Slate Podcasts
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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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Lizzie O'Leary turns technology stories into clear examinations of incentives, institutional power, and practical consequences.
What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future follows technology into the institutions and incentives that determine its real-world effects. Lizzie O'Leary works through interviews, asking guests to explain mechanisms before weighing consequences.
Meta can earn more when a scammer wins an ad auction; Lizzie O'Leary makes you follow the money.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sharp adaptation take that treats limitation as the source of the fear.
The discussion makes a feature adaptation feel unexpectedly right, even if the fit is not obvious at first. It is strongest when it shows how Iron Lung turns limitation into horror: the submarine setting, the near-total lack of visibility, the awful camera, and the dependence on…
A strange email opens into a sharp, unsettling portrait of organized fraud and modern slavery.
The piece opens on a strange subjectless email on a Brooklyn roof and quickly widens into a grim look at a scam compound in the Golden Triangle, where fraud runs like office work and captivity sits underneath it.
A serious look at internet control as a tool of power, from blocking and throttling to shutdowns.
The episode makes a clear case that internet control is often more than a clean cutoff. It shows how blocking and throttling can narrow access or slow it to a crawl until services are barely usable, which makes the politics feel immediate rather than abstract.
A skeptical look at how family money turns into media power.
The episode keeps David Ellison at the center of the story: an actor backed by family money, a producer with a mixed film record, and now a figure linked to the Paramount deal.
A sharp look at how a debunked clip can widen into scapegoating.
It traces how a debunked video can still set off a right-wing media wave, then widen into a story about immigrants, welfare, and scapegoating.
A grounded look at how shifting vaccine guidance lands in pediatric practice.
What Next: TBD uses a pediatrician’s concern to pose a blunt, timely question: what happens when the public health guidance families leaned on starts to feel unstable?
When a chatbot becomes the abuse engine, the product design matters most.
This episode tracks how Grok on X was used to make sexualized images of random users, celebrities, politicians, and, in some cases, underage girls.
Artemis is a moon story that becomes a question of timing, power, and control.
Joel Achenbach's uncertainty about Artemis gives the conversation its center of gravity. It treats a moon mission that still feels hazy to smart people as something more concrete than a slogan: a push to put Americans back on the moon before China does, and, later, a step toward…
Tech news, traced to strategy.
Apple silicon, its rivals, and the fight over Twitter.
China's tech news, explained by the reporters who cover it.
HR tech news and interviews that pin down the jargon.
This episode explores how AI is disrupting financial markets through the 'AI scare trade,' where announcements about AI integration cause stock sell-offs across industries.
Senator Chris Van Hollen discusses his Power for the People Act, which aims to regulate data centers' energy use and prevent consumers from subsidizing their costs.
Markiplier discusses his journey from YouTube creator to filmmaker with his self-financed horror movie Iron Lung, which unexpectedly topped the box office.
What Next TBD host Lizzie O'Leary speaks with Wired reporter Andy Greenberg about a source he calls Red Bull — a computer engineer from Kashmir who was trafficked to a pig butchering scam compound in the Golden Triangle of Laos after accepting a fake IT manager job offer.
This episode analyzes Elon Musk's recent moves, including Tesla's shift to robotics, SpaceX's acquisition of XAI ahead of its IPO, controversies around Grok AI generating sexualized content, and revelations from the Epstein files.
This episode examines how authoritarian regimes use internet shutdowns to suppress dissent, covering examples from Iran, Uganda, and Egypt.
This episode investigates how cell phone videos and open-source analysis by groups like Bellingcat are used to challenge official narratives about ICE and DHS shootings in Minneapolis.
This episode profiles David Ellison, the billionaire son of Larry Ellison, tracing his journey from a failed actor to a Hollywood mogul who now controls Paramount and is pursuing Warner Brothers Discovery.
This episode investigates how right-wing influencers, through viral videos and social media posts, drive government actions and public narratives around immigration and fraud in Minneapolis.
This episode explores the integration of AI like ChatGPT and Claude into healthcare, discussing new products for medical advice, data privacy concerns, and accuracy issues.
Host Lizzie O'Leary interviews pediatrician Dr.
This episode investigates how X's AI chatbot Grok is being used to generate non-consensual deepfake porn, including child sexual abuse material, on a massive scale.
This episode investigates prediction markets like PolyMarket and Kalshi, exploring how they allow betting on everything from political events to trivial details with minimal regulation.
Journalist Joel Achenbach discusses NASA's Artemis mission to return Americans to the moon, exploring why public awareness has faded since the Apollo era, the technical and political hurdles—including competition with China and reliance on private companies like SpaceX—and the broader goal of using the moon as a proving ground for future Mars missions.
Host Lizzie O'Leary interviews Ed Zitron, who argues the AI bubble is bursting due to unsustainable economics, lack of profitability, and inflated hype.
The TBD team attempts to create and launch their own meme coin, Bwainwum, as an experiment to understand the crypto craze.
Host Lizzie O'Leary interviews space journalist Eric Berger about SpaceX's plans to build data centers in orbit, driven by Elon Musk's AI ambitions and a potential $800 billion IPO.
Lizzie O'Leary explores Amazon's integration of tech into Whole Foods through micro-fulfillment centers, discussing consumer resistance to innovation, the brand's evolution post-acquisition, and broader grocery industry trends.
This episode explores research showing that AI chatbots can persuade voters to change their political opinions, with studies revealing effects like one in 25 U.S.
This episode explores how AI regulation has become a wedge issue in US politics, with tech lobbying for federal preemption clashing with state laws and voter skepticism.
This episode investigates David Sachs, Trump's AI and crypto czar, revealing how his venture capital investments in hundreds of tech companies create conflicts of interest with his government role.
This episode explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons systems, examining historical near-misses, current integration efforts, and future risks.
This episode explores the rise of 'dupes'—cheap knockoffs of popular products—fueled by internet algorithms and social media.
This episode investigates how ICE and law enforcement use automatic license plate readers like Flock and Motorola's Mobile Companion to track vehicles and people across the U.S., often without warrants.
This episode investigates how the crypto industry has become deeply intertwined with the Trump administration, examining regulatory shifts, ongoing criminal activity, and ethical conflicts.
What Next TBD host Lizzie O'Leary speaks with Reuters tech reporter Jeff Horwitz about internal Meta documents showing the company projected that 10% of its revenue — approximately $16 billion in 2024 — came from scam ads and banned goods.
This episode explores how data centers have become a pivotal local issue in Virginia elections, cutting across party lines.
This episode examines Elon Musk's $1 trillion pay package from Tesla, exploring how he continues to win despite public feuds with government officials over SpaceX's moon mission delays and Tesla's regulatory challenges.
This episode investigates Nick Fuentes, a far-right anti-Semitic influencer, and his recent interview with Tucker Carlson, which has sparked a civil war within the GOP.
This episode investigates why President Trump has pardoned multiple crypto criminals, linking these actions to his family's financial interests in the crypto industry.
Journalist Daniel Kulitz investigates the online subculture of gooning, where men engage in prolonged, communal masturbation through Discord servers and secret meetups.
This episode examines how the Trump administration pressured social media platforms to censor speech, focusing on the takedown of an ICE-tracking Facebook group.
Lizzie O'Leary speaks with journalist Samanth Subramanian about the undersea fiber optic cables that carry ninety-five percent of international internet traffic, and what happens when they break.
Host Lizzie O'Leary interviews Jamie Stewart of the band Shoo Shoo about why they removed their music from Spotify.
This episode investigates how right-wing influencers like Benny Johnson are used by the Trump administration to create and amplify propaganda videos, such as those featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in Portland.
This episode explores how police departments are adopting AI tools like Long Eye to analyze vast amounts of digital evidence, from transcripts to social media data.
Journalist Joseph Cox discusses his lawsuits against ICE and DHS for failing to respond to FOIA requests about a $2 million spyware contract with Paragon and data-sharing agreements involving Medicaid patient information.