Is Spotify’s 2023—ending with layoffs and cancelling critically acclaimed original podcasts—a sign of trouble at the streaming giant, or an adjustment to expectations that’s setting them up for a brighter future?

Guest: Ashley Carman, Bloomberg reporter who covers Spotfiy  

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TBD | Spotify Unwrapped

Pickleball’s exploding popularity isn’t an organic grassroots rise. According to a reporter’s intrepid Freedom of Information Act inquiries, enthusiastic pickleball ambassadors are employing the “USA Pickleball tool kit” and harrying local park departments to elbow out their tennis-and-basketball-playing neighbors. 

Guest: Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media and host of the 404 Media Podcast, former editor-in-chief of Motherboard.

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Pickleball vs. Everybody

The Sacklers were set to pay $6 billion in exchange for immunity from any future lawsuits over their role in the opioid crisis. But the Supreme Court will now decide whether bankruptcy law can be wielded in this manner to protect the very wealthy—and trump the very-American right to sue for damages. 

Guest: Brian Mann, reporter on addiction at NPR.

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The Supreme Court Takes On Opioids

Last week, former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley scored a coveted endorsement from Charles Koch’s political advocacy group. She’s passed Ron DeSantis in the polls—and now, she’s the top, non-Trump Republican candidate for president. But is there any hope of winning over Trump voters—or is this a race to be the candidate who steps in if the former president goes to jail?

Guest: Alexandra Ulmer, reporter at Reuters covering the 2024 U.S. presidential race, with a focus on Republicans, donors and AI.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Madeline Ducharme, Anna Phillips, Paige Osburn, and Rob Gunther.
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Nikki Haley’s Surge to Second

Jeff Bezos said Amazon will be “Earth’s safest place to work.” But state and federal investigators are looking into the online retailer’s rates of on-the-job injuries. Is working in an Amazon warehouse inherently unsafe, or is the number of accidents unavoidable for the US’s second largest employer, as the company contends? Given OSHA’s limited powers, does the government have any options other than taking their word for it?

Guest: Caroline O'Donovan, Washington Post reporter covering Amazon

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Is Amazon Too Big To Regulate?

Though navigating the internet involves spraying your data pretty indiscriminately, you actually have more control over it than you think—it’s just a pain to rein it in. 

Guest: Geoffrey Fowler, Washington Post tech columnist.

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TBD | They See You When You’re Shopping

Artificial intelligence seems predestined to become a bigger part of our lives. To what extent is the A.I. push being led by Sam Altman and the OpenAI team a cause for concern? 

Guest: Karen Hao, journalist, data scientist and contributing writer for the Atlantic.

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TBD | A Moral War for A.I.

Eric Adams’ political career has been heavy on soundbites and low-simmering scandals. But now, as mayor of New York, he might have finally risen far enough to fall. 

Guest: David Freedlander, New York Magazine contributor and the author of The AOC Generation: How Millennials Are Seizing Power and Rewriting the Rules of American Politics.

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Eric Adams May Not Get Out of This One

California’s new “CARE courts” are designed to help people struggling with psychotic disorders to get the help they need. But is having judges mandate treatment a step in the right direction?

Guest: April Dembosky, health correspondent for KQED.

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Mental Health Treatment—by Court Order

Citing the risks from criminals listening in and pranksters interfering in their channels, the NYPD is the latest and biggest police department moving to encrypt their radio communications. But what about the reporters who rely on the police scanner—and the public who rely on those reporters?

Guests:
Todd Maisel, contributing editor at AMNewYork and photojournalist 
Adam Scott Wandt, associate professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

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The Cops Don’t Want You Listening In

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began this weekend in Gaza, as hostages and prisoners were freed by both sides. But any end to the immediate conflict still remains in doubt.
Guest: Peter Beinart, professor of journalism and political science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, editor-at-large at Jewish Currents, and author of The Beinart Notebook on Substack.
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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What Comes After the Ceasefire?

The first steps on the moon were in the name of “all mankind.” But with more countries—and the private sector—competing to not only return, but to tap into the moon’s resources, we’re going to need some ground rules.

Guest: Chris Davenport reports on NASA and the space industry at the Washington Post.

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The Race (Back) to the Moon

An app for open money laundering, a corridor of massive casinos in the middle of nowhere, and the global scamdemic. 

Guest: Cezary Podkul, reporter for ProPublica

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TBD | Where Scams Are Born

While the What Next team celebrates the holiday, enjoy this episode from our colleagues at Decoder Ring.

In 1992, a Minnesota-based software company known for its educational hit The Oregon Trail released another simulation-style game to school districts across the country. Freedom! took kids on a journey along the Underground Railroad, becoming the first American software program to use slavery as its subject matter.

Less than four months later, it was pulled from the market. In this episode, we revisit this well-intentioned, but flawed foray into historical trauma that serves as a reminder that teaching Black history in America has always been fraught.

This episode was written by Willa Paskin. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. This episode was also produced by Benjamin Frisch, and edited by Erica Morrison. Derek John is executive producer. Joel Meyer is senior editor-producer and Merritt Jacob is senior technical director.

We’re grateful to Julian Lucas for his expertise, reporting, and generosity, without which this episode would not have been possible. His New Yorker article, “Can Slavery Reenactments Set Us Free?,” revisits the Freedom! story as part of an exploration of the live Underground Railroad re-enactments that Kamau Kambui pioneered.

Thank you to Jesse Fuchs for suggesting this topic. Thanks also to Coventry Cowens, Brigitte Fielder, Bob Whitaker, Alan Whisman, Wayne Studer, Alicia Montgomery, Rebecca Onion, Luke Winkie, and Kamau Kambui’s children: Yamro Kambui Fields, Halim Fields, Mawusi Kambui Pierre, Nanyamka Salley, and Kamau Sababu Kambui Jr.
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Decoder Ring: The Forgotten Video Game About Slavery

The war in Gaza has laid bare some deep fault lines within the Democratic party when it comes to Israel policy. How might that impact next year’s elections?

Guest: Alex Sammon, Slate politics writer. 

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How Israel-Hamas Has Divided Democrats

OpenAI was the hottest startup in Silicon Valley off the success of ChatGPT. Then, the board fired Sam Altman. 

Guest: Mike Isaac, technology reporter at the New York Times.

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TBD | Inside OpenAI's Implosion

Over the past few years, ultra-conservative activists took aim at school boards, trying to shape curriculums to match their beliefs. But this year, from Pennsylvania to Iowa, “parental rights candidates” lost handily. What happened?

Guest: Adam Laats, Professor of Education and History at Binghamton University.

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Moms for Liberty Tanked at the Polls. This Guy Called It.

The bedbug break-out during Paris fashion week this fall was obviously horrifying, but the bad news doesn’t stop there. Bedbugs are on the rise—and on the move.

Guest: Benji Jones, senior environmental reporter at Vox.

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TBD | Bedbugs Are Back, Baby!

Girls at a New Jersey high school were early victims of a novel and growing problem: their images were taken from social media without consent to create “deep-fake pornography.” 

Guest: Julie Jargon, Wall Street Journal family and tech columnist.

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TBD | How Deepfake Porn Infected a School

As Palestinian allies like Hezbollah and Iran voice their support, is there a danger of more countries being pulled into the war in Gaza? 

Guest: Gregory Gause, head of the Department of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, specialist in Middle East politics.

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