Slate Technology
Technology coverage from across the Slate Podcast network
Episodes
December 20, 2025 • 46 mins
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by comedian and writer Youngmi Mayer to talk about a controversy that’s divided TikTok: How should Asian people feel about white people in Asian grocery stores? That’s the question creator Madeline Qi didn’t even mean to ask when she posted her now-viral video, which resulted in call-outs, doxxing, and, ultimately, a conversation too nuanced for TikTok. Youngmi’s attempts to make sens...
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December 19, 2025 • 26 mins
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
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December 17, 2025 • 41 mins
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by culture writer Angelina Mazza to discuss the online reaction to the new HBO series, Heated Rivalry. Before the Canadian show premiered, let alone was picked up in the U.S., a dedicated online fandom committed to helping it succeed. Why did this show become such a sensation, and what happens to a niche fandom when their subject suddenly goes mainstream?
This podcast is produced b...
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December 14, 2025 • 24 mins
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
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December 13, 2025 • 39 mins
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Gen Z expert and After School writer Casey Lewis to talk about how Gen Z TikTok users are switching up on Millennials. After years of mocking the generation for being “cringe” online, now people are longing to return to the 2010s and the culture that came with it. But were Millennials really as “optimistic” as the fancams make it seem? And what does Gen Z have, if anything, to be n...
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December 12, 2025 • 30 mins
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
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December 11, 2025 • 31 mins
Today’s TikTok influencers share every aspect of their lives: from their morning routines, to getting ready to go out, to their parents being detained and eventually deported by ICE.
Guest: Tony Vara, TikTok creator @itonyvara
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December 10, 2025 • 53 mins
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek, Amanda Mull, to talk about how the enshittification of online shopping came for Etsy. The platform used to be a thoughtful reprieve from the cheap, mass-produced products on Amazon, but now it’s plagued by a number of the same problems. With cheap junk and AI allegations abound, where can the Shein and Temu-haters go to actually find what ...
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December 7, 2025 • 23 mins
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.
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December 6, 2025 • 59 mins
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by culture writer Mikala Jamison to talk about the rise in online concern about celebrities’ bodies. Mikala writes the newsletter Body Type, and her forthcoming book The Forever Project details her recovery from an eating disorder. Following the premiere of movies like Wicked: For Good, fan concern and speculation about celebrity bodies has culminated in a larger discussion about the ...
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December 5, 2025 • 25 mins
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.
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December 3, 2025 • 50 mins
On today’s episode host Kate Lindsay is joined by senior supervising producer Daisy Rosario to unpack the 25-part TikTok saga titled the “Danish Deception.” After a former Bachelor contestant came forward with a story about her scamming ex, TikTok turned on her instead. Why didn’t Onyeka get the Reesa Teesa treatment? And who is the real villain of this story?
This podcast is produced by Vic Whitley-Berry, Daisy Rosario, and Kate ...
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November 30, 2025 • 28 mins
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.
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November 29, 2025 • 50 mins
On today’s episode host Kate Lindsay is joined by creator and social media manager Carmen Vicente to chat about the rise of offline hobbies, and how crafts, DVDs, and something called an “analog bag” are being used as acts of rebellion against an overly plugged-in society. But does this really mean the beginning of the end of social media? Probably not. Instead, Carmen shares how apps as we know them are about to change.
This pod...
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November 28, 2025 • 34 mins
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
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November 26, 2025 • 45 mins
On today’s episode host Kate Lindsay is joined by I <3 Mess writer Emily Kirkpatrick to discuss the influx of celebrities joining Substack. As two long-time Substack newsletter writers themselves, the pair dive into all of these new celebrity publications…including the parts they may not know readers can see. What does it say about the state of celebrity that so many are becoming writers—and do they even have anything to say?
This...
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November 24, 2025 • 82 mins
Hosts Alex Kirshner, Lindsay Gibbs, and Ben Lindbergh speak with the Athletic’s Paul Tenorio on why Apple TV and MLS revised their deal and removed the paywall for viewers. They’re then joined by Massachusetts state senator John Keenan about his proposal to regulate online sports betting and why he’s changed his views on the issue. Finally, they wrap with a discussion of Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, the young hockey phenoms...
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November 23, 2025 • 31 mins
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.
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November 22, 2025 • 48 mins
On today’s episode host Kate Lindsay is joined by porn historian Noelle Perdue, author of the Porn World newsletter. OpenAI announced that they’d allow adult users to have erotic conversations with ChatGPT, just one more way AI and porn are becoming intertwined. As sex becomes more online, not only does it become more solitary, but also more surveilled. Both of these things are intended to divide us, but Noelle is confident that AI...
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November 21, 2025 • 24 mins
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.
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