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
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Woes
Elon Musk has been promising fully self-driving Teslas to the public for years and the beta version of Full Self-Driving is already in over 300,000 cars. But as a recent recall attests, the software …
00:32:27 |
Sun 26 Mar 2023
The Case Against TikTok
To most of its 150 million American consumers, TikTok is a fun app. To some creators, TikTok is a job and their platform. But to members of the US government, TikTok is a national security risk. As t…
00:35:39 |
Fri 24 Mar 2023
When A.I. Steals Your Voice
Using just what you’ve posted to social media, generative A.I. can create a “puppet version” of your voice—one that’s close enough to scam your family into paying thousands in, say, bail money. And i…
00:25:02 |
Sun 19 Mar 2023
Where Is Silicon Valley Going to Bank Now?
The economy is doing well almost every but in tech, where headlines about layoffs have been replaced with news about Silicon Valley Bank’s demise. The collapse of “the central artery for the tech ind…
00:27:44 |
Fri 17 Mar 2023
Would You Let A.I. Date For You?
The online dating world can be brutal and repetitive—just the kind of thing you might want to automate. But, in one tech writer’s experience, artificial intelligence isn’t ready to make real connecti…
00:29:00 |
Sun 12 Mar 2023
When Meta Tells Law Enforcement About Your Abortion
Just weeks before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a Nebraska woman and her daughter were charged with performing an illegal abortion, thanks to information that law enforcement uncovered by…
00:25:34 |
Fri 10 Mar 2023
The Hollywood Weight Loss Wonder Drug
The diabetes medication Ozempic has exploded in popularity, particularly amongst those in Hollywood looking to lose a few extra pounds. But a silver bullet for weight loss leads to a number of questi…
00:31:30 |
Sun 05 Mar 2023
What Would Convince a Lab Leak Skeptic?
It was reported this week that the U.S. Department of Energy now believes, “with low confidence,” that the COVID-19 virus came from a lab. But is there enough evidence for the “lab leak theory” to co…
00:32:42 |
Fri 03 Mar 2023
Is a 25-Year-Old’s Brain Mature?
New understandings of how our brains develop are changing how the law considers who is mature and who isn’t. But If our brains are still developing, when can the law treat us like adults?
Guest: Ja…
00:24:12 |
Sun 26 Feb 2023
Why A.I. Says the Darndest Things
Microsoft has been testing out their new artificial intelligence on their long-ridiculed search engine Bing. The results? A chatbot that lies brazenly and confidently, and has a penchant for manipula…
00:28:02 |
Fri 24 Feb 2023
The Baby-Sleep Industrial Complex
The tech-laden, luxury bassinet “Snoo” has been presented as preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, helping babies sleep longer, and a totally reasonable way to spend $1,700. Is any of that true?
…
00:31:45 |
Sun 19 Feb 2023
What Made the Balloon Drama Pop Off?
Come to think of it, a giant balloon seems like a pretty conspicuous way to spy on another country. So what was that Chinese spy balloon doing above the U.S.—and what have American planes been shooti…
00:35:37 |
Fri 17 Feb 2023
Contraband Tech Behind Bars
It’s hard to put a number on it but judging from the number of videos emerging online, there are more and more contraband cell phones finding their way into the hands of people in prison, who use the…
00:31:15 |
Sun 12 Feb 2023
Why Ban TikTok?
TikTok was banned on government agency devices in December; several schools and universities have banned it on their devices and wifi networks, and the governor of Texas unveiled a plan to ban it in …
00:27:03 |
Fri 10 Feb 2023
Did a Twentysomething Con America’s Biggest Bank?
JP Morgan Chase is getting an education on FAFSA and financial aid–which would’ve been helpful before they acquired a now, quite dubious seeming start-up.
Guest: Ron Lieber, New York Times journalis…
00:32:38 |
Sun 05 Feb 2023
How COVID Changes Our Immune Systems
Last fall it seemed like everyone got sick—not just with COVID, but from a slew of respiratory diseases, from the mild to the severe. Researchers are trying to untangle how our immune systems have ch…
00:28:48 |
Fri 03 Feb 2023
Did A.I. Write This Headline?
The proliferation of chatbots and A.I.-generated art has consumers and tech companies alike convinced that artificial intelligence is ready to be integrated into consumer electronics, products, homes…
00:34:53 |
Sun 29 Jan 2023
Will Google Get Broken Up?
The U.S. Department of Justice announced this week that it is suing Google over its ad technology. What do they contend Google has been doing? And does this mean Alphabet is headed for a Bell Telecom…
00:27:45 |
Fri 27 Jan 2023
Does Meta Even Care When Its Users Get Hacked?
It can feel very personal to have your Facebook or Instagram page hacked—they’re your pictures and your friends after all. But Meta, the social media parent company, handles hacks with anything but a…
00:29:39 |
Sun 22 Jan 2023
An Antivax Dog Whistle Goes Viral
The idea that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to sudden deaths among young people has no scientific support, but the theory nevertheless has a lot of traction on social media.
How can public health of…
00:29:37 |
Fri 20 Jan 2023
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