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

Facebook’s first crack at the metaverse has a problem: kids. Underage users seem to be flooding Horizon Worlds, potentially putting themselves at risk. Is Meta doomed to repeat Facebook’s mistakes?Guest: Will Oremus, technology news analysis writer for the Washington Post. Host: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Banks, healthcare providers, and retailers around the world still rely on COBOL, a programming language originally developed in the 1960s. By all accounts the code is powerful, practical, and very rarely problematic. But the small group of people who still know the language are aging out of the workforce. What happens when there are no more COBOL coders left?Guest: Clive Thompson, journalist and author of "Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World."Host: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Spotify, the last month has seen a cascade of controversies around its exclusive podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. Is it time for the streaming service to rethink its role as a podcast publisher? And is it even possible to moderate podcast misinformation?Guest: Evelyn Douek, lecturer at Harvard Law School, and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & SocietyHost: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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