One of the big winners of the artificial-intelligence boom, Oracle, is facing hard questions from investors and analysts about how it plans to pay for an expensive expansion of its AI infrastructure. WSJ Heard on the Street columnist Dan Gallagher joins us to discuss where Oracle is coming up short. Plus, WSJ reporter Robert McMillan explains how those ubiquitous toll-scam text messages work and why you should never click the link. Belle Lin hosts.
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About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.
The whole spectrum of Trump’s foreign policy is on display when it comes to South America: The US Navy is gathering off the coast of Venezuela, while the Treasury Department prepares to send tens of billions of dollars to Argentina.
Guest: Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly.
Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across 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/whatnextplusto get access wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
The whole spectrum of Trump’s foreign policy is on display when it comes to South America: The US Navy is gathering off the coast of Venezuela, while the Treasury Department prepares to send tens of billions of dollars to Argentina.
Guest: Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly.
Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across 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/whatnextplusto get access wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
Tuberculosis – the world’s deadliest infectious disease – could be dormant in your system for years before you realize you have it. In the U.S., it’s relatively rare; provisional data shows that there were just over 10,000 cases in 2024. But in other parts of the world, especially lower-income countries, the disease is spreading much more actively. Worldwide, more than 10 million people are diagnosed with an active tuberculosis infection every year. And even though modern medicine has all the tools to cure it, over a million people around the world still die from the sickness annually.
Author John Green thinks that’s a problem. In his book Everything is Tuberculosis, he charts the spread of tuberculosis in the past to the lessons it has to teach us in the present.
Interested in more science and medical history? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.
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Today’s episode centers an important voice in the still-unfolding story of Jeffrey Epstein. Virginia Roberts Giuffre survived abuse at the hands of Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and a number of powerful men. Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year. But before her death, she wrote a memoir called Nobody’s Girl. In today’s interview with NPR’s Leila Fadel, Giuffre’s collaborator on the project, Amy Wallace, and her brother, Sky Roberts, share what it was like for Giuffre to write about what she endured.
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Quarterly earnings reports are a long-standing requirement for public companies in the U.S. But the Trump administration wants to axe quarterly releases and just release them twice a year. And there is evidence to suggest this could be better in the long run for companies and investors. On today’s show, we look at the potential benefits and trade-offs of changing how often companies report their financial results.
Amazon has resolved the technical glitch that brought down thousands of apps and websites and disrupted online banking, social media websites and Amazon's retail operations. Also, an interim report says a defective cable caused the funicular crash that killed 16 people in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon; part of the White House is being demolished to make way for President Trump's new ballroom; and the ghostwriter of Virginia Giuffre's memoir speaks to the BBC as Prince Andrew comes under further pressure about his connections with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Ryan welcomes John Dickerson, CEO of Mozilla.ai, to talk about the evolving landscape of AI agents, the role of open source in keeping the tech ecosystem healthy, the challenges OS communities have faced with the rise of AI, and the implications of data privacy and user choice in the age of multi-agent AI systems.
Episode notes:
Mozilla.ai is building the agent platform that helps organizations safely automate real work with AI agents.
Connect with John on Linkedin or email him at john@mozilla.ai.
