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

Self-driving cars and robotaxis are starting to appear on the streets of San Francisco. While we have a whole regulatory system in place for drivers, who’s making sure these new cars are safe?

Guest: David Zipper, Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Taubman Center for State and Local Government

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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Artificial intelligence is growing in leaps and bounds, and everywhere from Big Tech companies like Google to small teams like OpenAI are developing more and more convincing chatbots. Is the world ready for convincing, talking computers? 

Guest: Alex Kantrowitz, host of the Big Technology podcast.

Host: Emily Peck

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The Biden administration’s Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are both staffed with accomplished progressives who are proving more aggressive than their predecessors in either the Trump or Obama eras. But can Big Tech be tamed?

Guest: Leah Nylen, reporter for Bloomberg News 

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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Dating back to the Arab Spring, Twitter’s potential for real-time organizing has been a selling point. But trying to find information on China’s “Zero COVID” protests reveals just how vulnerable the now-understaffed platform is to manipulation.
Guest: Joseph Menn, cybersecurity reporter for the Washington Post. 
Host: Lizzie O’Leary

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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The option to “buy now and pay later” over installments exploded over the past two years, thanks to people being flush with stimulus cash and shopping online during the pandemic. But is this new, underregulated industry a useful line of credit or another path into debt?

Guest: Paulina Cachero, personal finance reporter for Bloomberg.

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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After decades as America’s booming industry, tens of thousands of tech workers have been laid off in November alone. Is the venture-capital, low-interest-rate wind leaving the sails temporary or is this the end of the hunt for “the next big thing?”

Guest: Timothy B. Lee, reporter for Full Stack Economics covering labor markets, technology, and housing.

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.
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