Podcasts by What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future
Every 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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Sponsored: Tech Solutions that Serve L.A. Citizens with Ted Ross from 2021-09-22T10:00
The final episode of Season 1 features Ted Ross, Chief Information Officer for the City of Los Angeles. His role became more vital than ever during the pandemic, with L.A.’s 4 million residents and...
ListenSponsored: The Race to Vaccinate a Nation with Deryck Mitchelson from 2021-07-06T10:00
From Slate Studios&ServiceNow, this episode of Let’s Workflow It features Deryck Mitchelson – one of the leaders taking on the greatest workflow challenge of our time – the effort to vaccinate mill...
ListenIf Then Presents: The Secret History of The Future from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Technology continues to change the way we live and work. Which is why The Secret History of The Future—the new technology show from Slate and The Economists—is digging through the past to find less...
ListenSpecial Report: Apple’s New (Old) Gizmos from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We have a special bonus If Then! On Wednesday afternoon Apple held its big annual event full of new and expensive gadgets. We wanted to help you make sense of what happened, and what it means. Host...
ListenGoogle’s Real Biases from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss California’s landmark decision to eliminate cash bail for defendants in criminal cases--and the controversial algorithmic “risk assessme...
ListenHow The Future Of Music Streaming Will Sound from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser are joined once again by their Slate colleague Mark Joseph Stern to make sense of a what a Kavanaugh-court might mean for the internet going for...
ListenTwitter Without the Nazis from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss reports that big tech companies are lobbying in favor of a national privacy law. They’ll talk about what their motivations are. (Hint: I...
ListenGoogle’s Secret Censorship Project from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about a new Russian hacking report--this time, targeting conservatives. And it’s been a busy news week (as always) for Facebook, with repor...
ListenMaking Sense of Elon Musk from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about how Google has been tracking and storing your location—even after you’ve asked it not to. Then they review some of the disturbing sec...
ListenEmbracing Deplorable Status from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss why a bunch of the big tech platforms—Facebook, YouTube, Apple—are suddenly banning the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his...
ListenFlying Cars Are Only A Few Years Away from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk talk about a new study that suggests the internet might not have played the crucial role in Trump’s election victory that we tend to assume...
ListenThis Is How Fake News Spreads from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about what’s happening new with the proposed $3.9 billion dollar merger between Sinclair, the largest television station owner in the count...
ListenHow a Top Twitter Exec Tackles Trolls from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus is joined by guest co-host Maya Kosoff from Vanity Fair. They discuss the latest Congressional dog and pony show involving the big social media platforms. They’l...
ListenThe Surveillance State's Eyes at the U.S. Border from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk to Dr. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor of political science and policy at George Mason University and an expert on immigration and se...
ListenThe Supreme Court in the Cyber Age from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the Facebook privacy scandal that won’t go away. They’ll also touch on some new data from our employer, Slate, that illustrates how F...
ListenTech Workers Fight Back from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the midterm elections coming up in November -- and whether Silicon Valley companies are ready for the deluge of disinformation -- whe...
ListenShould Tech Companies Take a Stand Against Family Separation? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss the horrifying story that’s on everyone’s minds this week: the Trump Administration’s policy of separating immigrant families crossing t...
ListenThe Failed Promise of the Gig Economy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus is joined by guest co-host Maya Kosoff from Vanity Fair. They discuss the electric scooters that are suddenly wreaking havoc on city streets—and why Silicon Vall...
ListenNaomi Klein on Disaster Capitalism in Puerto Rico. from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about how Microsoft is buying GitHub, Google is ending its Pentagon contract, and all the news from Apple’s developer conference on Monday—...
ListenBloody Money and Blind Investors from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about GDPR, Europe’s sweeping new online privacy legislation that took effect last Friday. They explain why it triggered an avalanche of em...
ListenGoogle’s Chokehold on the Web from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about about a privacy invasion that’s arguably scarier than Cambridge Analytica, and why it’s not getting nearly the same amount of attenti...
ListenWelcome to the Swamp from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about about an unexpected move by President Trump that could save the Chinese electronics maker ZTE. Also in the news is Project Maven, a ...
ListenBaby, You Can Self-Drive My Car from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the hedge fund that’s gutting the newsrooms of local newspapers across the country—and racking up huge profits. They also discuss the...
ListenWhy an E-Waste Recycler Is Going to Prison from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about Facebook’s big privacy changes and its foray into online dating, as Glaser reports from the company’s annual developer conference in ...
ListenThe Cost of Online Immunity from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about a somewhat surprising speech from the antitrust chief of Trump’s DOJ. They bring you up to date on a big new data privacy bil...
ListenWhat If Facebook Used Data For Black Lives? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about trouble at Tesla: the company has suspended production of the Model 3, the car that will make or break its business. The host...
ListenWhat Mark Zuckerberg Didn’t Share from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Will Congress let Mark Zuckerberg get away with under-sharing? On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus break down the Facebook chief’s trip to Washington to testify before Cong...
ListenCongress Called. They Want Our Data Back. from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus bring us an early-week show in anticipation of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress Tuesday and Wednesday (which also me...
ListenAlexa, How Do You Really Work? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss the outrage at the largest television station owner in the country—Sinclair Broadcasting—after the media conglomerate forced its...
ListenFacebook’s Deepwater Horizon from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus dissect the latest fallout from the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, wherein the profile data of over 50 million Facebook users was...
ListenThe Tech That Draws Your District from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus take a deep look into gerrymandering and the highly specialized mapping technology that has allowed for political parties - especially t...
ListenWhat Keeps Facebook Up at Night from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss Elon Musk’s plan to… colonize Mars? They explain how sanctuary cities may unwittingly be sharing data with ICE through police su...
ListenNietzsche with a 3D Printer from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus try to make sense of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s rare honest assessment of his company’s shortfalls, and what new state regulations mean f...
Listen“You Have to Be Heard” from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus take a look at Vero, the new social network that has people fleeing Instagram and Facebook, how conspiracy theories after the Parkland m...
ListenHow Russian Trolls Went Local from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus dig into special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian companies for their role in tamperi...
Listen“Like” Is Too Simple an Emotion from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus lamentthe anticlimactic end to Waymo and Uber’s court drama, explain why teens are pissed at Snapchat, and examine John Perry Barlow’s c...
ListenFISA and Fury from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about a new anti-tech lobbying group formed by ex-employees of Facebook and Google, the big trial that’s happening this week in San...
ListenThrough The Revolving Door Between Facebook and Democrats from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about about a clever effort to restore net neutrality in Montana and New York. They also discuss Facebook’s latest news feed tweaks...
ListenDudebros Everyday from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about Facebook’s fraught plan to rate the media and the cool yet creepy Amazon store that automatically bills you for your purchase...
ListenThe Problem With Facebook Is Facebook from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about the Senate’s stand on net neutrality and why Congress is set to renew a major piece of internet government mass surveillance ...
ListenLive from CES: Our Dumb "Smart" Future from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus are at CES, the huge trade show put on by the Consumer Technology Association in Las Vegas. They talk about all the weird, wonderful, an...
ListenScience Fiction by ABBA from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about a key detail in the new tax plan that could have a huge effect on gig workers in the tech sector—and maybe even robots. They ...
ListenWhat’s a Firefox? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk with the executive director of Mozilla about how Firefox competes with Chrome and the biggest threats to the Open Web. They break d...
ListenBeanie Babies for Geeks from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk a little about why everyone is freaking out about Bitcoin. And in the run up to Thursday’s critical net neutrality decision from th...
ListenThe Ellen Pao Effect from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser talks with Ellen Pao about sexism in Silicon Valley and why the tech industry hasn’t experienced the same fallout over accusations of sexual harassment ...
ListenAntitrust Superstar from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss how bots messed up the net neutrality comment process and whether that gives advocates a last chance to preserve an open Interne...
ListenHack Friday from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about changes to net neutrality that were announced this week. They also talk a little about the digital media bubble and if it’s r...
ListenLeaving Zen on the Table from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss some recent tech news, like the head-scratching revelation that WikiLeaks actually sent Donald Trump, Jr. Direct Messages on Twi...
ListenYou Can’t Hardcode Community from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss the news that YouTube has been showing disturbing videos to kids and why this might be a symptom of a much deeper problem for In...
ListenTrash Moths to the Trash Flame from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Hosts and Slate journalists April Glaser and Will Oremus are excited to bring you this new weekly podcast: If Then. The hosts start by talking through some of the most interesting tech news of the...
ListenComing Nov. 2, Slate's New Tech Show IF THEN from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
If Then: a podcast about technology, society, and power. Each week, Slate‘s April Glaser and Will Oremus take you on a lively tour of the tech news that actually matters, from fake news in your Fac...
ListenThe Fight Against Election Day Falsehoods from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The 2016 general election changed the way we think about information online and its power to sway results. Four years later, Americans will vote amid a surge of misinformation, collected and distor...
ListenA Historic Case Against Google from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It’s been 22 years since the federal government last brought a meaningful legal challenge to a big tech company. Back then, when the Justice Department sued Microsoft, the outcome changed the direc...
ListenFacebook Flips on Holocaust Denial from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Two years ago, Mark Zuckerberg held up Holocaust denial as an example of the type of speech that would be protected on Facebook. The company wouldn’t take down content simply because it was incorre...
ListenWhat Landlords Have on You from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Over the last decade, born from the chaos of the 2008 financial crisis, automated tenant screening has grown into a billion-dollar industry. Now, nine out of 10 landlords rely on automated tenant-s...
ListenThe Attack on Florida’s Latino Voters from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Spanish-speaking voters in Florida have been exposed to a steady uptick in falsities and conspiracy theories. This misinformation is shared in WhatsApp groups, ...
ListenA Vaccine Won’t Be the End from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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...
ListenDid the Internet Doom a Pregnancy? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence. Sign up now to listen and support our work. For pregnant women in the U.S., there are plenty o...
ListenThe Great Climate Migration Begins from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 inter...
ListenThe Limits of Filming Police Brutality from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 th...
ListenQAnon Goes Mainstream from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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,...
ListenWhat Went Wrong With Contact Tracing Apps from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 a...
ListenHow Google Search Sold Out from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 por...
ListenHow One Block Got Through It from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 ...
ListenWhen America Can’t Pay the Rent from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 ...
ListenNew Orleans Without Music from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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. I...
ListenCities Are Running Out of Money from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
After months of coronavirus lockdowns, cities are taking stock of their finances. The situation is bleak. With plummeting sales and property tax revenue, American cities of all sizes may be facing ...
ListenInside Biden’s COVID Team from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When Joe Biden takes office in two months, the federal government will take on a new stance in its fight to contain the coronavirus. The broad strokes of that strategy have been outlined in debates...
ListenIs “Covid Flight” a Thing? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tens of thousands of people leave American cities every year. Normally, they’re replaced by new arrivals seeking jobs, education, and opportunity. But in a world transformed by the coronavirus, wha...
ListenHow Tough Will Biden Really Be on Big Tech? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When Barack Obama first won the White House, back in 2008, with Joe Biden as his vice president, the executive branch’s stance towards tech and tech companies was seen as cooperative, progressive, ...
ListenWhat's a City Without the Office? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Since March, white-collar offices in major cities across the United States have stood empty. Now, with growing evidence that the workforce is equally effective at home, companies and designers are ...
ListenWhy Remote Learning Failed from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In March, when schools across the country shut down, few people could have guessed that students wouldn’t return until the fall. Schools weren’t equipped to deploy remote-learning curricula, techno...
ListenIs This the End of Facial Recognition? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This week, three of the leading developers of facial-recognition technology announced they would stop, or at least pause, selling this technology to police. The decision stems from evidence of raci...
ListenYour Delivery Habit Isn't Helping from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In the midst of the pandemic, protests and police lockdowns, restaurants are turning increasingly to delivery apps like DoorDash and Grubhub to stay afloat. But with shady tactics, soaring fees, an...
ListenTrump and Twitter Go to War from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On Tuesday, after years of inaction, Twitter fact checked President Trump’s tweets for the first time. Six words were added below the original text, directing readers to outside articles refuting h...
ListenWhat Is Elon Musk Thinking? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As the coronavirus shut down manufacturing across California in March and April, Elon Musk only wanted one thing: to start making cars again. So when local government officials in Alameda County g...
ListenDecoding the Flood of COVID Data from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Every week, it feels like some new piece of coronavirus information dominates the headlines. Mysterious symptoms, changing government directives. This constant trickle of updates can quickly turn i...
ListenShould You Get an Antibody Test? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Yesterday, New York City announced that it would provide 140,000 free antibody tests to residents who want to know if they have been exposed to the coronavirus. And New York isn’t alone: large-scal...
ListenHow the Crisis Could Embolden Big Tech from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This week, the world’s largest tech companies posted their quarterly earnings. And—unlike most other companies in the world—things aren’t looking so bad. With the global economy reeling, and people...
ListenCan We Really Make a Safe Vaccine in 18 Months? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
There are over 60 vaccines for the coronavirus currently in development. Four of them are already being tested in humans. As researchers move at breakneck speed to find a vaccine, they’re debating ...
ListenCan the U.S. Really Track the Coronavirus? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Before the U.S. can start opening back up, states will need to put systems in place for “contact tracing,” or meticulous tracking of the disease within communities. South Korea’s extensive tracing ...
ListenThe Limits of Coronavirus Predictions from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As governments around the world try to predict the toll and duration of the coronavirus, they’re turning increasingly to a handful of forecasting models for answers. But many of the leading models ...
ListenRisking Your Life for $8.71 from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This week, workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, and Instacart have announced mass strikes across the country. Though demand for these services is high, pay and protection is low. What exactly do we owe...
ListenWhere Are All the Tests? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence. Sign up now to listen and support our work. The United States failed to roll out widespread te...
ListenBig Tech Eyes the Pandemic from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence. Sign up now to listen and support our work. Google has spent the last decade trying to find a ...
ListenWhat If They Close All the Schools? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Last week, the superintendent of the Northshore school district near Seattle made a difficult decision. With the coronavirus spreading rapidly in the area, she closed all 34 schools in her district...
ListenDid Money Corrupt an A.I. Utopia? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
OpenAI was founded in 2015 with a billion dollars and an idealistic mission: Create artificial intelligence that could address humanity’s biggest problems, and do it out in the open. Then came the ...
ListenInside Facebook’s Supreme Court from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
After years of controversial content moderation decisions, from deepfakes to deplatforming, Facebook is trying something new. In January, the social network announced that its new Oversight Board, ...
ListenCoronavirus Tests China's Surveillance State from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Over the last month, as coronavirus spread across China, Xi Jinping’s vast surveillance and censorship infrastructure went into high gear. But with outrage growing over the death of a beloved docto...
ListenIowa’s App-ocalypse from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On Monday, the Iowa caucuses went off the rails. As the hours stretched into days, and still the results remained unclear, a new piece of election technology was identified as a central cause of th...
ListenWhy Is the U.S. Scared of Huawei? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Recently a special delegation of senior Trump administration officials arrived in the U.K. Their mission? To convince prime minister Boris Johnson to bar Huawei from their new 5G network. Why is t...
ListenWhich Tech Companies Are Doing the Most Harm? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Last week, Slate published The Evil List, an expansive attempt to document the most concerning tech companies around the world, according to the experts. Some you’ve heard of, some you probably hav...
ListenThe Silicon Valley Dream Was Always a Fantasy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In 2013, Anna Wiener moved from New York to San Francisco to join the city’s booming tech scene. Over the course of four years, she worked at three companies: an e-book startup, a data analytics co...
ListenHow Targeted Ads Started Watching Us All from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In 2019, for the first time, more advertising money went toward targeted digital ads in the U.S. than on radio, television, cable, magazine, and newspaper ads combined. The moment was the culminati...
ListenDo Algorithms Make Sentencing Fairer? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Around the country, states are employing algorithms to help reduce prison populations and predict recidivism. This week, we hear from a Wisconsin judge with serious reservations about the algorithm...
ListenA Landmark Privacy Law Takes Effect. Now What? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On January 1st, a new law will grant Californians the right to see, delete, and stop the sale of personal information collected by tech companies. But the impact of the bill may reach far beyond Ca...
ListenRing: Your Doorbell Is Watching from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Back in 2013, an entrepreneur named Jamie Siminoff appeared on Shark Tank. He was seeking an investment in a new product he was calling Doorbot, a smart doorbell that would make answering the door ...
ListenInside The Influence Economy from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Over the past decade, the world of influencers has grown from a fringe marketing movement to a multibillion-dollar industry. Now, tactics and strategies originally developed by influencers can be f...
ListenWhat Is Google After Larry and Sergey? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On Tuesday, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced that they are stepping down from their respective roles as president and CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. The move will lea...
ListenIs TikTok Really a National Security Threat? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
TikTok now has over 1.5 billion downloads, putting it in the company of social media giants like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. While all of these companies have faced scrutiny from lawmakers in...
ListenHow WhatsApp Got Hacked from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Recently, Facebook filed a lawsuit against a little-known Israeli spyware firm called NSO Group. Facebook is accusing NSO of supplying technology that enabled a hack of 1,400 WhatsApp accounts. ...
ListenThe Uber Drivers Who Don’t Want to Be Employees from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
California recently passed a law that would classify rideshare drivers across the state as employees, rather than contractors. Among many other benefits, they’d be allowed to unionize, collect over...
ListenThe Price of Automating Aviation from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This week, Boeing’s CEO Dennis Muilenburg appeared in front of Congress. He was there to answer questions about what his company knew, and when, before two 737 Max airplanes crashed and claimed the...
ListenInside Facebook's Political Ad Mess from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Over the last week, Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have been under fire for declining to fact-check political ads. But a former insider says this is the wrong debate to be having—and it misses a more...
ListenAnnouncement: What Next: TBD from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Hey If Then listeners! As of now, the new Slate podcast What Next: TBD will be taking over this feed. What Next: TBD is a weekly analysis with host Lizzie O’Leary of how technology is impacting our...
ListenSmash Bros Side Hustlers from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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ListenThe People Who Hold The Internet Together from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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ListenWhat it Takes to Study Online Harassment from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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ListenThe Surveillance Is Coming From Inside The (Smart) House from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Host Shannon Palus talks to Roxanne Leitao, a UK-based designer researching ways to make the smart home gear safer for victims of domestic abuse. They’ll discuss the ways that smart thermostats can...
ListenBreaking Away From Google from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Host Aaron Mak discusses with journalist Nithin Coca his attempt to abstain from using any Google products in his daily life. They discuss why he did it, the useful alternatives he found for speci...
ListenThe Case For The Vape from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Host Shannon Palus discusses how today’s vaping panic is connected to the rise of the cigarette with Jacob Grier, author of the new book The Rediscovery of Tobacco: Smoking, Vaping, and the Creativ...
ListenInside Uber from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
New York Times technology reporter Mike Issac discusses his new book Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber, which traces Uber’s rapid rise and fall under co-founder Travis Kalanick. He and host Aaron ...
ListenCosmetic Gene Editing Gone Awry from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Host Shannon Palus explores a future in which high school girls stay atop the social hierarchy by editing their genes, giving themselves purple eyes, and glittery skin. That’s what fiction author E...
ListenWhen Your DNA is Public Information from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Aaron Mak learns about how law enforcement is using public genealogy websites to crack cold cases. His guest is Nila Bala, Associate Director of Criminal Justice Policy at the R Street Institute, w...
ListenThe Allure of Smart Guns from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode Shannon Palus learns about personalized guns, sometimes referred to as “smart” guns. Her guest is Cassandra Crifasi, Deputy Director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy & Res...
ListenChina’s Cyber War Against Hong Kong from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode Aaron Mak learns about all the ways China is using cyber warfare to disrupt the efforts of protesters in Hong Kong. His guest is Nick Frisch, a fellow at Yale’s Information Society ...
ListenChemists Spill the Science of Skincare from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode Shannon Palus talks to Victoria Fu and Gloria Lu, co-founders of Chemist Confessions. Their goal is to help us all cut through the marketing buzzwords of the skincare industry, and ...
ListenWhy Facebook Can’t Just Create a Currency from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode Aaron Mak looks into Facebook’s plan to create a global cryptocurrency called Libra. For an expert opinion, he turns to Chris Brummer, a law professor at Georgetown University Law C...
ListenPrime Day Comes but Once a Year from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, Shannon Palus talks about the journalistic ethics of Amazon affiliate links with Jacqui Cheng, former Editor-in-Chief of Wirecutter and current Editor-in-Chief of Music at WQXR in ...
ListenICE’s Reckless Use of Facial Recognition Tech from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, Aaron Mak talks about federal law enforcement's use of facial recognition technology with Jake Laperruque. He’s Senior Counsel at The Constitution Project, which is part of the Pro...
ListenHealthcare via Video Chat from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, Shannon Palus explores the growing telehealth industry, where doctors and patients connect via video chat or sometimes just a secure message system. To figure out the benefits and ...
ListenWhen Tech Journalism Took A Critical Turn from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, April Glaser catches up with her former co-host Will Oremus. Then the two of them are joined by Future Tense editor Torie Bosch and New York Times opinion writer Farhad Manjoo to d...
ListenWhen a Scooter Makes More Sense Than a Car from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, guest host Henry Grabar looks at how Zillow is trying to disrupt the real estate business—and why it might work in some cities but not others. Then Horace Dediu answers Henry’s qu...
ListenHow Driverless Cars Will Actually Work from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode April Glaser talks to Chris Urmson, CEO of Aurora, a company that builds the technology for self-driving cars. Urmson offers a timeline for when we might see autonomous vehicles on ...
ListenRe-Up: Senator Mark Warner from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, April Glaser revisits an interview with Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who released a policy paper proposing possible regulations for U....
ListenLuxury Bunkers for the End of the World from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode April Glaser is joined by Max Read, an editor and writer at New York Magazine who writes the column Life in Pixels. First, April and Max talk to Patri Friedman, founder of the Seast...
ListenWhy It’s So Hard to Live in California from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode April Glaser is joined by co-host Kim-Mai Cutler, a partner at Initialized Capital, an early-stage venture firm. She’s also a former full-time journalist at TechCrunch. First, Apri...
ListenDesigning a Better Facebook from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, April Glaser is joined by guest co-host Max Read, an editor at New York magazine who covers technology and the internet. First, April and Max talk about Facebook co-founder Chris H...
ListenCyberspace Didn’t Stay Free from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode April Glaser is joined once again by guest co-host Meredith Broussard, a data journalism professor at NYU and author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the Wo...
ListenPublic Education, Facebook-Style from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode April Glaser is joined by co-host Meredith Broussard, a data journalism professor at NYU and author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. First they ...
ListenUnmasking The Russians Who Hacked The DNC from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode April Glaser is joined once again by co-host Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. They start by talking about the Sri ...
ListenWhat Happened To WikiLeaks from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode April Glaser is joined by guest host Siva Vaidhyanathan, director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia and author of several books about social medi...
ListenFake Meat Designed for Carnivores from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
April Glaser is joined by Gizmodo investigative reporter, Kashmir Hill, to talk about an ambitious British proposal to regulate content on social media sites. Then they discuss Airbnb’s efforts to ...
ListenLocal News Brought to You by Big Tech from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss a recent report in Bloomberg that says executives at YouTube ignored employees who raised concerns about the spread of harmful videos. The company’s algorithm o...
ListenUber and Lyft Drivers Strike from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Aprill Glaser and Will Oremus kick off the episode by talking about Apple’s plan to be the ultimate middleman--with new offerings announced this week of streaming video, games, and more. Then April...
ListenLivestreaming A Massacre from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, April Glaser and Will Oremus first talk to two researchers who’ve uncovered new information about the way the U.S. government trains its facial recognition software. According to t...
ListenYour Social Media Photos Are Helping to Build the Surveillance State from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, April Glaser kicks things off by talking about Facebook’s long-overdue crackdown on anti-vaccination groups. The social media platform announced it will stop allowing advertisement...
ListenHow To Trust A VPN from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus take a look at an increasingly popular online privacy tool--that has some serious trust issues of its own. We’re talking about VPNs, or virtual p...
ListenEmpathy at Scale from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, host April Glaser looks at the continuing battle between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commision. Earlier this week, the SEC asked a judge to hold Musk in con...
ListenCan Palantir Be Used For Good? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, host Will Oremus looks at the fallout from Amazon’s announcement last week that they’re abandoning plans for a new headquarters in New York City. Some celebrated it as a victory; o...
ListenJeff Bezos’s Privacy Complexifier from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about the implications from last week’s bizarre, but also serious, showdown between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and American Media INC, the owner ...
ListenThe Court-Records Paywall Scam from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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ListenMedia Layoffs Are Trending from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss a rather terrifying security flaw from Apple, a company that prides itself on keeping information well-protected. A bug was found in the ...
ListenJuul Heist from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss news news that the french government has fined Google close to $57 million for violating the new European privacy laws that went into eff...
ListenSocial Media's Weird Future from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss news that PG&E, California’s main power provider, plans to file for bankruptcy due to the billions in liability it faces stemming from th...
ListenAt CES: Tech After Smartphones from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss startling new revelations about some of the major phone carriers. The story broke this week in Motherboard titled “I Gave a Bounty Hunter...
ListenBest of 2018 from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus introduce some of their favorite interviews from 2018. We have highlights from our conversations with journalist Taylor Lorenz about teen YouTube...
ListenAftermath of a Data Breach from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus will talk reader mail! The hosts take a look at some of your questions and comments from the year, in particular about how your relationship to ...
ListenThe Information World War from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus will talk about how Taylor Swift used face recognition to surveil the crowd at a recent concert, and whether that’s smart, scary, or both. Then ...
ListenWarehouse Workers Bring Amazon To The Table from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss the latest round of “Tech CEO Goes to Washington.” On Tuesday morning, that CEO was Google’s Sundar Pichai, who appeared before the House...
ListenThe Civil Rights Group Targeted By Facebook from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss the news that Tumblr will soon be banning all adult content on its site -- this in response to some instances of child pornography that g...
ListenTomorrow's Children, Edited. from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss the ongoing fallout at Facebook over the company’s decision to hire a conservative PR firm to surface opposition research in order to att...
ListenFacebook's Former Security Chief on What Went Wrong from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, host Will Oremus will discuss the fallout from last week’s New York Times expose about Facebook with the company’s former Security Chief Alex Stamos. The Times story was headlined...
ListenAmazon's Prime Real Estate from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On today’s show, host Will Oremus will talk about the employee uprising at Google, and the changes that it and other tech companies have made to their sexual harassment policies in response. Joinin...
ListenThe Meme Midterms from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Will Oremus and April Glaser are bringing you a special episode of If Then, all about the midterm elections and the role of Silicon Valley and online media in our beloved democratic process. We’re ...
ListenThe Internet of Hate from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser look further into the presidential election in Brazil and how tech has played a role. On Sunday, the far right candidate Jair Bolsanaro was elec...
ListenWho Owns Your DNA Data? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss Elon Musk’s other, other project with their Slate colleague Henry Grabar. Not space travel, not electric cars, but the Boring Company, w...
ListenHow Senator Mark Warner Wants to Crack Down on Tech from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 r...
ListenIs Privacy A Right? from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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 se...
ListenFact And Fiction on Wikipedia from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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...
ListenReshuffling the Podcasting Deck from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
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...
ListenTech Barons Are the New Media Barons from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about a literal moonshot. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced the first private customer who is signed up for a trip around earth’s moon, po...
ListenComing Nov. 2, Slate's New Tech Show IF THEN from 2017-10-27T15:58
If Then: a podcast about technology, society, and power. Each week, Slate‘s April Glaser and Will Oremus take you on a lively tour of the tech news that actually matters, from fake news in your Fac...
ListenComing Nov. 2, Slate's New Tech Show IF THEN from 2017-10-27T15:58
If Then: a podcast about technology, society, and power. Each week, Slate‘s April Glaser and Will Oremus take you on a lively tour of the tech news that actually matters, from fake news in your Fac...
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