What Next

Is Trump genuinely interested in expanding America’s borders or is this all just to further their mission of “looking tough online”? For the people surprised to suddenly find themselves on America’s bad side, does it matter? 

Guest: Jonathan M. Katz, journalist and the author of Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire and author of theracket.news newsletter.

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

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

To kick off the new year, users on X have been asking Grok to nudify people - and kids - at an astonishing rate. And X leadership is egging them on. 

Guest: Jason Koebler, founder of 404 Media and host of the 404 Media Podcast

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.

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

While the U.S. was busy capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, someone online was  busy placing bets on prediction markets on the ouster. And these well-timed bets may have netted a still-anonymous someone more than $400,000. Was this a case of kind-of-legal insider trading? Or is America going all-out on its efforts to make everything a casino?

We’re going to be talking to pediatrician Dr. Lauren Hughes about the major changes to the CDC vaccine schedule. We want your questions! Hit us up via email at whatnextTBD@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-582-0091. 

Guest: Alex Kirshner, Slate contributing writer

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.

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

After the Trump administration launched a massive Immigrations and Customs Enforcement operation in Minnesota, protesters gathered to defend immigrant neighbors. Renee Nicole Good, a mother of a six year old, showed up with her wife and dog to film altercations between officers and community members. What happened next changed everything. 

Guest: Jon Collins, senior reporter on the Minnesota Public Radio News race, class and communities team.

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

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

How a mixture of real investigations, wild allegations, evidence of actual fraud, and the right-wing echo chamber ended Tim Walz’s governor campaign in Minnesota.

Guest: Deena Winter, Minneapolis City Hall reporter for the Star Tribune. 

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

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