What Next | Daily News and Analysis

He’s treated Ebola; he’s had Ebola. Here’s what he thinks of the growing crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—and how America can and should respond.

Guest: Dr Craig Spencer, emergency doctor, professor at Brown.

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It’s a bit of an overstatement to say “the Pope came out as anti-A.I.” with last week’s encyclical—after all, Anthropic’s cofounder was there for the release. So what did the Chicago Pope actually say, what was he doing with his encyclical, and what’s an encyclical anyway? 

Guest: Lizzie O’Leary, host of What Next TBD

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It’s an awkward time to have a Department of Education that seems so disinterested in, uh, education. It’s leaving teachers to grapple with how to integrate artificial intelligence into the classroom—if at all. 

Guest: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

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Graham Platner has a lot of things in his favor as he runs for a US Senate seat in Maine: it’s an off-election year, the president’s approval rating is slumping and dragging down the whole GOP. Should be a breeze as soon as Platner gets through this latest scandal.

Guests:

Danielle Kurtzleben, White House Correspondent for NPR and “Masculinity politics expert.”

Ken Klippenstein, independent journalist covering national securit...

It’s city vs. state vs. the feds at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, where prisoners have gone on a hunger strike to protest the conditions inside—while outside, protestors clash with authorities. 

Guest: Aymann Ismail, senior writer at Slate.

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It’s the war that’s been won since it started; the ceasefire with ongoing strikes, and the peace deals that are done except for the points of disagreement. Does the public have any reason to believe what Trump says about the Iran war? Does Iran?

Guest: David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic

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Are the Dems in…array? Or at least, in less of a disarray than their opponents? 

Guest: Jonathan V. Last, editor at the Bulwark.

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How the Trump administration has tried to put pressure on Disney for opinions expressed by Jimmy Kimmel and the hosts of The View—and how the Mouse is fighting back.

Guest: Anna M. Gomez, commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission since September 2023.

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Minnesota’s state restrictions on predictions markets like Kalshi and Polymarket has gotten pushback from an unexpected source: the federal government.

Guest: Rep. Emma Greenman, a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives who authored legislation to restrict prediction markets in the state. 

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Well, it wasn’t exactly “standing up to the president” but it’s telling that Congress decided to leave town rather than try to defend Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund and immunity for any past present or future IRS inquiries.

Guest: Liz Oyer, former Pardon Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Public Defender, author of the Lawyer Oyer substack.

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Vacations to a Disney park were never cheap but now, in a reflection of American culture writ large, there are ever more-expensive tiers to pay to get into.

Guest: Dan Curell, management consultant who wrote “Disney and the Decline of America’s Middle Class” for the New York Times.

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Thanks for joining us during the holidays. While our team is taking a break, we want to share a podcast with you that we think you’ll love. It’s called The Bethlehem Project. It’s a special series from the Financial Times that looks at big political and economic issues through the lens of one city … Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Democrats are looking for a bit of a rebrand after losing the White House and both houses of Congress in 2...

The promise of an “internet for niche communities” and “the empowered independent creator” has been taking a beating as the web has become less open and increasingly dominated by a few platforms and players. But does it have to be that way?

Guest: Jack Conte, CEO and cofounder of Patreon.

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When Cameron Hamilton testified to Congress that he did not believe “it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” he was fired from his job as FEMA’s acting administrator. 

But now, a year later, Hamilton has been nominated to lead FEMA permanently. Does this mean the agency’s future is more secure?

Guest: Micah Loewinger, co-host of WNYC’s On the Media whose la...

The late-night show is a staple of network television—maybe even one that has held on past its era. Still, that doesn’t mean The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had to end like this. 

Guest: Adam Conover, comedian and host of the Factually! podcast. 

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With his approval rating dropping to its lowest point yet this term, why are politicians still giving in to Donald Trump? As Senator Bill Cassidy found out, Trump still has enough juice to sink a Republican in a primary.

Guest: Molly Jong Fast, host of the podcast Fast Politics. 

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On her way to a doctor’s appointment in January, a Minneapolis woman was surrounded by ICE agents who smashed her car’s window, cut her seat belt and dragged her out, while she tried to explain that she was disabled. Now, she’s planning to sue.

Guest: Aliya Rahman, Minneapolis resident detained by ICE in January.

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Under fire for what critics say is inadequate protection of its young user base, Roblox nevertheless remains incredibly popular. Are the company’s new ballyhooed protections up for the task of keeping kids safe? Or is that asking the wrong question entirely?

Guests:

Cecilia D'Anastasio, video game reporter for Bloomberg. 

Mary Harris, host of the other What Next

Stella Harris, daughter of Mary.

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Once a rising star of the New Right via New Media, Ben Shapiro and his Daily Wire have spent the second Trump administration in precipitous decline. Is it simply a case of bad business decisions running into their beloved capitalistic scythe or did their audience outpace them on a race to…let’s say “the right”?

Guest: Will Sommer, senior reporter at The Bulwark.

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