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
Online and Pregnant
A conversation with NYT's critic Amanda Hess about her new book.
30 min
2
Chatbots All The Way Down
Why AI companies are giving you the tech you want, but maybe not the tech you need.
22 min
3
How Elon Wields Power
You can’t run the country like a company. Musk is learning that the hard way.
30 min
4
Marc Andreessen’s New Deal
How the Silicon Valley kingmaker became a Washington mover and shaker.
22 min
5
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
6
The Immigration Data Dragnet
25 min
7
The Baby Monitor Trap
How a device designed to give parents some space demands that they pay more attention than ever.
25 min
8
The U.S. vs Meta
The U.S. alleges Meta has a social media monopoly. Meta claims that in 2025, that's simply not true.
20 min
9
TikTok: Somehow Also Affected by the Tariffs
Like everything else, TikTok finds itself subject to changing winds of one President Trump.
18 min
10
Trump Tariffs Hit Mushroom Kingdom
How Nintendo tried to save their console princess.
20 min
11
Why Wall Street Can’t Quit Elon
Your 401k loves him too.
29 min
12
Where DOGE Is Taking Us
What happens when you run the government like how Elon Musk runs a business?
24 min
13
This Is Your Brain On Ketamine
And Silicon Valley's too.
22 min
14
We Made a Memecoin
Because—how hard could it be?
27 min
15
Bezos 2.0
How the Amazon founder went from Trump critic to Trump donor.
25 min
16
Trump's War on Scientific Research
Cutting NIH grants–even temporarily–could have repercussions for years to come.
26 min
17
How Trump Is Trying to Kill Press Freedom
Inside the movement targeting free speech.
26 min
18
Will Tesla Survive Elon Musk?
From “Eco-Friendly” to “Swastiscar”
23 min
19
Zuckerberg and the Post-Factcheck Era
Does Meta know what they’ve done?
26 min
20
From 4Chan to Charlottesville to DOGE
How the far-right internet conquered American politics.
27 min
21
Cracking the Egg Crisis
An eggsplanation.
18 min
22
The DOGE Resistance
Lawsuits, protests and Elon Musk's Achilles Heel
24 min
23
$Trump
Crypto poured money into the campaign, now the first family is cashing in.
21 min
24
Elon's Endgame
He's slashing the federal workforce. He's gutting programs he doesn't like. But at the end of the day, what does he want?
30 min
25
Can You Pay Attention, Please?
Chris Hayes discusses his new book that calls attention “the world’s most endangered resource.”
23 min