What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future
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What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future
Every Friday and Sunday, Slate’s popular daily news podcast What Next brings you TBD, a clear-eyed look into the future. From fake news to fake meat, algorithms to augmented reality, Lizzie O’Leary is your guide to the tech industry and the world it’s creating for us to live in.
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The Discourse | TikTok Ban: The Final Loop?
TikTok—which was supposed to be banned again on Wednesday but, again, isn’t—may be legal once more. The Trump administration says it’s meeting with Xi...
End of an Electric Avenue
An Inflation Reduction Act subsidy for electric vehicles is being shut down by the Trump administration at the end of September, and automakers are pr...
You’ve Been Deepfaked
What do you do when your likeness has been turned into A.I.-generated pornography?—it’s a problem people are already facing. But legislation moving th...
This Is Your Brain On Ketamine
Ketamine has gone from a recreational psychedelic to an approved treatment, and it has caught on in Silicon Valley in a big way. Are the long-term eff...
Bonus: The Discourse | Why is Elon Musk Cheating at Video Games?
Elon Musk is supposed to be running several companies and a new government department—so why is he also spending money to pretend to be good at video...
Bonus: The Discourse | The Bro-ligarchs Take Washington
Choice seats for Donald Trump’s second inauguration were filled with tech founders and CEOs, signaling their importance to this presidential term. The...
2024 In Review: Would You Buy Poop On the Internet?
“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat e...
Influencer vs. Influencer
One influencer working for Amazon sued another influencer who works for Amazon for creating content that looks too similar to theirs. But with how the...
What's Google Without Chrome?
The Department of Justice has released its recommendations for how Google’s monopoly on web search should be broken up. Top of their wishlist? Spinnin...
The X-odus
Since Elon Musk took over, Twitter—er, sorry “X”—has been slowly deflating. But given that soon you’ll be getting yelled at by right-wing trolls direc...
The Polls Weren’t Wrong
Many folks were surprised at how soundly Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the election, especially since they thought the polls made it seem lik...
Elon Wins
As Elon Musk channeled his considerable resources towards Donald Trump’s campaign, there was talk about what his role in the new Trump administration...
Trump’s Crypto Gurus
The crypto project “World Liberty Financial,” which was announced on X by Donald Trump, isn’t a cryptocurrency, nor a crypto-exchange, nor is it actua...
The Failures of ‘Organic’ Farming
There are regulations regarding how farm animals are transported, how they’re auctioned, how they’re slaughtered—but when they’re living on the farm?...
Tweetering on the Glass Cliff
How Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino finds herself on the edge of “the glass cliff”: when a woman is sent in to fix a big mess.
Guest: Vittori...
Can We Make an Alzheimer’s Drug That Works?
Alzheimer’s treatment hasn’t changed much in the past two decades, and the way researchers have been thinking about and approaching the disease may be...
Does Crypto Investment Need to Be Regulated?
Fidelity made headlines when they announced you could invest your retirement savings in Bitcoin. Then the crypto market crashed.
Guest: Anthony...
Will Bitcoin Ruin El Salvador?
Is El Salvador heading for default after going all in on crypto?
Guest: Anna-Cat Brigida
Host: Lizzie O'Leary
Learn mo...
North Korea's Hacking Army
They’ve stolen billions of dollars. Is the U.S. ready to crack down?
Guest: Jason Bartlett, research associate in the Energy, Economics,...
How Buffalo Could Transform Social Media
The shooting in Buffalo raises questions about the effectiveness of content moderation. Is the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism the answer t...
Uber Makes Nice With Cabs
The rideshare company's founder once called taxis “evil.” Now, Uber might need them to survive.
Guest: Preetika Rana
Host: Lizzie O...
The COVAX Fantasy
Over two years into the pandemic, much of the world remains either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or lacking access to mRNA vaccines entirely. Ho...
Where Are The Little Kids' Vaccines?
Today on What Next TBD: What is going on with little kids' vaccines? Why don’t they seem to be a priority for the government or the pharmaceutical com...
Best of 2021: It’s Time to Talk About U.F.O.s
This episode originally aired in July 2021
Last week, the U.S. government released a new report that attempts to categorize 144 verified...
Best of 2021: Are We Getting COVID Testing All Wrong?
This episode originally aired in September.
In the U.S., the PCR test is the gold standard for COVID testing. Common knowledge would have...
Best of 2021: Inside the Subreddit That Blew Up GameStop
This episode originally aired in January 2021
The story of how GameStop went from the verge of a bankruptcy to a $15 billion market value...
Why Are Bots Buying Sneakers?
The bots aren’t just buying cool sneakers. They’re buying concert tickets. Tickets to basketball games and Broadway shows. At the beginning of the pan...
Honey, I Sold the House to Zillow
Between April and June of this year, Zillow bought nearly 4,000 homes. And they had no intention of holding onto them. The plan was to flip houses, of...
The Return of Hacktivism
Over the last month, the domain company Epik and the streaming service Twitch have fallen prey to massive-scale hacks. The hackers revealed not just e...
What Instagram Does to Teens
Since 2018, internal research teams at Facebook have been studying the effect on Instagram on mental health. Their results couldn’t be more clear: Ins...
Are We Getting COVID Testing All Wrong?
In the U.S., the PCR test is the gold standard for COVID testing. Common knowledge would have it that the test is more accurate—and therefore more eff...
Sponsored: Tech Solutions that Serve L.A. Citizens with Ted Ross
The final episode of Season 1 features Ted Ross, Chief Information Officer for the City of Los Angeles. His role became more vital than ever during th...
China vs. Video Games
Recently, China restricted video game playing to just three hours a week for its young people: 8pm to 9pm, Friday through Sunday.
And tha...
Can This River Be Saved?
The Colorado River Basin is experiencing its 22nd year of drought. Its reservoirs are at their lowest-ever levels. The water stored in the system is a...
The Rush for Ivermectin
A medicine meant to treat parasites is the latest unproven COVID treatment craze. With warnings from the FDA, and prescribers clamping down, some are...
Elizabeth Holmes on Trial
Elizabeth Holmes convinced countless people that her company would change the world. Can she convince 12 jurors that she didn’t intend to deceive her...
Will Booster Shots Make a Difference?
The Biden administration says a third dose of vaccines for all American adults will end the pandemic faster. And experts say there is evidence of wani...
What's Taking the FDA So Long?
Experts say that a “fully approved” designation for the vaccines could have sweeping effects. Broader vaccination mandates, inclusion for new age grou...
Can America Fix Its Trains?
America used to be at the vanguard of railroad technology. What went wrong? And can the new infrastructure bill fix our broken system?
Gu...
I Bought It. Why Can't I Fix It?
Whether it’s a phone screen or a coffee machine, why is it so hard to fix our own stuff? And what can we do to make it a bit easier?
Gues...