What Next | Daily News and Analysis - On Epstein, Democrats Go Low

Why the Epstein scandal—more than any of Trump’s other, lengthy list of scandals—is so damaging that even the Democrats can wield it effectively.  

Guest:  Brian Beutler, author of the Substack “Off Message,” cohost of the podcast Politix.

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


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What A Day - How AI Is Weaponizing Voicemail

As artificial intelligence programs become more widely accessible, so too do increasingly sophisticated deepfake scams that take advantage of the technology. Earlier this month, the State Department confirmed reports that an imposter pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio reached out to at least five high-ranking government officials. It wasn’t the first time a member of the Trump administration had been impersonated by AI; in May, the White House confirmed a similar incident involving Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. But these days, you don’t even have to be a big-name politician to end up on the wrong side of a deepfake scam. If your image and voice exist on the internet, enterprising bad actors might be able to use them against you. Reporter David Gilbert, who covers disinformation and online extremism for Wired, joins us to talk about the risks deepfakes pose to the public and how all of us can protect ourselves.

And in headlines: President Donald Trump sued The Wall Street Journal for $20 billion over an article claiming he sent a lewd birthday card to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Israeli troops killed dozens of Palestinians seeking food in Gaza Sunday, and CBS is pulling the plug on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.’

Show Notes:

The Indicator from Planet Money - Your tinned fish obsession is helping resurrect a lost industry

Once upon a time, the states had a thriving tinned fish market. Like a lot of U.S. manufacturing though, that's been lost. But sardines are having a moment right now and that may help a growing effort to resurrect this lost industry.

Related episodes:
Why do shrimpers like tariffs (Apple / Spotify)
When a staple becomes a luxury (Apple / Spotify)
We're gonna need a bigger boat-building industry (Apple / Spotify)

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Getting Anti-Vaxxers To Roll Up Their Sleeves

Their son was immunocompromised and couldn’t get the measles vaccines. So his dad asked if everyone going to his school would get vaccinated. 

And the thing is—people listened.

Guest:  Carl and Rhett Krawitt

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


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | When Bots Go Nazi

It’s kind of strange that Grok, Elon Musk’s chatbot, went full Nazi a few weeks ago, and is just…still out there. But, then again, how are you supposed to hold an LLM accountable?

Guest: Drew Harwell, technology reporter for the Washington Post


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