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

Elon Musk’s polarizing persona and antics have created a toxic cloud around his companies, particularly Tesla. But despite that, Wall Street can’t seem to quit him. Why?  Guest: Felix Salmon, host of Slate Money and chief financial correspondent for Axios. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts...

This week, DOGE set its sights  and scythe on the Department of Health and Human Services, with a goal of cutting 10,000 federal workers, once again raising the question: what’s their endgame here? Guest: Makena Kelly , senior writer for WIRED Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe t...

Ketamine has gone from a recreational psychedelic to an approved treatment, and it has caught on in Silicon Valley in a big way. Are the long-term effects of using ketamine—recreationally or therapeutically—sufficiently known? Are we witnessing them right now? Guest: Shayla Love , staff writer for the Atlantic. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the who...

Memecoins are a niche type of cryptocurrency with no intrinsic value. But they remain a popular form of crypto, as seen earlier this year with President Trump’s own memecoin. And if it worked for him, then why not our little podcast?  Guests:  Azeem Khan , advisor to UNICEF’s crypto fund and cocreator of the blockchain Morph. Nitish Pahwa , Slate staff writer covering business and tech. Want more...

During his first term, President Trump and Jeff Bezos openly sparred with each other. During this second administration, though, it seems like Bezos is trying to endear himself - and his companies - to the White House. So what changed? Guest: Dana Mattioli, reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the author of The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power...

The National Institutes of Health is the primary engine of biomedical research around the world, which makes the Trump administration's dramatic cuts to its grant program both confusing and potentially incredibly harmful. Guest: Katherine J. Wu, staff writer for the Atlantic . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your fa...

With a Trump-friendly Supreme Court and a contentious relationship with the press, could Donald Trump follow through on his 2016 campaign goal of making it easier to sue media companies for libel—and imperil America’s free press? Guest: David Enrich, business investigations editor at the New York Times and author of “ Murder The Truth. ” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access a...

The public’s anger towards Elon Musk and DOGE has found an outlet in the form of Musk’s car company Tesla. How long can the company put up with a sinking reputation and stock price?  Guest: Pranshu Verma, tech reporter for the Washington Post .  Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe...

After the election, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was doing away with Facebook’s fact-checking apparatus in the US. With content creators getting paid based on reach, and content spreading wider and faster the more extreme it is, is Facebook the perfect environment for misinformation to flourish?  Guest:  Craig Silverman , technology reporter for ProPublica. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe...

To understand the second Trump administration, you have to understand the internet culture that gave birth to it. Guest: Elle Reeve , CNN correspondent who reported on the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA for Vice News. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on...

Everyone’s talking about the price of eggs—so why are they so expensive? And when can we expect—if ever—the price to come back down? Guests:  Dr. Jada Thompson, associate professor at the University of Arkansas Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clickin...

Federal workers in the U.S. Digital Service resigned in protest over what they viewed as indiscriminate, irresponsible firings coming from the DOGE office. While lawsuits are entering the courts and protests are taking to the streets, will any of this make a difference to the chainsaw-minded leaders of DOGE?  Guest: Ryan Mac, tech reporter at the New York Times and co-author of “ Character Limit:...

The crypto industry threw its weight and money behind Donald Trump, in hopes of legitimizing the industry. Before his Inauguration Day was over, Donald Trump was already enriching himself via a memecoin, one of the scammier, least legitimate-looking uses of crypto. Guest: David Yaffe-Bellany, reporter covering cryptocurrency for the New York Times. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus...

As someone whose companies receive billions of dollars from the government, it’s worth asking why Elon Musk is so zealous about cutting government spending.  Guest: Max Chafkin , features editor and tech reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek and cohost of the Elon, Inc podcast . Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your fav...

The infinite scroll has no purpose other than keeping your attention. But that doesn’t mean it’s value-neutral. Guest: Chris Hayes, MSNBC news anchor and author of “ The Siren's Call: How Attention Became The World's Most Endangered Resource.” Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe t...

Is Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion offer to buy OpenAI genuine—or an irresistible opportunity to troll Sam Altman? Guest: David A. Fahrenthold , investigative reporter for the New York Times Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of...

Using Github, you can watch as government websites are brought into compliance with Donald Trump’s executive orders. Out goes the word “equity;” in comes “fair.” And health and science data, once publicly available, disappears. Guest: Jason Koebler, cofounder of 404 Media . Jeremy Prokop, data science advisor in the Midwest Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listeni...

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 Washington Post . This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of What Next TBD—you’ll also access ad-free l...

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 What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the...

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 DeepSeek come from, and are Silicon Valley and Washington right to be panicking?  Guest: Zeyi Yang , senior writer at WIRED. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to t...

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 Democrats and Republicans questioned his previous statements about vaccines—and questioned whether he even knows what the job he’s trying to get entails. But his nomination signals that maybe it isn’t abou...

Artificial intelligence is coming to a doctor’s office near you—if it isn’t already there, working in an administrative role. Are you ready for generative A.I. to help your doctor diagnose you? Is your doctor ready to listen—with the necessary mix of humility and skepticism? Guest: Geoffrey Fowler, Washington Post tech columnist. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free l...

Choice seats for Donald Trump’s second inauguration were filled with tech founders and CEOs, signaling their importance to this presidential term. Then Elon Musk sent another signal of his own… Guest: Nitish Pahwa, staff writer for business and tech at Slate. This episode is member-exclusive. Listen to it now by subscribing to Slate Plus. By joining, not only will you unlock exclusive episodes of...

The Department of Government Efficiency was made to Elon Musk’s specifications, right down to its meme-indebted name. Now that DOGE is shaping up to be an actual part of the government, what can it actually accomplish? And isn’t this all a huge conflict of interest for Elon Musk and his many government contracts? Guest: Teddy Schleifer , New York Times reporter on billionaires. Want more What Next...

Looking for up-to-the-minute updates on where the fires are, LA residents have been turning to the app Watch Duty, rather than getting updates directly from the local or state government, or even local media. Guests: David Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Watch Duty Alyssa Jeong Perry, LA-based producer for Slate. Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the who...