As other tech companies that rode the pandemic to success started sinking, Instacart managed to stay above water—they turned a profit and even made it to an IPO. But a stubbornly static stock price has some asking if Instacart—and the whole gig economy—hasn’t already peaked.  

Guest: Erin Griffith, who reports on tech startups and venture capital for the New York Times

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What Instacart’s IPO Means for Tech

Every Friday and Sunday, 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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The California Journalism Preservation Act would make companies like Google and Meta pay publishers for the news content appearing in their feeds and search results—and force news organizations to spend that money on their journalists. How have similar laws worked in Canada and Australia? And could it solve journalism’s on-going revenue problem?

Guest: Matt Pearce, former LA Times journalist, the president of Media Guild of the West.


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Can California Save Journalism?

Bird flu isn’t new, you may even remember past outbreaks. But showing up in milk? 

Is America ready if it leaps to spreading among humans?

Guest: Katelyn Jetelina, epidemiologist, senior advisor to the CDC 

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Bird Flu—It’s in Milk?

There are regulations regarding how farm animals are transported, how they’re auctioned, how they’re slaughtered—but when they’re living on the farm? That’s where things get cloudy. 

Guest: Annie Lowrey, journalist writing on politics and economic policy for The Atlantic.

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Patrick Fort, and Anna Phillips.
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The Failures of ‘Organic’ Farming

The TikTok ban that has been floating around Washington since the last administration has been signed into law. What does that mean for users, creators and the court battles ahead?

Guest: 
Louise Matsakis, reporter covering tech and China.
Dillon White, TikToker under the handle @dadchats

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So ... Is TikTok Banned?

From the Wayback Machine to the mass-digitization of the history of Aruba, the Internet Archive is a non-profit doing valuable work. But some of its other projects—a pandemic-era lending library and the ongoing digitalization of 78 rpm records—have led to lawsuits now threatening the future of this repository of the past. 

Guest: Kate Knibbs, senior writer at Wired.

Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.
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What Instacart’s IPO Means for Tech

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