DOGE V. USAID
Why did the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which gives money to humanitarian causes around the world and accounts for roughly half of one percent of the federal budget, end up in DOG...
5 Feb 202526min
Are Airplane Crashes Inevitable?
America hadn’t had a major commercial airline crash since 2009 until the mid-air collision over the Potomac. Is this a sign of a larger problem that will require government intervention—and will Congr...
4 Feb 202524min
Trump’s Anti-Trans Agenda
Trump and his allies in the House’s flurry of anti-trans legislation and executive orders will soon run into both the law and the reality that our institutions like the military really rely on trans p...
3 Feb 202528min
The DeepSeek Panic
The artificial intelligence industry was thrown for a loop when the Chinese start-up DeepSeek rolled out a product that was more energy efficient, cheaper to produce, and open source. Where did DeepSe...
2 Feb 202522min
Bonus | Main Character Syndrome: Deepseek
Did the Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Deepseek just blow up the A.I. world as we know it? Or is it just a cheap knock-off?Guest: Lizzie O’Leary, host of the Slate podcast What Next TBD.This...
31 Jan 20253min
RFK Jr. Is a Feature, Not a Bug
Tapped by Trump for the role of health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presents himself as someone willing to say what other politicians won’t. But during his Senate confirmation hearings, both Democ...
31 Jan 202523min
Was Tulsi Gabbard Always Like This?
Tulsi Gabbard’s political career is truly singular: once a young progressive Democrat on the rise, then a gadfly taking surprise meetings with Bashar al-Assad, now she’s Donald Trump’s nominee to head...
30 Jan 202525min
Trump’s DIY Government Shutdown
Trump’s Office of Management and Budget sent a memo directing federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to … disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” which threw everythi...
29 Jan 202524min
