What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Joaquín Guzmán operated in Mexico’s shadows for decades. His trial is shining a spotlight on who the man is and the chaos he sowed on a country . How are Mexicans dealing with the explosive allegations made against former presidents? And what are we all missing by sensationalizing the drug lord's trial? Guest: León Krauze, Columnist for Slate, co-host of Trumpcast, and news anchor for Univision. T...

On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss a rather terrifying security flaw from Apple, a company that prides itself on keeping information well-protected. A bug was found in the video chat app Facetime that let snoops listen in on someone by calling them on FaceTime, even if the call wasn’t answered. Then, the hosts are joined by Franklin Foer,  a staff writer for the Atlantic,...

Howard Schultz's potential independent presidential candidacy has gotten off to a rough start. Why are Democrats and Republicans alike upset about the Starbucks CEO entering the 2020 fray? And will it even matter? Guest: Steve Kornacki, National Political Correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . F...

More than 1,000 journalists lost their jobs last week. The reason is pretty simple: Big tech is beating digital media to the money. To save journalism, what rules should the public be fighting for? Guest: Will Oremus, Slate’s Senior Technology Writer. Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . Follow us on Instagram for updates on the s...

Why it matters that the Supreme Court is taking on a gun rights case now, after keeping its powder dry for years. Guest: Mark Joseph Stern , who covers courts & the law for Slate. Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon, with help...

How Venezuelans reached a breaking point, and how a team of savvy politicians orchestrated the break. No one expected the greatest threat of a proxy war to come out of South America -- right? Guests: Ana Vanessa Herrero , reporter for the New York Times. Josh Keating , senior editor of foreign affairs for Slate. Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to wh...

The Senate is readying a vote on two bills to fund the government. The measures aren’t expected to pass, but they might signal the beginning of the end of the shutdown. Guest: Jim Newell , who covers Congress for Slate . Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast production by Mary...

On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss news news that the french government has fined Google close to $57 million for violating the new European privacy laws that went into effect in 2018. This comes as news that the Federal Trade Commision here in the US  is considering levying a record-breaking fine against Facebook for violations to their users privacy following the Cambrid...

More and more reform-minded district attorneys are taking office as self-avowed progressive prosecutors. Why don’t some advocates think Kamala Harris deserves the label? Guest: Lara Bazelon , associate professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, contributing writer for Slate , and author of the book Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction . Read her op-e...

What Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power has meant for women in Saudi Arabia. Guest: Journalist Sarah Aziza . Read her latest reporting in the New Yorker . Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon, with help from Danielle Hewitt.  Host...

Why aren’t conservatives’ usual tricks working on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Guest: Slate writer Lili Loofbourow . Read her piece here . Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon, with help from Danielle Hewitt. Hosted on Acast. See acas...

What makes the Los Angeles teachers’ strike different from the strikes that swept the country last year? In L.A., a robust charter school sector competes with the traditional public schools for funds. Guest: Dana Goldstein , education reporter for the New York Times. Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . Follow us on Instagram for...

On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss news that PG&E, California’s main power provider, plans to file for bankruptcy due to the billions in liability it faces stemming from the deadly wildfires last year. Allegations have been made that PG&E’s power lines and equipment aided in the fires and the company did not adequately address the hazards beforehand. As the home to...

UCLA’s Katelyn Ohashi wowed the internet this week with a viral video of her college gymnastics floor routine. As Ohashi’s star rises, the U.S. women’s gymnastics program is imploding. Fans of the sport wonder: What is the price of being world-class? Guest: Slate contributor Rebecca Schumann . Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com ....

More than 25 years after serving as Attorney General under George HW Bush, Barr is set to return to the role this week. What should we expect? And what should the senators at the confirmation hearing be asking? Guest: Noah Feldman, professor of constitutional law at Harvard University and columnist at Bloomberg. Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to wh...

Slate’s Fred Kaplan explains how two different Trump advisers, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, are trying to carry out U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...

What would a national emergency look like, and why hasn't Trump declared one yet? Dahlia Lithwick has answers. Plus: Was it weird that Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn't at work this week? Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon.  Hosted on A...

How could congressional leaders end the current government shutdown? Come to think of it, how could they put an end to shutdowns altogether? Guests: Tom Davis, former Republican congressman from Virginia, and Slate’s Jim Newell . Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com . Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast productio...

On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss startling new revelations about some of the major phone carriers. The story broke this week in Motherboard titled “I Gave a Bounty Hunter $300. Then He Located Our Phone.” It details how T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T  are selling access to customers location data to shady characters like landlords and collection agencies. And speaking of...

Advocate Mariame Kaba explains why the Cyntoia Brown story is compelling, complicated, and deeply frustrating -- why it's wrong to portray Cyntoia Brown as a child, why Brown’s story is deeply familiar to black women in America, and why Kaba considers Brown’s crime a radical act of “self-love.” Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to whatnext@slate.com ....

Jamelle Bouie sees each presidential election like a grand experiment. On today’s show, he shares some of his hypotheses going into the 2020 campaign season. Will the rift grow between President Trump and the establishment GOP? Will Democrat presidential hopefuls continue to propose bold policies unthinkable 10 years ago? Will white Democratic candidates be able to appeal to black and brown Americ...

The rightward shift of the Republican Party is kind of like global warming: Each political ecosystem is feeling it differently. In Kansas, lifelong Republicans are finding themselves without a habitat.  Guests: Barbara Bollier Kansas state senator, and Patrick Miller, political science professor at the University of Kansas.  Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending a...

On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus introduce some of their favorite interviews from 2018. We have highlights from our conversations with journalist Taylor Lorenz about teen YouTube stars, former head of Facebook’s Newsfeed Adam Mosseri about real-world violence in places like Myanmar, the founder of Data for Black Lives Yeshimabeit Milner on how tech companies might share their da...

On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus will talk reader mail! The hosts  take a look at some of your questions and comments from the year, in particular about how your relationship to technology and social media has changed in a year that has been tumultuous for tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Then, they’ll talk about cybersecurity, hacks, and the sometimes bizarre...

On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus will talk about how Taylor Swift used face recognition to surveil the crowd at a recent concert, and whether that’s smart, scary, or both. Then they’ll welcome Renée DiResta, an expert on cybersecurity and online misinformation. DiResta is the lead author of a new report to the Senate Intelligence Committee on exactly how Russian operatives weapo...