What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the...
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.
376
Welcome to Bitcoin Beach
Can El Salvador’s seaside crypto experiment really work as a national policy?
19 min
377
What Cops Are Doing With Your DNA
Police have solved hundreds of cold cases using open-source DNA platforms. But at what cost?
20 min
378
What Space Billionaires Cost Us
Jeff Bezos’ quick trip into outer space is about more than just publicity.
19 min
379
The App That Sparked a Manhunt
Two weeks ago, Citizen made its first foray into real-world crime solving. It didn’t go well.
23 min
380
Apple and Epic’s Battle Royale
After three weeks of testimony, the future of mobile gaming is caught in limbo.
16 min
381
The Hackers Who Took Down the Colonial Pipeline
A voyage into the weird world of the ransomware industry.
22 min
382
How the World’s Great Vaccination Hope Crashed
The Serum Institute of India is the world’s largest vaccine producer. Somehow, its home country is running out of doses.
20 min
383
Oversight Board to Facebook: Nice Try
The social network hoped its “Supreme Court” would decide Trump’s fate on the platform. It didn’t take the bait.
18 min
384
Tim Apple vs. Mark Facebook
Two of the most powerful tech companies in the world have very different ideas about how the internet should work.
18 min
385
What's Causing the Tesla Crashes?
Two men died after their car plowed into a tree. Police say no one was at the wheel.
19 min
386
Seduced by Substack
Is leaving a stable job to peddle a newsletter based on your personal brand crazy, or the future?
21 min
387
The Rise of the Therapy Apps
The pandemic opened up a window to transform mental health care as we know it. Is that a good thing?
22 min
388
Introducing: ICYMI
We’re online so you don’t have to be.
28 min
389
The Fight Over Vaccine Passports
Standardizing vaccine credentials won’t be an easy task.
22 min
390
The AstraZeneca Saga
By all accounts, Oxford and AstraZeneca made a good vaccine. So why has the path to approval been so painful?
22 min
391
Hate, Lies, and AI
Artificial Intelligence transformed technology across Facebook. But it’s not being employed to fix the company’s biggest problem.
23 min
392
Does Google Actually Want to Hire Black Engineers?
The tech giant’s partnerships with HBCUs are still coming up short.
21 min
393
The Failing Lifeline for Low-Income Americans
A Reagan-era program designed to provide phone access for the poor has hardly changed in 40 years.
20 min
394
Australia’s Kinda-Sorta Win Over Big Tech
A new type of legislation could change the way governments and big tech do business.
19 min
395
Why Texas Went Dark
The state is no stranger to extreme weather. But not like this.
20 min
396
How Clubhouse Cracked China’s Firewall
Two weeks of extraordinary conversations led to an inevitable result.
21 min
397
India Turns Off the Internet
India ranks second in the world in mobile internet subscribers. It ranks first in shutdowns.
17 min
398
Inside the Subreddit That Blew Up GameStop
How an irreverent band of Reddit investors cost Wall Street millions.
20 min
399
Why the Vaccine Websites Suck
The states’ struggles with digital delivery started long before 2020.
26 min
400
Where the Far Right Is Meeting Now
Extreme groups have been banned from mainstream social media platforms. Is that a good thing?
16 min