What Next | Daily News and Analysis - What New York City Did Wrong

Just a few weeks ago, officials were saying the coronavirus outbreak posed a relatively low risk for people living in New York City. How did health experts and government officials misread the threat so completely? And what can the rest of the country learn from what’s happening in New York now?

Guest: Elizabeth Kim, senior editor for Gothamist and WNYC. 

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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - Protecting Democracy in a Pandemic

Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Ian Bassin, former associated White House counsel from 2009-11 and co-founder of Protect Democracy for a look at the pain points, tensions, and glimmers of hope in how this constitutional democracy is handling the unprecedented challenges presented by COVID-19. 


In the Slate Plus segment, Mark Joseph Stern on why Justice Elena Kagan is voting with the conservatives, the unanimous decision in Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American Media and what it means for future civil-rights cases, and the crisis unfolding in the immigration courts. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.


Podcast production by Sara Burningham.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | Where Are All the Tests?

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The United States failed to roll out widespread testing in the early days of the pandemic. Now it faces critical shortages of supplies as it scrambles to track the disease around the country.


Until testing is available at scale, Americans won’t be able to return to their normal lives. So: what will it take to solve the country’s testing shortage?


Guest: Robert P. Baird, contributor to the New Yorker

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - When Your Doctor Gets COVID-19

What happens when the people on the frontlines get sick? An ER doctor shares her experience with coronavirus as doctor and patient.

Guest: Dara Kass, Emergency medicine physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Does 1918 Even Apply Here?

There’s plenty to be learned from past pandemics. They tend to follow a dramatic arc: denial, blame, and mass mobilization. So far, the coronavirus tracks with some contagions of the past—but can history tell anything about where we’re headed?

Guest: David S. Jones, professor of the culture of medicine at Harvard University.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - How to Hold an Election During a Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsens, the United States might have to figure out how to hold an election in a time of social distancing. Will local, state and federal officials be able coordinate in time to transform our election infrastructure?

Guest: Nate Persily, Stanford University Law Professor


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Can Congress Save the Economy?

To understand where the country is right now in battling this pandemic you have to confront some pretty grim statistics. Roughly one in three Americans are under some kind of orders to stay at home. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 33,000. And a nearly $2 trillion dollar coronavirus rescue package is hanging in the Senate’s balance. With many Americans and health care workers needing immediate assistance, will lawmakers respond?

Guest: Jim Newell, Slate’s senior politics writer.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - WN TBD: Big Tech Eyes the Pandemic

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Google has spent the last decade trying to find a foothold in the health care industry. Now they’re partnering with the federal government to build a website that will seek to address the crisis.


Can Google be trusted with our medical data?


Guest: Mason Marks, law professor at Gonzaga University School of Law and an affiliated fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project.

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Italy’s Message From the Future

Many Americans still can’t imagine how the coronavirus pandemic will upend their lives. In northern Italy, no imagination is needed. Coffins pile up in churches and cemeteries as funeral gatherings remain banned. Hospitals are overwhelmed. And those who die from COVID-19 die alone. 

Guest: Greta Privitera, an Italian journalist on her fourth week of lockdown in Milan. 

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - How Long This Could Last

As the novel coronavirus spreads sickness and anxiety around the U.S., it’s tempting to point fingers at government agencies that seemed wholly unequipped for the crisis. And, to be clear, Washington was not prepared. But here’s what decision makers can be doing right now to figure out what comes next.  

Guest: Beth Cameron, vice president for global biological policy and programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative.


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