How did Intuit build its TurboTax empire? Guest: Justin Elliott, reporter for ProPublica Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Musk's bid to take Twitter private a genuine attempt to mold the social network in his image? Or is he just going to have some fun, make some money, and walk away? Guest: Felix Salmon, host of Slate Money and chief financial correspondent for Axios Host: Lizzie O'Leary Get Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/TBD - Enter promo code TBD for 83% off and 3 extra months free!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rideshare company's founder once called taxis ?evil.? Now, Uber might need them to survive. Guest: Preetika Rana Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With 9.1% ownership of Twitter?and a board seat?Elon Musk is the new master of Twitter's future. Why did the wealthiest man in the world just take over the world's most influential platform? Guest: Ranjan Roy, writer of the Margins newsletter Host: Lizzie O'Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For nearly a decade, Margrethe Vestager has led Europe's efforts to rein in big tech. One newspaper article described Vestager as putting the fear of God into Silicon Valley. How is she thinking about fairness in tech in 2022? Guest: Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the Digital Age  Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt spend over a decade building relationships with the most powerful Democrats in America? Guest: Alex Thompson, reporter at Politico Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Going off-grid can seem appealing in lots of ways. But are there consequences if everyone unplugs from the system? Are there costs we haven?t considered? Guest: Ivan Penn, renewable energy correspondent for the New York Times Host: Seth Stevenson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The FBI warned that Russia would use deepfakes to support its invasion of Ukraine. Are they missing the real threat? Guest: Noah Giansiracusa, professor of math and data science at Bentley University. Host: Seth Stevenson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In just two years, the mental-health startup Cerebral has grown to operate in 50 states, registered more than 200,000 patients, and reached a $4.8 billion valuation. Has it prioritized growth over patient care? Guest: Caleb Melby Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hong Kong's zero-COVID policy got enviable results, but inadvertently set the stage for disaster. What will it take to change course? Guest: Dr. Karen Grépin, Associate Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Minnesota's Operation Safety Net, a coordinated effort among nine Minnesota law enforcement agencies, was announced in February 2021, its mission was to ensure the trial of Derek Chauvin would proceed peacefully. It also promised to protect people's right to gather and demonstrate peacefully. Did Operation Safety Net keep its promise? Guest: Tate Ryan-Mosley, reporter for MIT Tech review Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vladimir Putin has always regarded the internet with suspicion. Now, with western tech companies pulling out of Russia and control of the war narrative slipping, he sees an opening. Will Putin wall off Russia from the rest of the digital world? Guests: Yana Pashaeva, Moscow-based journalist Justin Sherman, fellow at the Atlantic Council?s Cyber Statecraft Initiative Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Second Sight restored partial vision to hundreds of patients around the world through retinal implants. Then, on the verge of bankruptcy, they abandoned the project. Now, over 300 patients with Second Sight technology in their bodies are asking: what will happen to us? Guest: Eliza Strickland, senior editor at IEEE Spectrum Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up against one of the world's most effective propaganda operations, Ukraine has taken control of the online narrative. With Russian troops closing in, how important is winning the information war? Guest: Casey Newton, writer at Platformer Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Thiel spent the better part of two decades molding the tech industry in his image. Now, he's leaving Facebook behind and turning his attention to politics. Is Thiel the next kingmaker for the populist right? Max Chafkin, writer for Bloomberg and is the author of The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For seven years, Ukraine has served as a virtual testing ground for a generation of cyber weaponry capable of taking down power grids, networks, and supply chains. With an invasion of Ukraine underway, will these weapons come into play? Guest: Andy Greenberg, senior writer at WIRED and the author of the book Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers  Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over two years into the pandemic, much of the world remains either unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or lacking access to mRNA vaccines entirely. How did the leading effort to vaccinate the world go so wrong? Guest: Achal Prabhala, coordinator of the AccessIBSA project and a fellow of the Shuttleworth Foundation, in Bangalore. Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Tesla. It accuses the electric vehicle maker of fostering a workplace rife with racism and discrimination. What's happening inside Tesla's Fremont plant? Guest: Dana Hull, reporter for Bloomberg Host: Lizzie O'Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In just a few short years, the Chinese fast fashion company Shein upended the way countless young women shop online. It?s approach could soon shape the way everyone else shops, too.  Guest: Louise Matsakis, freelance technology reporter Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook?s first crack at the metaverse has a problem: kids. Underage users seem to be flooding Horizon Worlds, potentially putting themselves at risk.  Is Meta doomed to repeat Facebook?s mistakes? Guest: Will Oremus, technology news analysis writer for the Washington Post.  Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Banks, healthcare providers, and retailers around the world still rely on COBOL, a programming language originally developed in the 1960s. By all accounts the code is powerful, practical, and very rarely problematic. But the small group of people who still know the language are aging out of the workforce.  What happens when there are no more COBOL coders left? Guest: Clive Thompson, journalist and author of "Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World." Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Spotify, the last month has seen a cascade of controversies around its exclusive podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. Is it time for the streaming service to rethink its role as a podcast publisher? And is it even possible to moderate podcast misinformation? Guest: Evelyn Douek, lecturer at Harvard Law School, and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ten years ago, IBM made a gamble. Through a monumental advertising and PR campaign, it promised that its AI technology?Watson?would transform the health care industry as we know it. A decade and billions of dollars later, Watson Health is being sold for parts.  What went wrong with IBM?s ?moonshot?? And what does Watson?s failure tell us about the promise of AI for health care? Guest: Casey Ross, national technology correspondent for STAT Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent advertisement for crypto.com, featuring Matt Damon, was met with widespread mockery online. But Damon?s ad is only the most visible example of a much broader?and more insidious?trend of celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements. Is the partnership between crypto and Hollywood really dangerous? And what separates the trend from run-of-the-mill salesmanship? Guests: Jacob Silverman, staff writer for the New Republic and Ben McKenzie, actor, writer, and director. Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on What Next TBD: What is going on with little kids' vaccines? Why don?t they seem to be a priority for the government or the pharmaceutical companies, while parents are stressed to a breaking point? We discuss with Meg Tirrell, health and science correspondent for CNBC, and co-host of the Readout Loud podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth Holmes was found guilty of defrauding investors this week in federal court. The former CEO, wunderkind, and blood mogul has been the subject of intense legal interest and public fascination ever since her company, Theranos, was beset by scandal in 2015. Today on What Next: TBD we follow-up with Rebecca Jarvis, host of ?The Dropout? podcast and ABC News Chief Business, Technology & Economics Correspondent. We dig into the verdict and ask if Silicon Valley will finally confront the elements of its culture that allowed Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos to run wild with investor?s money, and patient?s health. You can listen to ?The Dropout: Elizabeth Holmes on Trial? now wherever you get your podcasts. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode originally aired in July 2021 Last week, the U.S. government released a new report that attempts to categorize 144 verified sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, or U.A.P. They could only definitively explain one of them.  The new report signals a shift in the way we think about U.A.P. As technology has advanced and evidence of these encounters have increased, the question has become more urgent: what exactly is happening in our skies? Guest: Shane Harris, intelligence and national security reporter for the Washington Post Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode originally aired in September. In the U.S., the PCR test is the gold standard for COVID testing. Common knowledge would have it that the test is more accurate?and therefore more effective at containing the spread of the disease?than the rapid antigen test.  What if that isn?t quite true?  Guest: Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health  Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Using experimental technology to pull gigatons of carbon out of the air and bury it deep beneath the Earth sounds like a bad sci-fi plot point. If things don?t change soon, it also might be one of our only options. Guest: Clive Thompson, journalist and author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. civil court system doesn?t get as much attention as the criminal courts, but it would be hard to overstate its importance. In 2018, for example, 47 percent of respondents to a Pew survey said they had dealt with the system in one way or another; from eviction proceedings, to debt collection, to child-support modifications.  What happened when the pandemic upended such an important pillar of the justice system? Did new technologies fix existing problems?or just create new ones? Guest: Qudsiya Naqui, officer at the Pew Charitable Trust Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of Twitter. It?s not the first time he?s left the job.  Is this really the end for the man who guided Twitter through the Trump era? And how will the platform change without him at the helm? Guest: Nick Bilton, special correspondent at Vanity Fair Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode originally aired in January 2021 The story of how GameStop went from the verge of a bankruptcy to a $15 billion market value isn?t an easy one to wrap your head around. But it helps to go back to the beginning; almost three years ago, in a subreddit called r/wallstreetbets. Guests: Brandon Kochkodin, reporter at Bloomberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the weekend, Russia tested a new weapon???a type of missile that can fly into space and destroy a satellite in orbit.  The test created thousands of pieces of debris, which will hurtle around the Earth?s orbit for years to come. What?s the real risk of the rapid increase in space junk? And is there anything to be done about it? Guest: Laura Grego, Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at MIT Host: Seth Stevenson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recent poll showed that about a third of parents of younger children would get their kids vaccinated, a third would not, and the final third said they wanted to wait and see how the vaccines worked. Public health officials are asking: what will it take to convince that third group that now is the time to vaccinate?  Guests: Julie Hamill Dr. Aaron Carroll, pediatrician and professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In schools across the country, tighter digital controls were put in place to keep kids on task during the pandemic. Are they here to stay? Guests: Priya Anand, reporter at Bloomberg Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bots aren?t just buying cool sneakers. They?re buying concert tickets. Tickets to basketball games and Broadway shows. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were buying hand sanitizer and face masks. And later, they were booking vaccine reservation spots. Why are bots taking over certain markets? And is there anything we can do to slow them down? Guests:  Derreck Johnson, designer at Slate Eric Budish, economics professor at the University of Chicago Host: Seth Stevenson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Between April and June of this year, Zillow bought nearly 4,000 homes. And they had no intention of holding onto them. The plan was to flip houses, often and at scale, joining the ranks of companies like Opendoor and Offerpad, also known as iBuyers.  So, why did Zillow put their plans on pause last weekend? Can online middlemen really change the way we buy and sell houses? Guests:  Tony Santos, homeowner Patrick Clark, reporter at Bloomberg Host: Henry Grabar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last month, the domain company Epik and the streaming service Twitch have fallen prey to massive-scale hacks. The hackers revealed not just email addresses, but detailed personal information too. For Twitch, it was the entire source code for their site.  But the attackers aren?t holding this data for ransom. In fact, they don?t seem to want much of anything. What?s motivating this new wave of activist hacks? And who suffers? Guest: Drew Harwell, tech reporter at the Washington Post Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The last month has seen a steady drip of leaked documents from inside Facebook, each seemingly more damning than the next. This week, the whistleblower behind the leaks revealed her identity. What motivates Frances Haugen? And can she do real damage to the social media giant? Guest: Jeff Horwitz, tech reporter at the Wall Street Journal.  Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since 2018, internal research teams at Facebook have been studying the effect on Instagram on mental health. Their results couldn?t be more clear: Instagram is causing problems, especially for teen girls.  Why has it taken so long for their research to surface? And what can be done to improve the relationship between kids and the platform? Guest: Georgia Wells, tech reporter at the Wall Street Journal.  Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the U.S., the PCR test is the gold standard for COVID testing. Common knowledge would have it that the test is more accurate?and therefore more effective at containing the spread of the dease?than the rapid antigen test.  What if that isn?t quite true?  Guest: Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health  Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 50,000 employees relying on the city?s complex technological operation for support. Ted helped his city navigate the challenge with tech solutions built on principles designed to serve citizens and inspire employees: focus on people, improve lives, and lean into promising innovations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recently, China restricted video game playing to just three hours a week for its young people: 8pm to 9pm, Friday through Sunday. And that?s not the only change. Over the last few months, private tutors, diehard celebrity fans, and tech giants have all faced fresh restrictions from Beijing. What?s behind this new wave of crackdowns? Guest: Brenda Goh, technology correspondent for Reuters Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Colorado River Basin is experiencing its 22nd year of drought. Its reservoirs are at their lowest-ever levels. The water stored in the system is at just 40 percent of its capacity. How did the situation on the Colorado become so dire? And what does the shortage mean for the 40 million people who rely on its waters? Guest: Abrahm Lustgarten, senior investigative reporter at ProPublica Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A medicine meant to treat parasites is the latest unproven COVID treatment craze. With warnings from the FDA, and prescribers clamping down, some are going to extreme lengths to get their hands on the drug. What?s behind Ivermectin?s sudden rise? Guest: Brandy Zadrozny, senior reporter for NBC News  Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth Holmes convinced countless people that her company would change the world. Can she convince 12 jurors that she didn?t intend to deceive her company?s patients and investors? Guest: Rebecca Jarvis, host of ?The Dropout? podcast and ABC News Chief Business, Technology & Economics Correspondent  Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Biden administration says a third dose of vaccines for all American adults will end the pandemic faster. And experts say there is evidence of waning vaccine effectiveness against mild-to-moderate disease. But globally, what?s the best use of the next available dose?  Guest: Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health.  Host: Lizzie O?Leary This episode was produced by Alyssa Edes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Experts say that a ?fully approved? designation for the vaccines could have sweeping effects. Broader vaccination mandates, inclusion for new age groups, and reassurance for those hesitant to take a vaccine without the designation. As calls for approval grow louder and more urgent, the Food and Drug Administration is yet to give its blessing. What?s happening inside the FDA as they work toward this milestone? Guest: Sarah Owermohle, health care reporter at Politico  Host: Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America used to be at the vanguard of railroad technology. What went wrong? And can the new infrastructure bill fix our broken system? Guests: Alon Levy and Eric Goldwyn of the Marron Institute at NYU  Host Henry Grabar   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether it?s a phone screen or a coffee machine, why is it so hard to fix our own stuff? And what can we do to make it a bit easier? Guest: Jason Koebler, editor-in-chief of Motherboard and contributor to the CYBER podcast Host Lizzie O?Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices