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

Ten years ago, IBM made a gamble. Through a monumental advertising and PR campaign, it promised that its AI technology–Watson–would transform the health care industry as we know it. A decade and billions of dollars later, Watson Health is being sold for parts. What went wrong with IBM’s “moonshot?” And what does Watson’s failure tell us about the promise of AI for health care?Guest: Casey Ross, national technology correspondent for STATHost: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent advertisement for crypto.com, featuring Matt Damon, was met with widespread mockery online. But Damon’s ad is only the most visible example of a much broader—and more insidious—trend of celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements. Is the partnership between crypto and Hollywood really dangerous? And what separates the trend from run-of-the-mill salesmanship?Guests: Jacob Silverman, staff writer for the New Republic and Ben McKenzie, actor, writer, and director.Host: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on What Next TBD: What is going on with little kids' vaccines? Why don’t they seem to be a priority for the government or the pharmaceutical companies, while parents are stressed to a breaking point? We discuss with Meg Tirrell, health and science correspondent for CNBC, and co-host of the Readout Loud podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of defrauding investors this week in federal court. The former CEO, wunderkind, and blood mogul has been the subject of intense legal interest and public fascination ever since her company, Theranos, was beset by scandal in 2015. Today on What Next: TBD we follow-up with Rebecca Jarvis, host of “The Dropout” podcast and ABC News Chief Business, Technology & Economics Correspondent. We dig into the verdict and ask if Silicon Valley will finally confront the elements of its culture that allowed Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos to run wild with investor’s money, and patient’s health. You can listen to “The Dropout: Elizabeth Holmes on Trial” now wherever you get your podcasts.Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode originally aired in July 2021Last week, the U.S. government released a new report that attempts to categorize 144 verified sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, or U.A.P. They could only definitively explain one of them. The new report signals a shift in the way we think about U.A.P. As technology has advanced and evidence of these encounters have increased, the question has become more urgent: what exactly is happening in our skies?Guest: Shane Harris, intelligence and national security reporter for the Washington Post Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode originally aired in September.In the U.S., the PCR test is the gold standard for COVID testing. Common knowledge would have it that the test is more accurate—and therefore more effective at containing the spread of the disease—than the rapid antigen test. What if that isn’t quite true? Guest: Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Host: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using experimental technology to pull gigatons of carbon out of the air and bury it deep beneath the Earth sounds like a bad sci-fi plot point. If things don’t change soon, it also might be one of our only options.Guest: Clive Thompson, journalist and author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the WorldHost: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. civil court system doesn’t get as much attention as the criminal courts, but it would be hard to overstate its importance. In 2018, for example, 47 percent of respondents to a Pew survey said they had dealt with the system in one way or another; from eviction proceedings, to debt collection, to child-support modifications. What happened when the pandemic upended such an important pillar of the justice system? Did new technologies fix existing problems—or just create new ones?Guest: Qudsiya Naqui, officer at the Pew Charitable TrustHost: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of Twitter. It’s not the first time he’s left the job. Is this really the end for the man who guided Twitter through the Trump era? And how will the platform change without him at the helm?Guest: Nick Bilton, special correspondent at Vanity FairHost: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode originally aired in January 2021The story of how GameStop went from the verge of a bankruptcy to a $15 billion market value isn’t an easy one to wrap your head around. But it helps to go back to the beginning; almost three years ago, in a subreddit called r/wallstreetbets.Guests:Brandon Kochkodin, reporter at Bloomberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices