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Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts - DOJ’s Groundwork for Midterm Mayhem Oct 31, 2026

Show notes

The Trump administration has sued to potentially block certification of a Senate race in Alaska, threatened California election officials with jail time, and challenged the voter rolls in 30 states. They've lost almost all of those cases. So with a few days to go before the midterms, should we still be worried?

Dahlia is joined by Ari Berman, Mother Jones national voting rights correspondent and author of Minority Rule and Give Us the Ballot, to walk through the legal state of play heading into Election Day. They cover the Alaska Senate race lawsuit, the California ballot-segregation case, the threat of election-day ballot seizures and poll intimidation, and the Supreme Court's likely role if disputed elections land on its doorstep. They also discuss a source of hope: Black voters across the South are surging to the polls, driven by the Roberts Court’s attack on voting rights in its recent Callais decision, turning a ruling designed to suppress their votes into the most powerful mobilizing force of the cycle.

Plus, Amicus Plus members get a bonus episode with Madiba Dennie on this week’s Epstein file revelations, new GOP threats to judges who rule against Trump, and a major religious liberty case headed to SCOTUS.

Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Slate Money - ANT, Man Oct 31, 2026

Show notes

This Week: A.I. giant Anthropic, makers of Claude, filed to go public. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck discuss what the S-1 filing revealed about their finances and what this IPO means for Anthropic’s place in the A.I. race. Then, they look at why Weil, Gotshal & Mange, a top Wall Street law firm, is choosing to shut its doors and what that says about the industry. And finally, they take a look at how crypto exchange Binance is scrambling after a $6.3 billion Bitcoin heist.

In the Slate Plus episode: Is Cheesecake Factory Cheesy?

Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slate Money show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/moneyplus to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli and Cheyna Roth.

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What Next - The Surge: Can We Trust The Polls? Oct 30, 2026

Show notes

It’s the last Friday before the midterms and Democrats have every reason to finally stop panicking and start….merely fretting. This episode originally aired as a Slate Live on YouTube, produced in collaboration with Slate’s politics newsletter The Surge.

There’s going to be another one of these just for Slate Plus listeners next Wednesday (11/4) at 12P ET! To register, click here.

Guests:

Jim Newell, Slate’s senior politics writer.

Patrick Reis, Slate’s politics editor

Lizzie O’Leary, What Next: TBD host

This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next —you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort.

Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - The First Real A.I. Test Oct 30, 2026

Show notes

What is AGI—and is it crazy to say it’s already here? Anthropic’s targeted IPO valuation indicates that many don’t think it’s far off.

Guest: Kevin Roose, author of “The AGI Chronicles”, former NYT host of “Hard Fork,” current host of NPR’s “Machine Gods.”

Want more What Next TBD? 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 Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort.

Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Political Gabfest - Finally, We Vote Oct 29, 2026

Show notes

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what they're paying attention to and what to expect on Election Day next Tuesday, how to understand the complex results of Israel's elections with guest Ruth Margalit, and what Anthropic's highly anticipated IPO prospectus says about the promise and peril of AI.

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Sam Levine for The Guardian: Justice department charges ex-FBI director James Comey for third time; Jordan Rubin for MS NOW: How the Trump DOJ can lose the new Comey case before it even starts; Michelle Spear for The Conversation: Do women have to pee more often? The answer is surprisingly complex

John: CBC Podcasts: Sea of Lies; BritBox: Ludwig

David: Hulu: Adults; Michael Johnston and Melissa de la Cruz for NPR: 'Spell'-Bound By A Goofy Book — And Later, United By It

Listener chatter from Bryan Bennett in Austin, Texas: Bryan Bennett for Walking Through the Data (Substack): Democrats Need to Confront the Length and Depth of Distrust in Government and Institutions

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the spat between Obama and Trump over Trump's gilded Oval Office decor, consider which side emerges looking better, and ask whether dumb cultural moments like this really matter.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, John Dickerson interviews Angela Duckworth about her new book, Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best. This new book argues that the most successful people don’t just grind harder; they reshape their circumstances to make success feel automatic.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Nina Porzucki

Research by Emily Ditto

You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here.

Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen.

Find out more about David Plotz's monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.

Follow

@SlateGabfest on X / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfest

Slate Political Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/

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What Next - The Next Epstein Files Oct 29, 2026

Show notes

Why did House Judiciary Democrats wait until this week to release a report outlining Donald Trump’s appearances and behavior alleged in the Epstein files?

Guest: Rep. Jamie Raskin (Maryland-D), ranking member of House Committee on the Judiciary, former head of Oversight committee.

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 Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort.

Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What Next - Were Midterm Ads Always This Bad? Oct 28, 2026

Show notes

Turn on a TV just about anywhere in America and get ready to see some of the most unhinged political ads of your life. But with more money being spent on ad buys than ever before, it’s worth asking: do they make any difference?

Guest: Molly Jong-Fast, host of the Fast Politics podcast.

Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort.

Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Slate Money - Money Talks: Is it Time To Panic About A.I. Yet? Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

Investment in artificial intelligence is driving our economy and the markets but it’s also doing something else … scaring the hell out of people. On this episode of Money Talks, host Emily Peck sits down with Axios reporters Sam Sabin and Maria Curie to talk about what threats are real and what threats are alarmist when it comes to AI, and how lawmakers are dealing with a fast moving situation that they don’t seem to understand.

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth and Jessamine Molli.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What Next - Trump Slashed Healthcare. Is It Payback Time? Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

Even as anxiety rises over the price of gas, Americans still have the capacity to worry about their health care costs. This is one issue the Democrats have the public’s trust on—and it’s an area where they could make a big difference from Congress.

Guests:

Jonathan Cohn, senior national correspondent at The Bulwark

Julie Rovner, Chief Washington Correspondent for Kaiser Health News

Fill out our listener survey here.

Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort.

Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What Next - Can this Marine Flip a Border Seat? Oct 26, 2026

Show notes

Arizona’s 6th congressional district has been one of the most hotly contested races for several election cycles. JoAnna Mendoza, a former marine, is running as a Ddemocrat and could be part of the blue wave polls are predicting.

Guest: JoAnna Mendoza, Democrat running for congress in Arizona’s 6th district.

Take our listener survey at slate.com/whatnextsurvey

Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.