What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - The A.I. Data Center Push That Wasn't

For nearly two years, an unprecedented experiment has been taking place in the town of El Zonte in El Salvador. Funded by a mysterious donor, the town’s residents built a Bitcoin economy, using the cryptocurrency to purchase just about anything. Now, El Slavador has passed a new law making it the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Can they replicate El Zonte’s success at a national scale?Guest: Ezra Fieser, reporter at BloombergHostLizzie O’Leary  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

25 Jun 202119min

COVID’s Delta variant is on the rise in the U.S. The data suggest we have room for optimism -- so why are we seeing dire messages from public health experts? Guest: Dr. Monica Gandhi, infectious diseases and HIV doctor at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital. 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. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

24 Jun 202123min

Senate Democrats tried to open up debate on sweeping voting rights legislation Tuesday but were stopped by a lack of support from their Republican counterparts. Would a more incremental approach have succeeded? Guest: Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California–Irvine School of Law and the author of Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy.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. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

23 Jun 202124min

America has gone soft on monopolies. A small number of businesses control an ever-increasing market share with only muted protests from the Federal Trade Commission, the supposed antitrust watchdog of the U.S. government. But that all might be about to change with Lina Khan’s appointment as FTC chair.Guest: Matt Stoller, director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project and the author of Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Stoller also writes the Substack newsletter, BIG.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. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

22 Jun 202126min

Fears that an ultra-conservative faction would take control of the country’s largest organization of evangelicals did not come to fruition at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting this year. But it was only a narrow loss, and, like conservatives around the country, the group remains sharply divided. Guest: Bob Smietana, national reporter for Religion News Service. 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. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

21 Jun 202121min

Ever since police used a DNA platform called GEDmatch to crack the Golden State Killer case in 2018, police departments around the country have rushed to use genetic genealogy to crack their own cold cases. The result? Hundreds of violent cases solved. So--why are some states passing new laws to limit this new technology?Guest: Nila Bala, senior staff attorney at the Policing Project at NYU Law. HostLizzie O’Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

18 Jun 202120min

Ever since police used a DNA platform called GEDmatch to crack the Golden State Killer case in 2018, police departments around the country have rushed to use genetic genealogy to crack their own cold cases. The result? Hundreds of violent cases solved. So--why are some states passing new laws to limit this new technology?Guest: Nila Bala, senior staff attorney at the Policing Project at NYU Law. HostLizzie O’Leary Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

18 Jun 202120min

Around the country, states are casting off pandemic restrictions. But for millions of immunocompromised people, the pandemic isn’t nearly over.Guest: Dr. Lindsay Ryan, internist at San Francisco General Hospital and San Francisco VA Medical Center in California. 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. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17 Jun 202122min