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
Would You Choose Your Child’s Sex?
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…
00:28:45 |
Sun 12 May 2024
Meet the Trump Campaign’s A.I. Guy
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 con…
00:21:15 |
Fri 10 May 2024
Can California Save Journalism?
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 sp…
00:23:53 |
Sun 05 May 2024
Bird Flu—It’s in Milk?
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…
00:25:22 |
Fri 03 May 2024
The Failures of ‘Organic’ Farming
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 Lo…
00:27:31 |
Sun 28 Apr 2024
So ... Is TikTok Banned?
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 Ma…
00:22:58 |
Fri 26 Apr 2024
The Internet Archive Endangered
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 …
00:23:14 |
Sun 21 Apr 2024
What’s Driving Tesla’s Layoffs?
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: Da…
00:23:03 |
Fri 19 Apr 2024
Is America Ready for Legal Psychedelics?
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 n…
00:26:32 |
Sun 14 Apr 2024
Does Google Suck Now?
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 Pl…
00:26:50 |
Fri 12 Apr 2024
America Needs More Power
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 Halpe…
00:29:35 |
Sun 07 Apr 2024
Truth Social’s Rocky Week
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 t…
00:27:13 |
Fri 05 Apr 2024
The Psychological Toll of Mars
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 me…
00:24:40 |
Sun 31 Mar 2024
Can Boeing Pull Out of This Tailspin?
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? Su…
00:30:54 |
Fri 29 Mar 2024
The Next Round of the Union Fight
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 Schei…
00:21:17 |
Sun 24 Mar 2024
Reddit’s IPO Gamble
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, …
00:27:35 |
Fri 22 Mar 2024
When Private Equity Gets in to Health Care
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?
Gues…
00:29:34 |
Sun 17 Mar 2024
Is TikTok Cooked This Time?
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 p…
00:26:22 |
Fri 15 Mar 2024
Instagram’s Pedophile Problem
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 …
00:33:58 |
Sun 10 Mar 2024
Why TikTok Went Silent
Thousands of songs have disappeared from TikTok in recent months as music giant Universal Music Group, or UMG, has pulled its catalog from the app. UMG claims that TikTok is a music platform, and tha…
00:22:43 |
Fri 08 Mar 2024
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.