Show Notes
The party that holds the White House always braces for backlash in the midterm elections. But with Donald Trump’s approval rating hitting historic lows and voters furious at his handling of the economy, inflation, and the war in Iran, races that were once considered safe Republican wins are up for grabs.
Guest: David Faris, associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University. He’s also the author of The Kids Are All Left and It’s Time to Fight Dirty.
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.
More from Slate News
Let’s say Democrats gain control of the House and Senate in a couple of weeks, with a majority of Americans demanding accountability, and an airtight list of high crimes and misdemeanors as long as your arm. Should Democrats impeach Trump on Day One? Frank Bowman is an expert in both the law and politics of the impeachment process who has analyzed the first two efforts to impeach and remove President Trump during his first term. But in the wake of an extensive study of our current moment, Professor Bowman tells Dahlia Lithwick that the president’s crimes are definitely impeachable—but acute polarization and tribalism may be insurmountable obstacles to Congress actually using the Framers’ last-ditch check against an autocratic president. Read Frank Bowman’s series for Slate Try, Try Again? https://slate.com/tag/try-try-again His forthcoming book, Great and Dangerous Offences: The Case for (and Against) Impeaching Trump a Third Time, is available for preorder now.
This week: Meta struck a deal to keep Mark Zuckerberg in California despite the proposed “billionaire tax”. First up, hosts Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers explain the how the new stock issuance works and why Meta’s board’s hands were tied. Then, after Elon Musk floated a Tesla/SpaceX merger, they discuss what he and the companies would stand to gain and who might be able to stand in his way. Finally, Airbnb doesn't want guests doing chores. Where’s the line between being a reasonable guest in a home and in a hotel?
Live from Virginia Public Media in Richmond, Mary Harris sat down with Reveal's Al Letson and On the Media's Micah Loewinger to discuss contentious interviews, Pentagon influencers, sifting through the Trump news cycle, and the journalism cliches they love to hate.
Everyone wants A.I. to be regulated—including the major A.I. companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. There’s just one problem… they want to have a say in what regulation looks like for their industry. Doesn’t that defeat the whole point?
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss whether Trump is as unpopular as polls suggest and what this means for the midterms, the causes and consequences of the riots in France with Paris-based journalist Rachel Donadio, and how a seemingly trivial courtroom fight over the fate of the East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C. is an important illustration of the lawlessness that defines Trumpism.