What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | Will Tesla Survive Elon Musk?

The public’s anger towards Elon Musk and DOGE has found an outlet in the form of Musk’s car company Tesla. How long can the company put up with a sinking reputation and stock price? 


Guest: Pranshu Verma, tech reporter for the Washington Post


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Podcast production by Evan Campbell and Patrick Fort.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Could DOGE Really Gut Social Security?

DOGE cuts have already hit Social Security, with offices closing and employees fired. With Elon Musk calling the program a “Ponzi scheme” and saying entitlements are “the big one to eliminate,” this may be just the beginning of the unraveling of the trusted safety net that millions of Americans rely on. 


Guest: Joe Perticone, political reporter at The Bulwark.


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

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Slate Books - Supercommunicators | 3. How to Have the Hardest Conversations

The final installment of our series explores the conversations that most of us dread, like frank discussions of our differences or a negative performance review at work. We often anticipate that these chats will go badly—and end in hurt feelings or embarrassment—but there are proven ways to make them easier to navigate.


Host Charles Duhigg talks with psychologist Jay Van Bavel about strategies for having the hardest conversations. And: Vernā Myers, Netflix’s former vice president for inclusion strategy, tells the story of what happened inside the company after an executive was fired for using a racial slur. 


This Slate miniseries dives into the art and science of meaningful conversations, inspired by Duhigg’s bestselling book, Supercommunicators. The guides we mention in this episode can be found at charlesduhigg.com/tools/


Supercommunicators was produced by Sophie Summergrad and Derek John, who also did the sound design. Our technical director is Merritt Jacob and our supervising producer is Joel Meyer.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Will Student Protesters Be Deported?

The Trump administration’s approach to free speech, immigration, and due process all converge in a crackdown on Columbia University. 


Guest: Sarah Brown, news editor at the Chronicle for Higher Education.


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

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Slate Books - Outward | Why Love Isn’t Apolitical: Liberation and Rethinking Relationships

This week, Bryan Lowder sits down with activist and author Dean Spade to discuss his latest book, Love in a F*cked Up World. Together, they unpack how capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy shape our desires, the pitfalls of the “relationship escalator,” and why collective care might be the most radical love of all. From breaking free of toxic relationship scripts to reimagining intimacy beyond hierarchy and control, this conversation challenges everything we’ve been taught about love—and offers a vision for something more liberatory.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Andrew Cuomo Wanted To Be President. He’ll Settle For Mayor.

Andrew Cuomo—the hard-headed former governor of New York state —became something of a national hero in 2020 with his no-nonsense press conferences. By 2021, he was mired in a sexual misconduct scandal and the fallout from a public health disaster. How is he polling so well in the Democratic primary for New York’s mayoral race?

Guest: Jimmy Vielkind, New York politics reporter for WNYC.

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

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Til Trump Do Us Part

They were three Harris-supporting women, from across the country, all married to Trump-supporting men—and they were all contemplating divorce.


Guest: Scaachi Koul, Slate senior writer who wrote about women considering leaving their husbands over their support for Donald Trump and the author of Sucker Punch.

 

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

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | Zuckerberg and the Post-Factcheck Era

After the election, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was doing away with Facebook’s fact-checking apparatus in the US. With content creators getting paid based on reach, and content spreading wider and faster the more extreme it is, is Facebook the perfect environment for misinformation to flourish? 


Guest: Craig Silverman, technology reporter for ProPublica.


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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - The Constitutional Truth At The Heart Of The DOGE Cases

Elon Musk’s moves at DOGE have been legally dubious from the start. And the more we learn, the more questions we have about this not-an-agency helmed by Musk –– who is apparently both in charge, and also not in charge. That’s why we wanted to talk with Kate Shaw, University of Pennsylvania law professor and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, about the very real constitutional issues raised by DOGE and Musk and his minions. Shaw spoke with Dahlia Lithwick about what is and isn’t legal about DOGE, and the impossible bind that creates for government lawyers tasked with defending his devastation of the government. 

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | From 4Chan to Charlottesville to DOGE

To understand the second Trump administration, you have to understand the internet culture that gave birth to it.


Guest: Elle Reeve, CNN correspondent who reported on the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA for Vice News.


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Podcast production by Evan Campbell and Patrick Fort.

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