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.
26
The A.I. Data Center Push That Wasn't
The Trump administration touted Stargate as a 500 billion dollar investment in American data centers. So far, it hasn't panned out.
24 min
27
The Death of an Online Whisper Network
Your safety? There isn’t an app for that.
25 min
28
Dupes!
Is your skincare/skirt/vacation island as good as the real thing?
29 min
29
A Colbert Report
How Trump did (and didn't) get Stephen Colbert cancelled.
21 min
30
When Bots Go Nazi
Grok’s antisemitic posting spree was a glimpse of an unregulated AI future.
25 min
31
How The Epstein Files Blew Up MAGAworld
Live by the conspiracy, die by the conspiracy.
25 min
32
When A.I. is Sycophantic
Chatbots want to please - but it’s pushing some into dark places.
19 min
33
Hot Measles Summer
Why the next few months are crucial for containing the outbreak.
23 min
34
How A.I. Lost (and Won) the Big Beautiful Debate
With a little help from country music.
24 min
35
Rerun: Death of the Weather Forecast?
Climate and weather aren’t the same thing, but the Trump administration would have you understand neither one.
23 min
36
The FTC’s Merger Shakedown
The agency is trying to stop “censorship” on social platforms by keeping private companies from spending their ad dollars as they see fit.
21 min
37
The Other Iran-Israel War
Cyberattacks are much less explosive, but just as dangerous.
20 min
38
Airlines Are Selling Your Data to the Government
And they don’t want you to know.
22 min
39
We Deport. You Laugh?
Why the White House is memeing its mass deportations.
26 min
40
Summer Travel Tips To Not Get Detained
A guide for digital safety.
24 min
41
New DOGE, New Tricks
Elon may be gone, but Big Balls is staying on.
24 min
42
The Future of the Internet Hinges on Gail Slater
You may be asking, “Who?”
25 min
43
Is Palantir Building a Data Big Brother?
Palantir is laying the groundwork for a central government data system - one that sounds an awful lot like a surveillance state.
26 min
44
So Long, Elon
He came, he sawed, he conq—well, he left.
25 min
45
The Drone Wars
Russia and Ukraine are locked in an arms race that will change war forever.
22 min
46
Crypto's Big Win
Even if you've never touched crypto, you could be burned by the GENIUS Act.
26 min
47
Inside OpenAI's Empire
How the company convinced everyone that AGI is inevitable—and that they need to be the ones who control it.
34 min
48
You’ve Been Deepfaked
How AI generated revenge porn is spreading across the internet.
24 min
49
The Newarkification of Flying
Can we avoid an air travel future that is nasty, brutish, and severely delayed?
26 min
50
Online and Pregnant
A conversation with NYT's critic Amanda Hess about her new book.
30 min