What Next | Daily News and Analysis

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.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.

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. 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.

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 SlateEric Budish, economics professor at the University of ChicagoHost: Seth Stevenson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 SlateEric Budish, economics professor at the University of ChicagoHost: Seth Stevenson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, five members of Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s Veterans Advisory Council publicly stepped down. In their resignation letter, they claimed that they were just “window dressing for her image” and called her “one of the principal obstacles to progress.” One of those veterans explains why she finally said enough.  Guest: Sylvia González Andersh, former member of Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s Veterans Advisory Council.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.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds many, if not most, of the world’s global health initiatives, so much so that the Foundation has become one of the most influential deciders of global health policy. With the distribution of vaccines to developing countries all but completely failing, how do we assess the Gates’ culpability? And is it time to imagine another model for global health cooperation?  Guest: Tim Schwab, investigative reporter. 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.If you've just signed up for Slate Plus because of What Next, fill out this form and you may get some What Next swag! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sharifa Abbasi knows exactly what it’s like to board a plane to a new country. She immigrated from Afghanistan to the U.S. with her family in 1993. Now, she’s helping other Afghans navigate the complicated red tape of American immigration law after the Taliban takeover. For these immigrants, coming to America wasn’t easy -- being able to stay here might prove even harder.Guest: Sharifa Abbasi, immigration lawyer at The HMA Law Firm. 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.If you've just signed up for Slate Plus because of What Next, fill out this form and you may get some What Next swag! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last weekend, 17 foreign missionaries living in Haiti were taken hostage by a criminal gang demanding million-dollar ransom payments. Kidnappings have become routine in Haiti over the past two years, as the national government has weakened in the wake of years of foreign influence, corruption, persistent poverty, natural disasters, and political upheaval. But the latest mass abduction of so many Americans is a provocation that could prompt an international intervention, in spite of the long history of botched foreign meddling in Haiti.   Guest: Jacqueline Charles, Caribbean correspondent for the Miami Herald. 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.

Between April and June of this year, Zillow bought nearly 4,000 homes. And they had no intention of holding onto them. The plan was to flip houses, often and at scale, joining the ranks of companies like Opendoor and Offerpad, also known as iBuyers. So, why did Zillow put their plans on pause last weekend? Can online middlemen really change the way we buy and sell houses?Guests: Tony Santos, homeownerPatrick Clark, reporter at BloombergHost: Henry Grabar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Between April and June of this year, Zillow bought nearly 4,000 homes. And they had no intention of holding onto them. The plan was to flip houses, often and at scale, joining the ranks of companies like Opendoor and Offerpad, also known as iBuyers. So, why did Zillow put their plans on pause last weekend? Can online middlemen really change the way we buy and sell houses?Guests: Tony Santos, homeownerPatrick Clark, reporter at BloombergHost: Henry Grabar Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.