What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Latest Episodes:

The Astroworld Tragedy Nov 11, 2021

Show notes

Last Friday, a surging crowd killed at least eight people and left hundreds injured at Travis Scott’s music festival Astroworld in Houston. Public uproar over the needless deaths has placed responsibility at the rapper’s feet - and at those of police officers who failed to intervene and shut the show down.

How did Scott’s signature “raging” spill over into a mass casualty event? And how do we tease out blame between Scott himself, and the way music festivals are run?

Guest: Tom Breihan, senior editor at Stereogum.

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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

A Controversial New Plan to Fight Homelessness Nov 10, 2021

Show notes

The Los Angeles City Council has passed a new policy giving Council members the power to target specific encampments for cleanup. While the effort might eventually result in less visible homelessness in some parts of the city, critics say it might be more in service of political gain than anything else.

Guest: Benjamin Oreskes, reporter at the LA Times.

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

Has Minneapolis Given Up on Police Reform? Nov 09, 2021

Show notes

Minneapolis voters have rejected a referendum to dissolve and replace their police department by a dramatic 12-point margin. The election result reflects a different mood from what the city saw a year ago, when protesters booed the mayor for resisting the movement to defund the police.

Why were the planned police reforms so unpopular in the city where George Floyd’s murder sparked an international movement for justice? And what lessons should activists for and against the measure take from this moment?

Guest: Jon Collins, senior reporter for MPR News.

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

Do Vaccine Mandates Work? Nov 08, 2021

Show notes

In mid-October, Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced that New York City municipal workers would have just nine days to get the COVID vaccine or risk being put on unpaid leave. Thousands of workers showed up the next week to protest the mandate. A week after the hammer came down, did Mayor DeBlasio correctly call their bluff?

Guest: Eric Lach, staff writer for The New Yorker.

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

How Schools Surveil Your Kids Nov 05, 2021

Show notes

In schools across the country, tighter digital controls were put in place to keep kids on task during the pandemic. Are they here to stay?

Guests: Priya Anand, reporter at Bloomberg

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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

Is It Time for Democrats to Panic? Nov 04, 2021

Show notes

Democrats suffered major losses in local and state elections this week. Are the results a harbinger for the party’s fate heading into the 2022 midterms?

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

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

White Supremacy on Trial in Charlottesville Nov 03, 2021

Show notes

It’s been over four years since white supremacists gathered in a violent and deadly demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia. Now, nine people are suing the organizers and groups involved with the Unite the Right rally as they try to prove the protest was a conspiracy to commit racially-motivated violence. This isn’t the first time white supremacists have been taken to court -- but could this trial spell real consequences?

Guest: Kathleen Belew, a historian at the University of Chicago, and the author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America and A Field Guide to White Supremacy.

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

A Rust-Belt City Might Elect a Socialist Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

India Walton won the Democratic primary for Mayor of Buffalo, New York, in June. Her victory put her on track to become the first socialist mayor in the city’s history, and the first nationwide in more than half a century. The only problem is, her opponent - current mayor Byron Brown - refuses to bow out, and is waging a well-funded write-in campaign in the hopes of keeping his post.

How has a self-styled socialist gotten so close to running Buffalo? And why are some Democrats standing in her way?

Guest: Ross Barkan, a contributing writer to The Nation and the author of The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York.

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

How Long Can Mark Zuckerberg Be King? Nov 01, 2021

Show notes

The public scrutiny applied to Facebook has been building for years, as the company grows its user base faster than its ability to regulate its content. But distrust among Facebook employees is also building, as evidenced by the remarkable disclosure of internal Facebook documents by whistleblower Frances Haugen. A crisis of trust could be what undoes Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to dominate the internet of the future.

Guest: Steven Levy is editor-at-large at WIRED and author of numerous books, including, most recently,Facebook: The Inside Story.

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

Why Are Bots Buying Sneakers? Oct 29, 2021

Show notes

The bots aren’t just buying cool sneakers. They’re buying concert tickets. Tickets to basketball games and Broadway shows. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were buying hand sanitizer and face masks. And later, they were booking vaccine reservation spots.

Why are bots taking over certain markets? And is there anything we can do to slow them down?

Guests:

Derreck Johnson, designer at Slate

Eric Budish, economics professor at the University of Chicago

Host: Seth Stevenson

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