Slate Business

The U.S. Department of Justice announced this week that it is suing Google over its ad technology. What do they contend Google has been doing? And does this mean Alphabet is headed for a Bell Telecom-style bust-up?

Guest: Leah Nylen, reporter covering antitrust for Bloomberg News

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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How COVID-stress, a tipped minimum wage locked in since 1991, and lobbying from the National Restaurant Association have pushed restaurant workers—and the industry as a whole—to the brink of crisis.

Guest: Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage and the Director of the UC Berkeley Food Labor Research Center.

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It can feel very personal to have your Facebook or Instagram page hacked—they’re your pictures and your friends after all. But Meta, the social media parent company, handles hacks with anything but a personal touch. 

Guest: Kirstin Grind, investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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This week, Felix Gillette joins Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers to talk about his new book It's Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO and discuss the state of streaming, the relationship between sports and advertisers, and the decline of the movie theater industry.

In the Plus segment: YouTube.

Podcast production by Jessamine Molli.

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The idea that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to sudden deaths among young people has no scientific support, but the theory nevertheless has a lot of traction on social media. 

How can public health officials educate the public—especially on subject like vaccines, where their effectiveness renders them effectively invisible? 

Guest: Katelyn Jetelina, epidemiologist and data scientist

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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Elon Musk was promising an “epic” Q4 at Tesla last year. But 2022 ended closer to what might be considered an “epic fail,” with the stock price down 65 percent. In an uncertain economic environment like this one, how much blame goes to Musk for unloading $40 billion worth of stock and focusing on his shiny new social media network? Or are these just growing pains that every company goes through as they mature? 

Guest: Dana Hull, automotive and technology reporter for Bloomberg News in San Francisco

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

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This week Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss how the avian flu has skyrocketed egg prices, even as inflation continues to plateau. They also talk about the ongoing controversy over gas stoves and scrutinize a recent article about Columbia Business School’s new campus.

In the plus segment: Noma, an extravagant restaurant in Copenhagen hailed as the world’s best restaurant, is closing. What does that say about that status of “fine dining”?

Podcast production by Anna Phillips.

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You might think of noncompete agreements as mostly limited to highly skilled, highly paid tech workers to protect trade secrets. But one-third of workers bound by noncompetes make $13/hour or less: fast-food workers, security guards, and the like.

Noncompete clauses not only give employers leverage over their employees—both during and after their employment—but studies have shown the agreements are a weight on the economy, which is why the FTC is angling for a federal ban. 

Guest: Elizabeth Wilkins, director of the Office of Policy Planning, Federal Trade Commission

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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On this week’s episode of The Waves, Slate Money co-host Emily Peck is joined by New York Times writer, Amy Larocca to discuss, as Amy says, the “menopause gold rush.” They dig into when exactly menopause starts, how younger women embracing their bodies has trickled up to their moms, and the companies that have started aggressively targeting menopausal women - for better and for worse.  

In Slate Plus, how telehealth and online medicine have changed the menopause game. 

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery.

Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to [email protected].

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Roughly 95 percent of advanced semiconductor chip manufacturing happens in Taiwan, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to supply chain shocks and national security threats. Is the Biden administration’s $280 billion bill, signed in August last year, enough to boost domestic chip manufacturing?

Guest: Don Clark, freelance reporter specializing on chips and enterprise tech.

Host: Emily Peck

If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.

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