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
What Happened After Meta Fired Its Fact-Checkers
The truth is, Zuckerberg’s new system isn’t working very well.
25 min
27
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
28
The Death of an Online Whisper Network
Your safety? There isn’t an app for that.
25 min
29
Dupes!
Is your skincare/skirt/vacation island as good as the real thing?
29 min
30
A Colbert Report
How Trump did (and didn't) get Stephen Colbert cancelled.
21 min
31
When Bots Go Nazi
Grok’s antisemitic posting spree was a glimpse of an unregulated AI future.
25 min
32
How The Epstein Files Blew Up MAGAworld
Live by the conspiracy, die by the conspiracy.
25 min
33
When A.I. is Sycophantic
Chatbots want to please - but it’s pushing some into dark places.
19 min
34
Hot Measles Summer
Why the next few months are crucial for containing the outbreak.
23 min
35
How A.I. Lost (and Won) the Big Beautiful Debate
With a little help from country music.
24 min
36
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
37
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
38
The Other Iran-Israel War
Cyberattacks are much less explosive, but just as dangerous.
20 min
39
Airlines Are Selling Your Data to the Government
And they don’t want you to know.
22 min
40
We Deport. You Laugh?
Why the White House is memeing its mass deportations.
26 min
41
Summer Travel Tips To Not Get Detained
A guide for digital safety.
24 min
42
New DOGE, New Tricks
Elon may be gone, but Big Balls is staying on.
24 min
43
The Future of the Internet Hinges on Gail Slater
You may be asking, “Who?”
25 min
44
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
45
So Long, Elon
He came, he sawed, he conq—well, he left.
25 min
46
The Drone Wars
Russia and Ukraine are locked in an arms race that will change war forever.
22 min
47
Crypto's Big Win
Even if you've never touched crypto, you could be burned by the GENIUS Act.
26 min
48
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
49
You’ve Been Deepfaked
How AI generated revenge porn is spreading across the internet.
24 min
50
The Newarkification of Flying
Can we avoid an air travel future that is nasty, brutish, and severely delayed?
26 min