Tomorrow's Children, Edited.
On today’s show, hosts April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss the ongoing fallout at Facebook over the company’s decision to hire a conservative PR firm to surface opposition research in order to attack Facebook’s nonprofit critics by highlighting their funding ties to the liberal financier George Soros, playing into an untrue and anti-Semitic popular right wing trope. As internal and external turmoil continues to rile major American technology companies, their employee are organizing for serious change. Hosts dig into what that’s accomplished so far and what continued employee pressure and mounting labor actions means down the line.Then, an interview with Antonio Regalado, a senior editor at the MIT Technology Review, on a story he broke Sunday night: the very first gene-edited babies were born this month in China. The trio discuss the history of gene-editing technology and the debate about using it on humans. To some, gene-editing is a form of medicine, like a vaccination. To others, it’s a form of enhancement. How easy is this to do? And will we have a future where the health of tomorrow’s children, or those whose parents can afford it, will be determined before their children are even born?14:13 - Interview with Antonio Regalado32:02 - Don’t Close My TabsDon’t Close My Tabs:The New Yorker: Exploding Mojitos: The First “Sonic Attacks” Targeting American Diplomats in Cuba May Have Taken Place Thirty Years AgoThe New York Times: A Business with No EndPodcast production by Max JacobsIf Then plugs: You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com.If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Listen to If Then via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
28 Nov 201837min
Facebook's Former Security Chief on What Went Wrong
On today’s show, host Will Oremus will discuss the fallout from last week’s New York Times expose about Facebook with the company’s former Security Chief Alex Stamos. The Times story was headlined “Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Leaned Out in Crisis.” Stamos has been at the center of this story both as a critic and an advocate. The story has revolved partly around reports that Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg stifled or downplayed his revelations that their platform was still not free from Russian meddling months after the 2016 election. We’ll get his side of the story, as well as his perspective on Facebook’s missteps, and what he thinks the public and the media get wrong about the company. We’ll also talk about what some solutions to its problems might look like, including, potentially, government regulations.2:15 - Interview with Alex Stamos37:53 - Don’t Close My TabsDon’t Close My Tabs:Slate: Trapped in the Fire ZoneThe New York Times: Are You Sitting Down? Standing Desks Are Overrated. Podcast production by Max JacobsIf Then plugs: You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com.If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Listen to If Then via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
21 Nov 201844min
Jeff Flake Takes Another Stand
Sen. Jeff Flake is demanding legislation to protect the Mueller probe. High-profile conservatives are peeling off from the Federalist Society to stand up to the Trump administration. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick explains why she thinks this is a pivotal moment for the Trump administration and its discontents. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
17 Nov 201819min
The Gun Owning Doctors Changing the Gun Debate
This week doctors from all over America took to social media with the hashtag #ThisIsMyLane (or #ThisIsOurLane). They sent pictures of themselves in blood-drenched scrubs and shared stories of treating victims of gun violence. Much of this was in response to the NRA after a tweet they sent last Wednesday.Today on the show we talk to Dr. Brendan Campbell – a pediatric surgeon at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford, CT. He has treated victims of gun violence for more than a decade. This week, he and his fellow colleagues released a new paper in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons recommending new ways to think about gun safety. Not only as doctors who have seen the damage that a gun can do, but because they own guns themselves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
16 Nov 201826min
Sins of the Fathers
Survivors of Catholic clergy sexual abuse have gone after the church in a piecemeal fashion. But the Roman Catholic Church’s cover-up of child sexual abuse goes back decades, and experts say it reaches the upper echelons of church leadership. What would it take to go after the Vatican? We talk to someone who’s tried it: Marci Hamilton, a professor and founder of Child USA. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
14 Nov 201817min
Amazon's Prime Real Estate
On today’s show, host Will Oremus will talk about the employee uprising at Google, and the changes that it and other tech companies have made to their sexual harassment policies in response. Joining him is Caroline O’Donovan, senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News, who was there to cover the employee walkouts in person and has continued to report on the fallout from them.And then, a story that has been making headlines for months, and finally reached its culmination this week with a big announcement. That would be Amazon’s HQ2 contest—or maybe now it’s HQ2.5, or HQ2 and 3, HQ2a and HQ2b. Whatever you call it, we’ll talk about the company’s decision to open not one but two new headquarters. One will be in Arlington, Virginia, just outside DC. And the other in Long Island City, just across the East River from Manhattan. That, of course, prompted an outcry from critics around the country, not to mention all the cities that weren’t chosen. Here to help Will make sense of all this will be Tim Bartik, a Senior economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. He’s done some fascinating research on the incentives that cities offer to companies to try to get them to locate there--and whether it really pays off for their residents in the long run.2:47 - Interview with Caroline O’Donovan14:32 - Interview with Tim Bartik32:00 - Don’t Close My TabsDon’t Close My Tabs:The Atlantic: The Problem with FeedbackGoFundMe: How To Help Those Impacted By The Fires In CaliforniaChico Enterprise Record: How You Can Help Camp Fire VictimsTwitter: Martha McSally For Senate (Concession Video)Podcast production by Max JacobsIf Then plugs: You can get updates about what’s coming up next by following us on Twitter @ifthenpod. You can follow Will @WillOremus and April @Aprilaser. If you have a question or comment, you can email us at ifthen@slate.com.If Then is presented by Slate and Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Listen to If Then via Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or Google Play. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
14 Nov 201841min
The Wildfires to Come
Stephen Pyne has made fire his life’s work. He put them out for 15 summers and has thought about them ever since. Today on the show – the conversation we’re not having about wildfires and why despite the devastation in California this week, he remains hopeful that we can figure this out.Here’s how you can help the victims of the California wildfires. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
14 Nov 201816min
The Legacy of the Last Florida Recount
Rick Hasen, founder of the Election Law Blog, explains how we got here: Shrinking away from the hard election reforms, ignoring the easy reforms, and enacting short-sighted remedies. Hasen is a professor at UC Irvine and a Slate contributor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
12 Nov 201818min
