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
How the Gig Economy Won in California
Companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash have always argued that their workers are independent contractors, not employees. This distinction has been crucial in their rise from startups to multi-billio…
00:20:56 |
Fri 06 Nov 2020
The Fight Against Election Day Falsehoods
The 2016 general election changed the way we think about information online and its power to sway results. Four years later, Americans will vote amid a surge of misinformation, collected and distorte…
00:24:41 |
Fri 30 Oct 2020
A Historic Case Against Google
It’s been 22 years since the federal government last brought a meaningful legal challenge to a big tech company. Back then, when the Justice Department sued Microsoft, the outcome changed the directi…
00:21:59 |
Fri 23 Oct 2020
Facebook Flips on Holocaust Denial
Two years ago, Mark Zuckerberg held up Holocaust denial as an example of the type of speech that would be protected on Facebook. The company wouldn’t take down content simply because it was incorrect…
00:23:09 |
Fri 16 Oct 2020
What Landlords Have on You
Over the last decade, born from the chaos of the 2008 financial crisis, automated tenant screening has grown into a billion-dollar industry. Now, nine out of 10 landlords rely on automated tenant-scr…
00:21:19 |
Fri 09 Oct 2020
The Attack on Florida’s Latino Voters
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Spanish-speaking voters in Florida have been exposed to a steady uptick in falsities and conspiracy theories. This misinformation is shared in WhatsApp groups, Fa…
00:17:57 |
Fri 02 Oct 2020
A Vaccine Won’t Be the End
As of Sept. 24, there are 42 vaccines in clinical trials on humans. At least 92 others are being developed but have not yet gone to trial. For months, the world has tracked the progression of these v…
00:22:20 |
Fri 25 Sep 2020
Did the Internet Doom a Pregnancy?
For pregnant women in the U.S., there are plenty of reasons to mistrust the medical establishment. Mortality rates are high compared to other western countries, and one-third of women in the U.S. giv…
00:22:34 |
Fri 18 Sep 2020
The Great Climate Migration Begins
As the planet warms in the coming decades, many parts of the planet that millions now call home will become uninhabitable. At first, people in these areas will move to the cities, then across interna…
00:20:28 |
Fri 11 Sep 2020
The Limits of Filming Police Brutality
In the wake of the killing of Michael Brown in 2014, and the national protests that followed, many believed that video shared on social media, along with footage from body cameras, would reshape the …
00:22:10 |
Fri 04 Sep 2020
QAnon Goes Mainstream
Not long ago, the QAnon conspiracy theory seemed to have lost momentum. Social media mentions had decreased. 8chan had gone offline. But since March, fueled by the pandemic and social media giants, t…
00:19:22 |
Fri 28 Aug 2020
What Went Wrong With Contact Tracing Apps
In the early days of the pandemic, countries around the world invested heavily in new technologies that would help track the movement of the virus. Now, six months later, contact tracing apps are all…
00:21:08 |
Fri 21 Aug 2020
How Google Search Sold Out
In the early days of internet search engines, Google set itself apart by providing a simple service. A list of links, inviting you to explore the websites that best matched your query. It was a porta…
00:20:52 |
Fri 14 Aug 2020
How One Block Got Through It
Over the past five months, city blocks have been slipping away. Bars are closed; restaurants are half-empty; retail is shuttered. As the country returns to varying states of lockdown, how long can th…
00:22:50 |
Fri 07 Aug 2020
When America Can’t Pay the Rent
For the last four months, federal and state eviction moratoria have kept Americans in their apartments, even if they couldn’t pay rent. Now, with financial relief in question, and moratoria set to ex…
00:25:33 |
Fri 31 Jul 2020
New Orleans Without Music
More than any other U.S. city, New Orleans banks on its culture. From music to restaurants to parades, the city relies on a steady stream of tourists to support its many artists and institutions. In …
00:22:14 |
Fri 24 Jul 2020
Cities Are Running Out of Money
After months of coronavirus lockdowns, cities are taking stock of their finances. The situation is bleak. With plummeting sales and property tax revenue, American cities of all sizes may be facing a …
00:23:46 |
Fri 17 Jul 2020
Is “Covid Flight” a Thing?
Tens of thousands of people leave American cities every year. Normally, they’re replaced by new arrivals seeking jobs, education, and opportunity. But in a world transformed by the coronavirus, what …
00:21:21 |
Fri 10 Jul 2020
What's a City Without the Office?
Since March, white-collar offices in major cities across the United States have stood empty. Now, with growing evidence that the workforce is equally effective at home, companies and designers are st…
00:20:27 |
Fri 03 Jul 2020
A Hidden Side of Police Abuse
Responding to protests around the country, the New York City Council passed the POST Act: Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology last week. The bill will require the NYPD to reveal the extent of…
00:17:32 |
Fri 26 Jun 2020
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