Category: 3-DailySometimeCommentary

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - TBD | Is the A.I. Bubble Bursting?

We’ve been told that artificial intelligence can write, code, generate images—it can do everything…except feasibly turn a profit. But investing in A.I. has nevertheless become a pillar of the U.S. economy. Where is this leading us?


Guest: Ed Zitron, author of the newsletter Where’s Your Ed At and host of the podcast Better Offline.


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Cato Podcast - First, Do No Harm

What should “public health in a free society” look like, and what limits should courts impose on executive trade powers? This week’s panel covers the shakeup at the CDC, asks whether America really needs asks a Surgeon General—and unpacks a blockbuster ruling from the Federal Circuit declaring most of President Trump’s global tariffs illegal.


Featuring Ryan Bourne, Gene Healy, Jeffrey A. Singer, & Scott Lincicome


Adam Thierer, “Breaking the Government’s Grip on the Medical Debate,” Cato at Liberty (August 28, 2025) 


J.A. Singer, “Unnecessary Relics,” Policy Analysis (July 2025)


Thomas A. Berry, Brent Skorup, and Charles Brandt, “V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump,” Legal Briefs (July 8, 2025)


Brent Skorup, Ilya Somin, and Walter Olson, “Tariffs, Emergencies, and Presidential Power: A Conversation with Ilya Somin and Walter Olson,” Multimedia Event (May 27, 2025)

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What A Day - Senator Van Hollen On Epstein: Release The Damn Files!

Congress is back. It’s back and it has a lot of work to do. If Congress doesn’t fund the government by the end of September, the government will close up shop. And while Democrats have demanded meetings with President Donald Trump and his loyal GOP to drum up a bipartisan spending bill, Republicans don’t seem too inclined to work with their colleagues across the aisle. But preventing a shutdown is just one bullet point on Congress’ agenda. On Wednesday, survivors of convicted sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein spoke on Capitol Hill in an effort to get answers and more information on his crimes. It came a day after the House Oversight Committee released more than 33,000 documents related to the Epstein investigation. So, for more on Epstein, and a potential government shutdown, we spoke with Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.

And in headlines: Florida’s Surgeon General tries to connect vaccine mandates to slavery, Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey tells the Washington Post she's going to keep working after the House rejected a resolution to censure her, and rumors are floating around that the Trump administration might offer New York City Mayor Eric Adams a new gig.

Show Notes:

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The Indicator from Planet Money - How much is AI actually affecting the workforce?

There’s been a lot of big talk about how artificial intelligence is going to replace white collar workers. But what data do we actually have around AI’s impact on the workforce? Today on the show, we speak to an expert who has measured one aspect of these changes. She tells us how this moment in AI compares to the Industrial Revolution. 

Related episodes: 
AI creates, transforms, and destroys… jobs 
The golden ages of labor and looms 

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. 

Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter. 

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Decorator-In-Chief

From the gold accents going up in the White House, to his orders to bring back classical design to federal buildings, Donald Trump is a president with a very specific aesthetic sensibility—which often is a manifestation of his politics.

Guest:  Abdallah Fayyed, policy correspondent at Vox

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

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What A Day - Putin Cozies Up To Modi And Xi

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and held hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Beijing this weekend. Their talks came during the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, an event that marked the first time in seven years that Presidents Modi and Xi met in person. It also comes as the US navigates a rocky relationship with China, combats India’s frustration over President Donald Trump’s tariffs, and tries to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. To discuss further what Putin’s latest bromance with Xi and Modi means for his on-again, off-again relationship with Trump, we spoke with Tommy Vietor. He’s the co-host of Crooked Media’s Pod Save the World.

And in headlines: The Trump family amasses billions after launching a new cryptocurrency, Americans are losing faith in hard work, and a postwar plan to turn Gaza into an AI-powered smart city is floating around the Trump administration.

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The Indicator from Planet Money - So long, farewell, super cheap tariff-free shopping

In late July, President Trump signed an executive order to get rid of de minimis, a kind of a loophole where packages valued less than $800 could come into the US without tariffs.

Last week, post offices from India to Austria to France suspended some types of packages to the US. We speak to an Australian jewelry maker, a logistics expert and an economist to learn how this is changing shopping in America.

Related episodes: 
Three ways companies are getting around tariffs 
What olive oil tells us about Trump's tariffs
What is Temu?

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Cooper Katz McKim. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Can Congress Stop Trump’s Takeover?

Donald Trump has been working to expand his presidential influence into places that are supposed to operate independently, like the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve, and even into Congress’s constitutionally appointed “power of the purse.” As Congress returns to Washington, is this nominally co-equal branch of government willing to wrest its power back?

Guest: Luke Broadwater, reporter covering the White House for The New York Times. 

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.

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Cato Podcast - Righting the Endangerment Finding

Join Cato's Alex Nowrasteh and Travis Fisher as they unpack a pivotal moment in climate policy reform. The duo explores Fisher's tenure at the Department of Energy and the groundbreaking report that could reshape the discourse on greenhouse gases.


Travis Fisher, “Why I Helped Organize the Department of Energy’s Climate Report,” Cato at Liberty (August 6, 2025)

Travis Fisher and Joshua Loucks, “The Budgetary Cost of the Inflation Reduction Act’s Energy Subsidies,” Policy Analysis (March 11, 2025)

Patrick J. Michaels, “Cato Releases Report on EPA Endangerment Finding,” News Releases (October 31, 2012)

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What A Day - Chicago Caught In The Trump Administration’s Crosshairs

The Trump administration is preparing a major Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Chicago, and it may come as soon as this week. The details have been few and far between, but it would likely increase the number of ICE and Border Patrol agents in the city significantly. According to “border czar” Tom Homan, the White House is even considering taking over a Naval base north of Chicago to hold the “large contingent” of federal agents. Chicago, unsurprisingly, has long been in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s threats to federally invade cities as part of his so-called crackdown on crime. And Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is not having it. On Saturday, he signed an executive order instructing local police not to cooperate with troops or federal agents if the President’s threats come to fruition. For more on the impact that federal arrests have on federal courts, we spoke with Jessica Brand, a lawyer and Executive Director of Wren Collective, a non-profit aimed at criminal justice reform and prosecutorial power.

And in headlines: Congress is back in session, a federal judge blocks the Trump administration from deporting hundreds of migrant children to Guatemala, and more than 800 demonstrations take place across the country on Labor Day to protest billionaires taking over the government.

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