An Inflation Reduction Act subsidy for electric vehicles is being shut down by the Trump administration at the end of September, and automakers are preparing for sales of EVs to slow. Can this nascent industry survive? 

Guest: Ryan Felton, reporter covering the automotive industry for the Wall Street Journal

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We’ve been told that artificial intelligence can write, code, generate images—it can do everything…except feasibly turn a profit. But investing in A.I. has nevertheless become a pillar of the U.S. economy. Where is this leading us?

Guest: Ed Zitron, author of the newsletter Where’s Your Ed At and host of the podcast Better Offline.

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A24 rose from “small budget indie movie studio” to “one of the most respected brands in cinema” on a reputation for treating filmmakers like auteurs. But as the studio is growing and exploring how to integrate artificial intelligence, it’s at odds with some of the very directors who helped A24 establish itself.

Guest: Alex Barasch, culture editor at the New Yorker

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The playlists of dozens of high-level government officials and tech executives were suddenly broadcast to the world on a website called “the Panama Playlists.” But the information wasn’t taken by sophisticated hackers infiltrating any mainframes—it was all already publicly available.

Guest: Mike Isaac, New York Times Silicon Valley correspondent. 

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President Trump has proposed cutting $2.5 billion from the National Cancer Institute, which in addition to cuts to the National Institutes of Health and research universities almost makes you wonder: whose side is he on in the fight against cancer? 

Guest: Angus Chen, cancer reporter for STAT news

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Two weeks ago, a gunman fired over 500 bullets at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention building in Atlanta. Between the anti-public health rhetoric coming from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the top, personnel cuts and firings, and now a literal shooting, many employees are reaching their breaking point.  

Guest: Lauren Weber, health science accountability reporter for the Washington Post.

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The scam du jour arrives via a text message, offering you a job. What happens when you accept?

Guest: Alex Sammon, Slate features writer. 

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Jensen Huang, cofounder of NVIDIA, finds himself president of a $4 trillion company, at the forefront of A.I. technology, and, consequently, something of an international diplomat, as he charms President Trump and negotiates to sell his powerful chips to China. 

Guest: Amrith Ramkumar, reporter for The Wall Street Journal in Washington covering tech and crypto policy.

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Ethan Oberman, Patrick Fort, and Elena Schwartz.

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It’s hard to make money in the music industry. But if you could flood every streamer with hundreds of “original” songs without having to, you know, write or produce it yourself, there’s money there—and less for everyone else. 

Guests: 

Chris Molanphy, host of Slate’s Hit Parade podcast.

Kate Knibbs, senior writer at Wired

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In January, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta was moving from employing professional fact-checkers to letting its users fact-check each other. If you’ve heard that it’s going perfectly, then you, too, have been exposed to misinformation.

Guest: Geoffrey Fowler, tech columnist with the Washington Post

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Ethan Oberman, and Patrick Fort.

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