What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future
Every Friday and Sunday, Slate’s popular daily news podcast What Next brings you TBD, a clear-eyed look into the future. From fake news to fake meat, algorithms to augmented reality, Lizzie O’Leary is your guide to the tech industry and the world it’s creating for us to live in.
Episodes
May 17, 2024 • 24 mins
The 2021 subreddit-coordinated effort to raise the price of Gamestop stock was, in some ways, a proof of concept: the little guy can get into the market and make some noise. Because even though that “meme stock” rose and fell, the idea of the meme stock went has changed the way our stock market works.
Guest: Alex Kirshner, contributing writer for Slate.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening ...
Mark as Played
May 12, 2024 • 28 mins
The ability to choose the sex of your child through IVF is banned in most of the world. In America, however, parents can—and do—for a price.
Guest: Emi Nietfeld, writer and software engineer, author of “The Parents Who Want Daughters—and Daughters Only” for Slate.
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 Appl...
Mark as Played
May 10, 2024 • 21 mins
You might not know Brad Parscale by name, but you know his work: he was the digital campaign operative behind Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory. This election cycle, he’s back—and advising conservatives on how to utilize A.I. in their campaigns.
Guest: Garance Burke, global investigative journalist for the Associated Press.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next...
Mark as Played
May 5, 2024 • 23 mins
The California Journalism Preservation Act would make companies like Google and Meta pay publishers for the news content appearing in their feeds and search results—and force news organizations to spend that money on their journalists. How have similar laws worked in Canada and Australia? And could it solve journalism’s on-going revenue problem?
Guest: Matt Pearce, former LA Times journalist, the president of Media Guild of the We...
Mark as Played
May 3, 2024 • 25 mins
Bird flu isn’t new, you may even remember past outbreaks. But showing up in milk?
Is America ready if it leaps to spreading among humans?
Guest: Katelyn Jetelina, epidemiologist, senior advisor to the CDC
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 ...
Mark as Played
April 28, 2024 • 27 mins
There are regulations regarding how farm animals are transported, how they’re auctioned, how they’re slaughtered—but when they’re living on the farm? That’s where things get cloudy.
Guest: Annie Lowrey, journalist writing on politics and economic policy 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...
Mark as Played
April 26, 2024 • 22 mins
The TikTok ban that has been floating around Washington since the last administration has been signed into law. What does that mean for users, creators and the court battles ahead?
Guest:
Louise Matsakis, reporter covering tech and China.
Dillon White, TikToker under the handle @dadchats
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...
Mark as Played
April 21, 2024 • 23 mins
From the Wayback Machine to the mass-digitization of the history of Aruba, the Internet Archive is a non-profit doing valuable work. But some of its other projects—a pandemic-era lending library and the ongoing digitalization of 78 rpm records—have led to lawsuits now threatening the future of this repository of the past.
Guest: Kate Knibbs, senior writer at Wired.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-fr...
Mark as Played
April 19, 2024 • 23 mins
Tesla’s market cap has dropped. The company had its biggest round of layoffs ever. The Cybertruck doesn’t seem to be taking off. And Elon’s posting through it. Is Tesla in serious trouble?
Guest: Dana Hull, Bloomberg reporter and contributor to the podcast Elon, Inc.
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...
Mark as Played
April 14, 2024 • 26 mins
How the semi-legalization of marijuana has drawn a road map for legalizing psychedelics—and also provided a list of pitfalls to be avoided.
Guest: Jane C. Hu, science journalist and author of the newsletter The Microdose.
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 t...
Mark as Played
April 12, 2024 • 26 mins
Why lately our search engines just don’t seem to deliver results.
Guest: Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media and 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 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...
Mark as Played
April 7, 2024 • 29 mins
The demand for electricity is surging in the U.S. With increasing amounts of power going towards artificial intelligence, manufacturing and electric vehicles, can the grid keep up?
Guest: Evan Halper, business reporter covering the energy transition 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 toda...
Mark as Played
April 5, 2024 • 27 mins
Donald Trump got a huge financial boost when Truth Social went public last week—or did he?
Guest: Nitish Pahwa, associate writer on business and tech for Slate.
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 ...
Mark as Played
March 31, 2024 • 24 mins
From science fiction writers to American presidents to Elon Musk, everyone’s eager to send people to Mars. But, even if you could nail the physical aspects, are Earthlings cut out for life on Mars mentally?
Guest: Nathaniel Rich, contributing writer for New York Times magazine.
Kate Greene, author and poet
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your fav...
Mark as Played
March 29, 2024 • 30 mins
How supply chains, the pandemic, and a steady stream of Wall Street money led to a crisis at Boeing.
Guest: Jon Ostrower, editor-in-chief of the website 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 “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnex...
Mark as Played
March 24, 2024 • 21 mins
After organized-labor victories at Amazon, with automakers, and in Hollywood, big corporations are striking back by, among other things, suing the National Labor Relations Board.
Guest: Noam Scheiber, reporter for the New York Times covering working and workers.
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 Appl...
Mark as Played
March 22, 2024 • 27 mins
Despite the blackouts, moderator revolts, and long string of controversies, Reddit remains an active, healthy website. As the site goes public this week, can it remain that way?
Guest: Priya Anand, Bloomberg News 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 ...
Mark as Played
March 17, 2024 • 29 mins
Private equity firms have been buying up doctors’ offices and hospitals around the country. But if profits are the primary goal, what happens to the cost and quality of healthcare for patients?
Guest: Gretchen Morgenson, senior financial reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit and co-author of “These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America”
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad...
Mark as Played
March 15, 2024 • 26 mins
TikTok’s connection to the Chinese government has been a Washington talking point since the Trump administration, but earlier this month lawmakers in the House introduced a bill requiring the app’s parent company to either divest the company into American hands—or be banned.
Guest: Emily Baker-White, technology reporter and senior writer at Forbes.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to th...
Mark as Played
March 10, 2024 • 33 mins
As the debate around child safety online rages on, an investigation by The New York Times found a seedy world of pedophiles interacting with child influencer accounts, often run by their parents, on Instagram.
Guest: Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, investigative reporter 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 across all your favorite Slat...
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.