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What Next - A Post-Midterms Schaden-Friday Special

November 6, 2026 · 7 min

Show notes

Democrats wouldn’t let themselves believe the polls heading into Tuesday’s midterms, and Republicans didn’t seem all that worried about them either. But as returns started coming in Tuesday night, no one could believe their eyes.


Guest: Molly Olmstead, Slate staff writer.


This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next —you’ll also access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the What Next show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit 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.

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