Author: Slate Podcasts

On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about about an unexpected move by President Trump that could save the Chinese electronics maker ZTE.  Also in the news is Project Maven, a Pentagon project to build AI for drones, which Google has been working on. This week it was reported that around a dozen Google employees quit over the company’s involvement in the project.

The hosts discuss what one Apple blogger calls “one of the biggest design screwups in Apple history,” which has led to a class-action lawsuit. And they break down a major vulnerability in email encryption.

Later, April and Will are joined by antitrust expert Gene Kimmelman. He’s the president and CEO of Public Knowledge, a nonprofit that focuses on tech policy research and advocacy. He formerly served as the Chief Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division under President Obama, during which time the NBC/Comcast merger was approved. They talk to him about AT&T’s antitrust trial with the DOJ as the company attempts to acquire Time Warner for $85 billion. If approved, that deal could reshape the future of how people connect to the internet, how they get their news and entertainment, and the future of mega-mergers proposed under Trump. And then there’s the recent revelation that AT&T hired Trump attorney Michael Cohen as a consultant last year.

Don’t Close My Tabs

The Guardian: Black Activist Jailed for His Facebook Posts Speaks Out About Secret FBI Surveillance

The Verge: UK Newsstands Will Sell “Porn Passes” to verify Ages Under New Laws

The Telegraph: Newsagents and Corner Shops To Sell “Porn Pass” Access Codes To Allow Adults To Visit X-rated Sites

Podcast production by Max Jacobs.

If 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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the hedge fund that’s gutting the newsrooms of local newspapers across the country—and racking up huge profits. They also discuss the futuristic news out of Google’s annual developer conference, including an AI that can hold a conversation and book you a dinner reservation.

Oremus is joined by Professor Raj Rajkumar, a self-driving car expert who serves as co-director of Carnegie Mellon’s autonomous driving research lab. They discuss the future of self-driving cars, but also the current moment—how today’s technology stacks up to human drivers in terms of safety, and what’s behind the recent spate of crashes.

Don’t Close My Tabs

The New York Times: Yes, It’s Bad. Robocalls, And Their Scams, Are Surging.

The Atlantic: I’m not Black, I’m Kanye

Podcast production by Max Jacobs.

If 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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about Facebook’s big privacy changes and its foray into online dating, as Glaser reports from the company’s annual developer conference in San Jose. Oremus takes a listener’s question about the Golden State Killer case and the questions it raises about the privacy of our DNA.

Oremus is joined by Eric Lundgren, a pioneer in e-waste recycling who is awaiting a 15-month prison sentence for distributing CDs that allow people to reinstall Microsoft Windows on used Dell computers. Lundgren insists he’s not a criminal, and that the real crime is how tech companies drive sales of new products by discouraging people from fixing up their old ones.

And on this week’s “Don’t Close My Tabs,” Slate tech reporter Heather Schwedel joins Oremus as they share stories about “Moviepass movies” and Google’s increasingly divided internal culture.

Timestamps:

1:47 News: Golden State Killer and DNA Tech

5:55 News: April dispatches from F8, Facebook’s Annual Developer Conference

16:09 Interview: Eric Lundgren, the e-waste recycler on why he’s going to prison

35:04 Don’t Close My Tabs

Don’t Close My Tabs

The Cut: The Distinct Pleasure of the “MoviePass Movie”

The Wall Street Journal: Google Vs. Google: How Nonstop Political Arguments Rule It’s Workplace

Podcast production by Max Jacobs.

If 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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about a somewhat surprising speech from the antitrust chief of Trump’s DOJ. They bring you up to date on a big new data privacy bill in Congress, and Mike Nuñez, a journalist for Mashable, joins the show to discuss how his reporting on alleged liberal bias at Facebook has sparked a somewhat bizarre Congressional inquiry.

The hosts are also joined by Dr. Mary Anne Franks, a professor of law at the University of Miami Law School, where she teaches criminal law, First Amendment law, and Technology policy. They speak about the massively important Communications Decency Act, which was just amended to allow victims of sex trafficking to sue websites that knowingly facilitate it.

And as always, “Don’t Close My Tabs,” the Sean Hannity/Jeff Bezos edition.

Timestamps:

1:40 DOJ Antitrust Speech

6:15 New data privacy bill

11:13 Diamond and Silk on Capitol Hill: phone call with Mashable’s Michael Nuñez

20:55 Zillow clarification regarding last week’s show

22:14 Interview: Professor Mary Anne Franks on amending the CDA to fight sex trafficking

44: 08 Don’t Close My Tabs

Don’t Close My Tabs Links:

KQED: How Sean Hannity Began His Path to Punditry on Santa Barbara Community Radio

Washingtonian: Here Are the Floor Plans for Jeff Bezos’s $23 Million DC Home

Podcast production by Max Jacobs.

If 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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus talk about trouble at Tesla: the company has suspended production of the Model 3, the car that will make or break its business. The hosts also dig into the news about the real estate site Zillow, which is expanding its business in a surprising new way--and why its stock is tumbling.

The hosts are also joined by Yeshimabeit Milner - founder and executive director of Data for Black Lives. You might’ve seen her piece earlier this month on Medium entitled “An Open Letter to Facebook from the Data for Black Lives Movement: Give Black researchers, data scientists and Black communities access to our data.” They talk to her about what questions she has for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg following his two congressional hearings last week in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data spill and everything else the company has been grappling with over the past couple years.

Don’t Close My Tabs

SF Chronicle: SF’s Scooter Conflict: City Attorney Orders Cease-and-Desist Order to Companies

The Wall Street Journal: You Think Discovering a Computer Virus is Hard? Try Naming One.

Podcast production by Max Jacobs.

If 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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.