What Next | Daily News and Analysis

The Democrats basically got their best-case scenario to play out in the midterms. But that was only the election—so what’s the plan for governing here? A gaggle of Slatesters convenes to discuss live.

Guests:

Jim Newell, Slate’s senior politics writer and author of The Surge newsletter.

Aymann Ismail, Slate senior writer who spent election night at the Abdul El-Sayed watch party in Michigan.

Luke Winkie, Slate staff writer who spent election night with Hasan Piker in West Hollywood.

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Now we know how effective Trump’s reflecting pool-related closing pitch was.

And join Mary Harris and a team of Slatesters covering the election on Wednesday (11/4) at noon eastern time by signing up here.

Guest: David Faris, professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It’s Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics.

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Even factoring in late-breaking stories in Alaska and Michigan and a reflexive distrust—on both sides—of any polls that look good for Democrats, all signs are pointing to a big day for the opposition party. What’s at stake today—and how worried should everyone actually be?

And join Mary Harris and a team of Slatesters covering the election on Wednesday (11/4) at noon eastern time by signing up here.

Guests:

G. Elliott Morris, pollster, journalist, author of Strength in Numbers substack.

Alan Elrod, president & CEO of the Pulaski Institution, columnis...

The hit movie of the fall is…a three-hour documentary about investor fraud? Technically yes, but there’s more to it than that.

Guest: Thomas Flight, media critic.

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick...

It’s the last Friday before the midterms and Democrats have every reason to finally stop panicking and start….merely fretting. This episode originally aired as a Slate Live on YouTube, produced in collaboration with Slate’s politics newsletter The Surge.

There’s going to be another one of these just for Slate Plus listeners next Wednesday (11/4) at 12P ET! To register, click here.

Guests:

Jim Newell, Slate’s senior politics writer.

Patrick Reis, Slate’s politics editor

Lizzie O’Leary, What Next: TBD host

This episode i...

What is AGI—and is it crazy to say it’s already here? Anthropic’s targeted IPO valuation indicates that many don’t think it’s far off.

Guest: Kevin Roose, author of “The AGI Chronicles”, former NYT host of “Hard Fork,” current host of NPR’s “Machine Gods.”

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Why did House Judiciary Democrats wait until this week to release a report outlining Donald Trump’s appearances and behavior alleged in the Epstein files?

Guest: Rep. Jamie Raskin (Maryland-D), ranking member of House Committee on the Judiciary, former head of Oversight committee.

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Turn on a TV just about anywhere in America and get ready to see some of the most unhinged political ads of your life. But with more money being spent on ad buys than ever before, it’s worth asking: do they make any difference?

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

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Even as anxiety rises over the price of gas, Americans still have the capacity to worry about their health care costs. This is one issue the Democrats have the public’s trust on—and it’s an area where they could make a big difference from Congress.

Guests:

Jonathan Cohn, senior national correspondent at The Bulwark

Julie Rovner, Chief Washington Correspondent for Kaiser Health News

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Arizona’s 6th congressional district has been one of the most hotly contested races for several election cycles. JoAnna Mendoza, a former marine, is running as a Ddemocrat and could be part of the blue wave polls are predicting.

Guest: JoAnna Mendoza, Democrat running for congress in Arizona’s 6th district.

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Live from Virginia Public Media in Richmond, Mary Harris sat down with Reveal's Al Letson and On the Media's Micah Loewinger to discuss contentious interviews, Pentagon influencers, sifting through the Trump news cycle, and the journalism cliches they love to hate.

Guests: Al Letson, host of Reveal

Micah Loewinger, co-host of On the Media

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Everyone wants A.I. to be regulated—including the major A.I. companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. There’s just one problem… they want to have a say in what regulation looks like for their industry. Doesn’t that defeat the whole point?

Guests: Cal Newport, Full Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University

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The sexual assault allegations against seven Cornell fraternity members has sparked a debate about the role of Greek life on college campuses. But maybe the solution is to get rid of it, full stop?

Guests: Susan Matthews, executive editor at Slate.

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Trump has long harbored resentment towards Ukraine. But his latest olive branch to Putin marks a turning point in how he views the region—and how Ukrainians view us.

Guests: Romeo Kokriatski, managing editor of New Voice of Ukraine

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One thing that’s clear about this midterm cycle? Voters are mad about Trump. The war in Iran and an affordability crisis back home are paving the way for a blue wave. And yet, despite his universally loathed policies, Trump’s core base still loves him… which puts the GOP in a tight spot if the Democrats retake congress and beyond.

Guests:

Isaac Saul, founder of Tangle News

Jamelle Bouie, columnist at the New York Times

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The last time Nebraska sent a non-Republican to the US Senate, George W. Bush joked that his nickname was “Dino”—for Democrat-in-name-only. But this year, independent Dan Osborn has a narrow lead on the GOP incumbent. But don’t call Osborn a Democrat-in-all-but-name.

Guest: Dan Osborn, independent running for US Senate in Nebraska

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Perimenopause’s journey from little-understood phase before menopause to the subject of every ad on social media for women of a certain age was quick—and impossible to imagine without the internet.

Guest: Kate Knibbs, senior writer for WIRED.

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Our current fascists are obsessed with the apocalypse—it drives everything they do, from stoking anti-immigration fervor around the world to wanting to colonize Mars. But why run from our beautiful planet when we can still fight?

Guest: Naomi Klein, co-author of End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World.

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Democrats are excited about the prospect of a blue wave, with their Senate candidates leading races in Texas and Georgia. But beyond the races, there’s a separate issue in those states—how your vote gets counted.

Guest:

Greg Bluestein, Chief Political Reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jessica Huseman, Editorial Director at Votebeat

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Up against #Resistance superstar Alexander Vindman, Angie Nixon overcame a huge spending gap to win the Democratic primary to run for a US Senate seat in Florida. As she now runs in a state-wide election in ruby-red Florida, her message remains the same: addressing people’s needs.

Guest: Angie Nixon, Democratic member of the Florida House of Representatives and DSA-affiliated candidate for U.S. Senate.

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While the What Next team recovers over the holiday, enjoy this episode from our friends over at Platypus Economics. Mary will be back to her usual feed tomorrow.

Americans feel almost exactly as gloomy today as they did in 1980 — when inflation was near 14% and unemployment was close to 8%. Today those numbers are a fraction of that, yet consumer sentiment hit an all-time low. Justin Wolfers treats this like a detective case: the standard economic statistics predict sentiment should sit around 82, but the actual reading is 52 — a 30-point gap begging for an explanation.

Hosted on Acas...

How the Cornell University rape allegations show we’re not really “post-MeToo.”

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 Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Rob Gunther, Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort.

Paige Osburn is the senior...

An exchange of insults on X was all that director Alex Gibney got directly from the main character of his new documentary, “Musk.” But by interviewing his business partners, father, wives and girlfriends—and using a bit of movie magic—Gibney takes viewers inside Elon Musk’s head. Spoiler alert: it’s not pretty.

Guest: Alex Gibney, filmmaker and director of the documentary “Musk.”

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Voters are angry and it looks like they’re eager to express themselves in the midterm elections. But even if Democrats take both chambers of Congress, they won’t have the power to change much—but they will have enough power to be blamed if things continue to get worse.

Guest: Jonathan V. Last, editor at The Bulwark

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How Steve Ballmer, the richest owner in sports, was caught dead to rights by a humble podcaster, and what lessons the media and public can take from courtside seats to the halls of power.

Guest: Pablo Torre, investigative reporter and host of “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”

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From Michigan to Florida to Texas, there are new Democrats in town and on the ballot. But other than novelty, what do these candidates have in common?

Guests:

Hasan Piker, political commentator and streamer.

Adam Mockler, political commentator and YouTuber

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Democrat Justin Pearson made national headlines in 2023 when he expelled from Tennessee’s general assembly while trying to talk about gun reform after a school shooting. That same spirit has driven him to run for Congress, despite the newly redrawn electoral map that erased the state’s only majority Black district.

Guest: Justin Pearson, state representative for Tennessee’s District 86, running for Congress.

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Move over, New Deal; Donald Trump is in his public works era, using tax dollars to give the American people a…chatbot and also what looks like a campaign ad for the president, even though he isn’t running for anything, can’t run again, and also can’t use tax dollars to buy ads for himself. Uh, masterful stroke, sir?

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 podcas...

A.I. large language models are prompt, attentive, positive and frictionless—in short, much easier to deal with than humans with their own needs, wants, and moods.

But, as long as humans aren’t social creatures by nature, this should be fine, right?

Guest: Sherry Turkle, licensed clinical psychologist and the founding director of MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self.

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Why the NAACP spoke out against the “Protect College Sports Act,” which was just passed by the US Senate—and why the bill is unlikely to get a vote in the House anytime soon.

Guest: Alex Kirshner, Slate contributing writer and co-host of the college football podcast Split Zone Duo.

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In the face of a tariff shock, an energy shock and a fiscal shock, the Fed is opting to raise interest rates. Donald Trump may not like it, but he has only himself to blame.

Guest: Justin Wolfers, Professor of Public Policy and Economics at University of Michigan, host of Platypus Economics.

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The party that holds the White House always braces for backlash in the midterm elections. But with Donald Trump’s approval rating hitting historic lows and voters furious at his handling of the economy, inflation, and the war in Iran, races that were once considered safe Republican wins are up for grabs.

Guest: David Faris, associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University. He’s also the author of The Kids Are All Left and It’s Time to Fight Dirty.

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Former labor organizer and iron worker Brian Poindexter embodies the emerging blue-collar, practical-minded Democrat type in the upcoming midterms. While he leads his race for an Ohio district Trump won handily, is that the power of his pitch or the mounting allegations against his opponent?

Guest: Brian Poindexter, Democratic congressional candidate running for Ohio’s 7th district.

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Artificial intelligence is pitched as a potential economic powerhouse—and also a potential bringer of the apocalypse. Can two economic and military rivals cooperate enough to fulfill the former (and former only)?

Guest: Scott Singer, fellow and co-director of the China AI Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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Donald Trump announced that he was banning CNN, Politico and MS NOW at kind of a weird time—it’s not like he thought they were doing a great job last year or in his first term or...ever. But with the announcement of something called “Trump TV,” suddenly it all makes sense: it could just be a First Amendment-violating exercise in branding.

Guest: Oliver Darcy, founder and lead author of Status News.

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Donald Trump’s in-roads with Latino voters was one of the surprises of his 2024 victory, carrying places like southern Texas’s 15th district by 18 points. But singer-turned-congressional candidate Bobby Pulido thinks those gains are temporary, and that Democrats have a chance, with sensible policies, to take the district and Congress.

Guest: Bobby Pulido, congressional candidate for Texas’s 15th district, Tejano singer-songwriter.

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Trans rights have become something that’s argued about in the abstract—are Democrats too far out on a limb defending them? Did they cost the Democrats 2024? Should they be more moderate in 2026? But the real-world effects of changing laws are anything but abstract, affecting the basics of public life like your ID and whether you can use the bathroom.

Guest: M Gessen, opinion columnist for the New York Times.

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Donald Trump owes his political career to saying what no other politician would. But now that he’s standing alone in full-throated support of data centers and artificial intelligence, he looks less like a populist, and more like a liability for Republicans trying to win elections.

Guests: 

Jim Newell, Slate senior politics writer and author of The Surge.

Patrick Reis, Slate politics editor.

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What it means that Macklemore decided he’d rather keep speaking out for Palestine than continue opening for Ed Sheeran.

Guest: Soraya Nadia McDonald, cultural critic and writer. 

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick...

Don Trump Jr.’s wedding had everything: a private island, fireworks, a Funfetti cake airlifted in from Florida—everything but the groom’s dad. But that’s the advantage of being rich, you can pay for the wedding of your drea—oh wait, one of Putin’s buddies was footing the bill. Ah well, nevertheless…

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 direc...