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
Google’s Scam Obituary Problem
Why scam obituaries are edging out earnest ones, with the help of artificial intelligence and an adept Google game.
Guest: Mia Sato, reporter for The Verge.
Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Sl…
00:28:47 |
Sun 03 Mar 2024
The Supreme Court Takes on Content Moderation
Is it censorship for social media platforms to moderate their content, or is censorship when the state tells social media platforms how to moderate their content?
Guest: Mark Joseph Stern, Slate wr…
00:29:23 |
Fri 01 Mar 2024
Alabama’s IVF Mess
Fertility doctors and their patients trying to conceive via in vitro fertilization (IVF) were stopped in their tracks this week, as the Alabama Supreme Court declared that embryos have the same right…
00:28:09 |
Sun 25 Feb 2024
The Coasts are Sinking
Studies have found that, in tiny increments, America’s East Coast is sinking into the ground thanks to climate change. Can a new approach to urban planning mitigate the effect?
Guest: Matt Simon, se…
00:20:11 |
Fri 23 Feb 2024
Apple Vision Pro: The Ultimate Surveillance Device?
Apple Vision Pro goggles might be a crime against fashion but with the amount of data they can collect—both on the world around the user and on the users themselves—they have the potential to invade …
00:28:54 |
Sun 18 Feb 2024
Warfare Enters the A.I. Era
The war in Ukraine reordered the priorities of the country’s growing tech sector, and has become a place for foreign companies to test out new tools with less regulation or scrutiny.
Guests: Vera Be…
00:28:03 |
Fri 16 Feb 2024
Breaking Up with Dating Apps
For a while, it seemed like the only place to meet potential partners was through an app—Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, etc. But as the apps are trying to monetize their matchmaking—and some users now with a…
00:25:36 |
Sun 11 Feb 2024
The NFL’s Concussion Settlement Farce
The NFL's concussion settlement was meant to provide financial support and medical help for players who developed traumatic brain injuries from the sport. So why are so many players denied the help t…
00:29:34 |
Fri 09 Feb 2024
Streaming Is Cable Now
The number of TV streaming services is going up—and so is the cost and so are the number of ads. Cordcutters are finding themselves back to cable prices and inconveniences. And these changes don’t ju…
00:30:39 |
Sun 04 Feb 2024
The Taylor Swift Deepfake Saga
For all the promise of the technology, one use-case for artificial intelligence reared its ugly head last week: non-consensual pornographic images. As millions of users saw abusive A.I. generated ima…
00:26:41 |
Fri 02 Feb 2024
Why Is Everybody Sick?
Are we still paying off our pandemic-induced “immunity debt,” or is there another reason that it feels like we’re all sniffling and coughing and just feeling sick?
Guest: Keren Landman, senior healt…
00:23:17 |
Sun 28 Jan 2024
Are You Ready for the A.I. Election?
In the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary, voters received a robocall purportedly from Joe Biden. Authorities have now determined the call was likely A.I.-generated.
In the era of A.I., ho…
00:26:01 |
Fri 26 Jan 2024
Have Algorithms Ruined Our Culture?
How much of our lives—our tastes, preferences and choices—have been fed to us through an interlocking, impersonal network of algorithms?
Guest: Kyle Chayka, staff writer at the New Yorker and autho…
00:36:05 |
Sun 21 Jan 2024
The Great British Library Hack
When a cyberattack knocked the British Library out of commission in October of last year, a nation's researchers, scholars, students, and bookworms were left high and dry. Months later, the library i…
00:27:33 |
Fri 19 Jan 2024
Is Your Car Tracking You?
Covered in cameras, full of microphones, and always eager to use location data, our vehicles are “smartphones on wheels”—and privacy nightmares.
Guest: Kashmir Hill, technology and privacy reporter …
00:22:49 |
Sun 14 Jan 2024
Boeing’s Max Mess
Shortly after take off from Portland, OR, the plug exit on a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet blew out – causing an uncontrolled decompression of the plane. Now, accident investigators are hard at work, trying t…
00:35:02 |
Fri 12 Jan 2024
Tesla's Cybertruck Problem
What the Cybertruck says about safety, regulation, and the degree to which Tesla is beholden to the whims of Elon Musk.
Guest: Edward Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesl…
00:24:51 |
Sun 07 Jan 2024
Why the New York Times Sued OpenAI
If A.I. and chatbots are the next wave of innovation, then the New York Times and other media organizations are determined to get paid this time.
Guest: Megan Morrone, technology editor for the Ax…
00:28:17 |
Fri 05 Jan 2024
Who’s Afraid of A.I.? | 2023 In Review
While the What Next: TBD team spends some time with their families during the holidays, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes in Janu…
00:33:52 |
Sun 31 Dec 2023
America’s Killer Car Problem | 2023 In Review
While the What Next: TBD team spends some time with their families during the holidays, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes in Janu…
00:36:36 |
Fri 29 Dec 2023
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