What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Will SCOTUS Kill Student Loan Relief?

President Biden’s student loan debt relief plan goes before the Supreme Court this week. Though the court’s conservative majority seems opposed to the program, debt-relief detractors are struggling to answer a major question: who does this program harm?

Guests:

Mark Joseph Stern, Slate senior writer covering the courts

Alice Turner, hospital pharmacist and compounder


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Slate Books - The Waves: It’s OK to Hate Your Spouse (Sometimes)

On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate senior editor Shannon Palus talks with Heather Havrilesky about the divine tedium of marriage. They discuss Heather’s book, Foreverland and the explosive response the book initially got (especially when Heather called her husband “a heap of laundry”). Later in the show, they dig into what to do when your husband is truly being a little bit of a patriarchal jerk.  


In Slate Plus, a behind the scenes look at what goes into writing the Ask Polly column. 

 

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth and Tori Dominguez with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery.

Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.

 

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Why Insulin Prices Keep Rising

It’s a rare bi-partisan point of agreement: the price of insulin is too high—and it’s still rising. With the stakes literally life-or-death for millions of Americans, what can be done?


Guest: Bram Sable-Smith, Midwest correspondent for Kaiser Health News.


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - When Politicians Need Mental Healthcare

When John Fetterman checked himself into a hospital for clinical depression in mid-February, he was praised by both parties and public health officials for his bravery. But not long ago, being diagnosed with depression or taking time for your mental health were seen as disqualifying for those seeking public office. 


Guest: Jason Kander, President of National Expansion at Veterans Community Project, author of Invisible Storm: A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD, and co-host of Crooked Media’s podcast Majority 54.


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Beijing’s Crackdown on Hong Kong Dissidents

When Beijing passed a new law that harshly penalized protests in Hong Kong, activists and dissident groups had to choose whether to shut down or get out. Now, 47 pro-democracy activists are facing charges and likely prison time, and a generation of dissent may be quelled. 


Guest: Emily Feng, NPR’s Beijing correspondent. 


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CORRECTION (March 2, 2023): A previous version of this episode misidentified this trial as a closed trial.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | Is a 25-Year-Old’s Brain Mature?

New understandings of how our brains develop are changing how the law considers who is mature and who isn’t. But If our brains are still developing, when can the law treat us like adults? 


Guest: Jane C. Hu, independent science journalist.


Host: Lizzie O’Leary


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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - SCOTUS on the Internet: “It’s Complicated”

For every person screaming about Section 230 (looking at you, Ted Cruz), there are approximately 0.0000001 Danielle Citrons, i.e. folks who actually understand it, what it does, and how it might be tweaked or interpreted to do better. Luckily, we have a whole Professor Danielle Citron on this week’s show. Professor Citron not only manages to make sense of Section 230 for us, she also takes us through this week's internet cases involving Twitter and Google, and content moderation and liability. She explains how eight out of nine justices apparently failed to read the briefs, instead deciding on an "it's so hard" shruggy head-scratch strategy instead. Danielle Citron’s latest book is The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age.

In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern to look ahead to next week’s arguments about the Biden administration’s student debt forgiveness program, and to romp through some of the decisions that came down from the Supreme Court this week. Finally, Mark and Dahlia reflect on the results of the primaries in the race to elect a new Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice. Could it be a Mark and Dahlia Amicus plus segment that is not all bad news? 

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Dahlia’s book Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, is also available as an audiobook, and Amicus listeners can get a 25 percent discount by entering the code “AMICUS” at checkout.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | Why A.I. Says the Darndest Things

Microsoft has been testing out their new artificial intelligence on their long-ridiculed search engine Bing. The results? A chatbot that lies brazenly and confidently, and has a penchant for manipulation. What are the risks and rewards of letting bots loose on the world?


Guest: Drew Harwell, Washington Post tech reporter covering artificial intelligence 


Host: Emily Peck


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Ukraine’s War Is Its New Normal

The sound of air raid sirens in Kyiv are almost comforting to one Ukrainian journalist—it means the air defense system still works. But even with the Russians running low on weaponry, he doesn’t see how the war ends while Vladimir Putin is alive. 


Guest: Romeo Kokriatski, managing editor of New Voice of Ukraine, and co-host of the podcast Ukraine Without Hype


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - When an Earthquake Hits a Civil War

How getting recovery aid and assistance to Turkey and northern Syria has been complicated by on-going aftershocks from the earthquake and the reverberations of the Syrian civil war. 


Guests:  

Louisa Loveluck, Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post


Dr. Ahmad Dbais, Operations Director and Disaster Management Team Leader for UOSSM (Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations).


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