
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.
Latest episodes

Dec 6, 2019 • 20min
What Is Google After Larry and Sergey?
On Tuesday, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced that they are stepping down from their respective roles as president and CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. The move will leave Sundar Pichai in charge of both Google and Alphabet. With pressure mounting from unhappy employees, antitrust regulators in Europe, and the Trump administration, Pichai takes the helm at a crucial moment in the company’s history. Will he be up to the task? Guest: Mark Bergen, technology reporter at Bloomberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 22, 2019 • 22min
Is TikTok Really a National Security Threat?
TikTok now has over 1.5 billion downloads, putting it in the company of social media giants like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. While all of these companies have faced scrutiny from lawmakers in one form or another, TikTok is getting attention for its Chinese ownership as some fear that Beijing could use data uploaded to the platform for counterintelligence purposes. Is there a real reason to be concerned? Or is this just fearmongering about a geopolitical rival? Guest: Drew Harwell, technology reporter for the Washington Post. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 15, 2019 • 22min
How WhatsApp Got Hacked
Recently, Facebook filed a lawsuit against a little-known Israeli spyware firm called NSO Group. Facebook is accusing NSO of supplying technology that enabled a hack of 1,400 WhatsApp accounts. But NSO’s reach goes far beyond a few thousand phones. Governments around the world purchase its powerful technology. Some use it to “lawfully hack” the devices of criminals and terrorists. But others use it more broadly, tracking the communications of activists, journalists, lawyers, and dissidents. What does the WhatsApp lawsuit mean for the spyware industry? And why are governments lining up to buy these products? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 8, 2019 • 19min
The Uber Drivers Who Don’t Want to Be Employees
California recently passed a law that would classify rideshare drivers across the state as employees, rather than contractors. Among many other benefits, they’d be allowed to unionize, collect overtime pay, and take sick leave. So why are so many drivers against it? Guest: Harry Campbell, former Uber driver and founder of The Rideshare Guy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 1, 2019 • 18min
The Price of Automating Aviation
This week, Boeing’s CEO Dennis Muilenburg appeared in front of Congress. He was there to answer questions about what his company knew, and when, before two 737 Max airplanes crashed and claimed the lives of 346 people. But beyond the planes’ technological failures is another key issue: the way pilots react when automated systems go wrong. Guest: Jon Ostrower, Editor in Chief of The Air Current Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 25, 2019 • 21min
Inside Facebook's Political Ad Mess
Over the last week, Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have been under fire for declining to fact-check political ads. But a former insider says this is the wrong debate to be having—and it misses a more fundamental problem: Facebook’s business model itself. Guests: Yael Eisenstat, former head of global elections integrity operations at Facebook and Charlie Warzel, an opinion writer at the New York Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 24, 2019 • 54sec
Announcement: What Next: TBD
Hey If Then listeners! As of now, the new Slate podcast What Next: TBD will be taking over this feed. What Next: TBD is a weekly analysis with host Lizzie O’Leary of how technology is impacting our lives, and where we’re headed. From fake news to fake meat, algorithms to augmented reality, we’ll be examining the often hidden forces shaping our world, and we’ll talk to the people who are studying those forces, impacted by them, and creating them. What Next: TBD is a spinoff from the Slate daily news show What Next. If you’re not already subscribed, go find it in your podcast app: there you’ll find the brilliant Mary Harris every Monday through Thursday to help you make sense of the news, sifting through the frenetic cascade of headlines to go deep on one story at a time. Then you’ll get this show, What Next: TBD, on Fridays. So listen here, or get all of Slate’s morning news in the What Next feed, starting tomorrow, October 25th. See you then! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 16, 2019 • 41min
Smash Bros Side Hustlers
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Oct 9, 2019 • 44min
The People Who Hold The Internet Together
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Oct 2, 2019 • 41min
What it Takes to Study Online Harassment
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