What Next | Daily News and AnalysisDaily News

What Next | Daily News and Analysis


What Next | Daily News and Analysis

A Rabbi’s Plea for Peace

Wed, 06 Aug 2025
More than a thousand rabbis and Jewish leaders have signed a letter calling for Israel to end “the use and threat of starvation as a weapon of war.” This New York rabbi, who has felt a connection to Israel her whole life, explains why she signed. 

Guest:  Sarah Reines, rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.

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Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.


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Don’t Mess With Texas’s Election Maps

Tue, 05 Aug 2025
How Texas redrawing its election maps could set off a gerrymandering arms race across the country—a race the Republicans are likely to win. 

Guest:  Ari Berman is a voting rights correspondent at Mother Jones. 

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 to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Was Democracy Voted Out?

Mon, 04 Aug 2025
Belief in democracy was, until quite recently, taken for granted in America. But what if democracy is less a static noun, and more of a dynamic ideal we (could be) working towards?

Guest:  

Osita Nwanevu, contributing editor at The New Republic, columnist at The Guardian, author of “The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding.”

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 to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Ethan Oberman, Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TBD | The A.I. Data Center Push That Wasn't

Sun, 03 Aug 2025
OpenAI’s Sam Altman, flanked by President Trump and Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, announced a hugely ambitious investment in data centers across America to support all the artificial intelligence we’re going to be using. Months in, the project has been scaled back to a single, power-hungry data center in Ohio.



Guest: Berber Jin, reporter covering A.I. for the Wall Street Journal

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Bonus: When the French Bombed Greenpeace

Sat, 02 Aug 2025
Some disputes resist an easy “good vs. evil” dynamic, but when one side calls their plans “Operation Satanique,” it’s not too hard to figure who “the baddies” are.

Guest: Dan Kois, Slate writer.

Articles mentioned in this piece:



The Last Days of the Rainbow Warrior




Why We Keep Putting Up With Martin Short




Who Killed the Segway 




This Is the Correct Way to Divide Public Bathrooms




Who Won the World Cup of Arm Folding?




 

Also mentioned: What Next: The Lawsuit Scaring Protesters. 

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 Madeline Ducharme.


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