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

Back in April 2020, AstraZeneca was hailed as a frontrunner in the race to get an effective vaccine to market. A year later, after a series of trial pauses, communication blunders, and PR problems, the vaccine is on the cusp of FDA approval. By all accounts, the company succeeded in making a safe, effective vaccine. So why has there been so much confusion about its rollout?Guest:  Peter Aldhous, science reporter at Buzzfeed NewsHostLizzie O’Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook’s failure to contain the spread of dangerous misinformation is no secret. For years, the company has pledged publicly to fix the problem. But in the wake of the Capitol riots, it’s clear that there’s more work to be done. So, why isn’t the social media giant using its powerful AI to contain hate and lies?Guest: Karen Hao, senior AI reporter at MIT Technology ReviewHostLizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in 2014, Google released in-depth diversity data for its workforce for the first time. 1.1 percent of its tech team identified as Black. Six years later, after millions of dollars spent and a much-hyped partnership program with historically Black colleges and universities across the country, that number is up to 2.4 percent. How did such a promising effort yield such incremental change?Guest: Nitasha Tiku, tech culture reporter at the Washington PostHostLizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The federal Lifeline program was intended to bridge the gap between Americans who could comfortably pay for phone and internet service, and those who couldn’t. But in the midst of the pandemic, Lifeline is falling woefully short.How did a program meant to help connect low-income Americans with phone and internet service ended up making them second-class digital citizens at the worst possible moment? Guest: Tony Romm, senior tech policy reporter at the Washington Post, author of“How the Federal Lifeline Program Failed Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic”HostLizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last year, the Australian government has been waging a quiet war against Facebook and Google. Through a new law, it plans to force the big tech companies to pay news outlets in exchange for linking to their sites.Will this new law have the intended effect? Or will it set a dangerous precedent that cedes even more power over to the tech giants?Guest: JR Hennessy, editor at Business Insider AustraliaHostLizzie O’Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last week, millions of Texans have been forced to live without power or heat. At least 16 have died since Monday. In a state that’s no stranger to extreme weather and high power demand, how did it all go so wrong?Guest: Josh Rhodes, research associate at the Webber Energy Group at the University of Texas at Austin HostLizzie O’Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For most of the last year, Clubhouse—the audio-only social media app—has been dominated by conversations about business, branding, and Elon Musk. But as users picked up the app around the globe, something extraordinary happened.  Censors in mainland China overlooked it. And for two weeks in February, it hosted a series of unusual, unfiltered conversations. Han Chinese, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, and Uighurs all flooded to the app to speak freely about authoritarianism, democracy, and propaganda. Here’s what happened when the censors looked the other way. Guest: Melissa Chan, journalist with the Global Reporting CentreHostLizzie O’Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, in response to protests by farmers outside New Delhi, India, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi restricted access to the mobile web in areas where the protests were unfolding. The move is the latest in the Indian government’s long history of throttling internet access and censoring speech online. Why is the Modi government increasingly shutting down the internet and stifling digital dissent? And what does the party’s history of internet shutdowns tell us about India’s future?Guest: Pranav Dixit, correspondent for Buzzfeed NewsHostLizzie O’Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 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 BloombergHostLizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people thought developing the vaccine in record time would be the hard part. That, or shipping millions of doses at subzero temperatures to every corner of the country. But nobody--or, almost nobody--guessed that the biggest barrier between U.S. citizens and vaccination would be … online scheduling. What went wrong with the vaccine websites? And what will it take to get them right?Guests: Raphael Lee, director of USDR’s Health Program Hana Schank, director of Strategy for Public Interest Technology at New AmericaJessica AllenHostLizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices