On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss reports that big tech companies are lobbying in favor of a national privacy law. They’ll talk about what their motivations are. (Hint: It’s not just altruism or civic duty.) The hosts are also joined by Eugen Rochko, the founder of Mastodon, a social network that’s becoming an increasingly popular alternative to Twitter. Rochko likes to say that you can join Mastodon if you want social networking without the Nazis and white supremacist...
Aug 29, 2018•38 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about a new Russian hacking report--this time, targeting conservatives. And it’s been a busy news week (as always) for Facebook, with reports on massive changes to its ad targeting and a heretofore secret plan to rate the credibility of its own users. Then, April is joined by Ryan Gallagher, a U.K. based investigative journalist at the Intercept, where he reports on digital security and state surveillance. Earlier this month Ryan broke a ...
Aug 22, 2018•46 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about how Google has been tracking and storing your location—even after you’ve asked it not to. Then they review some of the disturbing security news out of DEF CON, the annual hacker conference in Las Vegas, including a demonstration in which an 11-year-old managed to hack a voting machine in minutes. The hosts are joined by Dana Hull, a reporter for Bloomberg News, who covers the electric-car company Tesla and the space transportation c...
Aug 15, 2018•44 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss why a bunch of the big tech platforms—Facebook, YouTube, Apple—are suddenly banning the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his media empire Infowars. They also talk about the latest Wells Fargo foreclosure scandal where a computer glitch led to hundreds of wrongful foreclosures. The hosts are then joined by William Sommer, tech reporter with the Daily Beast who follows QAnon and other right-wing conspiracy theories closely. H...
Aug 08, 2018•43 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk talk about a new study that suggests the internet might not have played the crucial role in Trump’s election victory that we tend to assume. And then: flying cars! And self-driving cars. The hosts are joined by Justin Erlich, the new VP of policy at Voyage , an self-driving vehicle company in Silicon Valley. Before that, he was head of policy for autonomous vehicles and urban aviation at Uber. The hosts discuss when these “cars” will hit ...
Aug 01, 2018•38 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about what’s happening new with the proposed $3.9 billion dollar merger between Sinclair, the largest television station owner in the country and also happens to have an overt tilt in favor of Trump, and Tribune media. Thanks to an unexpected announcement from the FCC last week, that merger may be doomed. The hosts are also joined by Claire Wardle, the executive director of First Draft, a nonprofit news literacy and fact-checking outfit w...
Jul 25, 2018•39 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus is joined by guest co-host Maya Kosoff from Vanity Fair. They discuss the latest Congressional dog and pony show involving the big social media platforms. They’ll get into a controversy over whether Facebook should ban the prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of InfoWars. Meanwhile, there’s a new owner of the title “wealthiest person in modern history.” They’ll talk about who that is and what it says about our economy. Later, Will is joined by Vijaya Gadde...
Jul 18, 2018•46 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk to Dr. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor of political science and policy at George Mason University and an expert on immigration and security at the U.S.-Mexico border. They discuss how technology contractors benefit from working with the government to carry out its immigration policies — while others suffer from the ever-broadening surveillance state. And they examine the concept of a “virtual border wall,” and what that might look l...
Jul 11, 2018•30 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the Facebook privacy scandal that won’t go away. They’ll also touch on some new data from our employer, Slate, that illustrates how Facebook is pulling back from the news business. Then, the hosts will be joined by our colleague Mark Joseph Stern, who covers courts and the law. They’ll discuss some recent tech-related Supreme Court cases, and how the court’s stance toward technology and privacy could change with the retirement of Ju...
Jul 04, 2018•37 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about the midterm elections coming up in November -- and whether Silicon Valley companies are ready for the deluge of disinformation -- whether from Russia, Macedonia, or right here in the U.S. The hosts are joined by Paige Panter, a product manager in Silicon Valley who is also a volunteer with the Tech Workers Coalition, a group that’s been active since 2014, but more recently has acted as a kind of communications hub for people who wor...
Jun 27, 2018•40 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser discuss the horrifying story that’s on everyone’s minds this week: the Trump Administration’s policy of separating immigrant families crossing the US Mexico border. They focus on how tech’s big players -- some of the most powerful companies in the world -- are responding to the policy and what we should expect from those companies and their leaders in the face of a humanitarian emergency. The hosts also discuss the fallout from AT&T’s merg...
Jun 20, 2018•27 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus is joined by guest co-host Maya Kosoff from Vanity Fair. They discuss the electric scooters that are suddenly wreaking havoc on city streets—and why Silicon Valley venture capitalists are swooning over them. They also discuss the layoffs at Tesla, and what they might mean for the electric-car company and its workers. Later, Will is joined by journalist Sarah Kessler of Quartz. Her new book is called “Gigged: The End of the Job and the Future of Work,” and it l...
Jun 13, 2018•36 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about how Microsoft is buying GitHub, Google is ending its Pentagon contract, and all the news from Apple’s developer conference on Monday—including the company’s effort to engineer a less addictive iPhone. April is joined by journalist, author, and activist Naomi Klein to discuss her new book The Battle for Paradise about how corporations and politicians are trying to cash in on the chance to rebuild Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria...
Jun 06, 2018•43 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about GDPR, Europe’s sweeping new online privacy legislation that took effect last Friday. They explain why it triggered an avalanche of emails to your inbox, and what it means for the tech industry. The hosts are joined by John Carreyrou, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter with the Wall Street Journal. His new book, Bad Blood, chronicles his investigation into Theranos, the now-disgraced blood-testing startup, which sold fau...
May 30, 2018•38 min
On this week’s If Then, Will Oremus and April Glaser talk about about a privacy invasion that’s arguably scarier than Cambridge Analytica, and why it’s not getting nearly the same amount of attention. It involves your cellphone, and its ability to track where you are at all times. The hosts are then joined by Luther Lowe, the senior VP of public policy for Yelp, a company that has had some major beef with Google’s allegedly anti-competitive behavior. They’ll talk about how Google got so big, and...
May 23, 2018•38 min
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 le...
May 16, 2018•49 min
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 discus...
May 09, 2018•39 min
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 Micr...
May 02, 2018•45 min
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, w...
Apr 25, 2018•50 min
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...
Apr 18, 2018•42 min
Will Congress let Mark Zuckerberg get away with under-sharing? On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus break down the Facebook chief’s trip to Washington to testify before Congress on the Cambridge Analytica scandal. They review the most amusing and revealing moments from his 10-hour testimony. The hosts also analyze Zuckerberg’s evasion strategy and discuss whether members of Congress were buying it. And they look ahead to what regulation might be brewing that could affect ...
Apr 12, 2018•32 min
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus bring us an early-week show in anticipation of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress Tuesday and Wednesday (which also means we will have a show recapping the hearings later this week). The hosts speak with members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who will be questioning Zuckerberg on Wednesday at his second hearing in Congress this week. They speak with Pennsylvania republican Congressman Ryan Costello, and two ...
Apr 10, 2018•30 min
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss the outrage at the largest television station owner in the country—Sinclair Broadcasting—after the media conglomerate forced its local news anchors read a script that echoes Trumpian talking points. They also unpack Trump’s beef about Jeff Bezos owning what he calls #AmazonWashingtonPost. Meanwhile, music streaming site Spotify went public this week in a totally new kind of way. The hosts take a look at its unorthodox move, and...
Apr 04, 2018•41 min
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus dissect the latest fallout from the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, wherein the profile data of over 50 million Facebook users was obtained and allegedly used by Trump’s online voter targeting firm. The hosts go deep into some of the subplots of that scandal, and what it means for Facebook, elections, and your privacy. They’ll also discuss the death of a pedestrian in Arizona at the hands of an Uber self-driving car, and what tha...
Mar 28, 2018•49 min
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus take a deep look into gerrymandering and the highly specialized mapping technology that has allowed for political parties - especially the GOP since 2010 - to drastically change the way political districts are drawn and controlled. The hosts are joined by David Daley, a senior fellow at FairVote and the author of Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy . This interview was recorded on March 13th, s...
Mar 21, 2018•24 min
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus discuss Elon Musk’s plan to… colonize Mars? They explain how sanctuary cities may unwittingly be sharing data with ICE through police surveillance tech. And Facebook VP Adam Mosseri, head of the news feed, joins the show for a wide-ranging interview. He explains how his team thinks about its responsibility to inform the public, and how they tackle complex problems ranging from fake news in the United States to Facebook-fueled hate camp...
Mar 14, 2018•40 min
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus try to make sense of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s rare honest assessment of his company’s shortfalls, and what new state regulations mean for self-driving cars and trucks. Cody Wilson, the man behind the first 3D printed gun, joins the hosts to talk about his vision of a “Wikileaks for guns” and why he thinks gun control is no longer possible. And, as always, Don’t Close My Tabs: this week Will looks at the “deepfakes” video phenomenon an...
Mar 07, 2018•46 min
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus take a look at Vero, the new social network that has people fleeing Instagram and Facebook, how conspiracy theories after the Parkland massacre have bubbled to the top of YouTube’s search results, and the controversy over how Facebook charges for campaign ads, after a Wired report showed that Trump faced much lower rates than Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn joins the show to talk about net neu...
Feb 28, 2018•44 min
On this week’s If Then, Slate’s April Glaser and Will Oremus dig into special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s recent indictment of 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian companies for their role in tampering with the 2016 election. Jonathan Albright from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia join the hosts to talk about his take on the indictments, and the research he’s conducted that show how the big social media companies were manipulated by Russian trolls from the Internet Research Agency...
Feb 21, 2018•35 min
On this week’s If Then, Slate ’s April Glaser and Will Oremus lamentthe anticlimactic end to Waymo and Uber’s court drama, explain why teens are pissed at Snapchat, and examine John Perry Barlow’s contributions to the internet we know today. The hosts are joined by Justin Rosenstein, co-founder of Asana and the former Facebooker behind the like button, to talk about the distraction crisis and whether Silicon Valley can solve a problem it created. Don’t Close My Tabs: The Robot Dog That Can Open ...
Feb 14, 2018•43 min
