What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Special Counsel Robert Mueller breaks his silence to reiterate the conclusions of his investigation’s report -- and remind the American people to read it. Guest: Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick , host of the Amicus podcast.  Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode April Glaser is joined by Max Read, an editor and writer at New York Magazine who writes the column Life in Pixels. First, April and Max talk to Patri Friedman, founder of the Seasteading Institute, which he started in 2008 with seed funding from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Seasteading is the process of forming new societies on the open ocean, and it’s getting a lot of attention...

It was the election that was never supposed to happen in the UK in the first place. Several delays, a few milkshakes, and a resignation later the British found themselves voting over the weekend for European Parliament. How did Brexiteers and Remainers fare in this past weekend’s vote? And what does it mean for the UK and Europe writ large? Guest: Josh Keating, International Editor at Slate Hosted...

Everywhere President Trump turns, he’s finding himself hemmed in by the courts. But could upcoming rulings from the Supreme Court make lower court judges take a more expansive view of the president’s executive powers? Guest: Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. forces scoured Afghanistan for Taliban fighters. They weren’t expecting to find John Walker Lindh, a young man from California who had converted to Islam and moved abroad to study the Quran. Lindh was dubbed the “American Taliban,” but his case ended in a plea deal, leaving his treatment while in custody a secret. At the time, Lindh’s story seemed un...

Last week, Georgia joined the wave of states passing stringent anti-abortion laws in a bid to topple Roe v. Wade . One Democratic state senator says she hasn’t lost her resolve to fight for women’s bodily autonomy. Guest: Georgia state Sen. Jen Jordan , representing parts of Atlanta and its northwestern suburbs Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Ethan Brooks.  Hosted on Acast....

In this episode April Glaser is joined by co-host Kim-Mai Cutler, a partner at Initialized Capital, an early-stage venture firm. She’s also a former full-time journalist at TechCrunch.  First, April and Kim-Mai discuss the lack of affordable housing in California and the political battles that are hindering progress.  Then they talk about the upcoming wildfire season with Faith Kearns from the Uni...

Sheriff’s offices across the country are signing up to beta-test a facial recognition tool made by Amazon. Law enforcement proponents say the technology helps find perpetrators who otherwise may go free. But civil liberties advocates have questions about the accuracy —and the constitutionality—of these tools. Guest: Reporter Drew Harwell . Read his latest in the Washington Post . Hosted on Acast....

Over the weekend, billionaire Robert F. Smith ended his commencement address to the Morehouse Class of 2019 with an extraordinary pledge: He would pay off the entire class’s student debt. Smith’s pledge will undoubtedly transform the lives of those students, but what about everyone else? What does student debt relief look like on a national scale? And what can we learn from studying the Morehouse...

When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would run for president, the mockery was swift. City tabloids were typically disdainful (New York Post: “Everyone Hates Bill!”). New York’s attorney general quipped, “Why?” Even de Blasio’s former staffers have declined to voice support for their old boss’s presidential bid. Here, now, an explanation for why New Yorkers are so sure their mayor w...

For the past couple years, politicians in Florida have been raising concerns about election security and making vague allusions to Russian hackers gaining access to voter databases. With the Mueller report, we finally got confirmation—but that’s about all we got. Are voters ever going to get the full picture of how Florida election information networks might have been compromised in 2016? And, if...

Ronald Sullivan joined Harvey Weinstein’s defense team in January. This set off a wave of protests and sit-ins across the Harvard campus asking for the removal of Sullivan as faculty dean at the university. And those student protests worked. On Saturday, Harvard University announced that it was declining to renew the appointments of Ronald Sullivan and his wife, Stephanie Robinson, as faculty dean...

In this episode, April Glaser is joined by guest co-host Max Read, an editor at New York magazine who covers technology and the internet. First, April and Max talk about Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes’ apostasy. Last week, Hughes wrote a long op-ed in the New York Times about why he thinks the company that made him so wealthy should be broken up. Then Katherine Lo joins the hosts to discuss how...

If the U.S. stumbles into a war with Iran, it’ll be largely one of John Bolton’s making. The national security adviser appears to be running the foreign policy show at the White House and has a taste for regime change in several countries, including Iran. Who’s the surprising person inside the administration reining him in? And can the U.S. recover from four years of antagonizing our allies and ex...

Monday marked another escalation in the trade war with China. And yes, even by the academic definition, our guest says this is a full-blown trade war . Who’s feeling the effect most, and how is the administration handling the fight it began with the world’s second biggest economy? Plus, how are the politics of tariffs playing out for Trump? Guest: Jordan Weissmann, senior writer at Slate Podcast p...

Anti-abortion activists in Alabama are rushing to topple Roe v. Wade. But have they crafted an abortion ban that’s too extreme, even for Alabama’s Republicans? Guest: Brian Lyman , reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser.  Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last weekend, Slate published an obituary for Rachel Held Evans, the blogger who championed liberal values and challenged evangelicals on their politics. She was known to her devoted readers as RHE, and she represented something new in evangelical Christian communities, as some began to shift toward a progressive ideology nevertheless rooted in faith. That movement is now expanding beyond churches...

On May 2nd, Catherine Pugh resigned as mayor of Baltimore - making her the second mayor in less than ten years to leave office amid corruption allegations. The scandal forcing her to step down involved a children’s book, an FBI raid, and a host of ethically dubious business relationships at the highest levels of city government. What happens next for Charm City? Guest: Luke Broadwater , reporter a...

In this episode April Glaser is joined once again by guest co-host Meredith Broussard, a data journalism professor at NYU and author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World.  First, historian Mar Hicks joins the show to talk about the tech industry’s long-time aversion to organized labor and how that’s clashing with recent worker actions at major tech companies like Goo...

The House Judiciary Committee is set to vote on holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, for failing to provide a full and unredacted copy of the Mueller report. It’s the latest in a series of clashes between the legislative and executive branches—clashes that don’t show any signs of letting up. Was our 230-year-old Constitution designed for this highly partisan, highly confr...

We got our files mixed up this morning! This is the corrected show for Tuesday, May 7. The proposed Equal Rights Amendment is simple: It would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. To become part of the U.S. Constitution, the ERA has to be passed not just in Congress, but in 38 state legislatures. In 2017, Nevada became the 36th state to pass it. Last year, Illinois became the 37th. And las...

With all the breathless enthusiasm for the presidential race, no one seems very interested in the U.S. Senate. Why not? Guest: Slate writer Jim Newell .  Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin, with help from Samantha Lee.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deutsche Bank was the one lender that couldn’t quit Donald Trump. Now the bank holds the key to understanding President Trump’s finances. Guest: David Enrich , finance editor for the New York Times.   Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin, with help from Samantha Lee.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Attorney General William Barr showed up to the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify, but the spotlight was also on his colleague, Special Counsel Robert Mueller. What will it take to resolve the growing divide between these two men and their views of the Mueller investigation? Guest: Jeremy Stahl , senior editor at Slate.  Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin, with h...

In this episode April Glaser is joined by co-host Meredith Broussard, a data journalism professor at NYU and author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World.  First they talk about the history of  Silicon Valley’s decades-long quest to replace teachers with computers. Then the hosts have a conversation with Nellie Bowles, tech reporter for the New York Times, about a Kan...