What Next | Daily News and Analysis
The problem with the news right now? It’s everywhere. And each day, it can feel like we’re all just mindlessly scrolling. It’s why we created What Next. This short daily show is here to help you make sense of things. When the news feels overwhelming, we’re here to help you answer: What next? Look for new episodes every weekday morning.
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1
TBD | The A.I. Data Center Push That Wasn't
The Trump administration touted Stargate as a 500 billion dollar investment in American data centers. So far, it hasn't panned out.
24 min
2
Bonus: When the French Bombed Greenpeace
What we can learn from the violent measures taken to suppress protest in 1986.
5 min
3
TBD | The Death of an Online Whisper Network
Your safety? There isn’t an app for that.
25 min
4
How Elon Musk Colonized NASA
They used to go to the moon. Now they rely on contractors.
28 min
5
Why Are So Many Institutions Caving to Trump?
Jerome Powell can stay and fight, or take the road of less resistance and quit.
25 min
6
Trans and Shut Out in Trump’s America
Clinics for trans youth are closing, incorrect passports have been issued, and trans people are having to make emergency health care plans, even in blue states.
25 min
7
Why The Shelves Aren't Empty (Yet)
It doesn’t mean the economy’s doing all that great.
27 min
8
TBD | Dupes!
Is your skincare/skirt/vacation island as good as the real thing?
29 min
9
TBD | A Colbert Report
How Trump did (and didn't) get Stephen Colbert cancelled.
21 min
10
He Says Gaza Is a Genocide
Why an Israeli-American Holocaust scholar felt he had to speak up.
28 min
11
How Dead Is the Department of Education?
The federal agency can’t be abolished with the stroke of a pen. But it can be put on the austerity path to oblivion.
21 min
12
On Epstein, Democrats Go Low
It’s time to get in the muck.
27 min
13
Getting Anti-Vaxxers To Roll Up Their Sleeves
Those who won’t listen to health officials did listen to their neighbors and classmates.
27 min
14
TBD | When Bots Go Nazi
Grok’s antisemitic posting spree was a glimpse of an unregulated AI future.
25 min
15
Bonus: A Muslim, a Dad, an American
Aymann Ismail stops in to talk about his new book—and a certain mayoral race.
3 min
16
TBD | How The Epstein Files Blew Up MAGAworld
Live by the conspiracy, die by the conspiracy.
25 min
17
Can Trump Bully Russia?
Elon Musk isn’t the only one to fall from Trump’s good graces.
22 min
18
Deported—To a Country You've Never Been To
The Trump administration is using a group of immigrants with criminal convictions as a test case to erode basic rights for everyone.
24 min
19
Behind the Democrats’ Losing Strategy
The opposition party needs to shake off the old campaign plans—and the strategists—of the 90s.
25 min
20
Who Is Trump Promoting For Life?
The rush to stock the federal judiciary with MAGA loyalists.
24 min
21
TBD | When A.I. is Sycophantic
Chatbots want to please - but it’s pushing some into dark places.
19 min
22
TBD | Hot Measles Summer
Why the next few months are crucial for containing the outbreak.
23 min
23
Stage Managing Sex in Hollywood
The position has experienced a boom in the years after #MeToo—but have they really changed Hollywood?
27 min
24
Was the Flash Flooding in Texas Preventable?
The world we’ve been building for isn’t the world we’ll be living in.
21 min
25
Is Trump Running the Fugitive Slave Act Playbook?
The lessons and warnings from a law that failed to avert the Civil War.
20 min