Podcast Episodes

The Great Celebrity Spotify Playlist Hack

The playlists of dozens of high-level government officials and tech executives were suddenly broadcast to the world on a website called “the Panama Playlists.” But the information wasn’t taken by sop…

Published on 2 months ago

Trump Vs. Cancer Research

President Trump has proposed cutting $2.5 billion from the National Cancer Institute, which in addition to cuts to the National Institutes of Health and research universities almost makes you wonder:…

Published on 2 months, 1 week ago

The CDC Under Fire

Two weeks ago, a gunman fired over 500 bullets at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention building in Atlanta. Between the anti-public health rhetoric coming from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the …

Published on 2 months, 1 week ago

Down the Text-Scam Rabbit Hole

The scam du jour arrives via a text message, offering you a job. What happens when you accept?

Guest: Alex Sammon, Slate features writer. 

Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access …

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Trump Dips into NVIDIA’s Chips

Jensen Huang, cofounder of NVIDIA, finds himself president of a $4 trillion company, at the forefront of A.I. technology, and, consequently, something of an international diplomat, as he charms Presi…

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Here Comes the A.I. Music Slop

It’s hard to make money in the music industry. But if you could flood every streamer with hundreds of “original” songs without having to, you know, write or produce it yourself, there’s money there—a…

Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago

What Happened After Meta Fired Its Fact-Checkers

In January, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta was moving from employing professional fact-checkers to letting its users fact-check each other. If you’ve heard that it’s going perfectly, then you, t…

Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago

The A.I. Data Center Push That Wasn't

OpenAI’s Sam Altman, flanked by President Trump and Softbank’s Masayoshi Son, announced a hugely ambitious investment in data centers across America to support all the artificial intelligence we’re g…

Published on 3 months ago

The Death of an Online Whisper Network

A shadow app for the dating world had its data hacked and exposed, and it laid bare the perils of creating safe spaces for women online — and of relying on tech companies.

Guest: Kate Lindsay, host …

Published on 3 months ago

Dupes!

There’s an entire economy devoted to seeing what products are trending—clothing, skin care, even Greek Islands—and delivering you a cheaper knock-off to buy. 

Guest: Mia Sato, reporter for The Verge

Published on 3 months, 1 week ago