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What Next | Daily News and Analysis


What Next | Daily News and Analysis

No One Knows the Truth About the Iran Deal

Thu, 25 Jun 2026

Where do negotiations with Iran stand at the moment? Well, Iran’s out from under a more-than-four-decade-long sanction and could start making bank, plus it controls the Strait of Hormuz and hasn’t agreed to any concessions on its nuclear program. On the American side, JD Vance got to see Switzerland. 


Guest: Tommy Vietor, co-founder of Crooked Media and co-host of the political podcasts Pod Save America and Pod Save the World.


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


Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What the Pool’s Reflecting

Wed, 24 Jun 2026

Most people probably don’t think about the reflecting pool on the National Mall much, but Donald Trump sure does. His efforts to cosmetically raise it to his standards have been staggeringly expensive, and ineffective in surprising ways. It encapsulates the Trump presidency experience pretty succinctly.


Guest: Christina Cauterucci, Slate senior writer


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


Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Return of the Firing Squad

Tue, 23 Jun 2026

With lethal injection drugs getting harder and harder to procure, states are legalizing death by firing squad. It may seem like a return to a more barbaric time, but there’s reason to believe that execution methods like lethal injection or nitrogen gas are even less humane. But even moreso, it may force us to confront our feelings about the death penalty as a nation.


Guests:

Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood, Catholic priest and founder of the Execution Intervention Project.


Maurice Chammah, staff writer for the Marshall Project and author of “Let the Lord Sort Them Out, The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty.” 




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


Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

America Before 250

Mon, 22 Jun 2026

It has been 250 years and America still doesn’t know how to talk about the genocide of indigenous peoples that kicked the whole thing off.


Guest: Rebecca Nagle, host of Pushkin’s First America podcast, Crooked's This Land podcast, and author of “By The Fire We Carry: The Generation-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land”.


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


Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elon, Please Log Off

Fri, 19 Jun 2026

Everyone needs a hobby. Unfortunately, instead of, say, model trains, the world’s first trillionaire’s seems to unwind by boosting calls for anti-immigrant violence on his social media platform.


Guest: Nitish Pahwa, Slate staff writer covering business and tech.


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 Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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