Stay ConnectedEvery Friday, 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.
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TikTok—which was supposed to be banned again on Wednesday but, again, isn’t—may be legal once more. The Trump administration says it’s meeting with Xi Jinping Friday to finalize the agreement, which may involve—get this—a wealthy Trump-supporting tech mogul.
Guest: Nitish Pahwa, staff writer for business and tech at Slate.
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As the Charlie Kirk murder demonstrated, law enforcement, the government, and media all need more internet fluency. But their reactions in the wake of the murder don’t seem to be moving towards a better understanding.
Guest: Ryan Broderick, reporter on online culture, author of the newsletter Garbage Day.
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After their daughter committed suicide, they found her ChatGPT log—and where artificial intelligence helped her write her suicide note.
Guest: Laura Reiley, writer for the Cornell Chronicle.
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Graphic, violent videos like the shooting of right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk circulate across social media moments after they happen, finding an audience even among people who have made no effort to seek them out.
Guest: Craig Silverman, journalist and cofounder of Indicator.
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An Inflation Reduction Act subsidy for electric vehicles is being shut down by the Trump administration at the end of September, and automakers are preparing for sales of EVs to slow. Can this nascent industry survive?
Guest: Ryan Felton, reporter covering the automotive industry for the Wall Street Journal
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We’ve been told that artificial intelligence can write, code, generate images—it can do everything…except feasibly turn a profit. But investing in A.I. has nevertheless become a pillar of the U.S. economy. Where is this leading us?
Guest: Ed Zitron, author of the newsletter Where’s Your Ed At and host of the podcast Better Offline.
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A24 rose from “small budget indie movie studio” to “one of the most respected brands in cinema” on a reputation for treating filmmakers like auteurs. But as the studio is growing and exploring how to integrate artificial intelligence, it’s at odds with some of the very directors who helped A24 establish itself.
Guest: Alex Barasch, culture editor at the New Yorker
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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 sophisticated hackers infiltrating any mainframes—it was all already publicly available.
Guest: Mike Isaac, New York Times Silicon Valley correspondent.
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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: whose side is he on in the fight against cancer?
Guest: Angus Chen, cancer reporter for STAT news
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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 top, personnel cuts and firings, and now a literal shooting, many employees are reaching their breaking point.
Guest: Lauren Weber, health science accountability reporter for the Washington Post.
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