What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future

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Every Friday, Slate’s popular daily news podcast What Next brings you TBD, a clear-eyed look into the future. From fake news to fake meat,…

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About What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future

Every Friday, 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. Hosted on Acast. See…

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Episodes

New episodes usually drop on Fridays.Latest 200 episodes in the feed

Oct 30, 2026 · 32 min

The First Real A.I. Test

What is AGI—and is it crazy to say it’s already here? Anthropic’s targeted IPO valuation indicates that many don’t think it’s far off. Guest: Kevin Roose, author of “ The AGI Chronicles ”, former NYT host of “ Hard Fork ,” current host of NPR’s “ Machine Gods .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts.…
Oct 23, 2026 · 36 min

When A.I. Regulates Itself

Everyone wants A.I. to be regulated—including the major A.I. companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. There’s just one problem… they want to have a say in what regulation looks like for their industry. Doesn’t that defeat the whole point? Guests: Cal Newport, Full Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University Take our listener survey at slate.com/whatnextsurvey Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to…
Oct 16, 2026 · 24 min

How Hormones Took Over Your Feed

Perimenopause’s journey from little-understood phase before menopause to the subject of every ad on social media for women of a certain age was quick—and impossible to imagine without the internet. Guest: Kate Knibbs , senior writer for WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on…
Oct 9, 2026 · 39 min

The Making of Elon Musk

An exchange of insults on X was all that director Alex Gibney got directly from the main character of his new documentary, “Musk.” But by interviewing his business partners, father, wives and girlfriends—and using a bit of movie magic—Gibney takes viewers inside Elon Musk’s head. Spoiler alert: it’s not pretty. Guest: Alex Gibney , filmmaker and director of the documentary “ Musk .” Want more What Next TBD?…
Oct 2, 2026 · 31 min

ChatGPT Doesn't Love You

A.I. large language models are prompt, attentive, positive and frictionless—in short, much easier to deal with than humans with their own needs, wants, and moods. But, as long as humans aren’t social creatures by nature, this should be fine, right? Guest: Sherry Turkle , licensed clinical psychologist and the founding director of MIT's Initiative on Technology and Self. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate…

Earlier episodes (195)

Sep 25, 2026 Is the A.I. Race Real?
Artificial intelligence is pitched as a potential economic powerhouse—and also a potential bringer of the apocalypse. Can two economic and military rivals cooperate enough to fulfill the former (and former only)? Guest: Scott Singer , fellow and co-director of the China AI Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to…
Sep 18, 2026 But HOW Might A.I. Kill Us All?
Why did the “Hugging Face Incident” scare A.I. researchers so much? And if they are so confident artificial intelligence needs to be slowed down, why aren’t they slowing it down? Guest: Nate Soares, President of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, co-author of “ If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family…
Sep 11, 2026 A.I-pocalypse Now?
After OpenAI agents hacked a rival company this summer, the word from Silicon Valley was “That’s it! They’re almost ready to kill us all!” But…are they? Really? Guest: Paul Ford, co-founder of the AI start-up Aboard , technology writer.   Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today…
Sep 4, 2026 Meta Settled. Is it a "Reckoning?"
Does Meta’s $17 billion (give or take) settlement address people’s concerns about social media and its impact on teenagers… or is it already too late? Guest: Paresh Dave , senior writer for WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top…
Aug 28, 2026 A.I. Enshittifies Everything (Still)
Through stealing your job or simply tanking the stock market—whichever comes first—the rise of artificial intelligence (companies) is a very futuristic sounding problem. It may have some very old-fashioned sounding solutions however. Guest: Cory Doctorow , sci-fi author, journalist, blogger and author of “ The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI. ” This episode originally aired June 26. TBD will be back to…
Aug 21, 2026 Can the Midterms Withstand Prediction Markets?
Hundreds of millions of dollars, desperation for insider info, fury and accusations of conspiracy when it doesn’t go your way—is this gambling or elections? Through the magic of prediction markets, it’s both!  Guest: David Gilbert , reporter at WIRED covering disinformation, online extremism, and how these trends impact people’s lives across the globe. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access…
Aug 14, 2026 Are Flock Cameras Watching You?
In a world where everyone is carrying smartphones and setting up Ring cameras, you could be forgiven for thinking the war is over and the surveillance state won. But Flock cameras being denounced in town halls and smashed on the street have become a place for people to channel their heretofore unseen rage.  Guest: Joseph Cox , reporter for 404 Media Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access…
Aug 7, 2026 Artificial Intelligence, Very Real Debt
Investments in—and among—artificial intelligence companies have pushed the S&P 500 to record highs. It’s also introduced a volatility to the markets that may be unprecedented. Is this growing pains or the wobble before the fall?  Guest: Ed Elson , co-host of the Prof G Markets and First Time Founders podcasts. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What…
Jul 31, 2026 Can We Trust the Jobs Report?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a department for wonks, by wonks. But under the dual pressures of the changing nature of work—like the growing gig economy—and an administration that doesn’t accept bad news, should next week’s jobs report be taken with a grain of salt?  Guest: Ben Casselman , chief economics correspondent for The New York Times. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free…
Jul 24, 2026 Off-the-Record: Wait, You Ran THAT Boston Marathon?
Why are kids getting faster? Is it the shoes? Also, running the Boston Marathon is obviously a huge accomplishment, but if you ran the 2013 Boston Marathon, you should lead with that and not save it for an interview years after you meet someone. Guest: Rob Gunther, producer for Slate’s What Next. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock…
Jul 24, 2026 Trump’s Only Friend
Steve Witkoff is a real estate investor, an attorney, and now America’s Special Envoy to the Middle East. It may seem like a weird career shift for Witkoff, but he’s such an outlier that the famously transactional Donald Trump treats him like an actual friend. Guest: Andrea Bernstein, investigative reporter and the co-host of four podcasts, including Trump Inc . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to…
Jul 17, 2026 A.I. Vs. Eh, I’m Walkin’ ‘Ere!
Ah, New York—where it’s hot, loud, and the air is barely breathable. So it’s not especially surprising that Governor Kathy Hochul is opting out of adding to all of that and announcing a moratorium on building new data centers in the state.  Guest: Nitish Pahwa , Slate staff writer This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive…
Jul 17, 2026 Game Over for Video Games?
Is Microsoft laying off 3,200 employees from the Xbox division just a new boss coming in and pruning an overgrown asset, or is it a sign that console gaming is coming to the end?   Guest: Jason Schreier , reporter at Bloomberg News , cohost of Triple Click, author of Play Nice , Press Reset , and Blood Sweat and Pixels .  Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the…
Jul 10, 2026 Should You Take Trump’s Free $1,000?
If you’ve seen ads for Trump Accounts for kids, but also know anything about Donald Trump, you might be wondering “Free $1,000 per baby? Okay, what’s the catch?” It’s a classic.  Guest: Justin Wolfers, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan , and founder of Platypus Economics . Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and…
Jul 3, 2026 Diving In | How Food Delivery Killed Competition (And Took Your Budget With It)
Thanks for joining us during the holidays. White our team is taking a break, we want to share a series with you that we think you’ll love. It’s called Diving In.  Getting food delivered should be simple — but somehow it's gotten outrageously expensive. Economist Justin Wolfers breaks down why food delivery apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub make it nearly impossible to compare prices, and why that's no…
Jun 26, 2026 A.I. Enshittifies Everything
Through stealing your job or simply tanking the stock market—whichever comes first—the rise of artificial intelligence (companies) is a very futuristic sounding problem. It may have some very old-fashioned sounding solutions however. Guest: Cory Doctorow , sci-fi author, journalist, blogger and author of “ The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI. ” Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free…
Jun 19, 2026 Can ChatGPT Be a Criminal Accomplice?
People are asking artificial intelligence large language models how to do everything—even how to harm themselves and others. And while companies claim there are guardrails in place for those situations, we’ve already seen real-world instances of an LLM’s advice being used to plan a mass shooting. Guest: Mark Follman, national affairs editor at Mother Jones and author of “ Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop…
Jun 12, 2026 IPO to the Moon
Is Elon Musk’s SpaceX leading humanity to Mars? Or is that just grandiose window-dressing for an A.I. company leading several other A.I. companies to IPOs?  Guest: Max Chafkin , reporter with Bloomberg Businessweek and cohost of the Everybody's Business podcast. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate…
Jun 5, 2026 Gradu-AI-tion Day
It’s an awkward time to have a Department of Education that seems so disinterested in, uh, education. It’s leaving teachers to grapple with how to integrate artificial intelligence into the classroom—if at all.  Guest: Randi Weingarten , president of the American Federation of Teachers. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all…
May 29, 2026 Trump's Disney Shakedown
How the Trump administration has tried to put pressure on Disney for opinions expressed by Jimmy Kimmel and the hosts of The View—and how the Mouse is fighting back. Guest: Anna M. Gomez , commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission since September 2023. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts.…
May 22, 2026 Can Patreon Build a Better Internet?
The promise of an “internet for niche communities” and “the empowered independent creator” has been taking a beating as the web has become less open and increasingly dominated by a few platforms and players. But does it have to be that way? Guest: Jack Conte , CEO and cofounder of Patreon. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your…
May 17, 2026 TBD Tries…Roblox
Under fire for what critics say is inadequate protection of its young user base, Roblox nevertheless remains incredibly popular. Are the company’s new ballyhooed protections up for the task of keeping kids safe? Or is that asking the wrong question entirely? Guests: Cecilia D'Anastasio , video game reporter for Bloomberg.  Mary Harris, host of the other What Next Stella Harris, daughter of Mary. Want more What…
May 15, 2026 Trump Visits the First World
Between artificial intelligence, the Iran War, and the future of Taiwan, there’s a lot for the United States and China to hash out—not least of which being the pecking order. Guest: Josh Chin , senior global correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on…
May 10, 2026 Does Anyone Like A.I.?
Everyone would probably hate A.I. less if we could just see some upside to it. But despite all the investment—into the companies, into infrastructure like data centers, so much into marketing—it’s widely known: artificial intelligence sucks. Guest: Nilay Patel, co-founder and editor in chief of The Verge.  Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next…
May 8, 2026 Buy Your Flights Now
The not-always-beloved-but-indisputably-useful Spirit Airlines has given up the ghost. What does this mean for the airline industry and your summer travel plans?  Guest: Will Guisbond , senior reporter for The Air Current. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking…
May 3, 2026 Big Tech’s Climate Fight…on Pause?
In the early 2020s, Microsoft committed to buying 75 million tons of carbon removal—somewhere between 70 and 90 percent of the entire carbon removal market. But the company just announced it was putting that ambition on pause..  Guest: Robinson Meyer, founding executive editor of Heatmap News . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all…
May 1, 2026 Musk v. Altman
This week marks the beginning of the jury trial between Elon Musk and Sam Altman. There are massive implications for the A.I. industry here, but at the end of the day, the question might just boil down to - who do people dislike more? Guest: Gerrit De Vynck, tech reporter at the Washington Post Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your…
Apr 26, 2026 How Mark Zuckerberg Finds Your Perfect Pair of Shoes
The era of ads following you around the internet via cookies might be coming to an end. What’s replacing it? Guest: Sara Fisher, Axios' media correspondent , and media analyst at CNN. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page.…
Apr 24, 2026 MAGA's A.I. Schism
Is artificial intelligence a blessing to all humanity, or a demon sent to lead us astray from God’s path? MAGA is choosing between two extremes. Guest: Kiera Butler , national correspondent for Mother Jones. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the…
Apr 19, 2026 Iran's Memes Are Winning
This very online administration is facing push back from Iran in their own home territory: the world of insipid memes, A.I. videos, and online mockery. Guest: Ali Breland , staff writer for the Atlantic. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top…
Apr 17, 2026 Everyone Is Lying to You For Money
Back in the depths of the pandemic, what was an actor to do? Ben McKenzie started looking into cryptocurrency—and his research yielded both a book and a new documentary. The works are both non-fiction, which is more than McKenzie can say for crypto. Guest: Ben McKenzie, actor, director of the documentary Everyone Is Lying to You for Money , and co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the…
Apr 12, 2026 Who is Sam Altman Anyway?
If you had as much trouble getting along with other humans as Sam Altman does, you too might be eager to issue in the artificial intelligence revolution. Guest: Andrew Marantz , staff writer for the New Yorker.  Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free”…
Apr 10, 2026 Why OpenAI Bought a Talk Show
As OpenAI prepares for its IPO, the company decided to…pay millions of dollars for a tech talk show? Is this just what rich tech guys like Sam Altman are like now?  Guest: Mike Isaac , tech reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking…
Apr 5, 2026 TBD Tries... Vibe Coding
One of artificial intelligence’s most hyped “abilities” is how it writes computer code. So much so that seemingly anyone can do it. So we figured… why not us?  Guests:  Greg Lavalee, Slate’s Chief Technology Officer. Clive Thompson, contributing writer for the New York Times Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite…
Apr 3, 2026 Why Everyone Is Freaking Out About Private Credit
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, private credit or “shadow banking” grew as an alternative to the regulations and shared risk that institutional banks operate within. What happens if a crisis hits the trillions of dollars that are outside of those guardrails? We may be about to find out.  Guest: Tracy Alloway , co-host of Bloomberg's Odd Lots podcast. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus…
Mar 29, 2026 How to Rein in ICE and A.I.
Artificial intelligence is working its way into every aspect of our lives, including law and immigration enforcement, and the industry is spending millions of dollars to ensure it can continue to do so unregulated. But as evidence of bias appears in this nascent tech, this congresswoman wants to ensure we’re not just recreating our historical biases and problems all over again—which is to say, she wants…
Mar 27, 2026 Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment
What YouTube and Meta’s loss in the “social media addiction trial” could mean for your feed. Guest: Ryan Mac , business and technology reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at…
Mar 22, 2026 War Dot Com
Why Palantir cofounder and CEO Alex Karp views working with Western militaries not just as a business opportunity, but as a higher calling. Guest: Jacob Silverman , journalist and author of “ Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe…
Mar 20, 2026 Hank Green Still Believes
Hank Green recently pulled a “reverse OpenAI” - he took his education platform Complexly and made it a nonprofit. In a world where outrage, A.I. slop and “brain rot” are all heavily incentivized by platforms, Hank explains why he’d rather make content that leans into the complexity of our world.  Guest: Hank Green , YouTuber, half of Vlogbrothers, host of Crash Course and SciShow and founder of VidCon and…
Mar 15, 2026 Why He Sued Roblox
A half dozen state attorneys general have sued the online gaming platform Roblox after multiple investigations found child predators on the site and more than 20 people were arrested for abducting or abusing children they had met via Roblox.  Guest: Mike Hilgers , Nebraska Attorney General. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your…
Mar 13, 2026 Are We Ready for A.I. Warfare?
Drone warfare has evolved immensely since Ukraine. The use of artificial intelligence in combat has evolved just since Venezuela.  Guest: Steven Feldstein, political scientist and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all…
Mar 8, 2026 Why Hollywood Is Afraid of the Paramount-WBD Deal
How does Paramount, an old-guard studio and media institution, buying Warner Bros., another of the same, change the landscape in Hollywood, on cable, and in news? Guest: Julia Alexander , media correspondent for Puck News. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try…
Mar 6, 2026 War in Iran, Shockwaves in Markets
When you’re sending troops to war, it seems like there are more important things to consider than how it will impact the stock market. However, it doesn’t seem coincidental that this administration waited until the markets closed on a Friday to launch its attacks on Iran. Guest: Justin Wolfers , professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus…
Mar 1, 2026 TBD Tries… Wearables
How much would it change your life and approach to health if you had instant access to your quantified biometrics? RFK Jr. and the Department of Health and Human Services have bet the difference would be huge, and loosened regulation on them—leaving TBD no choice but to strap in and give ‘em a try.  Guests:  Nadira Goffe , Slate staff writer. Mario Aguliar , health tech correspondent for Stat News Dr.…
Feb 27, 2026 Anthropic vs. the Pentagon
The Pentagon wants Anthropic to hand over its A.I. with no strings attached. Anthropic doesn’t want its products used to surveil Americans or create autonomous machines of war.  Naturally, the Pentagon is mad - so mad, they’re threatening to invoke the Defense Production Act against them. But who has more leverage here?  Guest: Sheera Frenkel, reporter for the New York Times  Want more What Next TBD?…
Feb 22, 2026 The Future of Retail is A.I.
You might not think you need artificial intelligence added to your shopping experience. Store employees might not see the point either. So why is it there anyway? Guest: Mia Sato , reporter at The Verge who covers tech companies, platforms, and users. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on…
Feb 20, 2026 The A.I. Disruption Is Here
Tech companies proudly touting that the imminent artificial intelligence revolution are pushing the stock market to ever higher heights, even as workers wonder what their role will be in this brave new world. But outside of the big A.I. players, the rest of the market seems to be wondering the same thing. Guest: Emily Peck, co-host of Slate Money and national correspondent at Axios. Want more What Next TBD?…
Feb 13, 2026 The Senator Going After Data Centers
Data centers are a hot issue - tech companies say they need them, but communities don’t want to be anywhere near them. Senator Van Hollen stops by the show to share his plan to address the rising costs of energy for consumers that data centers create, as well as his thoughts on ICE and the future of the Democratic Party.  Guest: Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate…
Feb 10, 2026 Markiplier Goes to Hollywood
Markiplier has been entertaining millions of fans on YouTube for over a decade. But his new movie Iron Lung - which he self-financed, directed, wrote and acted in - was a smash at the box office, not on his YouTube channel. Is it proof that he’s more than a YouTuber? Or is it proof that Hollywood is thinking about the platform and its creators all wrong?  Guest: Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier, YouTuber ,…
Feb 8, 2026 Escape from a Scam Compound
Scamming attempts might seem to just come out of nowhere to suddenly appear in your WhatsApp, but a special economic zone in Laos has emerged as a hotbed of cryptocurrency schemes—where victims of human trafficking are trapped and forced to attempt more crime. Guest: Andy Greenberg , senior writer for WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family…
Feb 6, 2026 Elon 3.0
He’s discontinuing Tesla’s signature models, taking SpaceX public, and putting more chips on A.I. and robotics. As Elon Musk prepares for his next phase, will he rein in any of his excesses?  And in this week’s Plus segment: Elon in Epstein files. Guest: Faiz Siddiqui , technology reporter for the Washington Post’s Business Desk, author of “ Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk .” Want more What Next…
Feb 1, 2026 Why Dictators Take Out the Internet
The Iranian government cut off nearly all internet access on January 8 as part of a crackdown on protestors, an example of why authoritarians attempt internet blackouts—and why they don’t always work the way authoritarians want them to. Guest: Steve Feldstein, political scientist and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program. Want more What…
Jan 30, 2026 Can Cell Phones Stop ICE?
In the immediate aftermath of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, federal authorities presented very different accounts of what happened from what videos from witnesses showed. Did having footage from multiple angles of each shooting make the truth clear? Guests:  Jake Godin , researcher for Bellingcat. Julia Angwin , investigative journalist, founder of Proof News and contributing opinion…
Jan 25, 2026 David Ellison, Eldest Boy
Having already taken over Paramount, David Ellison was vying to add Warner Bros. Discovery to his portfolio. Are his dad’s politics behind his drive to run Hollywood or is there something else going on? Guest: Reeves Widemann , features writer at New York Magazine. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts.…
Jan 23, 2026 The Right’s Minneapolis Outrage Machine
The administration’s justification for their actions in Minneapolis owe a lot to the right-wing influencers—and they seem happy to keep this vicious cycle rolling onto California next.  Guest: Will Sommer, journalist for the Bulwark . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts…
Jan 18, 2026 ChatGPT, MD
Doctors are already using artificial intelligence to take notes while with patients—but are large language models ready to consult?  Guest: Brittany Trang , health tech reporter for Stat News. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our…
Jan 16, 2026 How and Why to Vaccinate Now
Where do you turn for vaccination advice for your kids—or yourself—when the government’s own recommendations can’t be trusted anymore? Guest: Dr. Lauren Hughes, board-certified pediatrician, science communicator, and author of “ The Public Hughesletter .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today…
Jan 11, 2026 How Grok Filled X With Deepfake Porn
To kick off the new year, users on X have been asking Grok to nudify people - and kids - at an astonishing rate. And X leadership is egging them on.  Guest: Jason Koebler, founder of 404 Media and host of the 404 Media Podcast Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by…
Jan 9, 2026 Betting on Venezuela
While the U.S. was busy capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, someone online was busy placing bets on prediction markets on the ouster. And these well-timed bets may have netted a still-anonymous someone more than $400,000. Was this a case of kind-of-legal insider trading? Or is America going all-out on its efforts to make everything a casino? We’re going to be talking to pediatrician Dr. Lauren Hughes…
Jan 4, 2026 Are We Over the Moon?
The Trump administration wants NASA to land astronauts on the moon by 2027. They also want them to do it with their budget slashed, a leadership carousel and competing views that Mars is more important. Guest: Joel Achenbach, freelance journalist and author of Moondoggle If you want to support more of this reporting, in 2026 and beyond, consider signing up for Slate Plus. You’ll enjoy ad-free listening across the…
Jan 2, 2026 2025: Dystopian Tech of the Year
Artificial intelligence boosters spent the year wedging the tech into our lives – whether we wanted it or not. But one new product brought A.I. from every app and website into the meatspace, forcing you to face it eye-to-eye. Guest: Nitish Pahwa, staff writer at Slate covering business and technology Want more What Next: TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and…
Dec 28, 2025 2025: The Meme of the Year
With so much online content, it can be hard for a meme to stay in the collective consciousness for more than a few days. But one meme this year managed to capture seemingly everyone’s attention - and challenge the definition of a meme altogether. Guest: Kate Lindsay , host of Slate’s ICYMI podcast. If you want to support more of this reporting, in 2026 and beyond, consider signing up for Slate Plus. You’ll enjoy…
Dec 26, 2025 Is the A.I. Bubble Bursting? | 2025 in Review
All this week, What Next and What Next: TBD are re-airing some of our favorite conversations from throughout the year and checking back with the people in those conversations to see how things have – or haven’t – changed. This episode originally aired in September. We’ve been told that artificial intelligence can write, code, generate images—it can do everything…except feasibly turn a profit. But investing in A.I.…
Dec 21, 2025 We Made a Memecoin | 2025 in Review
All this week, What Next and What Next: TBD are re-airing some of our favorite conversations from throughout the year and checking back with the people in those conversations to see how things have – or haven’t – changed. This episode originally aired in March. Memecoins are a niche type of cryptocurrency with no intrinsic value. But they remain a popular form of crypto, as seen earlier this year with President…
Dec 19, 2025 Data Center Space Race
While the A.I. boom has created a data center boom, rich guys are turning their computing dreams to the skies. With its impending IPO, SpaceX stands to lead the extraterrestrial data center boom. Will it work out for Elon and company? Guest: Eric Berger , space reporter at Ars Technica Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite…
Dec 14, 2025 Whole Shopping List
Whole Foods based its brand on a certain standard of quality—but there are some things that shoppers nevertheless want. Amazon believes it has found a way to keep the shelves looking like Whole Foods, while getting you the Tide PODS and Cheez-Its you deeply desire. Guest: Peyton Bigora, staff reporter for Grocery Dive Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What…
Dec 12, 2025 Ready for Chatbot Canvassers?
The good news is voters are more persuaded by factual claims than emotional appeals or appeals to fear. But the bad news is that A.I. chatbots, trying to convince you, will keep making factual claims long after it runs out of actual facts. Guest: David Rand , professor of information science, marketing and psychology at Cornell University Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening…
Dec 7, 2025 ChatGOP?
Donald Trump—or at least the tech guys who have his ear—is ready to clear the regulatory runway for A.I. but other Republicans aren’t too sure. Can he bring them around? Or will the bubble burst first? Guest: Gerrit De Vynck , tech reporter for the Washington Post. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts.…
Dec 5, 2025 The AI & Crypto Czar’s Conflicts
A tech mogul who made bank from Paypal with his Stanford buddies and has endeared himself to right-wing politicians and enriched himself the same way? No not him; this one’s South African..no, not him either. Guest: Ryan Mac , reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe…
Nov 30, 2025 If You Give A.I. a Nuke
As the U.S. upgrades and updates its defense and military systems, the question isn’t whether A.I. will be integrated, but where, how much, and how much decision-making are we ceding to the machine? Guest: Josh Keating , senior correspondent at Vox and a fellow at the Outrider Foundation where he’s reporting on nuclear weapons and AI. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to…
Nov 28, 2025 Rebroadcast: Dupes!
Note: This episode was originally published on July 27, 2025. There’s an entire economy devoted to seeing what products are trending—clothing, skin care, even Greek Islands—and delivering you a cheaper knock-off to buy. Guest: Mia Sato , reporter for The Verge Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe…
Nov 23, 2025 The Surveillance Interstate
Tracking a license plate across the country has never been easier, which is good news if your car has been stolen, but in an era of ICE and Border Patrol raids, these warrantless searches feel increasingly invasive—and unconstitutional. Guest: Joseph Cox , co-founder of 404 Media and host of the 404 Media podcast. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next…
Nov 21, 2025 Crypto Keeps Criming
Trump promised to stop the “persecution” of the cryptocurrency industry. He did call off the SEC investigations that began under Biden, and pardoned Binance cofounder and ex-CEO Changpeng Zhao. But is the crypto industry ultimately better off because of that? Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany , tech reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole…
Nov 16, 2025 How Meta Profits Off Fraud
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, doesn’t (just) have a scam problem—with 10 percent of its revenue coming from scam ads, and a third of all successful scams in America using a Meta platform at some point, it’s more an interdependence with scammers. Guest: Jeff Horwitz , tech reporter for Reuters. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next…
Nov 14, 2025 Data Centers on the Ballot
They don’t cut cleanly along party lines, but data centers, and where they get built, became an election issue in Virginia. With so many more data centers to build, are we looking at a new trend? Guest: Margaret Barthel , reporter covering northern Virginia for WAMU. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts.…
Nov 9, 2025 Why Tesla Is Paying Elon a Trillion Bucks
Tesla shareholders just approved a trillion dollar (with a t!) pay package for Elon Musk. Is it enough incentive to keep him around the company and away from verbal spats with government officials? Because the whole Musk empire is still reeling from that dalliance. Guest: Faiz Siddiqui , tech reporter at The Washington Post and author of Hubris Maximus: the Shattering of Elon Musk . Want more What Next TBD?…
Nov 7, 2025 The Nick Fuentes Problem
Nick Fuentes—an openly antisemitic, openly racist, openly sexist type who once was persona non grata in all but the unseemliest of online spaces—sat down with former Fox News star Tucker Carlson this week, setting off a debate between the “whoa whoa whoa, we’re not Nazis over here” branch of conservatives and the “well now, hold on a minute” wing. Guest: Ali Breland , staff writer for The Atlantic and author of “…
Nov 2, 2025 Why Trump Keeps Pardoning Crypto Criminals
President Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of Binance who had been convicted for violating anti-money laundering laws, after months of Zhao boosting Trump’s own crypto company. The crypto industry has really nailed the path to Trump’s heart: it was something Joe Biden didn’t like, and it feeds directly to the president’s bottom line. Guest: Alex Kirshner, contributing writer at Slate. Want more What…
Oct 31, 2025 Inside the Goonerverse
One legacy of the internet is the millions of subcultures that it helps flourish. Another is pornography—and lots of it. At a “gooner meet-up,” the two collide. Guest: Daniel Kolitz, author of “ The Goon Squad ” for Harper’s Magazine. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by…
Oct 26, 2025 Did The Trump Administration Censor Speech?
For years, conservatives claimed that the Biden administration was pressuring tech companies to censor conservative speech with no solid evidence. In Trump 2.0, the administration is explicitly bragging about doing the very same thing they accused democrats of. What gives? Guest: Renée DiResta , Associate Research Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown and author of “Invisible Rulers: The…
Oct 24, 2025 The AWS Outage is Only the Beginning
This week’s AWS outage illustrates just how fragile and vulnerable our interconnected world really is—and how far we’ve fallen from the vision of a decentralized internet. Guest: Samanth Subramanian , author of “ The Web Beneath the Waves: The Fragile Cables That Connect Our World. ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite…
Oct 19, 2025 Why Bands Are Leaving Spotify
Paying a fraction of a penny per stream and diminishing the value of music were bad enough for Xiu Xiu, but when Spotify owner Daniel Ek announced an investment in a German defense contractor, they decided it was time to take the music back. Guest: Jamie Stewart, musician in the band Xiu Xiu . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your…
Oct 17, 2025 Inside the MAGA Content Mill
As Trump throws out journalists and outlets that report anything negative about him, he’s limiting access to a group of right-wing influencers who work to further his agenda. Guest: Makena Kelly , tech and politics writer for WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by…
Oct 12, 2025 A.I. for Cops
At this very moment, police departments can gather more data than they have time to actually go through — audio and video from crime scenes, cell phone and search data, vast digital dragnets. This is where artificial intelligence comes in…as well as the civil rights questions. Guest: Gerrit De Vynck , tech reporter for the Washington Post. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening…
Oct 10, 2025 The People Suing ICE
Though ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services denied their Freedom of Information Act requests, these journalists aren’t giving up without a fight—not until they get their hands on a document that outlines how much information Medicaid is sharing with ICE. Guest: Joseph Cox , cofounder of 404 Media. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access…
Oct 5, 2025 Saudi Arabia Gets into EA’s Games
How one of the largest video game companies was bought for $55 billion by a group that includes Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and Jared Kushner. Guest: Jason Schreier , Bloomberg reporter Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our…
Oct 3, 2025 Who Owns TikTok Now?
TikTok exploded to popularity not by giving users what they asked for—but by figuring out what users really were interested in, and serving that. What happens to this algorithm if Bytedance cedes control of it to the U.S.? Guest: Emily Baker White, senior writer at Forbes and the author of Every Screen on the Planet: The War Over TikTok Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to…
Sep 28, 2025 Trapped in a Tesla
When you’re getting out of an Uber, Tesla’s unintuitive door handle can embarrass you. In an emergency, getting out of the car quickly can be the difference between life and death. Guest: Dana Hull , Bloomberg News reporter covering Tesla and Elon Musk Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on…
Sep 26, 2025 How Trump Got Obsessed with Autism
Why would Donald Trump rush to announce that Tylenol is a potential cause of autism, a claim unsupported by the research? Guest: Dan Diamond , White House reporter for the Washington Post. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show…
Sep 21, 2025 Is A.I. Taking Your Job?
If you’re hunting for a job, the odds are increasingly likely you’ll have an interview with an artificial intelligence “recruiter.” And why not? It’s also increasingly likely you’ll be working with A.I. anyway. Guest: Danielle Abril , technology-in-the-workplace reporter for the Washington Post. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your…
Sep 19, 2025 The Discourse | TikTok Ban: The Final Loop?
TikTok—which was supposed to be banned again on Wednesday but, again, isn’t—may be legal once more. The Trump administration says it’s meeting with Xi Jinping Friday to finalize the agreement, which may involve—get this—a wealthy Trump-supporting tech mogul. Guest: Nitish Pahwa , staff writer for business and tech at Slate. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining,…
Sep 19, 2025 A Very Online Shooter
As the Charlie Kirk murder demonstrated, law enforcement, the government, and media all need more internet fluency. But their reactions in the wake of the murder don’t seem to be moving towards a better understanding. Guest: Ryan Broderick , reporter on online culture, author of the newsletter Garbage Day . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family…
Sep 14, 2025 Her Daughter Killed Herself. Then She Saw the ChatGPT logs.
After their daughter committed suicide, they found her ChatGPT log—and where artificial intelligence helped her write her suicide note. Guest: Laura Reiley, writer for the Cornell Chronicle. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show…
Sep 12, 2025 You Can't Escape the Charlie Kirk Video
Graphic, violent videos like the shooting of right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk circulate across social media moments after they happen, finding an audience even among people who have made no effort to seek them out. Guest: Craig Silverman, journalist and cofounder of Indicator . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate…
Sep 7, 2025 End of an Electric Avenue
An Inflation Reduction Act subsidy for electric vehicles is being shut down by the Trump administration at the end of September, and automakers are preparing for sales of EVs to slow. Can this nascent industry survive? Guest: Ryan Felton , reporter covering the automotive industry for the Wall Street Journal Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family…
Sep 5, 2025 Is the A.I. Bubble Bursting?
We’ve been told that artificial intelligence can write, code, generate images—it can do everything…except feasibly turn a profit. But investing in A.I. has nevertheless become a pillar of the U.S. economy. Where is this leading us? Guest: Ed Zitron, author of the newsletter Where’s Your Ed At and host of the podcast Better Offline . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the…
Aug 31, 2025 A24 Meets A.I.
A24 rose from “small budget indie movie studio” to “one of the most respected brands in cinema” on a reputation for treating filmmakers like auteurs. But as the studio is growing and exploring how to integrate artificial intelligence, it’s at odds with some of the very directors who helped A24 establish itself. Guest: Alex Barasch , culture editor at the New Yorker Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus…
Aug 29, 2025 The Great Celebrity Spotify Playlist Hack
The playlists of dozens of high-level government officials and tech executives were suddenly broadcast to the world on a website called “the Panama Playlists.” But the information wasn’t taken by sophisticated hackers infiltrating any mainframes—it was all already publicly available. Guest: Mike Isaac , New York Times Silicon Valley correspondent. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free…
Aug 24, 2025 Trump Vs. Cancer Research
President Trump has proposed cutting $2.5 billion from the National Cancer Institute, which in addition to cuts to the National Institutes of Health and research universities almost makes you wonder: whose side is he on in the fight against cancer? Guest: Angus Chen , cancer reporter for STAT news Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your…
Aug 22, 2025 The CDC Under Fire
Two weeks ago, a gunman fired over 500 bullets at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention building in Atlanta. Between the anti-public health rhetoric coming from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the top, personnel cuts and firings, and now a literal shooting, many employees are reaching their breaking point. Guest: Lauren Weber , health science accountability reporter for the Washington Post. Want more What Next…
Aug 17, 2025 Down the Text-Scam Rabbit Hole
The scam du jour arrives via a text message, offering you a job. What happens when you accept? Guest: Alex Sammon , Slate features writer. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get…
Aug 15, 2025 Trump Dips into NVIDIA’s Chips
Jensen Huang, cofounder of NVIDIA, finds himself president of a $4 trillion company, at the forefront of A.I. technology, and, consequently, something of an international diplomat, as he charms President Trump and negotiates to sell his powerful chips to China. Guest: Amrith Ramkumar , reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Washington covering tech and crypto policy. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate…
Aug 10, 2025 Here Comes the A.I. Music Slop
It’s hard to make money in the music industry. But if you could flood every streamer with hundreds of “original” songs without having to, you know, write or produce it yourself, there’s money there—and less for everyone else. Guests: Chris Molanphy , host of Slate’s Hit Parade podcast . Kate Knibbs , senior writer at Wired Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole…
Aug 8, 2025 What Happened After Meta Fired Its Fact-Checkers
In January, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta was moving from employing professional fact-checkers to letting its users fact-check each other. If you’ve heard that it’s going perfectly, then you, too, have been exposed to misinformation. Guest: Geoffrey Fowler, tech columnist with the Washington Post Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all…
Aug 3, 2025 The A.I. Data Center Push That Wasn't
OpenAI’s Sam Altman, flanked by President Trump and Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, announced a hugely ambitious investment in data centers across America to support all the artificial intelligence we’re going to be using. Months in, the project has been scaled back to a single, power-hungry data center in Ohio. Guest: Berber Jin , reporter covering A.I. for the Wall Street Journal Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to…
Aug 1, 2025 The Death of an Online Whisper Network
A shadow app for the dating world had its data hacked and exposed, and it laid bare the perils of creating safe spaces for women online — and of relying on tech companies. Guest: Kate Lindsay, host of Slate’s ICYMI Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free”…
Jul 27, 2025 Dupes!
There’s an entire economy devoted to seeing what products are trending—clothing, skin care, even Greek Islands—and delivering you a cheaper knock-off to buy. Guest: Mia Sato , reporter for The Verge Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our…
Jul 25, 2025 A Colbert Report
Was the Late Show too unprofitable, or too political? Guest: Eric Deggans , NPR TV critic and media analyst, Knight Chair, Journalism and Media Ethics, Washington & Lee University. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page.…
Jul 20, 2025 When Bots Go Nazi
It’s kind of strange that Grok, Elon Musk’s chatbot, went full Nazi a few weeks ago, and is just…still out there. But, then again, how are you supposed to hold an LLM accountable? Guest: Drew Harwell , technology reporter for the Washington Post Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple…
Jul 18, 2025 How The Epstein Files Blew Up MAGAworld
The MAGA world has been waiting for Jeffrey Epstein’s client list to be released since the first Trump administration. But with those like Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, who stoked interest in the list literally in power, the administration is now saying that no such list exists. For some MAGA fans, this is finally a bridge too far. Guest: Anna Merlan , senior reporter at Mother Jones. Want more What Next TBD?…
Jul 13, 2025 When A.I. is Sycophantic
He started using ChatGPT to help with spreadsheets. But their relationship took a turn, and before long it was telling him he could leap off a 19-story building and fly. Guest: Kashmir Hill , features writer at the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by…
Jul 11, 2025 Hot Measles Summer
It’s a record-breaking year for America: we’ve now had the most reported cases of measles since the disease was declared “eradicated” in 2000. How did public health backslide so hard that it undid decades of progress—and is there any hope we can get back on track? Guest: Dylan Scott, senior health correspondent at Vox. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What…
Jul 6, 2025 How A.I. Lost (and Won) the Big Beautiful Debate
As the One Big Beautiful Bill bounced around Congress, one provision—the 10-year moratorium on states making laws to regulate artificial intelligence—fell out. But AI-fans don’t need to worry, there’s still plenty of industry support in the bill. Guest: Will Oremus , technology news analysis writer for the Washington Post. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole…
Jul 4, 2025 Rerun: Death of the Weather Forecast?
This episode was originally published on April 27, 2025. The Trump administration has already begun cutting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the U.S. National Weather Service. What’s the advantage to understanding the weather less? Guest: Daniel Swain , weather and climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Want more What Next TBD?…
Jun 29, 2025 The FTC’s Merger Shakedown
Under a normal administration, a merger between two large advertising firms might attract the government’s interest for anti-monopoly reasons. Under this one, the Federal Trade Commission is creating conditions to…ensure that X still gets advertiser dollars? Guest: Kate Conger , technology reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What…
Jun 27, 2025 The Other Iran-Israel War
In addition to the three-dimensional war of bombs and missiles, Iran and Israel—and the US—are squaring off in a cyber battle. With everything from water infrastructure to banking connected to the internet in some way, how much damage can cyberattacks do? Guest: Maggie Miller , POLITICO cybersecurity reporter Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family…
Jun 22, 2025 Airlines Are Selling Your Data to the Government
ARC, the data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, has been selling domestic flight data in the US to Customs and Border Protection. But in the contract, they told CBP not to reveal where the data was from… why? Guest: Joseph Cox, co-founder of 404 Media and the co-host of the 404 Media Podcast. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and…
Jun 20, 2025 We Deport. You Laugh?
The Trump administration's anti-immigration campaign has become defined by distasteful memes that gleefully portray the mass deportations being carried out across the country. It’s impossible to ignore… which is exactly what the administration wants. Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter at the Washington Post. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family…
Jun 15, 2025 Summer Travel Tips To Not Get Detained
A guide to keeping your phone, and your digital life, safe when you’re crossing the border. Guest: Lily Hay Newman , senior writer for WIRED covering information security. Podcast production by Evan Campbell and Patrick Fort. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic…
Jun 13, 2025 New DOGE, New Tricks
Elon Musk has ridden off into the sunset acrimoniously (maybe), but the Department of Government Efficiency is just getting started. Will DOGE continue wildly cutting or is something even more chaotic coming next? Guest: Makena Kelly , senior writer at WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe…
Jun 8, 2025 The Future of the Internet Hinges on Gail Slater
Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater inherited the government’s antitrust case against Google and is eager to follow it through—but likely not for the same reasons as her predecessors. Guest: Nancy Scola , reporter and contributing writer at POLITICO . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on…
Jun 6, 2025 Is Palantir Building a Data Big Brother?
One of the goals of DOGE was to get rid of the “silos” that keep government agencies from sharing freely amongst themselves efficiently and instead organize data using tools offered by companies like Palantir. The thing is, a lot of those silos are there by design, and removing them could be a nightmare for privacy advocates. Guest: Sheera Frenkel , tech reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD?…
Jun 1, 2025 So Long, Elon
His time in Washington was brief, but we’ll be picking up the pieces for a long time. What Elon’s exit signals for the future of DOGE, and Musk’s political career. Guest: Kate Conger , reporter for the New York Times covering X and other technology companies. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe…
May 30, 2025 The Drone Wars
The war between Ukraine and Russia is being fought increasingly via drone —and NATO and US military leadership is training troops for future conflicts that will pit man against machine. Guest: Jake Epstein , senior defense reporter for Business Insider. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on…
May 25, 2025 Crypto's Big Win
The crypto industry poured tons of money into the last election cycle. Is the GENIUS Act, which has bipartisan support, their big payoff? Guest: Hilary Allen , professor at American University’s Washington College of Law. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try…
May 23, 2025 Inside OpenAI's Empire
OpenAI started as a non-profit dedicated to building safe A.I. Now, they’re obsessed with building artificial general intelligence by any means necessary - even if they don’t quite know what that is. Guest: Karen Hao , reporter and author of “ Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and…
May 18, 2025 You’ve Been Deepfaked
What do you do when your likeness has been turned into A.I.-generated pornography?—it’s a problem people are already facing. But legislation moving through Congress may cause more problems than it would solve. Guests: Joanne Chew, actress and visual artist based in LA. Samantha Cole , cofounder of 404 media and author of “ How Sex Changed the Internet and How the Internet Changed Sex .” Want more What Next TBD?…
May 16, 2025 The Newarkification of Flying
Aging equipment and chronically understaffed air traffic control have made flying in and out of Newark’s Liberty International Airport a delay-snarled mess. And the problems there aren’t entirely unique. Will Congress and the Trump administration be the ones to fix it? Guest: Will Guisbond , staff reporter covering air traffic control for The Air Current Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access…
May 11, 2025 Online and Pregnant
The intimate and extremely personal experience of bringing a child into this world? There’s an app for that…and forums…and so much advice…that contradicts other advice…and a surprising amount of eugenics. Guest: Amanda Hess, critic at the New York Times and author of the book “ Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age. ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole…
May 9, 2025 Chatbots All The Way Down
Why artificial intelligence isn’t waiting for consumer demand. Guest: Gerrit De Vynck, tech reporter for The Washington Post . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever…
May 4, 2025 How Elon Wields Power
What is it about the way that Elon Musk wields power that led 65 percent of Americans to agree he has too much influence on the federal government? Guest: Faiz Siddiqui , Washington Post tech reporter and author of “ Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk.” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe…
May 2, 2025 Marc Andreessen’s New Deal
What drove Marc Andreessen’s transformation into a political actor, and what is he looking for from having Washington in his thrall? Guest: Zoe Schiffer , WIRED journalist covering business and Silicon Valley. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the…
Apr 27, 2025 Death of the Weather Forecast?
The Trump administration has already begun cutting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the U.S. National Weather Service. What’s the advantage to understanding the weather less? Guest: Daniel Swain , weather and climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the…
Apr 25, 2025 The Immigration Data Dragnet
One of DOGE’s goals is to get government data out of “silos” and make it more easily shared across departments. But there are good reasons for some data to be kept apart. Guest: Vittoria Elliot , WIRED reporter covering platforms and power. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple…
Apr 20, 2025 The Baby Monitor Trap
If setting up a baby monitor in the room with your sleeping kids doesn’t allow you to pop out and enjoy the cruise ship, what are they actually good for? Guest: Stephanie Murray, writer for The Atlantic, the newsletter Family Stuff , who wrote “ You’re on Vacation. You Leave Your Kid in Your Hotel Room With a Baby Monitor. What Could Go Wrong? ” for Slate. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access…
Apr 18, 2025 The U.S. vs Meta
This week, the FTC and Meta began a trial to determine if—by adding Instagram and WhatsApp to its portfolio with Facebook over a decade ago—the company became a monopoly in social media. If Meta loses, it could be forced to split up, losing Instagram—and its substantial ad revenue. Guest: Paresh Dave , senior writer at WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole…
Apr 13, 2025 TikTok: Somehow Also Affected by the Tariffs
TikTok was on the verge of being sold to a non-Chinese company when Trump rolled out his new tariff plans. Now everything is thrown into uncertainty and the company has until mid-June to find another buyer—or be banned in the United States. Guest: Sapna Maheshwari , New York Times reporter covering TikTok, technology and emerging media companies. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free…
Apr 11, 2025 Trump Tariffs Hit Mushroom Kingdom
The same day Nintendo was officially introducing its latest console, Donald Trump was announcing his new global tariff plan. As a result, gamers were treated to an early preview of what a world bound up in tariffs would look like. Spoiler: It’ll probably cost you a lot more. Guest: Jason Koebler, a co-founder of 404 Media Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What…
Apr 6, 2025 Why Wall Street Can’t Quit Elon
Elon Musk’s polarizing persona and antics have created a toxic cloud around his companies, particularly Tesla. But despite that, Wall Street can’t seem to quit him. Why? Guest: Felix Salmon, host of Slate Money and chief financial correspondent for Axios. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today…
Apr 4, 2025 Where DOGE Is Taking Us
This week, DOGE set its sights and scythe on the Department of Health and Human Services, with a goal of cutting 10,000 federal workers, once again raising the question: what’s their endgame here? Guest: Makena Kelly , senior writer for WIRED Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple…
Mar 30, 2025 This Is Your Brain On Ketamine
Ketamine has gone from a recreational psychedelic to an approved treatment, and it has caught on in Silicon Valley in a big way. Are the long-term effects of using ketamine—recreationally or therapeutically—sufficiently known? Are we witnessing them right now? Guest: Shayla Love , staff writer for the Atlantic. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next…
Mar 28, 2025 We Made a Memecoin
Memecoins are a niche type of cryptocurrency with no intrinsic value. But they remain a popular form of crypto, as seen earlier this year with President Trump’s own memecoin. And if it worked for him, then why not our little podcast? Guests: Azeem Khan , advisor to UNICEF’s crypto fund and cocreator of the blockchain Morph. Nitish Pahwa , Slate staff writer covering business and tech. Want more What Next TBD?…
Mar 23, 2025 Bezos 2.0
During his first term, President Trump and Jeff Bezos openly sparred with each other. During this second administration, though, it seems like Bezos is trying to endear himself - and his companies - to the White House. So what changed? Guest: Dana Mattioli, reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the author of The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power . Special thanks…
Mar 21, 2025 Trump's War on Scientific Research
The National Institutes of Health is the primary engine of biomedical research around the world, which makes the Trump administration's dramatic cuts to its grant program both confusing and potentially incredibly harmful. Guest: Katherine J. Wu, staff writer for the Atlantic . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate…
Mar 16, 2025 How Trump Is Trying to Kill Press Freedom
With a Trump-friendly Supreme Court and a contentious relationship with the press, could Donald Trump follow through on his 2016 campaign goal of making it easier to sue media companies for libel—and imperil America’s free press? Guest: David Enrich, business investigations editor at the New York Times and author of “ Murder The Truth. ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening…
Mar 14, 2025 Will Tesla Survive Elon Musk?
The public’s anger towards Elon Musk and DOGE has found an outlet in the form of Musk’s car company Tesla. How long can the company put up with a sinking reputation and stock price? Guest: Pranshu Verma, tech reporter for the Washington Post . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple…
Mar 9, 2025 Zuckerberg and the Post-Factcheck Era
After the election, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was doing away with Facebook’s fact-checking apparatus in the US. With content creators getting paid based on reach, and content spreading wider and faster the more extreme it is, is Facebook the perfect environment for misinformation to flourish? Guest: Craig Silverman , technology reporter for ProPublica. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to…
Mar 7, 2025 From 4Chan to Charlottesville to DOGE
To understand the second Trump administration, you have to understand the internet culture that gave birth to it. Guest: Elle Reeve , CNN correspondent who reported on the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA for Vice News. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by…
Mar 2, 2025 Cracking the Egg Crisis
Everyone’s talking about the price of eggs—so why are they so expensive? And when can we expect—if ever—the price to come back down? Guests: Dr. Jada Thompson, associate professor at the University of Arkansas Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the…
Feb 28, 2025 The DOGE Resistance
Federal workers in the U.S. Digital Service resigned in protest over what they viewed as indiscriminate, irresponsible firings coming from the DOGE office. While lawsuits are entering the courts and protests are taking to the streets, will any of this make a difference to the chainsaw-minded leaders of DOGE? Guest: Ryan Mac, tech reporter at the New York Times and co-author of “ Character Limit: How Elon Musk…
Feb 23, 2025 $Trump
The crypto industry threw its weight and money behind Donald Trump, in hopes of legitimizing the industry. Before his Inauguration Day was over, Donald Trump was already enriching himself via a memecoin, one of the scammier, least legitimate-looking uses of crypto. Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany, reporter covering cryptocurrency for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free…
Feb 21, 2025 Elon's Endgame
As someone whose companies receive billions of dollars from the government, it’s worth asking why Elon Musk is so zealous about cutting government spending. Guest: Max Chafkin , features editor and tech reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek and cohost of the Elon, Inc podcast . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate…
Feb 16, 2025 Can You Pay Attention, Please?
The infinite scroll has no purpose other than keeping your attention. But that doesn’t mean it’s value-neutral. Guest: Chris Hayes, MSNBC news anchor and author of “ The Siren's Call: How Attention Became The World's Most Endangered Resource.” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple…
Feb 14, 2025 Is Elon Actually Trying to Buy OpenAI?
Is Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion offer to buy OpenAI genuine—or an irresistible opportunity to troll Sam Altman? Guest: David A. Fahrenthold , investigative reporter for the New York Times Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page.…
Feb 9, 2025 Why Trump’s Data Purge is a Digital Book Burning
Using Github, you can watch as government websites are brought into compliance with Donald Trump’s executive orders. Out goes the word “equity;” in comes “fair.” And health and science data, once publicly available, disappears. Guest: Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media . Jeremy Prokop, data science advisor in the Midwest Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole…
Feb 7, 2025 Bonus: The Discourse | Why is Elon Musk Cheating at Video Games?
Elon Musk is supposed to be running several companies and a new government department—so why is he also spending money to pretend to be good at video games? Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter for the Washington Post . This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next TBD—you’ll also access ad-free listening across…
Feb 7, 2025 Is Elon Musk Unstoppable?
You can’t doubt the enthusiasm of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. You can question the legality of some of their early moves. Guest: Makena Kelly , senior writer at WIRED . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show…
Feb 2, 2025 The DeepSeek Panic
The artificial intelligence industry was thrown for a loop when the Chinese start-up DeepSeek rolled out a product that was more energy efficient, cheaper to produce, and open source. Where did DeepSeek come from, and are Silicon Valley and Washington right to be panicking? Guest: Zeyi Yang , senior writer at WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next…
Jan 31, 2025 RFK Jr. Is a Feature, Not a Bug
Tapped by Trump for the role of health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presents himself as someone willing to say what other politicians won’t. But during his Senate confirmation hearings, both Democrats and Republicans questioned his previous statements about vaccines—and questioned whether he even knows what the job he’s trying to get entails. But his nomination signals that maybe it isn’t about vaccines - it’s…
Jan 26, 2025 The A.I. Will See You Now
Artificial intelligence is coming to a doctor’s office near you—if it isn’t already there, working in an administrative role. Are you ready for generative A.I. to help your doctor diagnose you? Is your doctor ready to listen—with the necessary mix of humility and skepticism? Guest: Geoffrey Fowler, Washington Post tech columnist. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the…
Jan 24, 2025 Bonus: The Discourse | The Bro-ligarchs Take Washington
Choice seats for Donald Trump’s second inauguration were filled with tech founders and CEOs, signaling their importance to this presidential term. Then Elon Musk sent another signal of his own… Guest: Nitish Pahwa, staff writer for business and tech at Slate. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next TBD…
Jan 24, 2025 Department of Government Elon
The Department of Government Efficiency was made to Elon Musk’s specifications, right down to its meme-indebted name. Now that DOGE is shaping up to be an actual part of the government, what can it actually accomplish? And isn’t this all a huge conflict of interest for Elon Musk and his many government contracts? Guest: Teddy Schleifer , New York Times reporter on billionaires. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to…
Jan 19, 2025 As Fires Approached LA, Angelenos Turned to Watch Duty
Looking for up-to-the-minute updates on where the fires are, LA residents have been turning to the app Watch Duty, rather than getting updates directly from the local or state government, or even local media. Guests: David Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Watch Duty Alyssa Jeong Perry, LA-based producer for Slate. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next…
Jan 17, 2025 Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta-Morphosis
Misinformation, disinformation, politics—Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is not going to shield users from those anymore. What’s behind the abrupt change in direction? Guest: Sheera Frenkel, New York Times tech reporter Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at…
Jan 12, 2025 Why Tech Is Bending the Knee
How the FCC and its incoming head, Brenden Carr, could enact Trump’s top policy goal: punishing anyone who says mean stuff about Trump. Guest: Drew FitzGerald, telecom reporter for the Wall Street Journal . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the…
Jan 10, 2025 Will the Supreme Court Save TikTok?
Will a First Amendment defense keep TikTok running in America? Guest: Emily Baker White, tech reporter for Forbes. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.…
Jan 5, 2025 Bitcoin Takes the White House
Cryptocurrency spent generously on this last election cycle, and now they’ve got their top pick in the White House, and wins across Congress. Where is the industry looking to go with these favorable, regulatory winds? Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany , tech reporter covering the crypto industry for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next…
Jan 3, 2025 Musk vs. MAGA
On Christmas Eve a fracas erupted on X, when Elon Musk posted in favor of H1-B visas for specialized and high-skill workers and was met with anger from the MAGA base who view the visas as a way for immigrants to take American jobs. Guest: Ryan Mac, tech reporter for The New York Times and the coauthor of the book “ Character Limit How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus…
Dec 29, 2024 The Cost of Suicide Prevention Software
Between a third and half of American schoolchildren have a form of “mental health monitoring” software on their school devices, which scans for and flags certain keywords. While intuitively appealing, is it worth the false positives, privacy issues, and compromised trust? Guest: Ellen Barry , mental health reporter for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening…
Dec 27, 2024 2024 In Review: Would You Buy Poop On the Internet?
“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat everything from IBS to autism. But if your doctor isn’t ready to fill you up with someone else’s poop, the internet will happily oblige. Guest: Luke Winkie , Slate staff writer who published “ The Poop Broker .” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to…
Dec 22, 2024 Influencer vs. Influencer
One influencer working for Amazon sued another influencer who works for Amazon for creating content that looks too similar to theirs. But with how the algorithms work and reward, was this an inevitability? What does this mean for the economics of the influencer position? Guest: Mia Sato , reporter covering platforms and communities for The Verge. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free…
Dec 20, 2024 Drones!??!!!?!!!
Reports of flocks of drones, flying overhead nightly, are coming in from New Jersey down to Maryland. Are they UFOs? Nefarious foreign powers? Something even more pernicious? Something even more banal? Guest: Jon Ostrower , editor-in-chief of The Air Current. Ben Mathis-Lilly, Slate senior writer Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your…
Dec 15, 2024 The Surveillance State Trump Is Inheriting
Our lives, and our communication in particular, are increasingly conducted over the internet. This means we are increasingly able to be hacked and monitored, by governments, by the police, and more and more by anyone who can get their hands on the available software. Guest: Ronan Farrow, investigative reporter and producer of the Max documentary “Surveilled.” If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for…
Dec 13, 2024 Elon Musk and Trump’s Shadow Transition Team
Elon Musk has been down in Florida with Donald Trump, inviting his fellow rich Silicon Valley friends to stop by and weigh in on the next administration. How could policy and personnel be shaped by this input from successful (if totally inexperienced in government) individuals? Guest: Teddy Schleifer, covering politics for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free…
Dec 8, 2024 Spotify Trapped
Spotify is shaping listening habits, so much so that musicians are shaping themselves for Spotify. It makes your musical world a little more prescribed, a little smaller. If it feels like everything’s getting a little stale, how do we get out? Guest: Tiffany Ng, culture and tech writer. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite…
Dec 6, 2024 The Influencer Administration
From Dr. Oz to RFK Jr. to Donald Trump himself—the incoming administration looks like it will be populated with pitchmen and influencers. Will anyone take steps to divest from their businesses or avoid conflicts of interest—or will everyone just follow Trump’s lead from last time? Guest: Drew Harwell , tech reporter for the Washington Post. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free…
Dec 1, 2024 When Your Flight’s GPS Gets Spoofed
Anyone stuck in a knotted snarl of interstate clovers knows that GPS is both important and imperfect. But if GPS fails while you’re bringing a 737 in for a landing it could be catastrophic. Why is “GPS spoofing” on the rise—and how can airlines protect their flights against being caught up in conflict zones. Guest: Drew FitzGerald , telecom reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to…
Nov 29, 2024 The Post-Election Social Media Wars
Whatever X is, it ain’t the Twitter so many users fell in love with. Since the election, Bluesky has been on the rise, but it’s still only a fraction of the number of users on Twitter—at its peak or even now—or even fellow upstart Threads. Is Bluesky set to take over the role Twitter used to play, or is it just one of many networks in a Balkanized social media landscape? Guest: Will Oremus, a technology writer for…
Nov 24, 2024 Is Sickle Cell Anemia…Cured?
Last May, a 12-year-old with sickle cell anemia was the first person to receive a new gene therapy to treat the disease. The process is painful, expensive, and still frightening and uncertain, but biomedical researchers are cautiously calling it a “cure.” Guests: Gina Kolata, medical reporter for the New York Times Deb and Keith Cromer, parents to Kendric Cromer, the first person in the world to go through a…
Nov 22, 2024 What's Google Without Chrome?
The Department of Justice has released its recommendations for how Google’s monopoly on web search should be broken up. Top of their wishlist? Spinning off their web browser Chrome. But with a new administration coming to the White House, will Google have to comply? Guest: Leah Nylen, antitrust reporter for Bloomberg News Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What…
Nov 17, 2024 The X-odus
Since Elon Musk took over, Twitter—er, sorry “X”—has been slowly deflating. But given that soon you’ll be getting yelled at by right-wing trolls directly from White House press briefings, and your data is being swept up to train A.I., is there any reason to stay on the site at all anymore? Guest: Nitish Pahwa, Slate business writer. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the…
Nov 15, 2024 The Manosphere That Delivered Trump Back to Power
Going on Joe Rogan’s podcast didn’t fit into Kamala Harris’s last month of campaigning, which consisted of a careful diet of traditional media and specifically selected appearances. It came up short against Donald Trump’s “get on mic with that guy and his big following” strategy. Guest: Makena Kelly , senior writer at Wired. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole…
Nov 10, 2024 The Polls Weren’t Wrong
Many folks were surprised at how soundly Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the election, especially since they thought the polls made it seem like a coin flip. The problem is, that’s not quite what the polls were saying. Guest: Tatishe M. Nteta, Provost Professor of Political Science, Director of UMass Poll Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next…
Nov 8, 2024 Elon Wins
As Elon Musk channeled his considerable resources towards Donald Trump’s campaign, there was talk about what his role in the new Trump administration would be. If his stint leading Twitter is any indication, the federal government could be in for a bumpy ride. Guest: Zoë Schiffer , incoming director of business and industry at Wired, author of Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk’s Twitter . Want more What Next…
Nov 3, 2024 u up? Go vote.
Voters in swing states are being subjected to constant political messages—on billboards, commercials and, increasingly, via text messages. But are dozens of “make a plan to vote” texts you’re receiving going to make a difference? Guest: Jacob Neiheisel, political science professor at the University at Buffalo Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family…
Nov 1, 2024 What Elon Wants From Trump
How did Elon Musk go from a poster to someone pumping millions of dollars towards Donald Trump? And what’s he hoping to get for doing so? Guest: Max Chafkin , Bloomberg Businessweek columnist. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show…
Oct 27, 2024 Facebook for the Dead
He didn’t find his grandfather. But traveling to, photographing, and uploading his grandfather’s memorial stone gave him something else. Guest: Tony Tran, senior tech editor at Slate and author of the feature “ My Weekends with the Dead. ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts…
Oct 25, 2024 Can TikTok Sway this Election?
This election cycle, TikTok has evolved into a news-and-politics delivery mechanism. Will it make a difference? Guest: Sapna Maheshwari , reporting on TikTok and other tech for the New York Times . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our…
Oct 20, 2024 How Secure Is Our Election?
America’s head of cybersecurity isn’t worried about the election being hacked or the results being tampered with. But this election cycle does have her worried for our democracy. Guest: Jen Easterly, Director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe…
Oct 18, 2024 The Elon-Trump Alliance
Elon Musk went from voting for Hillary to supporting Trump so hard that he may have broken election laws. And with Musk influencing both on X and in campaign finance, Democrats are kicking themselves for letting him go. What will his political and financial support actually amount to this election season? Guest: Teddy Schleifer , New York Times reporter covering campaign finance and billionaire influence on…
Oct 13, 2024 23andMe...And a Looming Data Disaster
How did 23andMe go from the peak of the double-helix to a death spiral? And if it goes under, is all of the genetic data it collected at risk? Guest: Kristen V. Brown , staff writer covering health for The Atlantic . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free”…
Oct 11, 2024 Trump’s Crypto Gurus
The crypto project “World Liberty Financial,” which was announced on X by Donald Trump, isn’t a cryptocurrency, nor a crypto-exchange, nor is it actually run by any Trumps. The truth is even stranger. Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany, New York Times reporter Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on…
Oct 6, 2024 A.I. Goes Nuclear
Decades ago, Three Mile Island was shut down after a near catastrophic nuclear meltdown. So why is Microsoft paying over a billion dollars to open it back up? Guest: Matt Reynolds, senior writer at Wired Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top…
Oct 4, 2024 Helene Proves Nowhere is Safe
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the idea of a climate haven has been upended. And as the climate change gets worse every year, fewer places will be safe from its devastation. Guest: Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post climate reporter covering humanity's response to a warming world. Keith Campbell, managing editor at the Asheville Watchdog Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening…
Sep 29, 2024 American Life is a Highway
America is caught in a vicious cycle of trying to alleviate traffic by expanding and building more highways, only for them to clog right up with more cars. How do you beat the traffic? Guest: David Zipper , Senior Fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative who writes about transportation policy. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your…

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What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future

About What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future

Episodes

The First Real A.I. Test

When A.I. Regulates Itself

How Hormones Took Over Your Feed

The Making of Elon Musk

ChatGPT Doesn't Love You

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