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2024 in Review: Would You Die For MrBeast? Dec 23, 2024

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While the What Next team enjoys some rest, enjoy this episode, originally aired on August 15.

MrBeast is known for videos that blend stunts and philanthropy, but his new team-up with Amazon and MGM is bringing some of his less savory aspects to light.

Guest: Madison Malone Kircher, reporter covering internet culture for The New York Times

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

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

Influencer vs. Influencer Dec 22, 2024

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One influencer working for Amazon sued another influencer who works for Amazon for creating content that looks too similar to theirs. But with how the algorithms work and reward, was this an inevitability? What does this mean for the economics of the influencer position?

Guest: Mia Sato, reporter covering platforms and communities for The Verge.

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TBD | Influencer vs. Influencer Dec 22, 2024

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Guest: Mia Sato, reporter covering platforms and communities for The Verge.

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

Plus | A Karaoke Holiday With What Next Dec 20, 2024

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For a very special holiday edition of What Next, Mary chats with Death Sex & Money host Anna Sale about the anthems they’ll be belting out the next time they do karaoke—and they take calls from colleagues and listeners about their own go-to barn-burners for this unsettled moment.

You can find all these anthems (and more) on one Spotify playlist here https://tinyurl.com/whatnextkaraoke

Guest: Anna Sale, host of Slate’s Death, Sex & Money

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Podcast production by Madeline Ducharme.

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

Drones!??!!!?!!! Dec 20, 2024

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Reports of flocks of drones, flying overhead nightly, are coming in from New Jersey down to Maryland. Are they UFOs? Nefarious foreign powers? Something even more pernicious? Something even more banal?

Guest: Jon Ostrower, editor-in-chief of The Air Current.

Ben Mathis-Lilly, Slate senior writer

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Can More Grocery Stores Fix Food Deserts? Dec 19, 2024

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How do you keep a grocery store open in a small or low-income community? The answer might involve regulating big box stores like Walmart and Kroger.

Guest: Molly Parker, investigative reporter for Capitol News Illinois and a Local Reporting Network fellow at ProPublica.

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

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

How Trump Got ABC to Pay Up Dec 18, 2024

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What ABC’s huge defamation settlement with Donald Trump says about the state of the media, heading into Trump’s second term.

Guest: David Folkenflik, media correspondent for NPR.

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

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

How Shaboozey Broke the Mold Dec 17, 2024

Show notes

After a tepid embrace of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter and a back-and-forth over Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” country music fans are all in on Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” How has this hip-hop-inflected country hit perched atop the charts for a record-tying 19 weeks?

Guest: Chris Molanphy, chart analyst, pop critic, host of the Hit Parade podcast, and author of Slate's “Why Is This Song No. 1?” series and the book Old Town Road.

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

Disclosure in Podcast Description: A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 9/26/24, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across the Bond Account is greater than 6%. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account to learn more.

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Make Hollywood Great Again Dec 16, 2024

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The highest grossing documentary in 2024 was “Am I Racist?” from The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, and it’s not the only avowedly right-wing movie that’s enjoyed success at the box office this year. Is Hollywood going the way of the White House?

Guest: Barry Hertz, Deputy Arts Editor and Film Editor for The Globe and Mail

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

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The Surveillance State Trump Is Inheriting Dec 15, 2024

Show notes

Our lives, and our communication in particular, are increasingly conducted over the internet. This means we are increasingly able to be hacked and monitored, by governments, by the police, and more and more by anyone who can get their hands on the available software.

Guest: Ronan Farrow, investigative reporter and producer of the Max documentary “Surveilled.”

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Cheyna Roth, and Ethan Oberman.

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