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

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

Over the weekend, Russia tested a new weapon​​—a type of missile that can fly into space and destroy a satellite in orbit. The test created thousands of pieces of debris, which will hurtle around the Earth’s orbit for years to come. What’s the real risk of the rapid increase in space junk? And is there anything to be done about it?Guest:Laura Grego, Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at MITHost: Seth Stevenson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent poll showed that about a third of parents of younger children would get their kids vaccinated, a third would not, and the final third said they wanted to wait and see how the vaccines worked.Public health officials are asking: what will it take to convince that third group that now is the time to vaccinate? Guests:Julie HamillDr. Aaron Carroll, pediatrician and professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of MedicineHost: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In schools across the country, tighter digital controls were put in place to keep kids on task during the pandemic. Are they here to stay?Guests: Priya Anand, reporter at BloombergHost: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bots aren’t just buying cool sneakers. They’re buying concert tickets. Tickets to basketball games and Broadway shows. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were buying hand sanitizer and face masks. And later, they were booking vaccine reservation spots.Why are bots taking over certain markets? And is there anything we can do to slow them down?Guests: Derreck Johnson, designer at SlateEric Budish, economics professor at the University of ChicagoHost: Seth Stevenson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Between April and June of this year, Zillow bought nearly 4,000 homes. And they had no intention of holding onto them. The plan was to flip houses, often and at scale, joining the ranks of companies like Opendoor and Offerpad, also known as iBuyers. So, why did Zillow put their plans on pause last weekend? Can online middlemen really change the way we buy and sell houses?Guests: Tony Santos, homeownerPatrick Clark, reporter at BloombergHost: Henry Grabar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last month, the domain company Epik and the streaming service Twitch have fallen prey to massive-scale hacks. The hackers revealed not just email addresses, but detailed personal information too. For Twitch, it was the entire source code for their site. But the attackers aren’t holding this data for ransom. In fact, they don’t seem to want much of anything. What’s motivating this new wave of activist hacks? And who suffers?Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter at the Washington PostHost: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The last month has seen a steady drip of leaked documents from inside Facebook, each seemingly more damning than the next. This week, the whistleblower behind the leaks revealed her identity.What motivates Frances Haugen? And can she do real damage to the social media giant?Guest: Jeff Horwitz, tech reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Host: Lizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices