What Comes Next

What If the Sea That Split North America Had Never Drained? (Bonus Short)

About 100 million years ago, the Western Interior Seaway split North America in two, from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Mosasaurs hunted in it, and their fossils still turn up in the chalk of western Kansas. The sea drained away near the end of the age of dinosaurs. Would you rather live on the east shore of that sea or the west shore? This is the audio edition of a What Comes Next Short, and the video version is on the What Comes Next YouTube channel. The Earth views are NASA Blue Marble images with a drawn outline, and the photos are from the Library of Congress, including the Carol M. Highsmith Archive. The narration voice is AI-generated.

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What If Trump Never Became President? America Keeps Its ALLIES.

What if Donald Trump had never become president? This episode lays out the public record of both terms from official records and named news organizations, from the 2017 tax law to the 2026 tariff ruling. Then it follows the road those terms opened to its farthest end, through the pardons, the watchdogs and the official numbers. Sources and full credits are in the YouTube description.

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What If Houdini Had Survived Halloween 1926? (Bonus Short)

Harry Houdini died on Halloween 1926, at 52, of a burst appendix and the infection that followed. He spent his last years exposing fake psychics, and his wife Bess held séances for ten years hoping for his coded message. No message ever came. Who would win in the radio age, Houdini or the fake mediums? This is the audio edition of a What Comes Next Short, and the video version is on the What Comes Next YouTube channel. The archival photos and posters are from the Library of Congress. The narration voice is AI-generated.

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What If Deposit Insurance Disappeared Tomorrow? (Bonus Short)

On March 6, 1933, every bank in America closed, and about 4,000 never reopened that year, according to the FDIC's own history. Deposit insurance was born that June, and the FDIC says no depositor has lost a penny of insured money since coverage began in 1934. This is a history thought experiment, and it is not financial advice. Which would scare you more, a closed bank or a bank run you watch on your phone? This is the audio edition of a What Comes Next Short, and the video version is on the What Comes Next YouTube channel. The archival photos are from the Library of Congress. The narration voice is AI-generated.

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How One Sunless Day Could Become the Hungry Years (Episode 8 Short)

What if the sun went dark for one day and then rose again? A whole hemisphere's spring crop freezes at once, every country that sells grain keeps its harvest at home, and the hungry years begin over a harbor full of grain ships that nobody will let leave. Earth at night and eclipse footage is courtesy of NASA. The full story is in Episode 8 of What Comes Next, What If the Sun Disappeared for 24 Hours?

What If the Weather Warning Became a Subscription? The Free Alert Comes Late. (Series 01 Episode 3 Short)

This part is imagined. The paid warning goes out at 9:40, the free one arrives at 10:15, and by then the storm has crossed the trailer park. Would you pay for the faster warning, or keep the free one? Every scene in this Short is AI-generated, and full credits are in the episode description. The full story is Series 01 Episode 3 of What Comes Next, and the video is on the What Comes Next YouTube channel.

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What Would Happen If the Sun Disappeared for 24 Hours? (Episode 8 Short)

What if the sun's light and heat switched off at noon for exactly 24 hours? Stars come out over office towers at lunchtime, every solar farm on Earth stops at once, and by midnight the young wheat is white with frost. Eclipse and Earth at night footage is courtesy of NASA. The full story is in Episode 8 of What Comes Next, What If the Sun Disappeared for 24 Hours?

What If the Weather Warning Became a Subscription? Who Pays After the Storm? (Series 01 Episode 3 Short)

Project 2025 asks to shift most disaster costs to the states, and on June 10, 2025 the president said FEMA should go to the state level. A judge later ruled the FEMA staffing cut unlawful. Who should pay to rebuild, Washington or your state? The real footage is from NASA and the Library of Congress, and full credits are in the episode description. The full story is Series 01 Episode 3 of What Comes Next, and the video is on the What Comes Next YouTube channel.

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How One Volcano Took a Summer Away in 1816 (Episode 8 Short)

Mount Tambora erupted in April 1815, and NOAA says Northern Hemisphere temperatures fell about 1 degree Fahrenheit. A May frost in 1816 killed most crops across four northeastern states, and NOAA counts more than 100,000 deaths from the food shortages that followed. Harvests are still that fragile, and Russia's 2010 wheat export ban proved it again. Photographs are courtesy of NASA and the Library of Congress, including Marion Post Wolcott's 1940 Vermont and Shenandoah pictures. The full story is in Episode 8 of What Comes Next, What If the Sun Disappeared for 24 Hours?

What If the Weather Warning Became a Subscription? Kansas Got 30 Minutes. (Series 01 Episode 3 Short)

In July 2026, 34 members of Congress wrote that no balloons went up ahead of an April storm in eastern Kansas, and the tornado watch came 30 minutes before touchdown. Is 30 minutes enough warning, or far too little? The real footage is from NASA and the Library of Congress, and full credits are in the episode description. The full story is Series 01 Episode 3 of What Comes Next, and the video is on the What Comes Next YouTube channel.

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What Would You Notice If the Sun Disappeared Right Now? (Episode 8 Short)

The light on your face left the sun about 8 minutes and 20 seconds ago. In 2024 an eclipse took 9 gigawatts off the Texas grid in 45 minutes, bees went silent the moment totality hit in 2017, and one Alaska town went from November 2025 to January 2026 without a sunrise. Eclipse and Arctic footage is courtesy of NASA. The power towers photograph by Carol M. Highsmith and the two apiary pictures come from the Library of Congress. The full story is in Episode 8 of What Comes Next, What If the Sun Disappeared for 24 Hours?

What If the Weather Warning Became a Subscription? The Balloons Stopped in Omaha. (Series 01 Episode 3 Short)

Every morning and evening, at 92 places across America, someone lets go of a weather balloon. In March 2025, Omaha stopped. Should the forecast stay free or be something you buy? The real footage is from NASA and the Library of Congress, and full credits are in the episode description. The full story is Series 01 Episode 3 of What Comes Next, and the video is on the What Comes Next YouTube channel.

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What If the Weather Warning Became a Subscription? The Next Storm Hits BLIND.

In March 2025, the weather office in Omaha, Nebraska stopped launching its weather balloons. Chapter 21 of Project 2025 says NOAA "should be broken up and downsized" and that the National Weather Service "should fully commercialize its forecasting operations." Chapter 5 asks to shift most disaster costs from Washington to the states. This episode follows one storm from the warning before it to the help after it, and checks each step against the public record. The weather service lost about 600 people during 2025, and 34 members of Congress tied missing balloon launches to a late tornado watch in Kansas in April 2026. Omaha's launches resumed about a month after they stopped, the service has hired more than 300 people since the cuts, and Congress funded the weather agency well above the White House request. FEMA lost about one in six workers during 2025, and on September 11, 2026 a federal judge ruled the plan to cut its staff roughly in half unlawful. Then the episode imagines the worst case, a plains county where the warning goes to whoever pays first and the help goes to whoever can wait longest. This is the audio edition of the episode, and the video version is on the What Comes Next YouTube channel. These are the sources behind every documented claim. Heritage Foundation, Mandate for Leadership, chapter 21 by Thomas F. Gilman, page 675, and chapter 5 by Ken Cuccinelli, pages 135 and 153. National Weather Service upper-air fact sheet. https://www.weather.gov/upperair/factsheet Spectrum News, March 26, 2025, and KCUR, April 2, 2025, on the Omaha and Rapid City balloon suspensions. Nebraska Public Media and KLKN, April 25, 2025, on Omaha's launches resuming with temporary forecasters. Boston Globe, September 27, 2025, and CBS News, July 20, 2026, on staff losses and rehiring at the weather service. Associated Press reporting in April 2025, as carried by KCUR, on 55 understaffed forecast offices. Letter from Rep. Gabe Amo and 33 members of Congress, July 30, 2026. https://amo.house.gov NBC News and FedScoop, January 2026, on the final FY2026 funding bill for NOAA. NBC News and CBS News on President Trump's remarks of June 10, 2025. Government Accountability Office, GAO-26-108427, August 4, 2026, on FEMA staffing. Reuters, PBS NewsHour and Courthouse News on Judge Susan Illston's ruling of September 11, 2026. Capitol News Illinois and ABC7 Chicago on FEMA's October 7, 2026 reply to Illinois. National League of Cities and NACo on the FEMA review council's report. The episode's real footage and photographs come from NASA and the Library of Congress, and the imagined half uses AI-generated scenes. The full credit list is in the YouTube description.

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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.

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?

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?

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?

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?

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.

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?