Airdropping aid, food, and supplies is expensive, inexact, and inefficient and usually only a last resort when your enemies have left you no other options. So why is the United States airdropping aid into Gaza, when the borders are controlled by America’s ally, Israel?

Guest: Jane Arraf, reporter for NPR based in the Middle East.

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Can Gaza Survive on Airdropped Aid?

Nancy Pelosi is no longer in charge of the House Democrats, and Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat is now up for grabs. Will a new generation of progressives step up in deep blue California? It’s not so simple…

Guest: Alexander Sammon, Slate politics writer. 

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Why Adam Schiff Is Running Ads for a Republican

Measles happens, but this outbreak in Florida is unfolding in a post-pandemic world where mistrust in public health officials and vaccinations is practically the party line. 

Guest: Lauren Weber, Washington Post accountability reporter focused on scientific and medical disinformation. 

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Florida's Anti-Vaxxers Won. Then the Measles Surged.

Why scam obituaries are edging out earnest ones, with the help of artificial intelligence and an adept Google game.

Guest: Mia Sato, reporter for The Verge.

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TBD | Google’s Scam Obituary Problem

Is it censorship for social media platforms to moderate their content, or is censorship when the state tells social media platforms how to moderate their content? 

Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, Slate writer on courts and the law. 

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TBD | The Supreme Court Takes on Content Moderation

With Biden losing thousands of votes to “uncommitted” and Trump unable to pull incumbent numbers, the Michigan primaries seemed to show that the electorate isn’t exactly enthusiastic about either candidate. What options remain for two known quantities to win votes?

Guest: David Faris, political science professor and Slate politics writer.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Madeline Ducharme, Anna Phillips, Paige Osburn, and Rob Gunther.
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Biden’s Commitment Problem

Sixteen-year-old Nex Benedict died one day after being beaten in an Oklahoma high school bathroom. His death has drawn attention to the more-than 50 bills that have been introduced in the state legislature targeting queer and trans people. 

Guest: Jo Yurcaba, reporter for NBC Out.

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What Happened to Nex Benedict?

The situation for Ukraine is slipping from a stalemate to again losing territory to the Russian invasion. After two years of combat, will American and EU allies support the Ukrainian cause for as long as it takes?  

Guest: Fred Kaplan, Slate’s war stories correspondent.

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War in Ukraine, Two Years In

Is RNC chairperson Ronna McDaniel to blame for Republicans’ poor fundraising and recent underperformance in elections? 

Guest: Shelby Talcott, reporter covering Trump and national Republicans for Semafor.

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Will Trump Take Over the RNC?

Fertility doctors and their patients trying to conceive via in vitro fertilization (IVF) were stopped in their tracks this week, as the Alabama Supreme Court declared that embryos have the same rights as people. The decision has left doctors wondering if they can be sued for carrying out standard IVF procedures, and experts worry the ruling could have ramifications for IVF around the country. 

Guest: Dr. Elizabeth Constance, reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist in Omaha, Nebraska.

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TBD | Alabama’s IVF Mess

Studies have found that, in tiny increments, America’s East Coast is sinking into the ground thanks to climate change. Can a new approach to urban planning mitigate the effect?

Guest: Matt Simon, senior staff writer at Wired.

You can read Matt’s reporting here.

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TBD | The Coasts are Sinking

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark has scored more points than any other NCAA women’s basketball player in history, but her impact extends even further than her substantial range on the court.

Guest: Hayley McGoldrick, associate editor at Sportsnet.

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The Basketball Phenom Shaking Up the NCAA

Shotspotter lost a huge contract and some face when Chicago opted out of its partnership with the gunfire-identification tech company. 

Why can’t new policing tech seem to break the old patterns and problems?

Guest: Jim Daley, investigations editor at South Side Weekly

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Why a Hi-Tech Gun Safety Tool Isn’t Working

The migrant crisis has come to Denver. With no federal help on the way and temperatures dropping well below freezing, a local church tries to pick up the slack. 

Guest: Keith Reeser, pastor at Denver Friends Church in Colorado.

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Who’s Left to Help Migrants?

Alexei Navalny died last week at age 47 in the prison where he was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism. With just one month left before a presidential election in which Putin is nearly guaranteed to win, the pro-democracy opposition movement in Russia is more beleaguered than ever. 

Guest: Joshua Yaffa, contributing writer at The New Yorker and the author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther. 
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Alexei Navalny Is Dead. Is His Movement Gone With Him?

Apple Vision Pro goggles might be a crime against fashion but with the amount of data they can collect—both on the world around the user and on the users themselves—they have the potential to invade privacy right down to where you’re looking and for how long. 

Guest: Geoffrey Fowler, Washington Post tech columnist

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 TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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TBD | Apple Vision Pro: The Ultimate Surveillance Device?

The war in Ukraine reordered the priorities of the country’s growing tech sector, and has become a place for foreign companies to test out new tools with less regulation or scrutiny.

Guests: Vera Bergengruen, senior correspondent at Time

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TBD | Warfare Enters the A.I. Era

Israeli Defense Forces have extended their campaign to Rafah, the southern-most city in Gaza, and where many Gazans have been gathering to escape the war. 

Guest: Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, Middle East political analyst, founder and executive director of Project Unified Assistance

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The Attack on Rafah

How did America end up back in a Gilded Age of incredible wealth disparity, and how did a new generation of oligarchs bend society to their vision? 

Guest: Tim Murphy, senior reporter for Mother Jones.

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The American Oligarch Class

The special election for George Santos’s vacated U.S. House seat has attracted tons of spending and a lot of attention—all to hold the position for less than a year. Who’s running, and what can this vote tell us about what to expect in November? 

Guest: Mark Chiusano, writer, journalist, and author of The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos.

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