Slate Technology
Technology coverage from across the Slate Podcast network
Episodes
July 2, 2025 • 36 mins
Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay discuss an American woman in her 50s who is going viral for her plastic surgery journey. Michelle Wood is a mom who traveled to Guadalajara to undergo several procedures, including a facelift and a chin implant. She documented her journey before and after the procedure, creating intrigue, curiosity, and surprisingly positive responses online. TikTok reacted similarly when Kylie Jenner revealed the detai...
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July 2, 2025 • 54 mins
White noise has a very precise technical definition, but people use the term loosely, to describe all sorts of washes of sound—synthetic hums, or natural sounds like a rainstorm or crashing waves—that can be used to mask other sounds. Twenty years ago, if you’d told someone white noise was a regular part of your life, they would have found that unusual. Nowadays, it’s likely they use it themselves or know someone who does. The glob...
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June 29, 2025 • 27 mins
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.
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June 28, 2025 • 51 mins
Kate Lindsay and Candice Lim are joined by Ingrid Nilsen, an OG beauty lifestyle YouTuber who you may know as “MissGlamorazzi,” to reflect on the 10-year anniversary of her most iconic video to date.
Throughout the 2010s, YouTube was the platform of choice for “coming out” videos. During those years, the U.S. saw progress in LGBTQ+ acceptance and representation, including a SCOTUS decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide in 20...
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June 27, 2025 • 27 mins
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
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June 25, 2025 • 48 mins
Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay are joined by Yahoo senior entertainment reporter Kelsey Weekman, who is fresh off the plane from this year’s VidCon. Unlike past years, when TikTokkers took over the Anaheim Convention Center, VidCon 2025 put YouTubers front and center, inducting the first creators into the VidCon Hall of Fame. With platforms like MySpace and Vine coming and going, how has YouTube stuck around? Why can’t TikTok dethron...
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June 24, 2025 • 35 mins
Mary is juggling a busy career and family life and, like many of us, she feels guilty about the time she spends on her phone. On this episode of How To!, Courtney Martin talks with author and teacher Molly Caro May about how she’s helping others rethink—and rewire—their dependency on devices with an approach that’s focused on the mind-body connection.
If you liked this episode, check out How To Manage Your Kids’ Screen Time.
Do ...
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June 22, 2025 • 29 mins
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.
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June 21, 2025 • 40 mins
Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay start off with two sounds of the summer from a divisive Love Island USA contestant and a popstar “standing on business.” Then, they explain the controversy brewing behind Partiful, the hip event invite app that was a rising star in the tech world, until an NYC Noise blog post brought up that Partiful’s co-founders used to work at Palantir Technologies. Palantir is a data-analytics company co-founded by ...
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June 21, 2025 • 56 mins
This week: We become cheerleaders for crypto regulation, AI, and…Cheerleaders. Felix Salmon, Emily Peck and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the GENIUS act, the major crypto regulation bill which recently passed the Senate, and its implications for regulating stable coins and how it could upend payment processing as we know it in the United States. Then, the hosts discuss the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, who recently received a 400% raise ...
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June 20, 2025 • 33 mins
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.
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June 18, 2025 • 49 mins
Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay are joined by Slate staff writer Nadira Goffe, whose coverage of the United States v. Sean Combs (also known as the Diddy trial) has meant sharing a press room with YouTubers and streamers. These new media journalists have millions of followers, and aren’t beholden to the same editorial and ethical standards as traditional news outlets. As a result, they might just be beating them at their own game.
T...
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June 15, 2025 • 30 mins
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.
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June 14, 2025 • 44 mins
Candice Lim and Kate Lindsay are joined by Wired senior writer and producer of Black Twitter: A People’s History, Jason Parham, to attempt to explain the enigma that is “international bestselling author” Quan Millz. With titles like Old THOT Next Door and My Baby Daddy Is A Bedbug, Millz’s books have no trouble capturing the attention of the internet, so much so that the previously-anonymous author was forced to unmask himself to w...
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June 13, 2025 • 30 mins
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.
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June 8, 2025 • 31 mins
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.
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June 7, 2025 • 50 mins
Money talks, and sometimes it speaks as law by fiat from the highest court in the land. In this episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick delves into the impact of money on the judiciary and, eventually, on, democracy with Michael Podhorzer, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. They discuss how the many faces of big money in America, currently personified by Elon Musk and Donald Trump, have shaped the Supreme Court and g...
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June 6, 2025 • 32 mins
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.
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June 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Kate Lindsay and Candice Lim break down the wedding weekend heard round TikTok starring one of r/NYCInfluencerSnark’s main characters. Jazmyn Smith (better known as @justjazzzyidk) got married after a year-long engagement that was rife with criticism surrounding her relationship, her fiancé’s financial status, and more. But instead of burying the wedding, she brought her followers along by posting in real time, creating TikTok spre...
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June 1, 2025 • 32 mins
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.
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