What Comes Next

Every event has a turning point. What Comes Next starts there. We follow the real history, the verified science, right up to the edge of what we know. Then we ask what happens if one thing goes differently, and we trace every ripple forward. We always tell you exactly where the facts end. New episodes twice a week.

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Episodes 31

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S1 · E8
Today · 6 min
What If the Sun Disappeared for 24 Hours? The Real Danger Starts at Sunrise.
What if the sun disappeared for 24 hours? The light on your face left the sun about eight minutes and twenty seconds ago, so you would not know right away. This episode starts with what really happened when daylight switched off: the 2024 eclipse that took nine gigawatts off the Texas grid, the 2017 study that heard bees go silent at totality, an Alaska town that went from November to January without a sunrise, and the year without a summer after Mount Tambora erupted in 1815. The second half imagines the sun's light and heat switching off for exactly twenty four hours while its gravity holds Earth on its path. The frost and the failing grid are only the start, because the storms after sunrise wipe out a hemisphere's spring, and the hungry years that follow reach every border, every harbor and every farm gate. Full sources and archival credits are in the YouTube description.
Wednesday · 1 min
What Would Outlast Us If Every Human Vanished (Episode 7 Short)
Give it five hundred years and the ordinary house is gone, but bronze statues stand green under the leaves and plastic waits in the soil. The longest lasting thing we made should survive a billion years, and it is not on Earth. The full story is in Episode 7 of What Comes Next, What If Every Human Vanished Tomorrow?
Monday · 1 min
What Happens in the First Week Without Us (Episode 7 Short)
What if every person on Earth vanished tomorrow morning? Within hours the grid fails, within two days water rises in the subway, and by the end of the week the last diesel at an unattended nuclear plant runs dry. The full story is in Episode 7 of What Comes Next, What If Every Human Vanished Tomorrow?
Sunday · 1 min
What Land Does When People Leave It (Episode 7 Short)
A census published in Current Biology in 2015 found wolves more than seven times as common inside the Chernobyl zone as in nearby reserves. Along the Korean border, a strip closed since 1953 now holds 5,929 wildlife species. The views from orbit are NASA astronaut photographs. The full story is in Episode 7 of What Comes Next, What If Every Human Vanished Tomorrow?
Saturday · 1 min
Why New York's Subway Floods Without People (Episode 7 Short)
New York's subway pumps about 13 million gallons of water a day, and Hurricane Sandy showed what happens when they stop. In 2003 a blackout crossed the grid in minutes, and every nuclear plant in its path shut down safely. The archival films are from the Library of Congress. The full story is in Episode 7 of What Comes Next, What If Every Human Vanished Tomorrow?
S1 · E7
October 16 · 5 min
What If Every Human Vanished Tomorrow? Wolves Would Move Into Your Street.
What if every human vanished tomorrow? Under New York, pumps push about 13 million gallons of water out of the subway on a dry day. This episode follows the real nights when that protection failed, from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to the 2003 blackout, and the two places where land already shows what happens when people leave, the Chernobyl zone and the Korean border strip. The second half imagines the grid going dark with nobody left to restart it, the subway flooding within two days, and centuries of forest swallowing the suburbs. Full sources and credits are in the YouTube description.
October 16 · 1 min
How Towns and Habits Would Change Without Penicillin (Episode 6 Short)
This one is our own imagining, and the Short says so out loud before it starts. Schools are built with windows that open wide, handshakes turn into nods, and clinics post the local infection count the way we post pollen. Then it returns to the real world, where drug resistant infections caused about 1.27 million deaths in 2019. Photographs of today's labs and medical campuses are by Carol M. Highsmith at the Library of Congress. The full story is in Episode 6 of What Comes Next, What If Penicillin Was Never Discovered?
October 15 · 1 min
What Would Medicine Look Like Without Penicillin? (Episode 6 Short)
This one is our own imagining, and the Short says so out loud before it starts. The war is fought without the wonder drug, surgery shrinks to what cannot be avoided, sanatoriums never close, and the money pours into vaccines and phage therapy instead. The full story is in Episode 6 of What Comes Next, What If Penicillin Was Never Discovered?
October 14 · 1 min
The Patient Who Got Half of America's Penicillin in 1942 (Episode 6 Short)
The first Oxford patient began to improve within a day in 1941, but the supply ran out and he died. In 1942 a dying patient named Anne Miller got half of all the penicillin in America, her fever broke by morning, and she lived to ninety. By D-Day, factories had about 2.3 million doses ready. Photographs are from the Library of Congress, including New Haven Hospital, where Anne Miller was treated. The full story is in Episode 6 of What Comes Next, What If Penicillin Was Never Discovered?
October 14 · 1 min
How a Blister Killed the President's Son in 1924 (Episode 6 Short)
In 1924 sixteen year old Calvin Coolidge Junior got a blister playing tennis at the White House, and he was dead within a week. The Coolidge Foundation writes that antibiotics could have easily treated it. Four years later, Alexander Fleming found a mold on an unwashed dish. Photographs of Calvin Coolidge Junior and his family are from the Library of Congress. The full story is in Episode 6 of What Comes Next, What If Penicillin Was Never Discovered?
S1 · E6
October 13 · 5 min
What If Penicillin Was Never Discovered? A Blister Could Still Win.
What if penicillin was never discovered? In 1924 the president's sixteen year old son got a blister playing tennis at the White House and was dead within a week. This episode follows Alexander Fleming's unwashed dish, the first Oxford patient in 1941, the woman in New Haven who received half of all the penicillin in America in 1942, and the factories that made millions of doses before D-Day. The second half is labeled speculation. It imagines medicine, hospitals, towns and family habits growing up without penicillin, and then returns to the real fight against drug resistant infections today. This episode is history and imagination, not medical advice. Full sources and archival credits are in the YouTube description.
October 12 · 1 min
The Version of Project 2025's Chapter Three Its Critics Fear (Series 01 Episode 2 Short)
This one is our speculation, and the Short says so out loud before it starts. It pictures the version of Project 2025's chapter three that critics fear, where jobs follow elections the way they did before 1883. It ends on what critics and supporters would each call that government. The archival images are from the Library of Congress, and full credits are in the main episode's description. The full story is Series 01, Episode 2 of What Comes Next.
October 11 · 41 sec
The Job Application Question a Judge Halted in 2026 (Series 01 Episode 2 Short)
In May 2025 most federal job applications gained an essay question asking how the applicant would advance the President's policies. On September 11, 2026, a federal judge in Massachusetts halted it, finding it likely violated job seekers' First Amendment rights. That question is not in chapter three of Project 2025, but it sits on the same old line between skill and loyalty. The cover photograph shows applicants at the Civil Service Commission in 1936, by Harris and Ewing, from the Library of Congress. The full story is Series 01, Episode 2 of What Comes Next.
October 10 · 24 sec
How Old Tally Sticks Burned Down Parliament in 1834 (Money Episode Short)
England kept its royal accounts on wooden tally sticks until 1826, with each stick split so both sides held a matching half of the debt. On October 16, 1834, workmen fed two cartloads of the retired sticks into a furnace under Parliament, and the fire spread through the Palace of Westminster. The cover photograph shows Tom Vaughan with his family's old store ledger in Texas, by Carol M. Highsmith, from the Library of Congress. The full story is the money episode of What Comes Next.
October 10 · 1 min
What Page 80 of Project 2025 Asked For and What the Government Did (Series 01 Episode 2 Short)
Schedule F was created in October 2020 and canceled in January 2021. Page 80 of Project 2025 says it should be reinstated. A rule built on that took effect on March 9, 2026, and on June 3 about 8,000 jobs moved into it. The personnel office says the roles remain career positions filled on merit. The cover photograph shows Veterans Bureau staff in 1923, from the Library of Congress. The full story is Series 01, Episode 2 of What Comes Next.
October 9 · 55 sec
How One Gunshot in 1881 Built the Civil Service (Series 01 Episode 2 Short)
A man who wanted a government job shot President Garfield in 1881. Two years later Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which made people pass exams for covered jobs and made firing them for political reasons unlawful. Chapter three of Project 2025 now asks for more presidential power over who keeps those jobs. Every image is from the Library of Congress, and full credits are in the main episode's description. The full story is Series 01, Episode 2 of What Comes Next.
S2 · E2
October 9 · 6 min
Who Gets to Fire the People Who Run Your Government? Page 80 Answers.
In 1881 a man who wanted a government job shot President James Garfield, and two years later Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which built the civil service. Chapter three of Project 2025 asks for more presidential power over who keeps those jobs. This episode reads the chapter in its own words and checks it against the record, from Schedule F in 2020 to the Schedule Policy/Career rule that took effect on March 9, 2026, and the order that moved about 8,000 jobs into it. It also covers the September 2026 ruling that halted a job application question about the President's policies. As of October 6, 2026, the lawsuits over the rule were still pending. The last part is labeled speculation. It runs the idea twice, the way the chapter's supporters hope it goes and the way its critics fear it goes, and pushes both to 2050. This is Episode 2 of Project 2025, Chapter by Chapter, from What Comes Next. Full sources and archival credits are in the YouTube description.
October 9 · 49 sec
Did Money Really Begin With Barter? (Money Episode Short)
Adam Smith wrote in 1776 about a human "propensity to truck, barter, and exchange," and textbooks built a whole origin story on it. Anthropologists went looking for that barter village and never found it. David Graeber found that neighbors ran on credit, and that swapping mostly happened between strangers. The full story is the money episode of What Comes Next.
October 8 · 34 sec
When Ireland's Banks Shut for Six Months in 1970 (Money Episode Short)
On May 1, 1970, the staff of Ireland's four biggest banks walked out, and the branches stayed shut until November 17. Shops and pubs took checks that nobody could cash for months, and one publican near Dublin said he was not worried because he knew who signed them. The cover photograph shows New York police telling depositors their bank was closed in 1933, from the New York World-Telegram and Sun collection at the Library of Congress. Full credits are in the main episode's description. The full story is the money episode of What Comes Next.
S1 · E5
October 8 · 5 min
What If Money Was Never Invented? Your Whole Life Runs on Who Trusts You.
In 1970 Ireland's four biggest banks shut from May 1 to November 17, and the country kept trading on checks that nobody could cash for months. This episode follows that story back to how money really began. Adam Smith said it started with barter, but anthropologists never found the barter village. What they found was people keeping score, from clay receipts in Mesopotamia to the English tally sticks that set Parliament on fire in 1834. The second half is labeled speculation. It imagines a world where money was never invented, once as the best version anyone could hope for and once as the worst, and then pushes both versions to 2026. Full sources and archival credits are in the YouTube description.

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