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
July 26, 2024 • 27 mins
For years, Silicon Valley has felt like a liberal enclave.. This election, a handful of powerful voices like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are expressing support for the Trump-Vance ticket. Is this a shift in ideologies in Silicon Valley, or just a few of the loudest voices?
Guest: Nitish Pahwa, associate writer for business and tech at Slate.
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July 25, 2024 • 28 mins
Before announcing his exit, Joe Biden expressed interest in reforming the Supreme Court. But, in the spirit of re-balancing the three branches of government, isn’t that a job for Congress?
Guest: Stephen Vladeck, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and an expert on the federal courts and constitutional law.
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July 24, 2024 • 27 mins
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after the catastrophic security breakdown during a Trump rally in Butler, Penn. But the assassination attempt was only the latest Secret Service disaster, and the agency’s problems won’t be solved by a simple change in leadership.
Guest: Abdallah Fayyad, policy correspondent at Vox.
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July 23, 2024 • 30 mins
And just like that, it’s (almost definitely) Kamala. Her rise has fueled a whole species of internet memes—but the questions about her platform are serious.
Guest: Scaachi Koul, Slate senior writer
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July 22, 2024 • 30 mins
Just over three weeks ago, Joe Biden was heading to the stage to debate Donald Trump. Now, he’s out.
Guest: David Faris, Slate contributor, associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and author of It’s Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics.
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July 21, 2024 • 27 mins
In the hours after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, conspiracy theories started circulating all over social media, often amplified by powerful voices on both sides of the aisle. It shows a complete breakdown of trust in institutions during a critical election.
Guest: Drew Harwell, technology reporter at the Washington Post.
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July 19, 2024 • 36 mins
The biggest companies in the world are now tech companies, which is why the biggest antitrust, anti-monopoly fights in recent memory are centered around Silicon Valley.
Guest: Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice
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July 18, 2024 • 33 mins
With the presidential ticket set and the platform announced, the GOP of 2024 isn’t defined by fiscal conservatism and fighting to end abortion—although those issues are holding on, further down on the list.
So what are Republicans fighting for now?
Guest: Paul Farrow, county executive for Waukesha County, delegate at the RNC, former chair of the Wisconsin GOP.
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July 17, 2024 • 34 mins
A perennial presidential battleground state, Wisconsin became a warning—or blueprint—for how one party can subvert democracy and keep power without winning more votes.
Does the Badger State hold any lessons about how to walk back a gerrymandered, minority rule?
Guest: Ari Berman, Mother Jones’ national voting rights correspondent and author of “Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resis...
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July 16, 2024 • 28 mins
J.D. Vance, the Yale Law School graduate once hailed by the media as a white working class-whisperer, has been selected as Donald Trump’s running mate. But not too long ago, he was one of the former president’s critics. The former-Marine and San Francisco venture capitalist won over Trump with the hardline, America-first policies he championed in the Senate—and some serious groveling.
Guest: Jim Newell, Slate’s senior politics wri...
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July 15, 2024 • 32 mins
Former president Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt Saturday during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. While the gunman has been identified, law enforcement have not offered a potential motivation for the attack. The incident comes at a time of heightened political violence, when more Americans think such acts are justifiable.
Guests: Isaac Arnsdorf, national political reporter for The Washington Post, and David Graham, ...
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July 14, 2024 • 25 mins
“Home diagnostics” are a $5 billion industry—and growing. Spurred by social media, people are buying into at-home health tests, without input from their doctors, and often, not even the FDA.
Guest: Elizabeth Dwoskin, reporter for the Washington Post
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July 12, 2024 • 28 mins
Boeing just pled guilty to felony charges of defrauding the federal government, leading to millions of dollars in fines, and new, external oversight. Is this how the company finally turns it around?
Guest: Oriana Pawlyk, POLITICO’s aviation reporter.
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July 11, 2024 • 25 mins
Air-conditioning can feel like the only way to get through increasingly hot summers, but it’s an expensive, power-hungry way to keep cool.
How necessary is it? And how necessary is it to raise our thermostats up from 72 degrees?
Guest: Adam Clark Estes, senior technology correspondent at Vox.
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July 10, 2024 • 26 mins
Should Joe Biden still be the Democratic nominee in this presidential race? Elected Democrats have almost all said Biden is still the man. But Rep. Mike Quigley put his misgivings on the record.
Guest: Rep. Mike Quigley, Democratic representative for Illinois’ fifth district.
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July 9, 2024 • 25 mins
France’s far-right looked ready to take control of the National Assembly after the first round of snap elections. But when the dust settled after the second round, the left and center had held.
Though French progressives are celebrating for now, the right-wing National Rally party still took more parliament seats than it’s ever held before.
Guest: Harrison Stetler, freelance journalist based in Paris.
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July 8, 2024 • 30 mins
What the fight against the “Briggs Initiative” in 1970s California tells us about the fight for gay rights—and the fight to keep those victories in place.
Guest: Christina Cauterucci, senior writer at Slate and host of Slow Burn Season 9: Gays Against Briggs.
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July 7, 2024 • 22 mins
The downsides of the streaming era are coming into focus for movie fans—uncontrollable, changing libraries; lower fidelity; lack of extras and features. Can all of these be solved with a return to physical media?
Guest: Ash Nelson, journalist and author of “The Lost Art of the DVD Extra” for Slate.
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July 5, 2024 • 23 mins
The world’s population has never been bigger, and it’s still growing. but there’s a movement of “pronatalists” who see the slowing birth rate in wealthy, educated populations as a doomsday scenario in the making—and they’ve found their spokesman in one Elon Musk.
Guest: Sophie Alexander, reporter for Bloomberg
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July 4, 2024 • 32 mins
Last week the Supreme Court ruled a $6 billion settlement between Purdue Pharma and victims of the opioid crisis could not move forward, because it granted immunity to the Sackler family, the principal owners of Purdue. For one of the litigants, a mother who has lost two sons to overdoses, the decision felt like “a sucker punch.”
Guest: Cheryl Juaire, part of the bankruptcy settlement with Purdue Pharma and founder of the non-prof...
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