What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Latest Episodes:

The Health Care Turnabout Oct 23, 2018

Show notes

Andrew Gillum began his candidacy as a "Medicare for All" supporter. His subtle slide from that position to another is a small, but telling one. Today on the show, a look into the health care debate in the lead up to midterms. Plus, Slate's Mark Joseph Stern on the Trump administration's effort to roll back civil rights protections for transgender people.

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Just an Old Sweet Song Oct 19, 2018

Show notes

Kai Wright of WNYC and Slate’s Jamelle Bouie on the governor’s race in Georgia. Plus, Deadspin’s Dvora Meyers explains the implosion of USA Gymnastics.

We’ll be piloting What Next in public for the next several weeks. Tell us what you think: whatnext@slate.com. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at Slate.com/whatnextplus. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show, our weekend reading lists, and occasional posts about pita chips. Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon. Engineering by Terence Bernardo.

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Now Is a Good Time to Cheat on Your Taxes Oct 18, 2018

Show notes

Budget cuts have crippled the IRS allowing tax cheats to run rampant. ProPublica's Jesse Eisinger says the agency's ability to pursue criminal cases is in collapse because of budget cuts and the fact that the agency still has the same number of auditors it had in 1953. So who benefits from this? And why does it matter?

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From One Caravan to Another Oct 17, 2018

Show notes

Mary Harris is joined by Vox’s Dara Lind to discuss how the latest caravan from Honduras is shining a light on the danger and red tape facing asylum seekers. Plus, what else did you miss today?

We’ll be piloting What Next in public for the next several weeks. Tell us what you think: whatnext@slate.com. '

Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at Slate.com/whatnextpus.

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How Senator Mark Warner Wants to Crack Down on Tech Oct 17, 2018

Show notes

On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss the continuing saga that is Facebook’s effort to fix itself--ideally, without breaking everything else. On Friday, the company finally released more information about the huge hack that it announced last month, which affected nearly 30 million people. They’ll talk about what was stolen, and why it matters.

Then, April and Will are joined by Senator Mark Warner, from Virginia, the top democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, conducting its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. This summer he released a policy paper proposing possible regulations for U.S. social media and technology companies. They talk to him about what worries him most about the largely unregulated tech industry that can’t seem to keep our data private and stop muddying our elections. They also ask him what he thinks congress can do to rein these companies in and why lawmakers haven’t been quick to act.

10:44 - Interview with Senator Mark Warner

31:40 - Don’t Close My Tabs

Don’t Close My Tabs:

The New Yorker: The Growth of Sinclair’s Conservative Media Empire

New York Magazine: Here Is a List of Every Animal Humans Currently Monitor Using Facial Recognition Technology

Podcast production by Max Jacobs

If Then plugs:

You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com.

If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Listen to If Then via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

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Could the Saudi Monarchy Fall Over This? Oct 16, 2018

Show notes

Host Mary Harris talks to Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker on the fraught relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Plus, Slate’s Jim Newell explains why you should care about the final debate tonight between Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke.

This is the debut episode of What Next, Slate’s new daily news show. We’ll be piloting What Next in public for the next several weeks. Tell us what you think: whatnext@slate.com.

Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at Slate.com/whatnextpus.

Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Privacy A Right? Oct 10, 2018

Show notes

On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss the latest data spill in Silicon Valley: It’s Google this time. And it’s time to talk gadgets again. This week Facebook announced its second foray into the hardware space with the Portal and Portal Plus—essentially a smart display for making video calls, equipped with an AI camera and Amazon Alexa. Meanwhile, Google launched a new smart display called the Google Home Hub, a new tablet that shares a name with the hosts’ employer, and a new phone that’s interesting for both its camera and the AI built in.

The hosts are also joined by tech attorney and privacy expert Tiffany C. Li. She teaches a course at Yale about the changing rights to privacy throughout history. They talk to her about what privacy rights we really have, whose interests are served by U.S. privacy law, and the difference between government and corporate surveillance.

19:16 - Interview with Tiffany Li34:45 - Don’t Close My Tabs

Don’t Close My Tabs:

IPCC Report

Bloomberg: The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies

Podcast production by Max Jacobs

If Then plugs:

Listen to If Then via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fact And Fiction on Wikipedia Oct 03, 2018

Show notes

On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the announcement that Amazon would raise the minimum wage for its US workers to 15 dollars an hour. While Jeff Bezos may be receiving praise for the move this week, another enigmatic tech CEO is facing retribution. Elon Musk has agreed to settle with the SEC following tweets he made about potentially taking the company private and will step down from Tesla’s board.

Net neutrality is also back in the news: California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill on Sunday to implement net neutrality protections in the state starting next year. But within 30 minutes of Brown’s signing, the Justice Department announced it would be suing the state of California to prevent circumventing the federal net neutrality repeal.

And the headaches continue for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook... Last week it was announced that a massive security breach to the social media site allowed for hackers to take control of upwards of 50 million accounts. Facebook does not yet know who the culprits are.

The hosts are then joined by Katherine Maher, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, best known for, well, Wikipedia: the fifth most popular website on the planet. Maher talks to Will and April about how it all works; how a community of millions of volunteer editors are able to pull fact from fiction, how a site dedicated to trying to be correct deals with false news, how it deals with harassment within its editor community, its changing relationship with Google, and why diversity is important in writing the web’s massive nonprofit encyclopedia.

17:04 - Interview with Katherine Maher47:15 - Don’t Close My Tabs

Don’t Close My Tabs:

Slate: The Temptation of Apple News

Podcast production by Max Jacobs

If Then plugs:

Listen to If Then via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trailer: Introducing What Next Oct 01, 2018

Show notes

A smart round-up of the biggest stories of the day. When the news feels overwhelming, we’re here to help you answer: What next? Look for the show every weekday afternoon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reshuffling the Podcasting Deck Sep 26, 2018

Show notes

On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the recent announcement that Instagram’s founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, would be leaving the company - at least in part due to clashes with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the company’s future.

They also discuss tech talks on capitol hill this week between the justice department and federal and state law enforcement on political bias, antitrust, and privacy on social media -- as well as a hearing in the Senate scheduled for Wednesday on how technology companies use and misuse consumer data.

Then, the hosts spend the rest of the podcast talking about...podcasts. The last couple weeks have witnessed some dramatic changes in the podcast industry (including right here at the Slate Group). Last week Buzzfeed axed it’s entire podcast department, a very popular and groundbreaking arm of the media company. Meanwhile, Vox Media did just the opposite, announcing they’d be doubling their podcast output this fall. To help make sense of all this, April and Will are joined by media writer Nick Quah, who pens the weekly newsletter Hot Pod, which is considered required reading for many in the podcast industry.

15:41 - Interview with Nick Quah

34:36 - Don’t Close My Tabs

Don’t Close My Tabs:

okayplayer: The Secret History of Outkast’s ‘Speakerboxxx/The Love Below:’ the Last Truly Great Double Album

The New Yorker: How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump

The Guardian: ‘Sorry I’m Scuba Diving’” Salesforce CEO Criticized Over Response to Border Contract Backlash

Podcast production by Max Jacobs

If Then plugs: