In this talk I will describe holographic properties of near-AdS_2 spacetimes that arise within spherically symmetric configurations of N=2 4D supergravity, for both gauged and ungauged theories. These theories pose a rich space of AdS_2xS^2 backgrounds, and their responses in the near-AdS_2 region are not universal. I will show that the spectrum of operators dual to the matter fields, and their cubic interactions, are sensitive to properties of the background and the theory it is embedded in. The properties that have the most striking effect are whether the background is BPS or non-BPS, and if the theory is gauged or ungauged. The resulting differences will have an imprint on the quantum nature of the microstates of near-extremal black holes, reflecting that not all extremal black holes respond equally when kicked away from extremality.

I'll overview recent progress on non-perturbative aspects of higher spin theories in three dimensions with emphasis on black holes. The two main results I will discuss are: 1) novel properties of extremal and BPS solutions, and 2) how to interpret a higher spin bh as a thermo-field state.