affiliations, and the biggest pro...

Even though Kareem Shaheen left Syria a few years back, the reminders of his time there are everywhere. For nine years a brutal conflict has left millions seeking refuge with millions more still stuck in limbo. This past December, the Assad regime launched its latest attempt to seize back control of the largest rebel-held territory in Syria, Idlib.  Today on the show, Kareem tells us about Idlib,...

On Monday morning, the Dow saw its biggest one day drop since 2008. This time, the cause was a combination of a volatile oil market and heightened fears of a pandemic. The usual economic tools may not be enough to reassure markets.  Guest: Jordan Weissmann ,Slate’s Senior Business and Economics Correspondent Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dea...

The Trump 2016 campaign had unprecedented success on Facebook. Ever since, Trump's reelection campaign has been pumping out ads and collecting data on a massive scale. Democrats are only just beginning to catch up.  Guest: Andrew Marantz , staff writer at the New Yorker and author of Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation Slate Plus members g...

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence.  Sign up now  to listen and support our work. For pregnant women in the U.S., there are plenty of reasons to mistrust the medical establishment. Mortality rates are high compared to other western countries, and one-third of women in the U.S. give birth by C-section. It’s no wonder that many women...

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence.  Sign up now  to listen and support our work. For pregnant women in the U.S., there are plenty of reasons to mistrust the medical establishment. Mortality rates are high compared to other western countries, and one-third of women in the U.S. give birth by C-section. It’s no wonder that many women...

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence.  Sign up now  to listen and support our work. Super Tuesday gave Joe Biden a blowout, in part because of a surge from black voters. While white voters tended to split their votes more evenly between Biden and Bernie Sanders, black voters overwhelmingly chose the former Vice President. So, what doe...

The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, started in China as a bat virus that eventually made contact with humans. Researchers say this leap between species was highly predictable – so why were communities and governments caught flat-footed? And what does the virus’s transmission from animals to humans say about how we interact with the greater ecosystem? Guest: Peter Daszak , president of EcoHeal...

The Democratic primary field has been dramatically re-shuffled since Saturday. After Joe Biden swept up votes and delegates in South Carolina, moderate candidates dropped out to strengthen his challenge against front-runner Bernie Sanders. So, with over a thousand delegates on the table across a slew of states, are Democrats inevitably headed for a contested convention?  Guest: Jim Newell , Slate’...

Lower courts have consistently ruled against the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies. But at the Supreme Court, the conservative majority almost always reverses lower court opinions, even in the most shocking cases. Last week, justices ruled that a Customs and Border Protection agent cannot be sued for shooting and killing a Mexican teenager in 2010, presenting the grim prospect t...

OpenAI was founded in 2015 with a billion dollars and an idealistic mission: Create artificial intelligence that could address humanity’s biggest problems, and do it out in the open. Then came the money problems. Guest: Karen Hao , senior A.I. reporter at MIT Tech Review   Host Lizzie O’Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

OpenAI was founded in 2015 with a billion dollars and an idealistic mission: Create artificial intelligence that could address humanity’s biggest problems, and do it out in the open. Then came the money problems. Guest: Karen Hao , senior A.I. reporter at MIT Tech Review   Host Lizzie O’Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Bernie Sanders becomes the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, pundits have started wringing their hands about Bernie’s chances of winning in a general election. Are any of these fears grounded in reality? Guest: Steve Kornacki , National Correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.