Podcast Episodes

TBD Bonus: The Discourse | Why is Elon Musk Cheating at Video Games?

Elon Musk is supposed to be running several companies and a new government department—so why is he also spending money to pretend to be good at video games?

Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter for the …

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

TBD | Is Elon Musk Unstoppable?

You can’t doubt the enthusiasm of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. You can question the legality of some of their early moves. 

Guest: Makena Kelly, senior writer at WIRED. 

Want more W…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

Guantanamo Bay’s Comeback Is a Warning

Last week, Donald Trump announced that Guantanamo Bay would be used to house the “worst criminal illegal aliens” and claimed that it would be drastically scaled up to hold as many as 30,000 people. I…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

DOGE V. USAID

Why did the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which gives money to humanitarian causes around the world and accounts for roughly half of one percent of the federal budget, end up in DO…

Published on 10 months, 3 weeks ago

Are Airplane Crashes Inevitable?

America hadn’t had a major commercial airline crash since 2009 until the mid-air collision over the Potomac. Is this a sign of a larger problem that will require government intervention—and will Cong…

Published on 10 months, 4 weeks ago

Trump’s Anti-Trans Agenda

Trump and his allies in the House’s flurry of anti-trans legislation and executive orders will soon run into both the law and the reality that our institutions like the military really rely on trans …

Published on 10 months, 4 weeks ago

TBD | The DeepSeek Panic

The artificial intelligence industry was thrown for a loop when the Chinese start-up DeepSeek rolled out a product that was more energy efficient, cheaper to produce, and open source. Where did DeepS…

Published on 10 months, 4 weeks ago

Bonus | Main Character Syndrome: Deepseek

Did the Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Deepseek just blow up the A.I. world as we know it? Or is it just a cheap knock-off?

Guest: Lizzie O’Leary, host of the Slate podcast What Next TBD.

Thi…

Published on 11 months ago

TBD | RFK Jr. Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Tapped by Trump for the role of health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presents himself as someone willing to say what other politicians won’t. But during his Senate confirmation hearings, both Demo…

Published on 11 months ago

Was Tulsi Gabbard Always Like This?

Tulsi Gabbard’s political career is truly singular: once a young progressive Democrat on the rise, then a gadfly taking surprise meetings with Bashar al-Assad, now she’s Donald Trump’s nominee to hea…

Published on 11 months ago