What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Underneath the Oval Office there’s this room. It’s a windowless place with terrible cell phone reception but, right now, it’s home to a team crafting President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense strategy. Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Treasury aide Tony Sayegh started the effort to protect the president only in the past few weeks, but they’re already seeing results. How has this team circled the wagons for the president? And why is one senator in particular pleased to see the White House mount a proper defense?Guest: Sarah Ellison, reporter covering media and politics for the Washington Post.Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former U.S. Senator Harry Reid thinks the expected impeachment trial in the Senate will fail to convict. And Reid should know -- he was in the Senate during the last impeachment trial.Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Tuesday, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced that they are stepping down from their respective roles as president and CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. The move will leave Sundar Pichai in charge of both Google and Alphabet.  With pressure mounting from unhappy employees, antitrust regulators in Europe, and the Trump administration, Pichai takes the helm at a crucial moment in the company’s history. Will he be up to the task? Guest: Mark Bergen, technology reporter at Bloomberg Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Tuesday, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced that they are stepping down from their respective roles as president and CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. The move will leave Sundar Pichai in charge of both Google and Alphabet.  With pressure mounting from unhappy employees, antitrust regulators in Europe, and the Trump administration, Pichai takes the helm at a crucial moment in the company’s history. Will he be up to the task? Guest: Mark Bergen, technology reporter at Bloomberg Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Residents of Opportunity, Montana have a problem: their town is infected with a century’s worth of toxins from copper mining. The responsible company, Arco, and the E.P.A. have come up with a plan to fix that, but the community members say it’s woefully inadequate and doesn’t guarantee “a clean and healthful environment.” Now, the case has escalated all the way to the Supreme Court.Guest: Kathleen McLaughlin, reporter based in MontanaSlate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, Danielle Hewitt and Mara Silvers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The next impeachment hearing will be in the House Judiciary Committee, where Corey Lewandowski made a mockery of Democrats in September. So perhaps it’s by design that the testimony planned for Wednesday seems rather low-stakes: Four professors will speak about the constitutional grounds for presidential impeachment. Guest: Jim Newell, Slate’s senior politics writer.Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Senator Cory Booker still hasn’t made the cut for the next Democratic debate, despite having all the moderate bona fides that a suburban voter could want. Why has Booker failed to pop up in the polls? Guest: Slate’s Jordan Weissmann. Read his piece, “Dear Moderates: Please Give Cory Booker a Chance.”Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When she was a staff writer at Breitbart News, Katie McHugh exchanged hundreds of emails with Stephen Miller, who is currently one of President Trump’s senior advisors. Then, McHugh was a champion of the alt-right and a supporter of white nationalist ideology. Now, she wants the world to know that those same ideas are what motivate Miller to craft hard-line anti-immigration policies. And she has the receipts to prove it.  Guest: Katie McHugh, former Breitbart staff writerPodcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, Danielle Hewitt, and Mara Silvers.Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For months, White House lawyers have argued that many of the president’s aides can sidestep congressional subpoenas because of their proximity to Trump. This week, a judge rejected that claim, setting the stage for another installment in the House of Representatives’s impeachment inquiry. Guest: Jeremy Stahl, Slate senior editorPodcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, Danielle Hewitt, and Mara Silvers.Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This summer, the explosion of vaping-related illnesses sent medical researchers on an urgent quest to figure out why teenagers were showing up at the hospital unable to breathe. Years before this became a public health crisis, federal regulators had the power to crack down on e-cigarettes. Why didn’t they do it?Guest: Desmond Jenson, an attorney with the Public Health Law Center at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.