What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future podcast

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.

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.

 

#622

How Meta Profits Off Fraud

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, doesn’t (just) have a scam problem—wit... more

16 Nov 2025

32 MINS

32:09

16 Nov 2025


#621

Data Centers on the Ballot

They don’t cut cleanly along party lines, but data centers, and where they get built, beca... more

14 Nov 2025

25 MINS

25:10

14 Nov 2025


#620

Why Tesla Is Paying Elon a Trillion Bucks

Tesla shareholders just approved a trillion dollar (with a t!) pay package for Elon Musk. ... more

09 Nov 2025

30 MINS

30:45

09 Nov 2025


#619

The Nick Fuentes Problem

Nick Fuentes—an openly antisemitic, openly racist, openly sexist type who once was persona... more

07 Nov 2025

25 MINS

25:23

07 Nov 2025


#618

Why Trump Keeps Pardoning Crypto Criminals

President Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of Binance who had been convicted ... more

02 Nov 2025

30 MINS

30:53

02 Nov 2025


#617

Inside the Goonerverse

One legacy of the internet is the millions of subcultures that it helps flourish. Another ... more

31 Oct 2025

29 MINS

29:52

31 Oct 2025


#616

Did The Trump Administration Censor Speech?

For years, conservatives claimed that the Biden administration was pressuring tech compani... more

26 Oct 2025

32 MINS

32:04

26 Oct 2025


#615

The AWS Outage is Only the Beginning

This week’s AWS outage illustrates just how fragile and vulnerable our interconnected worl... more

24 Oct 2025

31 MINS

31:49

24 Oct 2025


#614

Why Bands Are Leaving Spotify

Paying a fraction of a penny per stream and diminishing the value of music were bad enough... more

19 Oct 2025

21 MINS

21:02

19 Oct 2025


#613

Inside the MAGA Content Mill

As Trump throws out journalists and outlets that report anything negative about him, he’s ... more

17 Oct 2025

27 MINS

27:00

17 Oct 2025


#612

A.I. for Cops

At this very moment, police departments can gather more data than they have time to actual... more

12 Oct 2025

27 MINS

27:59

12 Oct 2025


#611

The People Suing ICE

Though ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid... more

10 Oct 2025

25 MINS

25:14

10 Oct 2025


#610

Saudi Arabia Gets into EA’s Games

How one of the largest video game companies was bought for $55 billion by a group that inc... more

05 Oct 2025

23 MINS

23:39

05 Oct 2025


#609

Who Owns TikTok Now?

TikTok exploded to popularity not by giving users what they asked for—but by figuring out ... more

03 Oct 2025

28 MINS

28:40

03 Oct 2025


#608

Trapped in a Tesla

When you’re getting out of an Uber, Tesla’s unintuitive door handle can embarrass you. In ... more

28 Sep 2025

27 MINS

27:32

28 Sep 2025


#607

How Trump Got Obsessed with Autism

Why would Donald Trump rush to announce that Tylenol is a potential cause of autism, a cla... more

26 Sep 2025

32 MINS

32:22

26 Sep 2025


#606

Is A.I. Taking Your Job?

If you’re hunting for a job, the odds are increasingly likely you’ll have an interview wit... more

21 Sep 2025

31 MINS

31:03

21 Sep 2025


#605

The Discourse | TikTok Ban: The Final Loop?

TikTok—which was supposed to be banned again on Wednesday but, again, isn’t—may be legal o... more

19 Sep 2025

04 MINS

04:51

19 Sep 2025


#604

A Very Online Shooter

As the Charlie Kirk murder demonstrated, law enforcement, the government, and media all ne... more

19 Sep 2025

35 MINS

35:58

19 Sep 2025


#603

Her Daughter Killed Herself. Then She Saw the ChatGPT logs.

After their daughter committed suicide, they found her ChatGPT log—and where artificial in... more

14 Sep 2025

34 MINS

34:37

14 Sep 2025


#602

You Can't Escape the Charlie Kirk Video

Graphic, violent videos like the shooting of right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk circulate acro... more

12 Sep 2025

36 MINS

36:04

12 Sep 2025


#601

End of an Electric Avenue

An Inflation Reduction Act subsidy for electric vehicles is being shut down by the Trump a... more

07 Sep 2025

23 MINS

23:31

07 Sep 2025