Episodes
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On Christmas Eve a fracas erupted on X, when Elon Musk posted in favor of H1-B visas for specialized and high-skill workers and was met with anger from the MAGA base who view the visas as a way for immigrants to take American jobs.
Guest: Ryan Mac, tech reporter for The New York Times and the coauthor of the book “Character Limit How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter.”
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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Ethan Oberman, Patrick Fort, and Cheyna Roth.
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Dispensing aid in the Gaza Strip is becoming increasingly difficult. No one knows this better than Hani. On a professional level, his employer, UNRWA—the main supplier of food, water, and shelter to Gazans over the last year—is banned from operating come 2025. On a personal note, his brother Mahmoud was killed in what Hani believes to have been a targeted strike while operating a soup kitchen for hungry neighbors.
Guest: Hani Almadhoun, senior director of philanthropy at UNRWA USA.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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Missing episodes?
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Happy New Year! What Next resumes regularly scheduled programming tomorrow, but for the holiday, check out this episode of How To! from December: How To Exorcise Your Fitness Demons.
Sandy is a former college athlete who knows how to exercise—at least, she used to. These days, she’s feeling lost without a coach, a workout plan, or much free time. On this episode of How To!, Carvell Wallace brings on Danielle Friedman, author of Let’s Get Physical and a contributor to the New York Times Well section. Danielle explains how to embrace movement that you love, make it fit into your life—and actually stick with it.
If you liked this episode check out: How To Start Strength Training and How To Stick to Your New Year’s Resolutions.
Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
How To’s executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer. The show is produced by Rosemary Belson, with Kevin Bendis and Sara McCrea.
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The year is wrapping up and so is The Biden Era—oh who are we kidding? This was, and is, the Age of Trump…and now, apparently, Elon Musk. Brace yourselves.
Guest: Jim Newell, Slate senior politics reporter.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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Former president Jimmy Carter died on Sunday at age 100. Carter was a born-again evangelical Christian as well as a Democrat. Those two identities existed in harmony for him—but they would diverge in American politics in the wake of his presidency.
Guest: Jim Wallis, chair in Faith and Justice and the founding director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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Between a third and half of American schoolchildren have a form of “mental health monitoring” software on their school devices, which scans for and flags certain keywords.
While intuitively appealing, is it worth the false positives, privacy issues, and compromised trust?
Guest: Ellen Barry, mental health reporter for the New York Times.
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“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat everything from IBS to autism. But if your doctor isn’t ready to fill you up with someone else’s poop, the internet will happily oblige.
Guest:
Luke Winkie, Slate staff writer who published “The Poop Broker.”
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.
Disclosure in Podcast Description: A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 9/26/24, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across the Bond Account is greater than 6%. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account to learn more.
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While the What Next team takes some rest, enjoy this episode, originally aired on April 22.
With all eyes on the WNBA as Caitlin Clark was drafted, many were surprised at the star player’s new salary, and how it paled in comparison to that of an NBA rookie. What would it take to address this disparity?
Guest: Lindsay Gibbs, author and founder of Power Plays, “a no-BS newsletter about women’s sports” and co-host of the Burn It All Down podcast.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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While the What Next team takes some rest, enjoy this episode, originally aired on May 16.
When Miss USA abdicated her throne, people noticed that the first letters of each sentence of her resignation letter spell out “I am silenced.” Shortly thereafter, Miss Teen USA stepped down with a letter that opens with a quote from Nietzsche.
What’s going on at the Miss USA organization? Has the idea of a national pageant outlived its usefulness?
Guest: Constance Grady, senior Culture correspondent for Vox.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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While the What Next team takes some rest, enjoy this episode, originally aired on June 12.
Two years ago, the FDA announced it was banning JUUL nicotine vapes from sale in the U.S.—and then quickly announced it was holding off on the ban to allow for review. How did regulating ecigarettes end up playing catch-up?
Guest: Jamie Ducharme, health correspondent at Time, author of Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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While the What Next team enjoys some rest, enjoy this episode, originally aired on August 15.
MrBeast is known for videos that blend stunts and philanthropy, but his new team-up with Amazon and MGM is bringing some of his less savory aspects to light.
Guest: Madison Malone Kircher, reporter covering internet culture for The New York Times
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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One influencer working for Amazon sued another influencer who works for Amazon for creating content that looks too similar to theirs. But with how the algorithms work and reward, was this an inevitability? What does this mean for the economics of the influencer position?
Guest: Mia Sato, reporter covering platforms and communities for The Verge.
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For a very special holiday edition of What Next, Mary chats with Death Sex & Money host Anna Sale about the anthems they’ll be belting out the next time they do karaoke—and they take calls from colleagues and listeners about their own go-to barn-burners for this unsettled moment.
You can find all these anthems (and more) on one Spotify playlist here https://tinyurl.com/whatnextkaraoke
Guest: Anna Sale, host of Slate’s Death, Sex & Money
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Podcast production by Madeline Ducharme.
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Reports of flocks of drones, flying overhead nightly, are coming in from New Jersey down to Maryland. Are they UFOs? Nefarious foreign powers? Something even more pernicious? Something even more banal?
Guest: Jon Ostrower, editor-in-chief of The Air Current.
Ben Mathis-Lilly, Slate senior writer
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How do you keep a grocery store open in a small or low-income community? The answer might involve regulating big box stores like Walmart and Kroger.
Guest: Molly Parker, investigative reporter for Capitol News Illinois and a Local Reporting Network fellow at ProPublica.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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What ABC’s huge defamation settlement with Donald Trump says about the state of the media, heading into Trump’s second term.
Guest: David Folkenflik, media correspondent for NPR.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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After a tepid embrace of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and a back-and-forth over Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” country music fans are all in on Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” How has this hip-hop-inflected country hit perched atop the charts for a record-tying 19 weeks?
Guest: Chris Molanphy, chart analyst, pop critic, host of the Hit Parade podcast, and author of Slate's “Why Is This Song No. 1?” series and the book Old Town Road.
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 Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
Disclosure in Podcast Description: A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 9/26/24, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across the Bond Account is greater than 6%. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account to learn more.
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The highest grossing documentary in 2024 was “Am I Racist?” from The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, and it’s not the only avowedly right-wing movie that’s enjoyed success at the box office this year. Is Hollywood going the way of the White House?
Guest: Barry Hertz, Deputy Arts Editor and Film Editor for The Globe and Mail
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 Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, Rob Gunther and Ethan Oberman.
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Our lives, and our communication in particular, are increasingly conducted over the internet. This means we are increasingly able to be hacked and monitored, by governments, by the police, and more and more by anyone who can get their hands on the available software.
Guest: Ronan Farrow, investigative reporter and producer of the Max documentary “Surveilled.”
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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Cheyna Roth, and Ethan Oberman.
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Elon Musk has been down in Florida with Donald Trump, inviting his fellow rich Silicon Valley friends to stop by and weigh in on the next administration. How could policy and personnel be shaped by this input from successful (if totally inexperienced in government) individuals?
Guest: Teddy Schleifer, covering politics for the New York Times.
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.
Disclosure in Podcast Description: A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 9/26/24, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across the Bond Account is greater than 6%. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account to learn more.
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