What Next | Daily News and Analysis

In a world where everyone is carrying smartphones and setting up Ring cameras, you could be forgiven for thinking the war is over and the surveillance state won. But Flock cameras being denounced in town halls and smashed on the street have become a place for people to channel their heretofore unseen rage. 

Guest: Joseph Cox, reporter for 404 Media

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Why Donald Trump’s proudly announced executive order on childhood vaccines is a move in the wrong direction—and towards a less healthy, more measle-y America.

Guest: Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent, host of the KFF Health News weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?”

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Donald Trump’s success with Gen Z men was one of the many surprises in 2024, but as the second administration has gone on, that support has been plummeting. What would it take for Democrats to win the Zoomers?  

Guest: Adam Mockler, host of The Adam Mockler Show podcast and YouTube channel.

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Any jobs report, by necessity, is going to be vague and subject to revision, but the latest from the Bureau of Labor Statistics paints a pretty clear picture: America hasn’t added as many jobs as hoped or expected this summer, and the labor market is looking rough.

Guest: Justin Wolfers, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan and “deputy platypus” at Platypus Economics.

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Credible accusations of sexual assault, eventually, led to Graham Platner leaving the Maine Senate race. But Ohio Representative Max Miller is responding to his own allegations with a different tact: the Trump method of ignoring, denying, and staying in.

Guest: Jill Filipovic, journalist, lawyer, and author of The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness and OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind.

Wan...

The wins, the losses, the wins-that-are-so-close-are-they-REALLY-wins, and more from the primary elections this week, that left us asking, “Can we just get the midterms over with now?”

Guest: Jim Newell, Slate senior politics writer.

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Investments in—and among—artificial intelligence companies have pushed the S&P 500 to record highs. It’s also introduced a volatility to the markets that may be unprecedented. Is this growing pains or the wobble before the fall? 

Guest: Ed Elson, co-host of the Prof G Markets and First Time Founders podcasts.

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If you feel compelled to comment on a famous woman’s body, a good rule of thumb to remember is “don’t.” But to avoid feeling complicit or like we’re normalizing something we know to be harmful, there are discussions to be had—amongst ourselves at least. Is that any better?

Guest: Scaachi Koul, Slate senior writer 

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Laura Loomer may not have an official position in the White House (or anywhere?) but she nevertheless does have the president’s ear—and newfound affinity for Ukraine and its war against Russia.

Guest: Ken Bensinger, media and politics reporter for the New York Times.

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More Democrats than ever are suspicious of big money in politics and against unconditional American military support for Israel. The prominent lobbying group AIPAC sits right where these issues intersect, and it has become a bogeyman in primary races across the country this year.

Guest: Peter Beinart, editor-at-large for Jewish Currents, author of the Beinart Notebook Substack. 

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Roiling like a wine-dark sea since the casting was announced, controversies surrounding Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” didn’t stop with the film’s release. But what turned a summer blockbuster into an IMAX-sized lightning rod? 

Guest: Sam Adams, Slate writer and senior editor covering culture. 

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As part of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Cory Booker had questions for Todd Blanche—and made space for Jeffrey Epstein survivors. 

Guest: Cory Booker, US Senator for New Jersey, member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Foreign Relations Committee, Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a department for wonks, by wonks. But under the dual pressures of the changing nature of work—like the growing gig economy—and an administration that doesn’t accept bad news, should next week’s jobs report be taken with a grain of salt? 

Guest: Ben Casselman, chief economics correspondent for The New York Times.

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On the heels of the success of GLP-1s like Ozempic, other peptide treatments are flooding the marketplace—and advertising spaces. But even as the Trump administration’s FDA discusses approving more treatments and the businesses selling them proliferate, many peptides are sitting in a legal and medical gray area. So how real - and safe - is this peptide hype?

Guest: Kate Knibbs, senior writer at WIRED.

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The US can’t leave Iran in charge of the Strait of Hormuz, but it can’t wrestle control away without committing ground troops—but it also can’t keep going on like this. So where does that leave everyone?

Guest: Josh Keating, senior correspondent covering foreign affairs at Vox. 

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In the wake of the success among members of the Democratic Socialists of America, The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait has turned in a series of articles that call the group anti-democratic, against the Democratic Party, and unnecessary or even a hindrance to accomplishing policy goals like universal health care. On the other hand, he thinks DSA member Zohran Mamdani is doing a pretty good job as mayor so far. 

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In the immediate aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder, the NFL was holding moments of silence, Ezra Klein was waxing about how he was ‘practicing politics the right way,” and criticizing Kirk online could get you fired. Now, as the trial of Tyler Robinson, Kirk’s alleged killer, begins, something has replaced that reverence. 

Guest: Will Sommer, senior reporter for the Bulwark and writer of False Flag,...

Why are kids getting faster? Is it the shoes? Also, running the Boston Marathon is obviously a huge accomplishment, but if you ran the 2013 Boston Marathon, you should lead with that and not save it for an interview years after you meet someone.

Guest: Rob Gunther, producer for Slate’s What Next.

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Steve Witkoff is a real estate investor, an attorney, and now America’s Special Envoy to the Middle East. It may seem like a weird career shift for Witkoff, but he’s such an outlier that the famously transactional Donald Trump treats him like an actual friend.

Guest: Andrea Bernstein, investigative reporter and the co-host of four podcasts, including Trump Inc.

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