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.
- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 28 minutes
- Episodes
- 601
- Years Active
- 2017 - 2025
Tech’s Newest Trillion Dollar Company
Until recently, Nvidia was a company known for graphics cards—a brand name among gamers but not necessarily the general public. But as part of the A.I. boom, Nvidia’s stock has skyrocketed, putting t…
00:23:44 |
Sun 04 Jun 2023
When Your Childhood Was Their Content
When someone posts a photo of you online without your consent, it should be easy to have it taken down or confront the person who posted it. But what if the poster is your parent, and it’s not just o…
00:27:42 |
Fri 02 Jun 2023
The Trouble With TikTok Songs
How the music streaming business opened the door to billions of dollars in fraud.
Guest: Ashley Carman, Bloomberg News reporter covering the podcasting, music, and audio beat.
If you enjoy this sho…
00:21:54 |
Sun 28 May 2023
Tweetering on the Glass Cliff
How Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino finds herself on the edge of “the glass cliff”: when a woman is sent in to fix a big mess.
Guest: Vittoria Elliot, reporter for Wired, covering platforms and po…
00:23:32 |
Fri 26 May 2023
A Tipping Point for Digital Tipping
From the coffee shop to the salon to the grocery store, Americans feel like they’re being prompted and prodded for tips more than ever—and they’re starting to resent it.
Guest: Kelly Phillips Erb, t…
00:31:54 |
Sun 21 May 2023
Why Sports Are All in on Betting
Out of the smoky backrooms, Vegas and clandestine dens, and straight to your phone—how did gambling on sports go from forbidden to inescapable seemingly overnight?
Guest: John Holden, associate pro…
00:27:38 |
Fri 19 May 2023
Space After NASA
Space might seem to be heading from the domain of big government programs to a playground for billionaires. But just below the surface, a world of start-ups are getting ready to launch.
Guest:
Ash…
00:33:04 |
Sun 14 May 2023
Who’s Afraid of A.I.?
Artificial intelligence—as it already exists today—is drawing from huge troves of surveillance data and is rife with the biases built into the algorithm, in service of the huge corporations that deve…
00:32:26 |
Fri 12 May 2023
What's Going on at Meta?
Meta’s reached a sort of mid-life crisis. Between the layoffs, the stagnant metaverse and Facebook’s dwindling profile, does Zuckerberg have a plan here?
Guests:
Naomi Nix, Washington Post reporter…
00:32:05 |
Sun 07 May 2023
What the Writers' Strike Is Really About
When television and screenwriters went on strike in 2007, Netflix had just started offering the option to stream content. This week, the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike to update pay structu…
00:30:13 |
Fri 05 May 2023
Is Your Uber Drivers' Pay Rigged?
Two gig workers standing side-by-side can be offered the very same job and get offered two different wages. Set by an algorithm and based on calculations that are never explained to the workers thems…
00:24:42 |
Sun 30 Apr 2023
Stephen King Is Just as Confused About Blue Checks as You Are
Twitter’s “blue check” verification went from something you applied for, to something you could pay for, to something you had to pay for…to something that many celebrities wouldn’t even accept for fr…
00:33:06 |
Fri 28 Apr 2023
"Crap Apps": Why Weather Apps Suck
Weather apps can be frustrating. And with how much we rely on them to know if we should wear pants or shorts, they'll still leave you in the rain. But as the climate gets wilder, the questions of how…
00:24:22 |
Sun 23 Apr 2023
Will A.I. Close Off the Internet?
Reddit announced it will start charging companies to use its huge, ever-growing trove of text to train A.I. chatbots. It’s another expense for the fledgling tech and another knock against the “open i…
00:25:27 |
Fri 21 Apr 2023
Will Banning Social Media Help Kids?
A new law in Utah that goes into effect next year states that anyone under 18 needs parental permission to use social media. Is it a necessary step to protect children from harms associated with soci…
00:32:58 |
Sun 16 Apr 2023
How Gamers Leaked Classified Pentagon Docs
Discord is a place to share a community online. Most often, it's for gaming. So why did classified intelligence from the Pentagon end up on a small server whose main interests seem to be video games,…
00:33:28 |
Fri 14 Apr 2023
Why Flying Is So Bad Now
U.S. air travel is being strained on all sides—travel demand is back to 2019 levels, but the number of pilots and planes and ground crew hasn’t caught back up, and a rash of close calls are raising s…
00:31:52 |
Sun 09 Apr 2023
Wait, TikTok Has a Sister App?
While TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, is fighting to keep its flagship app from being banned in the United States, it’s also pushing a new app into the marketplace—Lemon8. One part Pinterest, one…
00:27:18 |
Fri 07 Apr 2023
Seeking Asylum Via App
CBP One, U.S. Customs and Border Protection's app that is supposed to make crossing the border more efficient, is littered with bugs. But even a perfectly functional smartphone app would pose problem…
00:36:38 |
Sun 02 Apr 2023
When A.I. Denies Your Health Care
As Medicare Advantage plans have increased their reliance on software to determine what their customers require—and, therefore, receive—elderly patients are being denied coverage for care they need. …
00:29:08 |
Fri 31 Mar 2023
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are the property of Slate Podcasts. This content is not affiliated with or endorsed by eachpod.com.