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Democrat Justin Pearson made national headlines in 2023 when he expelled from Tennessee’s general assembly while trying to talk about gun reform after a school shooting. That same spirit has driven him to run for Congress, despite the newly redrawn electoral map that erased the state’s only majority Black district.

Guest: Justin Pearson, state representative for Tennessee’s District 86, running for Congress.

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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.
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This week, the Supreme Court blessed the torture of a condemned woman, and the court is set to kick off the new term by doing fossil fuel's bidding. So here at Amicus, we’re not really in the mood for a razzle-dazzle “curtain raiser.” Instead, we’re taking a clear-eyed look at the ways the Roberts court is pulling the constitutional rug out from under the American people.
First, Dahlia is joined by Corinna Barrett Lain, author of Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection, to discuss the botched execution of Christa Pike. After the Supreme Court overturned a last-minute stay without explanation, Tennessee attempted to execute Pike by lethal injection—twice. She survived and was taken to hospital where doctors tried to save her life. She was unconscious and on a ventilator at the time of writing. Professor Lain explains how lethal injection's medicalized facade hides state violence, why the court keeps green-lighting botched protocols, and what Pike's case reveals about a system that executes the broken and the poor while sparing those who can afford good lawyers.
Then, Dahlia speaks with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island about the Supreme Court's new term and its fossil-fuel patrons. They discuss the Suncor v. Boulder climate case, the flotilla of billionaire-funded front groups filing amicus briefs to signal the court's captured justices. Should we be optimistic that Alito has recused himself from the case that opens the term? Sen. Whitehouse says it is unlikely that decision reflects any sort of come-to-Jesus moment. It suggests instead that, if the Democrats take power in the midterms, the Supreme Court’s internal practices must be investigated. Although his peers are longing to return to regular, orderly government, the senator says “there has to be a reset.”
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Adam Auriemma, author of the Bloomberg Money newsletter, brings his personal finance expertise to the show. Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck pick Adam’s brain about how we should think about budgeting, his thoughts on renting and buying in the current housing market, and his take on financial advisors and planners.
In the Slate Plus episode: Annuities Are So Hot Right Now

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Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.
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Move over, New Deal; Donald Trump is in his public works era, using tax dollars to give the American people a…chatbot and also what looks like a campaign ad for the president, even though he isn’t running for anything, can’t run again, and also can’t use tax dollars to buy ads for himself. Uh, masterful stroke, sir?

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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.

A.I. large language models are prompt, attentive, positive and frictionless—in short, much easier to deal with than humans with their own needs, wants, and moods.
But, as long as humans aren’t social creatures by nature, this should be fine, right?

Guest: Sherry Turkle, licensed clinical psychologist and the founding director of MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self.

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme, Patrick Fort and Micah Phillips.

Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.