Slate Technology

By Slate Podcasts

What's Slate Technology about?

Technology coverage from across the Slate Podcast network

4.5

507 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

ICYMI: TikTok Isn’t For Cre...

01.28.2023

On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by journalist and author Cory Doctorow to discuss his latest piece, “The Enshittification of TikTok,” in Wired. They talk about the life cycles of online platforms, why nobody on the platforms have any ...

Slate Technology episodes:

01.28.2023 ICYMI: TikTok Isn’t For Creators Anymore On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by journalist and author Cory Doctorow to discuss his latest piece, “The Enshittification of TikTok,” in Wired. They talk about the life cycles of online platforms, why nobody on the platforms have any ...
01.28.2023 Slate Money: Chip War This week, Chris Miller joins Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers to discuss his new book, Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. They discuss the crucial role of microchips, the global dynamics of microchip design ...
01.27.2023 What Next TBD: Will Google Get Broken Up? 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, ...
01.25.2023 ICYMI: American Girl’s Addy Is More Than a Slave On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by NPR’s Aisha Harris to talk about the return of the discourse about Addy Walker, the first Black American Girl doll. They discuss Aisha’s great piece from 2016, “The Making of an American ...
01.22.2023 What Next TBD: Does Meta Even Care When Its Users Get Hacked? 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 ...
01.21.2023 Slate Money: It’s Not TV 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 ...
01.21.2023 ICYMI: The Internet Won’t Let Austin Butler Forget Vanessa Hudgens On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by Nadira Goffe to talk about Austin Butler and Kerrygold butter. First, High Speed Downloads return so Rachelle can explain why everybody was melting down about Irish butter online, and Nadira takes us ...
01.20.2023 What Next TBD: An Antivax Dog Whistle Goes Viral 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 ...
01.18.2023 ICYMI: MrBeast Dethroned a Child to Become the Most Successful YouTuber On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by BuzzFeed’s Kelsey Weekman for a crash course in the history and significance of YouTuber MrBeast. Kelsey tells Rachelle all about how he first got started counting numbers to camera, his wild philanthropic ...
01.15.2023 What Next TBD: Tesla’s No Good, Very Bad Year 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 ...
01.14.2023 ICYMI: RuPaul’s Drag Race Has Finally Logged On On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined again by Daisy Rosario to talk about the premiere of season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. They talk about how the season seems to understand more than ever how the pandemic has affected ...
01.13.2023 What Next TBD: Why the Feds Want to Kill Noncompetes 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 ...
01.11.2023 ICYMI: Who Is Alix Earle And Why Are People Mad at Her? On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is back in the host chair. She’s joined by Daisy Rosario as they open up the mailbag to answer listener questions about Greta Thunberg’s involvement in the arrest of Andrew Tate, the rise of the ...
01.08.2023 What Next TBD: How War in Taiwan Could Short-Circuit U.S. Tech 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 ...
01.07.2023 ICYMI: The Untalented Mr. Ripley On today’s show, Daniel Schroeder is joined by Vox’s Alex Abad-Santos to talk about the gay scammers that emerged at the end of the year. First we answer a listener’s question about some gay drama on Twitter, then we discuss ...
01.07.2023 Slate Money: Burning Platforms This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers discuss the FTC’s proposed non-compete ban, the bank run at Silvergate, and the cause of Southwest’s absolute meltdown this holiday season. In the Plus segment: E-bikes. Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. ...
01.06.2023 What Next TBD: Will Southwest Be Held Accountable? Over the holidays, thousands of passengers were left stranded or delayed when Southwest Airline’s outdated re-booking software broke down. Who can be held accountable, and why don’t airlines invest more in their own infrastructure? Guest: Heather Tal Murphy, business and ...
01.04.2023 ICYMI: Fans Ran the World Last Year On today’s episode, Nadira Goffe and Daisy Rosario are in the host chairs ready to talk all things fandom. They discuss the important moments like the Swifties’ battle with Ticketmaster, and John Fetterman’s wildly successful online campaign. Then, they get ...
12.28.2022 ICYMI: Encore: We Talked to BYU’s Black Menaces Today, we’re revisiting our episode from April 16, 2022 when we interviewed BYU’s Black Menaces. The Black Menaces are a group at Brigham Young University who have recently gained popularity on TikTok for their videos in which they ask their ...
12.24.2022 ICYMI: Encore: All Hail the Liver King Today, we’re revisiting our episode from March 9, 2022 on the Liver King, his philosophy, and his online presence. Brian Johnson, aka the Liver King, has amassed millions of followers with his bizarre yet addictive workout and raw-meat-diet videos. On ...
12.23.2022 What Next TBD: One Year - 1942: The Most Hated Man in America At the beginning of World War II, the greatest threat to the American war effort wasn’t the Nazis or the Japanese—it was runaway inflation. The man in charge of stopping it was the country’s “price czar,” Leon Henderson. In 1942, ...
12.21.2022 ICYMI: Decoder Ring: The New Age Hit Machine Today, we’re excited to share an episode from Slate’s Decoder Ring that we think you’re going to love. For this episode, a story from Slate senior producer Evan Chung about how Yanni, John Tesh and a number of other surprising ...
12.18.2022 What Next TBD: Are You Ready For Lab-Grown Meat? The Food and Drug Administration gave an important thumbs up to lab-grown chicken, which means we could start seeing it in stores as soon as next year. While billions of dollars have been spent developing lab-grown meat, important questions remain: ...
12.17.2022 ICYMI: Who Gets to Complain About Their Job Online? Earlier this month, a group of nurses were fired after posting a TikTok where they shared their complaints or “icks” about their patients. On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by health and wellness journalist Julia Craven to talk about ...
12.17.2022 Slate Money: Should You Care About the Dot Plot? This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers explain what the Fed’s interest rate dot plot means. They also talk about Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of video game developer Activision, and the latest details of the SBF scandal. In the ...
12.16.2022 What Next TBD: SBF's Worst Week Yet Even in a crazy year for crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried’s story is undeniably the most bananas. And even in the context of the implosion of FTX, getting arrested has got to make this week his worst yet. What charges does SBF ...
12.14.2022 ICYMI: Why Did NBC’s Internet Culture Reporter Spend So Much Time on Reddit? On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is is joined by NBC’s Morgan Sung to talk about how she lives online as an internet culture reporter. They talk about early internet loves like Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfiction, who Morgan thinks you ...
12.11.2022 What Next TBD: San Francisco’s Self-Driving Mess Self-driving cars and robotaxis are starting to appear on the streets of San Francisco. While we have a whole regulatory system in place for drivers, who’s making sure these new cars are safe? Guest: David Zipper, Visiting Fellow at the ...
12.10.2022 Slate Money: The NYT Strike: End of the Wordle Streak This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers talk about the Trump Organization’s tax fraud conviction, why workers at The New York Times went on strike and ChatGPT, a shockingly articulate AI chatbot. In the Plus segment: How to ...
12.10.2022 ICYMI: Goodbye to All That 2022 Internet The internet has been as wild as ever this year, delivering stories like West Elm Caleb, the Liver King, the Bridgerton musical and its legal woes, and more. On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by Time’s Moises Mendez II ...
12.09.2022 What Next TBD: Let’s Talk, Chatbots Artificial intelligence is growing in leaps and bounds, and everywhere from Big Tech companies like Google to small teams like OpenAI are developing more and more convincing chatbots. Is the world ready for convincing, talking computers? Guest: Alex Kantrowitz, host ...
12.07.2022 ICYMI:What Is a Kevsexual? On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined yet again by Nadira Goffe, this time to unpack the mailbag. First they discuss the convoluted mess over a guy on TikTok named Kevin who may or may not understand what the female ...
12.04.2022 What Next TBD: Big Tech’s Boogeymen In Washington The Biden administration’s Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are both staffed with accomplished progressives who are proving more aggressive than their predecessors in either the Trump or Obama eras. But can Big Tech be tamed? Guest: Leah Nylen, ...
12.03.2022 ICYMI: Online for the Holidays On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton is joined by one of our favorites, Slate associate culture writer Nadira Goffe, and they’re talking all about the holidays online. They discuss Christmas movies like the Lindsay Lohan vehicle Falling for Christmas, Mariah Carey’s ...
12.02.2022 A Word: Bot Battling in the Age of Elon For many years, tech professionals dismissed the threat of disinformation. Christopher Bouzy was one of them, until the 2016 election changed his mind. Bouzy founded and leads the organization Bot Sentinel to fight online disinformation. On today’s episode of A ...
12.02.2022 What Next TBD: Twitter's Vulnerabilities, Exposed Dating back to the Arab Spring, Twitter’s potential for real-time organizing has been a selling point. But trying to find information on China’s “Zero COVID” protests reveals just how vulnerable the now-understaffed platform is to manipulation. Guest: Joseph Menn, cybersecurity ...
11.30.2022 ICYMI: Goncharov, Tumblr’s Fake Scorsese Film Over the past few weeks, Tumblr has been filled to the brim with content about the Martin Scorsese film Goncharov, but the best part is the film never existed. On today’s episode, Rachelle Hampton and Daisy Rosario explain the wild ...
11.27.2022 What Next TBD: The Trap of Buy Now, Pay Later The option to “buy now and pay later” over installments exploded over the past two years, thanks to people being flush with stimulus cash and shopping online during the pandemic. But is this new, underregulated industry a useful line of ...
11.26.2022 ICYMI: Decoder Ring: The Truth About #TheDress On today’s episode, we’re excited to share an episode from Slate’s Decoder Ring podcast that we think you’re going to love. In the history of viral images, #TheDress has got to be in the top 10. This unassuming photo of ...
11.24.2022 Political Gabfest: What If Twitter Dies? This week, David Plotz, Emily Bazelon, and John Dickerson discuss the future of Twitter, the ghoulish World Cup, and a minister’s allegation that Justice Alito leaked the outcome of the Hobby Lobby case. Here are some notes and references from ...
11.23.2022 ICYMI: An ICYMI Friendsgiving with Normal Gossip As we all prepare to gather around the Thanksgiving table with our friends and families, we thought it was a great time for our second annual Friendsgiving special. On today’s show, Rachelle Hampton is joined by Kelsey McKinney and Alex ...
11.20.2022 What Next TBD: The End of the Tech Boom After decades as America’s booming industry, tens of thousands of tech workers have been laid off in November alone. Is the venture-capital, low-interest-rate wind leaving the sails temporary or is this the end of the hunt for “the next big ...
11.19.2022 ICYMI: What's Going to Happen to Twitter? On today’s episode, Rachelle is joined by Lizzie O’Leary, the host of Slate’s tech podcast What Next: TBD. The two discuss Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, whether or not Musk has broken any laws and what the future of the ...
11.18.2022 What Next TBD: The Case Against Climate Reparations At this year’s annual UN conference on climate change, they are discussing “climate reparations,” wherein the rich countries that grew their wealth burning fossil fuels pay money to poorer and more vulnerable countries. It sounds sensible, but is the UN ...
11.16.2022 ICYMI: Who’s Invited to the Cookout? On today’s episode, Rachelle is once again joined by Daisy. The pair dive deep into the digital etymology of the phrase “invited to the cookout” which, in the past few years, has been applied to figures from Bill Nye the ...
11.15.2022 Decoder Ring: The Truth About #TheDress In the history of viral images, #TheDress has got to be in the top 10. This unassuming photo of a party dress kicked off a global debate when people realized they were seeing it completely differently. Is it black and ...
11.13.2022 What Next TBD: Is This The Cryptocalypse? The (once) second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, collapsed in stunning fashion this week, highlighting why consumers really do want regulation, and why old financial institutions remain wary of crypto. Guest: Felix Salmon, host of Slate Money, chief financial correspondent for Axios. ...
11.12.2022 ICYMI: The Internet Wouldn’t Exist Without Sex On today’s episode Rachelle interviews Vice senior editor Samantha Cole about her forthcoming book How Sex Changed the Internet. The two talk about the role of sex in internet technology like videoconferencing, affiliate links and online credit card transactions. Cole ...
11.11.2022 What Next TBD: Senator Chris Murphy on Elon's Acquisition of Twitter The second largest investor in Twitter, after Elon Musk, is the Saudis, which raises questions about what kinds of “free speech” Musk is really committed to. But it also raises questions around national security in the U.S. Guest: Chris Murphy, ...
11.09.2022 ICYMI: A Man Ate Rotisserie Chicken for 40 Days Straight On today’s episode, Rachelle is back with Daisy to read your letters and answer all your burning questions. They get into everything from Johnny Depp’s rumored appearance in Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty show to why hundreds of people turned out ...

Older episodes

Slate Technology

What's Slate Technology about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Slate Technology episodes:

ICYMI: TikTok Isn’t For Creators Anymore

Slate Money: Chip War

What Next TBD: Will Google Get Broken Up?

ICYMI: American Girl’s Addy Is More Than a Slave

What Next TBD: Does Meta Even Care When Its Users Get Hacked?

Slate Money: It’s Not TV

ICYMI: The Internet Won’t Let Austin Butler Forget Vanessa Hudgens

What Next TBD: An Antivax Dog Whistle Goes Viral

ICYMI: MrBeast Dethroned a Child to Become the Most Successful YouTuber

What Next TBD: Tesla’s No Good, Very Bad Year

ICYMI: RuPaul’s Drag Race Has Finally Logged On

What Next TBD: Why the Feds Want to Kill Noncompetes

ICYMI: Who Is Alix Earle And Why Are People Mad at Her?

What Next TBD: How War in Taiwan Could Short-Circuit U.S. Tech

ICYMI: The Untalented Mr. Ripley

Slate Money: Burning Platforms

What Next TBD: Will Southwest Be Held Accountable?

ICYMI: Fans Ran the World Last Year

ICYMI: Encore: We Talked to BYU’s Black Menaces

ICYMI: Encore: All Hail the Liver King

What Next TBD: One Year - 1942: The Most Hated Man in America

ICYMI: Decoder Ring: The New Age Hit Machine

What Next TBD: Are You Ready For Lab-Grown Meat?

ICYMI: Who Gets to Complain About Their Job Online?

Slate Money: Should You Care About the Dot Plot?

What Next TBD: SBF's Worst Week Yet

ICYMI: Why Did NBC’s Internet Culture Reporter Spend So Much Time on Reddit?

What Next TBD: San Francisco’s Self-Driving Mess

Slate Money: The NYT Strike: End of the Wordle Streak

ICYMI: Goodbye to All That 2022 Internet

What Next TBD: Let’s Talk, Chatbots

ICYMI:What Is a Kevsexual?

What Next TBD: Big Tech’s Boogeymen In Washington

ICYMI: Online for the Holidays

A Word: Bot Battling in the Age of Elon

What Next TBD: Twitter's Vulnerabilities, Exposed

ICYMI: Goncharov, Tumblr’s Fake Scorsese Film

What Next TBD: The Trap of Buy Now, Pay Later

ICYMI: Decoder Ring: The Truth About #TheDress

Political Gabfest: What If Twitter Dies?

ICYMI: An ICYMI Friendsgiving with Normal Gossip

What Next TBD: The End of the Tech Boom

ICYMI: What's Going to Happen to Twitter?

What Next TBD: The Case Against Climate Reparations

ICYMI: Who’s Invited to the Cookout?

Decoder Ring: The Truth About #TheDress

What Next TBD: Is This The Cryptocalypse?

ICYMI: The Internet Wouldn’t Exist Without Sex

What Next TBD: Senator Chris Murphy on Elon's Acquisition of Twitter

ICYMI: A Man Ate Rotisserie Chicken for 40 Days Straight

Other shows like Slate Technology: