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
Is Silicon Valley Trump-Vance Country?
Or will a Californian on top of the Democratic ticket win back tech’s votes?
20 min
2
The Conspiracy Theory Election
Misinformation from all sides is dominating this election, making it impossible to tell what’s real and what’s fake.
20 min
3
America’s Tech Trustbuster
AAG Jonathan Kanter talks A.I., rent-pricing software, and how he envisions fair competition.
29 min
4
The New World of DIY Medical Tests
Does the medical community have only itself to blame?
19 min
5
Boeing Pleads Guilty
Felony charges, half a billion in fines, and stranded astronauts—surely this must be rock bottom.
21 min
6
The Blu-Ray-naissance Is Here. Sort of.
Tired of movies slipping off streaming sites right when you want to watch them? There’s an obvious, off-the-shelf solution…
19 min
7
Elon Says Have More Babies
Billions of anything is just never enough for this guy.
19 min
8
Why Are IUDs Still a Mystery?
From a murky, painful start to a symbol of reproductive freedom.
22 min
9
Why Extreme Weather Keeps Surprising You
Scientists are trying to determine when a hot summer is climate change, or just the weather.
27 min
10
Is Your Phone Tracking Your Driving?
The business of collecting driving data is lucrative. Most drivers aren’t aware it exists.
21 min
11
Amazon Wants Your Handprint
Biometric payment methods are coming to Whole Foods and beyond. Should we be worried?
19 min
12
The FBI Made a Phone Network. It Was A Trap.
Anom was used by thousands of criminals. It was run by the FBI.
29 min
13
Apple Goes Intelligent
The giant Silicon Valley holdout joins the AI race. But is the demand real or artificial?
21 min
14
Fee’d Up: A Musician’s Take on Ticketmaster
Look what you made Merrick Garland do
19 min
15
The Secret Semiconductor War
The race is on and America is trailing. Why is it important to catch up?
19 min
16
Would You Buy Poop On the Internet?
The wild world of peer-to-peer Fecal Microbial Transplants.
20 min
17
He’s Suing Big Tech Over Uvalde
The lawsuit includes the gunmaker, Meta, and Activision, the company behind Call of Duty.
23 min
18
Why Hospitals Keep Getting Hacked
New computer security systems may not be a priority for your hospital. They should be.
20 min
19
Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAI
Is OpenAI’s latest scandal a sign of what’s to come?
23 min
20
The Dark Side of GoFundMe
Even when it succeeds, it’s evidence of a broken system.
28 min
21
Too Stonks Too Furious
Meme stocks are back—wait, they never really went away.
21 min
22
Would You Choose Your Child’s Sex?
Almost every country has banned the practice—but in the US, its growing.
25 min
23
Meet the Trump Campaign’s A.I. Guy
The artificial intelligence election is on.
17 min
24
Can California Save Journalism?
The Sunshine State considers making Google and Meta pony up—and making news outlets spend that revenue on their staff.
20 min
25
Bird Flu—It’s in Milk?
Scientists are observing, for the first time, the virus spreading cow-to-cow—is human-to-human next?
21 min