What Next | Daily News and Analysis - How to Rein in ICE and A.I.

Artificial intelligence is working its way into every aspect of our lives, including law and immigration enforcement, and the industry is spending millions of dollars to ensure it can continue to do so unregulated. But as evidence of bias appears in this nascent tech, this congresswoman wants to ensure we’re not just recreating our historical biases and problems all over again—which is to say, she wants guardrails. 


Guest: Summer Lee, U.S. representative for Pennsylvania’s 12th district.


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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.


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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - Trump Has a Plan for the Midterms, SCOTUS May Help


On this week’s Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick checks in with Protect Democracy co-founder Ian Bassin about the United States’ speedy retreat from democracy, and how lawyers seeking to protect the constitution are adapting their strategies for Trump 2.0. While Trump’s second term is following an authoritarian playbook, some courts are acting as speed bumps, while others (we’re looking at you, SCOTUS), are increasingly pickled in right-wing brine. The velocity of America’s descent into illiberalism is startling and dangerous, but Bassin argues it is also potentially self-defeating, thanks to Trump’s historic unpopularity that is growing faster than his ability to consolidate power. The two discuss Protect Democracy’s shift from a litigation-heavy strategy to combining court fights with coalition-building, and Ian outlines threats to the 2026 elections—“deceive, disrupt, deny”—including efforts like the SAVE Act and why the President’s decision to deploy ICE to stand around in airports around the country is a clear effort to normalize their presence at polling places in November. But he also stresses that overwhelming participation and public organizing are the ultimate backstops if election results are contested.


Suggested reading: protectdemocracy.org/executive-override/


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment

What YouTube and Meta’s loss in the “social media addiction trial” could mean for your feed.


Guest: Ryan Mac, business and technology reporter for the New York Times.


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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - The Iran War Hits Your Pocket

Trump’s unpredictability injects uncertainty into the economy, foreign policy, and everything else he touches. Even as his war messaging varies wildly moment to moment, the world economy is certain of one thing: it’s bad for the Strait of Hormuz to close.


Guest:  Justin Wolfers, professor of economics at the University of Michigan. 


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


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Meanwhile in Cuba with Hasan Piker

Leftist political commentator Hasan Piker feels the Democrats have missed an opportunity to articulate their opposition to Trump’s foreign policy—in Venezuela, Iran, and, from the sound of it, soon enough in Cuba, where Piker just visited. 


Guest: Hasan Piker, political commentator on Twitch who recently joined the Nuestra América convoy to Havana, Cuba.


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


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - How ICE Landed At Your Airport

Kristi Noem is out, and Senator Markwayne Mullin is in (in theory) as the new DHS secretary. Mullin tried to strike a softer tone during his confirmation hearing, nodding towards rolling back controversial policies like entering homes without a judicial warrant—but his reputation as a Senate-floor brawler raises questions about whether that’s just rhetoric. Meanwhile, the partial government shutdown, ongoing since February 14, continues to affect the department, including causing disruptions to airport services.


What do all these developments signal about the direction that DHS is heading?


Guest: Nick Miroff, staff writer for The Atlantic covering immigration.


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


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - You Mailed in Your Ballot. Will It Count?

The argument against counting mail-in ballots that arrive after election day is going to involve Supreme Court-pleasing “originalist” language, but is the case really just another way to say that Trump should have beaten Joe Biden in 2020? 


Guest: Jay Willis, editor-in-chief of Balls & Strikes.



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


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - War Dot Com

Why Palantir cofounder and CEO Alex Karp views working with Western militaries not just as a business opportunity, but as a higher calling.


Guest: Jacob Silverman, journalist and author of “Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley.”


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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.




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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - The Roberts Court’s Internal Reckoning

This Supreme Court term has seen threats against the Justices – from the President, a slew of game-changing shadow docket opinions, justices sparring in public, and some of the most consequential cases of our lifetimes. If you’re feeling a little disoriented by it all, join Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern on this week’s show for a clearer understanding of what’s going on at One, First Street. They discuss the big immigration case the court took up just this week that will  be crammed into the last week of arguments, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s courage at a public event, and what it means when a justice steps out of the four corners of her opinions to voice urgent concerns about the shadow docket in public, and why, when it comes to threats to judges, the Chief Justice is meekly asking Trump knock it off, while taking no responsibility for his court’s role in it all. 


Supplemental reading: 

The Constitutional Accountability Center on the history of mail-in ballots

This week’s Executive Dysfunction newsletter from Slate’s jurisprudence team is a must-read: slate.com/dysfunction


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Hank Green Still Believes

Hank Green recently pulled a “reverse OpenAI” - he took his education platform Complexly and made it a nonprofit. In a world where outrage, A.I. slop and “brain rot” are all heavily incentivized by platforms, Hank explains why he’d rather make content that leans into the complexity of our world. 


Guest: Hank Green, YouTuber, half of Vlogbrothers, host of Crash Course and SciShow and founder of VidCon and Complexly.


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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.


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