What A Day - Trump Serves Up Fries And Lies At McDonald’s

In-person early voting kicked off this weekend in Nevada, one of the key swing states that will decide the upcoming election. Like all the other major battlegrounds, polling averages show the race there between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is a statistical dead heat. Four years ago, President Joe Biden won Nevada’s six electoral votes by about 2.5 points. But Nevada is also a state where Republicans could chip away at the Democrat Party’s historical advantage with two major voting blocs: union voters and Latino voters. Manuel Santamaria, the Nevada state director for the nonprofit Mi Familia Vota, talks about where things stand in the state with just about two weeks to go until Election Day.

And in headlines: Trump waxed poetic about the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitalia, Cuba suffered its worst blackout in decades, and letter carriers agreed to a tentative new contract with the United States Postal Service.

Show Notes:

What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Should the Menendez Brothers Be Free?

Why this closed case from 1989 is suddenly back in the news—and why the brothers may yet be freed.


Guest: Brian Buckmire, ABC Legal Contributor with a segment on GMA3, “Better Call Brian.” 


Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.


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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | How Secure Is Our Election?

America’s head of cybersecurity isn’t worried about the election being hacked or the results being tampered with. But this election cycle does have her worried for our democracy.


Guest: Jen Easterly, Director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency 


Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What A Day - How Hurricanes Blow Home Prices Through the Roof

Buying a home is already so expensive in America, but climate change is poised to make it much worse—even if you don’t live in the path of a hurricane. This week on How We Got Here, Max and Erin take a look at Florida to understand the thorny problem of insuring a home in a warming world. They break down how the insurance system is trying to account for ever-increasing risk, and explain why people keep moving to the places that are hardest hit by climate change.

More or Less: Behind the Stats - Nobel prize: Why are some countries so much richer than others?

The question of why some countries are rich and some poor has been described as the most important question in economics.

Perhaps that is why the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson for their work on the importance of institutions in the economic fortunes of nation states.

Tim Harford explains the economic theory that underpins their award.

Presenter: Charlotte McDonald Reporter: Tim Harford Producer: Bethan Ashmead Latham Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison Sound mix: Giles Aspen Editor: Richard Vadon

What A Day - Bill Nye, the Science Guy On “The Most Critical Election, Ever”

In the aftermath of increasingly destructive natural disasters like Hurricanes Helene and Milton, politicians on both sides of the aisle have politicized the recovery effort. What fewer people are making political is the reason those storms were so destructive: warmer oceans caused by climate change. Bill Nye, the Science Guy, joins us to talk about why people should vote with the environment in mind this November.

And in headlines: Former President Donald Trump blames Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Ukraine's war with Russia, A Texas state court temporarily delays an execution, Israeli officials killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and Google says it will block all political ads as soon as the polls close on November 5th.

Show Notes:

What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | The Elon-Trump Alliance

Elon Musk went from voting for Hillary to supporting Trump so hard that he may have broken election laws. And with Musk influencing both on X and in campaign finance, Democrats are kicking themselves for letting him go. What will his political and financial support actually amount to this election season? 


Guest: Teddy Schleifer, New York Times reporter covering campaign finance and billionaire influence on American politics.


Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.


Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Patrick Fort, and Cheyna Roth.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices