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.
1
Betting on Venezuela
Someone on Polymarket made $400k on Maduro’s ouster
24 min
2
Are We Over the Moon?
NASA had a goal of getting to the moon by 2027. It's 2026, and the agency is still far from reaching that.
33 min
3
2025: Dystopian Tech of the Year
Just when you thought wrap-around sunglasses were as bad as they could be…
24 min
4
2025: The Meme of the Year
22 min
5
Is the A.I. Bubble Bursting? | 2025 in Review
An “A.I. hater” makes the case.
34 min
6
We Made a Memecoin | 2025 in Review
Because—how hard could it be?
31 min
7
Data Center Space Race
Elon is eyeing two birds with one IPO.
22 min
8
Whole Shopping List
You can’t buy Tide PODS at Whole Foods. Amazon is trying to fix that.
20 min
9
Ready for Chatbot Canvassers?
Democracy dies in Chatbots.
26 min
10
ChatGOP?
How AI is splitting the MAGA coalition.
19 min
11
The AI & Crypto Czar’s Conflicts
David Sacks is making policy in Washington. And it benefits his firm.
22 min
12
If You Give A.I. a Nuke
Don’t worry. Computers can’t decide to drop a bomb. Yet.
24 min
13
Rebroadcast: Dupes!
Is your skincare/skirt/vacation island as good as the real thing?
30 min
14
The Surveillance Interstate
ICE is watching how and where you drive.
27 min
15
Crypto Keeps Criming
Even with a crypto president, these guys can’t stop doing shady stuff.
21 min
16
How Meta Profits Off Fraud
There’s a big financial incentive for Facebook and Instagram to tolerate scammers.
28 min
17
Data Centers on the Ballot
A.I. companies are leading the data-center boom. Voters seem less enthused.
21 min
18
Why Tesla Is Paying Elon a Trillion Bucks
Post-DOGE, Musk’s empire is looking a little shaky, if still extremely lucrative for the man himself.
27 min
19
The Nick Fuentes Problem
What’s the difference between being a party with Nazis and being in a Nazi party?
21 min
20
Why Trump Keeps Pardoning Crypto Criminals
There’s nothing cryptic about the president’s motivation.
27 min
21
Inside the Goonerverse
A very specific (NSFW) online world.
26 min
22
Did The Trump Administration Censor Speech?
Anti-ICE posts and apps flourished online. The Trump administration had them taken down.
28 min
23
The AWS Outage is Only the Beginning
Why a mesh of cloud services and undersea cables make for a very delicate web.
28 min
24
Why Bands Are Leaving Spotify
Xiu Xiu explains their decision to leave the streaming platform following Daniel Ek's investments in defense tech.
17 min
25
Inside the MAGA Content Mill
How to make a city full of inflatable frog suits look like it needs the National Guard.
23 min