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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As of Sept. 24, there are 42 vaccines in clinical trials on humans. At least 92 others are being developed but have not yet gone to trial. For months, the world has tracked the progression of these vaccines closely, with the expectation that once one arrives on the market, we can finally start to go back to normal. But, is that true? Does the world really look much different with an effective vaccine?
Guest: Dr. Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Host
Celeste Headlee
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For pregnant women in the U.S., there are plenty of reasons to mistrust the medical establishment. Mortality rates are high compared to other western countries, and one-third of women in the U.S. give birth by C-section. It’s no wonder that many women turn to the internet for alternatives.
This week, the story of one woman who was drawn into a network of private Facebook groups dedicated to the idea of ‘freebirth,’ or unassisted birth. And what happens when the misinformation shared in these private groups has real-life consequences.
Guest: Brandy Zadrozny, reporter for NBC News. You can read her reporting on ‘freebirth’ here.
This episode originally aired in March 2020
Host
Lizzie O’Leary
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As the planet warms in the coming decades, many parts of the planet that millions now call home will become uninhabitable. At first, people in these areas will move to the cities, then across international borders. This mass migration is already underway in the hottest parts of the world, and it is likely to accelerate in coming years.
Just how many people will be forced to move? And where will they go?
Guest: Abrahm Lustgarten, senior reporter at ProPublica
Host
Celeste Headlee
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In the wake of the killing of Michael Brown in 2014, and the national protests that followed, many believed that video shared on social media, along with footage from body cameras, would reshape the relationship between police and citizens. Six years later, one thing is clear: It didn’t work. Can viral videos really hold power to account?
And why do we so often put our faith in technological solutions to solve societal problems?
Guests:
Bijan Stephen, reporter at the Verge
Ethan Zuckerman, former director, the Center for Civic Media, MIT
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Not long ago, the QAnon conspiracy theory seemed to have lost momentum. Social media mentions had decreased. 8chan had gone offline. But since March, fueled by the pandemic and social media giants, the conspiracy has taken on new life.
What’s responsible for the rapid uptake of the movement? And now that QAnon has spilled over to the mainstream, how far can it go?
Guest:
Ali Breland, reporter at Mother Jones
Host
Celeste Headlee
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In the early days of the pandemic, countries around the world invested heavily in new technologies that would help track the movement of the virus. Now, six months later, contact tracing apps are all but an afterthought in the fight to contain COVID-19. What happened? The U.K. provides some answers. The country put its faith in technology to contain the virus, and paid the price.
Guest:
Gus Hosein, executive director at Privacy International
Host
Celeste Headlee
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In the early days of internet search engines, Google set itself apart by providing a simple service. A list of links, inviting you to explore the websites that best matched your query. It was a portal to the rest of the internet. But over the last two decades, that mission has changed.
Does Google search still take you to the best result for your query? Or does it point users back to its own suite of products?
Guest:
Adrianne Jeffries, investigative journalist at The Markup.
Host
Celeste Headlee
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Over the past five months, city blocks have been slipping away. Bars are closed; restaurants are half-empty; retail is shuttered. As the country returns to varying states of lockdown, how long can these blocks hold on?
This week: how one commercial strip on Chicago’s South Side is weathering the pandemic.
Guests:
Nedra Sims Fears, executive director of the Greater Chatham Initiative
Brian d'Antignac, The Woodshop
Jaidah Wilson-Turnbow, Frances Cocktail Lounge
Zoie Reams, Brown Sugar Bakery
Host
Henry Grabar
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For the last four months, federal and state eviction moratoria have kept Americans in their apartments, even if they couldn’t pay rent. Now, with financial relief in question, and moratoria set to expire, the first of the month might look very different for millions of Americans.
Guests:
Emily, a resident of Chicago’s Northwest Side
Mark Durakovic, principal at Kass Management
Peter Hepburn, analyst at Princeton’s Eviction Lab
Host
Henry Grabar
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More than any other U.S. city, New Orleans banks on its culture. From music to restaurants to parades, the city relies on a steady stream of tourists to support its many artists and institutions. In March, those tourists stopped visiting. And without them, the fragile infrastructure of clubs, venues, and performances is starting to collapse. Can New Orleans survive the coronavirus?
Guests:
Patrick Williams, harmonica player
Jesse Paige, owner of the Blue Nile
Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes, Executive Director of the Ashé Cultural Arts Center
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