What Next | Daily News and Analysis
The problem with the news right now? It’s everywhere. And each day, it can feel like we’re all just mindlessly scrolling. It’s why we created What Next. This short daily show is here to help you make sense of things. When the news feels overwhelming, we’re here to help you answer: What next? Look for new episodes every weekday morning.
Episodes
May 12, 2021 • 24 min
Does the looming ouster of a devoted Trump critic from House GOP leadership mean the party remains in thrall to the former president? Or does it just mean that Republican political leaders don’t want to keep talking about him?
Guest: Eliana Johnson, Editor-in-chief at the Washington Free Beacon.
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May 11, 2021 • 30 min
A complete recount of ballots from the 2020 election is underway in Maricopa County, where Arizona Senate Republicans still question the results of the general election. There’s no timeline or budget for the manual audit, and election experts say this effort is highly prone to errors.
Guest: Andrew Oxford, reporter for the Arizona Republic.
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May 10, 2021 • 37 min
Omar Alshogre survived years of detainment in Syria when he was just a teenager. Now, he’s in the U.S. and is telling his story of survival so you don’t look away.
Guest: Omar Alshogre, a Georgetown Student and the Director of Detainee Affairs at the Syrian Emergency Task Force.
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Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Davis Land, Danielle Hewitt, Elena Schw...
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May 7, 2021 • 23 min
The question of Donald Trump’s banned account--to keep it blocked, or reinstate it--is one of the toughest that Facebook has ever faced. But the social network had a plan: punt the decision to its newly minted Oversight Board, a semi-independent “Supreme Court” tasked with making hard decisions about what content stays up, and what comes down.
Did that plan just backfire?
Guest: Kate Klonick, professor at St. John’s University S...
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May 6, 2021 • 28 min
Divorces aren’t usually major news events. But in the case of Bill and Melinda Gates, the state of their union is in the public interest. For the last 20 years, the two have led one of the most influential philanthropic organizations in the world.
What happens to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation once its founders are broken up? And what does it say about society’s dependence on billionaires that we even have to ask?
Guest: T...
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May 5, 2021 • 22 min
West Virginia was - and still is - decimated by the opioid addiction crisis. Now, one county is fighting to hold drug distributors accountable and get treatment for its residents.
Guest: Eric Eyer, senior investigative reporter at Mountain State Spotlight.
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May 4, 2021 • 27 min
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance recently announced the end to prosecuting some charges related to sex work, following decisions in other New York City boroughs. But is this policy shift something sex workers actually want? And does it go far enough?
Guest: Melissa Gira Grant, staff writer at The New Republic and the author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work.
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May 3, 2021 • 24 min
California Governor Gavin Newsom faces a newly-qualified recall petition, with 1.6 million people saying they want to see an election held over whether the governor should be replaced. But the anger that motivated so many of those signatures now seems to be fading away. Is it enough to save Newsom’s political career???
Guest: Guy Marzorati, reporter and producer on KQED’s Politics and Government desk.?
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April 30, 2021 • 23 min
There was a time—back when Steve Jobs ran Apple and Mark Zuckerberg was in his early days as Facebook’s CEO— that Apple and Facebook were friends.. Or, at worst, frenemies. But as the companies grew, so did two competing views of how the internet should work.
What led to the rift between Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook? And will Apple’s new privacy rules undercut Facebook’s vision for the internet?
Guest:
Mike Isaac, tech report...
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April 29, 2021 • 29 min
India started 2021 with government officials repeatedly declaring victory over COVID-19. But the virus has overrun hospitals and crematoriums, in part due to massive gatherings and a slow vaccination rollout.
Guest: Chahat Rana, health reporting fellow at The Caravan magazine.
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April 28, 2021 • 27 min
The national conversation about gun violence in America almost always focuses on mass shootings -- but these events tend to overshadow the more day-to-day violence that makes up the bulk of gun deaths in the U.S. What would our policy conversation look like if more attention was paid to the kind of gun violence that’s most prevalent??
Guest: Aben? Clayton, reporter for Guns and Lies at the Guardian.
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April 27, 2021 • 23 min
Tech workers from the Bay Area happily left their expensive apartments for Lake Tahoe during the pandemic, hoping to get some fresh air and a change of scenery. Towns around the lake soon became "Zoom-towns" -- areas where remote workers moved in and never left, raising prices and driving out longtime residents. Now, locals are fighting back.
Guest: Rachel Levin, San Francisco-based journalist.
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April 26, 2021 • 25 min
Masks are crucial to stopping the spread of COVID-19, especially indoors and during prolonged close contact. But after a year of the pandemic, evidence is growing that it’s time to rethink rules on wearing masks outdoors.
Guest: Shannon Palus, senior editor at Slate.
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April 23, 2021 • 23 min
Last week, a Tesla Model S crashed into a tree in a neighborhood north of Houston. Both men inside the car were killed. But according to police, neither of them was in the driver’s seat.
This is not the first crash in which Tesla’s “autopilot” feature has likely played a role. Should we really be trusting this technology?
Guest:
Missy Cummings, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University
Host
Lizzie O’L...
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April 22, 2021 • 32 min
The country remains divided over the January 6th Capitol riot. The division is reflected in voter surveys, news coverage, and millions of social media posts. But the tension is also on display in small, idiosyncratic communities who realized some of their own were at the Capitol attack and may have cheered it on.
Guest: Matthew Rosenberg, reporter for the New York Times.
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April 21, 2021 • 33 min
After just 10 hours of deliberation, jurors found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty in the murder of George Floyd. This is what happened inside the courtroom and out on the streets.
Guests: Jon Collins, criminal justice reporter at MPR News.
Aymann Ismail, staff writer at Slate.
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April 20, 2021 • 27 min
The Biden administration is under no illusions that Russia President Vladimir Putin can be a willing partner of the U.S. But what tools remain to check Putin’s ambitions?
Guest: Josh Keating, senior editor at Slate and the author of Invisible Countries.
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April 19, 2021 • 29 min
What makes a police officer shoot when a suspect’s hands are up? To understand this, it helps to examine police training, and the predominant lesson that many young officers receive: Any encounter could be your last.
Guest: Michael Sierra-Arévalo, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
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April 16, 2021 • 25 min
Like countless venture-funded start-ups before it, Substack is “disrupting” the media industry. The newsletter service is siphoning off high-profile talent with a promise of independence and bigger paychecks. But the platform’s influence might reach far beyond the media. Will Substack change the way we think about online creators and their audiences? Can it create a new kind of relationship between them?
Guest:
Charlie Warzel, ...
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April 15, 2021 • 23 min
Federal officials have recommended halting distribution of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, citing rare but potentially severe blood clots. Now, health officials are trying to find out whether or not the clots are connected to the vaccine, creating confusion and sometimes panic for recipients. While the process may seem backwards for some, others say it’s science working the way it’s supposed to.
Guest: Tara Haelle...
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