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
Why Trump’s Data Purge is a Digital Book Burning
Using Github, you can watch as government websites are brought into compliance with Donald Trump’s executive orders. Out goes the word “equity;” in comes “fair.” And health and science data, once pub…
00:26:50 |
Sun 09 Feb 2025
Bonus: The Discourse | Why is Elon Musk Cheating at Video Games?
Elon Musk is supposed to be running several companies and a new government department—so why is he also spending money to pretend to be good at video games?
Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter for th…
00:06:59 |
Fri 07 Feb 2025
Is Elon Musk Unstoppable?
You can’t doubt the enthusiasm of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. You can question the legality of some of their early moves.
Guest: Makena Kelly, senior writer at WIRED.
Want mo…
00:27:03 |
Fri 07 Feb 2025
The DeepSeek Panic
The artificial intelligence industry was thrown for a loop when the Chinese start-up DeepSeek rolled out a product that was more energy efficient, cheaper to produce, and open source. Where did DeepS…
00:25:57 |
Sun 02 Feb 2025
RFK Jr. Is a Feature, Not a Bug
Tapped by Trump for the role of health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presents himself as someone willing to say what other politicians won’t. But during his Senate confirmation hearings, both Demo…
00:27:26 |
Fri 31 Jan 2025
The A.I. Will See You Now
Artificial intelligence is coming to a doctor’s office near you—if it isn’t already there, working in an administrative role. Are you ready for generative A.I. to help your doctor diagnose you? Is yo…
00:23:43 |
Sun 26 Jan 2025
Bonus: The Discourse | The Bro-ligarchs Take Washington
Choice seats for Donald Trump’s second inauguration were filled with tech founders and CEOs, signaling their importance to this presidential term. Then Elon Musk sent another signal of his own…
Gues…
00:06:28 |
Fri 24 Jan 2025
Department of Government Elon
The Department of Government Efficiency was made to Elon Musk’s specifications, right down to its meme-indebted name. Now that DOGE is shaping up to be an actual part of the government, what can it a…
00:23:18 |
Fri 24 Jan 2025
As Fires Approached LA, Angelenos Turned to Watch Duty
Looking for up-to-the-minute updates on where the fires are, LA residents have been turning to the app Watch Duty, rather than getting updates directly from the local or state government, or even loc…
00:22:46 |
Sun 19 Jan 2025
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta-Morphosis
Misinformation, disinformation, politics—Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is not going to shield users from those anymore. What’s behind the abrupt change in direction?
Guest: Sheera Frenkel, New York Times t…
00:26:53 |
Fri 17 Jan 2025
Why Tech Is Bending the Knee
How the FCC and its incoming head, Brenden Carr, could enact Trump’s top policy goal: punishing anyone who says mean stuff about Trump.
Guest: Drew FitzGerald, telecom reporter for the Wall Street J…
00:26:29 |
Sun 12 Jan 2025
Will the Supreme Court Save TikTok?
Will a First Amendment defense keep TikTok running in America?
Guest: Emily Baker White, tech reporter for Forbes.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to th…
00:28:50 |
Fri 10 Jan 2025
Bitcoin Takes the White House
Cryptocurrency spent generously on this last election cycle, and now they’ve got their top pick in the White House, and wins across Congress. Where is the industry looking to go with these favorable,…
00:23:52 |
Sun 05 Jan 2025
Musk vs. MAGA
On Christmas Eve a fracas erupted on X, when Elon Musk posted in favor of H1-B visas for specialized and high-skill workers and was met with anger from the MAGA base who view the visas as a way for i…
00:26:02 |
Fri 03 Jan 2025
The Cost of Suicide Prevention Software
Between a third and half of American schoolchildren have a form of “mental health monitoring” software on their school devices, which scans for and flags certain keywords.
While intuitively appeali…
00:27:58 |
Sun 29 Dec 2024
2024 In Review: Would You Buy Poop On the Internet?
“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat everything from IBS to autism. But if your doctor …
00:24:17 |
Fri 27 Dec 2024
Influencer vs. Influencer
One influencer working for Amazon sued another influencer who works for Amazon for creating content that looks too similar to theirs. But with how the algorithms work and reward, was this an inevitab…
00:30:53 |
Sun 22 Dec 2024
Drones!??!!!?!!!
Reports of flocks of drones, flying overhead nightly, are coming in from New Jersey down to Maryland. Are they UFOs? Nefarious foreign powers? Something even more pernicious? Something even more bana…
00:22:42 |
Fri 20 Dec 2024
The Surveillance State Trump Is Inheriting
Our lives, and our communication in particular, are increasingly conducted over the internet. This means we are increasingly able to be hacked and monitored, by governments, by the police, and more a…
00:25:27 |
Sun 15 Dec 2024
Elon Musk and Trump’s Shadow Transition Team
Elon Musk has been down in Florida with Donald Trump, inviting his fellow rich Silicon Valley friends to stop by and weigh in on the next administration. How could policy and personnel be shaped by t…
00:27:09 |
Fri 13 Dec 2024
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