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What Next | Daily News and Analysis


What Next | Daily News and Analysis

The Data Center Will Not Hold

Tue, 22 Sep 2026

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.


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 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.

Why is Everyone Fighting Over... Macklemore?

Mon, 21 Sep 2026

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. 


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 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.

Off-the-Record: Weddings by Kremlev

Fri, 18 Sep 2026

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 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 supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.


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

But HOW Might A.I. Kill Us All?

Fri, 18 Sep 2026

Why did the “Hugging Face Incident” scare A.I. researchers so much? And if they are so confident artificial intelligence needs to be slowed down, why aren’t they slowing it down?


Guest: Nate Soares, President of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, co-author of “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies


Want more What Next TBD? 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 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.

Who's Interfering in the Election Now

Thu, 17 Sep 2026

Those concerned that the Trump administration will interfere with the upcoming midterm elections can breathe a little easier this week, as the Supreme Court threw out their plan to have the Post Office muck up mail-in voting. But are we out of the woods yet?


Guest: Ari Berman, Mother Jones' national voting rights correspondent.


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 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.

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