Author: Slate Podcasts

Back in March, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent a couple hundred members of the Texas National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to counteract what he called President Biden’s “open border policies.” Almost a year later, around 10,000 troops are stationed there at Abbott’s command. Many guardsmen have had to upend their lives for a mission that seems to have little purpose. 

Guest: Davis Winkie, staff reporter for Army Times.

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Chicago Public Schools canceled classes for three consecutive days this year, following a vote by the teachers union to defy in-person teaching orders amid a rise in COVID-19 cases. The union wants additional safety measures in place as teachers and students return to school. Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the union’s actions are “illegal,” and the public schools system said the refusal to teach in-person amounted to a strike. 

How will the showdown end? And when will students get back into the classroom?

Guest: Sarah Karp, education reporter at WBEZ in Chicago.

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J.D. Vance became a sought-after cultural translator when he published Hillbilly Elegy. Now, he’s a rhetorical bomb-thrower running for the Republican nomination for Senate in Ohio. But underneath Vance’s transformation is a relatively consistent appreciation for a new strain of conservatism still in the process of defining itself. Could Vance’s candidacy advance this intellectual movement on the political right?

Guest: Simon van Zuylen-Wood, who wrote about J.D. Vance for the Washington Post Magazine. 

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Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of defrauding investors this week in federal court. The former CEO, wunderkind, and blood mogul has been the subject of intense legal interest and public fascination ever since her company, Theranos, was beset by scandal in 2015. Today on What Next: TBD we follow-up with Rebecca Jarvis, host of “The Dropout” podcast and ABC News Chief Business, Technology & Economics Correspondent. We dig into the verdict and ask if Silicon Valley will finally confront the elements of its culture that allowed Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos to run wild with investor’s money, and patient’s health. You can listen to “The Dropout: Elizabeth Holmes on Trial” now wherever you get your podcasts.

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Back in March of 2020, a scientist working at MIT developed a rapid test for the novel coronavirus. It wasn’t quite as accurate as a PCR, but would have gone a long way in detecting infectious cases during the emerging pandemic. But her test was never approved—and today, the U.S. is still behind other developed countries in our mass testing scheme.

Guest: Lydia Depillis, reporter for ProPublica.

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It's easy to look at the latest pandemic-related disruptions and assume we're careening into another full-blown COVID crisis. But in many ways, we’re getting better at combating this coronavirus. 

Guest: Dan Diamond, national health reporter for the Washington Post. 

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Months before the attack on the Capitol, Bart Gellman predicted that the 2020 election would usher in a make-or-break year for American democracy. He was correct. Now, he’s trying to sound the alarm again. This time he says American democratic institutions and systems are being broken before our eyes, and the people in power aren’t doing enough to stop it.

Guest: Barton Gellman, staff writer at The Atlantic.

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The Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the January 6th insurrection is unprecedented. More than 700 rioters face charges, and federal prosecutors are still adding names to the pile. As cases work their way through the courts, judges are sparring over the proper approach to sentencing rioters. How do you hold an individual responsible for a collective event? 

Guest: Zoe Tillman, senior legal reporter with BuzzFeed News. 

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This episode originally aired in July 2021

Last week, the U.S. government released a new report that attempts to categorize 144 verified sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, or U.A.P. They could only definitively explain one of them. 

The new report signals a shift in the way we think about U.A.P. As technology has advanced and evidence of these encounters have increased, the question has become more urgent: what exactly is happening in our skies?

Guest: Shane Harris, intelligence and national security reporter for the Washington Post

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