After 20 months of war, with violence erupting far from the Middle East, where is the future of Zionism headed? Guest: Isaac Saul, Tangle executive editor and author of “ I think I’m leaving Zionism, or Zionism is leaving me .” Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus ...
Jun 04, 2025•29 min
Five years after George Floyd’s murder sparked nationwide protests, the legacy of that movement is still being written in Minneapolis and America writ large—even as some attempt to erase it. Guest: Marcia Howard , president of the teacher chapter of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Brandt Williams , senior editor covering race, class and communities for MPR News. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite ...
Jun 03, 2025•30 min
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: voter discontentment at the two major parties is creating an opening for a far-right populist with an anti-immigration, protectionist agenda that economic experts warn would be devastating. With a Trump trade deal in hand, can Keir Starmer and Labour give British voters something to vote for, rather than just against? Guest: Anand Menon , professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at Kings College London. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Pl...
Jun 02, 2025•25 min
His time in Washington was brief, but we’ll be picking up the pieces for a long time. What Elon’s exit signals for the future of DOGE, and Musk’s political career. Guest: Kate Conger , reporter for the New York Times covering X and other technology companies. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up n...
Jun 01, 2025•26 min
The war between Ukraine and Russia is being fought increasingly via drone —and NATO and US military leadership is training troops for future conflicts that will pit man against machine. Guest: Jake Epstein , senior defense reporter for Business Insider. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at ...
May 30, 2025•22 min
Adriana Smith was nine weeks pregnant when she was declared brain dead in February—far enough along that her fetus showed cardiac activity. The hospital then refused to let her family decide whether or not they want to keep Smith on life support long enough for the fetus to be delivered. Guests: Imani Gandy , Editor-at-Large for Rewire News Group , covering law and courts and co-host of the podcast “ Boom! Lawyered .” Mary Ziegler , law professor at UC Davis , author of Personhood: The New Civil...
May 29, 2025•25 min
Everyone assumes the reason Gavin Newsom has had right-wingers like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon on his podcast is to burnish his credentials for an imminent presidential run. But no podcast episode is going to make Republican voters forget that he’s a California Democrat. Guest: Marisa Lagos, political correspondent for KQED and co-host of the Political Breakdown podcast . Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your...
May 28, 2025•26 min
A Revlimid pill costs about 25 cents to make, and about a thousand dollars to buy—but it’s keeping him alive, so what choice does he have? Guest: David Armstrong, investigates healthcare at ProPublica , author of “ The Price of Remission .” Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/...
May 27, 2025•25 min
As What Next celebrates Memorial Day, please enjoy this episode from our colleagues at Decoder Ring . What Next will be back in your feed tomorrow. Something seems to have happened to car headlights. In the last few years, many people have become convinced that they are much brighter than they used to be—and it’s driving them to the point of rage. Headlight glare is now Americans’ number one complaint on the road. The story of how and why we got here is illuminating and confounding. It’s what ...
May 26, 2025•40 min
The crypto industry poured tons of money into the last election cycle. Is the GENIUS Act, which has bipartisan support, their big payoff? Guest: Hilary Allen , professor at American University’s Washington College of Law. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get ac...
May 25, 2025•26 min
Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” cleared the House this week and heads off to the Senate where…actually let’s bring in an expert to explain what happens next. Guest: Jim Newell , Slate’s senior political writer. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next —you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on ...
May 23, 2025•6 min
OpenAI started as a non-profit dedicated to building safe A.I. Now, they’re obsessed with building artificial general intelligence by any means necessary - even if they don’t quite know what that is. Guest: Karen Hao , reporter and author of “ Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try...
May 23, 2025•35 min
Rev. Dr. Barber II is objecting to Republicans’ budget bill on the grounds of morality as much as politics—which is why he’s been praying, protesting, and getting arrested to stick up for those who will be affected by it. Guest: Reverend Doctor William J. Barber II , pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in Goldsboro, North Carolina, professor at Yale Divinity School, and founder of the Forward Together Moral Movement . Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access a...
May 22, 2025•23 min
One of the more surprising targets of Project 2025—and now, therefore, the Trump administration—is FEMA. How will proposed changes affect what FEMA can do, as hurricane season begins, and as a changing climate makes weather more unpredictable? Guest: Thomas Frank , editor for E&E News’ climate finance team. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by cl...
May 21, 2025•26 min
In a return to a classic party policy goal, Republicans want to add “work requirements” to Medicaid to offset costs in Trump’s “one big beautiful bill.” Work requirements for health insurance have been tried before, on the state level, and the end result is a lot of people—including working people—losing their health insurance. Guest: Leo Cuello, research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families and former Health Policy Director of...
May 20, 2025•24 min
As Donald Trump strives to deliver on his harsh immigration enforcement campaign promises, the president’s approval rating on the issue has dropped. But very public mistakes—with very real consequences—and dipping polls don’t seem to be slowing the administration down yet. Guests: Adrian Carrasquillo , author of the Huddled Masses newsletter from The Bulwark Primitiva Hernandez , executive director of 805Undocufund , a central California non-profit providing legal and financial assistance to imm...
May 19, 2025•25 min
What do you do when your likeness has been turned into A.I.-generated pornography?—it’s a problem people are already facing. But legislation moving through Congress may cause more problems than it would solve. Guests: Joanne Chew, actress and visual artist based in LA. Samantha Cole , cofounder of 404 media and author of “ How Sex Changed the Internet and How the Internet Changed Sex .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and...
May 18, 2025•25 min
What do you do when your likeness has been turned into A.I.-generated pornography?—it’s a problem people are already facing. But legislation moving through Congress may cause more problems than it would solve. Guests: Joanne Chew, actress and visual artist based in LA. Samantha Cole , cofounder of 404 media and author of “ How Sex Changed the Internet and How the Internet Changed Sex .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and...
May 18, 2025•25 min
Aging equipment and chronically understaffed air traffic control have made flying in and out of Newark’s Liberty International Airport a delay-snarled mess. And the problems there aren’t entirely unique. Will Congress and the Trump administration be the ones to fix it? Guest: Will Guisbond , staff reporter covering air traffic control for The Air Current Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts...
May 16, 2025•27 min
Between the crypto ventures, real estate deals, and a gift-wrapped tricked-out 747, it feels like Donald Trump is more open-for-business than ever this term. And since no one seems able or willing to stop him, why wouldn’t he be? Guest: Andrea Bernstein , investigative journalist and host of Trump Inc and author of “ American Oligarchs: The Kushners, The Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power.” Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next f...
May 15, 2025•22 min
Ahead of his first trip to the region, Donald Trump’s policies toward the Middle East have been full of surprises. He wants sanctions on Syria lifted; he revealed the U.S. has been negotiating directly with Hamas; and he’s considering a new nuclear deal with Iran—and without consulting with Israel. Guest: Gregg Carlstrom , Middle East correspondent for the Economist. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorit...
May 14, 2025•24 min
What if the Democratic Party’s problem isn’t just messaging—it’s the Democrats themselves, and “seniority politics” that never call incumbents to account? Is it time for a Tea Party-style cleaning-of-the-house? Guest: David Hogg, DNC Vice Chair and founder of Leaders We Deserve PAC Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top o...
May 13, 2025•24 min
Despite being perhaps the least experienced person to ever hold his position, Pete Hegseth has set about dramatically reforming the Department of Defense to Donald Trump’s specifications—which seem to have less to do with creating a more effective fighting force, and more to do with window dressing. Guest: Tom Bowman , Pentagon reporter for NPR. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subs...
May 12, 2025•23 min
The intimate and extremely personal experience of bringing a child into this world? There’s an app for that…and forums…and so much advice…that contradicts other advice…and a surprising amount of eugenics. Guest: Amanda Hess, critic at the New York Times and author of the book “ Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age. ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple P...
May 11, 2025•31 min
As we head into Mother’s Day weekend (there’s still time to get to the florist if you hurry!), we dive into “motherhood in the moment”—where “pro-natalism”, the rising cost of childcare, and, um, Chapelle Roan are making the “Tiger Mom” era of a decade ago seem quaint. Guest: Jenée Desmond-Harris, staff writer for Slate and host of Dear Prudence. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next —...
May 09, 2025•4 min
Why artificial intelligence isn’t waiting for consumer demand. Guest: Gerrit De Vynck, tech reporter for The Washington Post . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Evan Campbell and Patrick Fort. Hosted on Acast...
May 09, 2025•23 min
The consequences of Donald Trump’s new tariffs are working their way through the supply chain and soon will start showing up for consumers in the form of empty shelves, higher prices, and potentially even layoffs and a recession. Guest: Christopher Mims , Wall Street Journal tech reporter and the author of Arriving Today: From Factory to Front Door---Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy . Jessica Berger, CEO of Bundle x Joy . Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access...
May 08, 2025•26 min
How Donald Trump is attempting to shape the arts to his own liking, from installing himself as head of the Kennedy Center to canceling grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, throwing organizations and projects of all sizes into uncertainty and chaos. Guests: Alisa Solomon , director of the Arts & Culture concentration at the Columbia Journalism School Katy Waldman , staff writer for the New Yorker. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whol...
May 07, 2025•26 min
Marco Rubio has been collecting titles. In addition to Secretary of State, he’s now also the acting administrator of USAID, the acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration—and he just became a National Security Advisor. It fits his career trajectory, wherein Rubio has proven time and time again to be whatever he needs to be. Guest: Justin Peters, Slate correspondent and author of “ What Happened to Marco Rubio? ” Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-f...
May 06, 2025•26 min
Is the arrest of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan the start of Trump’s open war on judges? Guest: Jeremy Fogel, retired federal judge and executive director for the Berkeley Judicial Institute. Want more What Next? Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to What Next and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify . Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by ...
May 05, 2025•24 min
