WIRED Politics Lab
98 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 days ago -Politics has never been stranger – or more online. Each week on WIRED Politics Lab, our reporters guide you through the exciting, challenging and sometimes entertaining vortex of internet extremism, conspiracies, and disinformation. Expect in-depth analysis and conversations based on facts and research. Plus, we’ll give you information you can actually use to lift the fog of disinformation we find ourselves in today.
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Episodes
Twitter Is Dead, Long Live the Portal
May 23, 2024 09:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBTwitter is officially dead. Last week, twitter.com became x.com, marking the final step in a rebranding effort that the company’s owner, Elon Musk, announced last year. The change marks a shift for the now bird-less app under Musk’s reign, which has welcomed Nazis and white supremacists back onto the platform, dissolved its Trust and Safety council, and become a cesspool of disinformation and conspiracy. Meanwhile, people seem to still long for authentic connection—like with the Dub...
Hasan Piker Won't Tell You to Vote for Joe Biden
May 16, 2024 09:00 - 38 minutes - 35.3 MBHasan Piker is one of the biggest political streamers on Twitch. With more than two million followers and streams that average eight hours a day, Hasan has become increasingly popular as more people are turning to the platform for news and political analysis. Today on WIRED Politics Lab, we talked to Hasan about his impact and what this shift could mean for the upcoming election. Leah Feiger is @LeahFeiger. Makena Kelly is @kellymakena. Write to us at [email protected]. Be sure...
The Conspiracy of Campus Protests
May 09, 2024 09:00 - 32 minutes - 30 MBCampus protests over the war in Gaza have been going on for months at American universities. Now that they're at an all-time high, protests been getting a lot more attention— and tons of disinformation and conspiracies are spreading. Today on WIRED Politics Lab, we talk about some of that disinformation and what student journalists on the ground are doing to report the facts. Plus, we look at how foreign actors are exploiting the dissent. Leah Feiger is @LeahFeiger. David Gilbert i...
How Far-Right, Extremist Militias Organize On Facebook
May 02, 2024 09:00 - 30 minutes - 28 MBFar-right militia, extremist groups are using Facebook to organize ahead of the US presidential election. After laying low for several years after the Capitol riot on January 6, militia extremists have been quietly reorganizing, ramping up recruitment and rhetoric on Facebook—with apparently little concern that Meta will enforce its own ban against them, according to new research by the Tech Transparency Project shared exclusively with Wired. These groups, which are set up locally, ...
The TikTok Ultimatum Is Here
April 25, 2024 10:00 - 34 minutes - 31.6 MBThis might be the end of TikTok. President Joe Biden signed a bill this week which allows the US government to ban the platform if TikTok doesn't divest from it's China-based owner, ByteDance, within a year. Today on the show, we’re going to talk about what happens to TikTok now and how this new law affects the politicians and influencers who use TikTok. Leah Feiger is @LeahFeiger. Tori Elliott is @Telliotter. Makena Kelly is @kellymakena. Write to us at [email protected]. Be...
RFK Jr.’s Very Online, Conspiracy-Filled Campaign
April 18, 2024 09:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MBIn the year since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially launched his presidential campaign, his extreme conspiracies and very online outreach tactics have added up to a pretty effective independent bid. Today on Wired Politics Lab, we look into how RFK Jr. continues to build a following. We talk about his recent VP pick, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan, his media outreach, and the staff behind it all. And, of course, how his push for ballot access in the US might make him a s...
How Election Deniers Are Weaponizing Tech To Disrupt November
April 11, 2024 10:00 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBElection deniers are mobilizing their supporters and rolling out new tech to disrupt the November election. These groups are already organizing on hyperlocal levels, and learning to monitor polling places, target election officials, and challenge voter rolls. And though their work was once fringe, it's become mainstreamed in the Republican Party. Today on WIRED Politics Lab, we focus on what these groups are doing, and what this means for voters and the election workers already faci...
WIRED Politics Lab Trailer
April 04, 2024 09:00 - 30 seconds - 469 KBPolitics has never been stranger – or more online. Each week on WIRED Politics Lab, our reporters guide you through the exciting, challenging and sometimes entertaining vortex of internet extremism, conspiracies, and disinformation. Expect in-depth analysis and conversations based on facts and research. Plus, we’ll give you information you can actually use to lift the fog of disinformation we find ourselves in today.
Coming soon: WIRED Politics Lab
March 20, 2024 09:00 - 38 seconds - 606 KBPolitics has never been stranger – or more online. Each week on WIRED Politics Lab, our reporters guide you through the exciting, challenging and sometimes entertaining vortex of internet extremism, conspiracies, and disinformation. Expect in-depth analysis and conversations based on facts and research. Plus, we’ll give you information you can actually use to lift the fog of disinformation we find ourselves in today. You can subscribe to the Wired Politics newsletter here.
New Podcast: WIRED Politics Lab
March 20, 2024 09:00 - 38 seconds - 606 KBPolitics has never been stranger – or more online. Each week on WIRED Politics Lab, our reporters guide you through the exciting, challenging and sometimes entertaining vortex of internet extremism, conspiracies, and disinformation. Expect in-depth analysis and conversations based on facts and research. Plus, we’ll give you information you can actually use to lift the fog of disinformation we find ourselves in today. You can subscribe to the Wired Politics newsletter here.
Farewell HANF, Hello Gadget Lab
October 25, 2023 08:00 - 42 minutes - 19.6 MBMisinformation lives everywhere. False accounts of events, doctored photos, and purposely misleading news stories are quickly shared and passed around on social media, usually by well-meaning people who don’t know they’re sharing incorrect information. It's a big problem in the best of times, but the stakes become much higher during a heated crisis like the current Israel-Hamas war. As the violence in and around Gaza has continued to escalate, people are turning to places like X (ak...
A Very Online Government
October 18, 2023 04:00 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to the Chief Intelligence Officer of Estonia, Luukas Ilves, about the country’s completely online government. In Estonia, citizens can access any government service, including voting, online. What would it take to create that kind of digital infrastructure in the United States?
Some People Still Believe in Crypto
October 11, 2023 04:00 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Michael Casey, Chief Content Officer of the cryptocurrency news site, CoinDesk. Almost a year after a CoinDesk report kicked off a series of events that led to the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, is there anyone who still believes in crypto?
How to Be Extremely Online and Influence People
October 04, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to journalist Taylor Lorenz about her new book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, And Power on the Internet. They talk about the rise of the modern influencer and how all of us have to make our peace with our online lives.
Introducing: Critics at Large - The Myth Making of Elon Musk
September 29, 2023 14:32 - 12 minutes - 11.2 MBElon Musk’s presence in our lives is inescapable: his cars roam our streets, his satellites orbit our skies, and his purchase of X—formerly known as Twitter—has reshaped the social-media landscape. The staff writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss a recent biography of Musk, by Walter Isaacson, tracing the familiar archetype of the genius tech founder from the nineteenth-century robber baron to “Batman” ’s Bruce Wayne. The critics examine how, in recent ...
College Is Broken. We Can Fix It.
September 20, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to education journalist and author of The Inequality Machine, Paul Tough about the future of higher education. Even as many Americans return to college campuses this month, rising costs and a lower return on investment has raised uncomfortable questions about just what those classes are all leading towards. Can college be saved?
Get In, We're Taking Back the Internet
September 13, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Cory Doctorow, a writer, internet activist and the author of The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation. As the US government takes Google to court in an anti-trust case this week, Doctorow explains why he believes monopoly power has made the internet a miserable place and what we can do to get our digital lives back.
Learning to Let Go (of the Wheel)
September 06, 2023 09:00 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Chris Urmson, CEO of the self-driving truck company Aurora. They discuss new legislation in California that could help or hinder a driverless future, whether or not self-driving vehicles are actually safer and the consequences for the transportation industry if (human) truck drivers become unnecessary.
RERUN: Don't Worry. It Gets Worse.
August 30, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 15.4 MBGideon and Lauren talk to Noah Raford, a futurist. Raford spent nearly 15 years working as the UAE’s chief futurist where Noah’s job was to predict what was coming down the pike and offer suggestions on how to prepare for it. His advice? Get comfortable with discomfort. This episode originally aired on April 26, 2023.
Maybe You Should Just Join a Commune
August 23, 2023 09:00 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Kristen Ghodsee, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Everyday Utopia: What 2000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life. Ghodsee outlines why the traditional nuclear family is failing us and how we can restructure care to build a better future.
10 Years Until Chatbots Run the World
August 16, 2023 09:00 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind and InflectionAI. They discuss his new book, The Coming Wave, which outlines why our systems are not set up to deal with the next great leap in tech. Suleyman explains why it's not crazy to suggest that chatbots could topple governments and he argues for a better way to assess artificial intelligence (hint: it has to do with making a million dollars). The Coming Wave: Technology Power and the 21st...
Grimes Wants to Be Less Famous (and Replaced by AI)
August 09, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode are joined by c, or as she is more widely known, Grimes. Earlier this year, she launched elf.tech, a website where her fans can use AI to build their very own Grimes songs based on her vocals and stems. They talk about why c wants to push the boundaries of AI art, and why, despite being a techno-optimist at heart, she’s worried about our AI future. Check out the Big Interview with c by Steven Levy in the September issue of WIRED. If you missed our ...
Nothing You Own Is Really Yours
August 02, 2023 09:00 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Aaron Perzanowski, a University of Michigan Law Professor and author of two books on our shifting definitions of ownership, The End of Ownership and The Right to Repair. They dive into why “buying” something means less than it used to and if consumers have any hope of clawing back some semblance of ownership rights from big corporations.
The Viruses That Could Cure Cancer (And Maybe Wipe Out Humanity)
July 26, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 31.6 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Andrew Hessel, a scientist, writer and entrepreneur who is working to push forward the field of synthetic biology — the science of genetically modifying organisms for everything from vaccines to food production. They discuss how modified viruses can be used to treat a range of cancers, and the wide ranging, science-fiction-like implications of the field.
An Oracle for the Climate Crisis
July 19, 2023 09:00 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to author Stephen Markley about his book The Deluge, a 900 page epic that attempts to lay out the next couple of decades of the climate crisis. They discuss what our climate future may entail and how future histories like Markley's help us all process and imagine a way through the coming catastrophes.
To Understand Humans, First Give an Octopus MDMA
July 12, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Gül Dölen, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins whose most famous work centers on how psychedelics affect octopus brains. Recently, her lab’s research has shown promising results regarding how psychedelics could help humans recover from everything from PTSD to a stroke. You can find Rachel Nuwer's profile on Gül Dölen in WIRED.
Gadget Lab: Our Clothes Are Making Us Sick
July 05, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 31.4 MBHave a Nice Future is off this week, so instead we're sharing an episode of WIRED's other podcast, Gadget Lab. Its hosted by Have a Nice Future cohost Lauren Goode and WIRED senior editor Michael Calore. Each week they unpack new developments in consumer technology and talk about how they will affect our lives. On this episode, Lauren and Micheal are joined by Alden Wicker whose new book is called “To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion is Making Us Sick—And How We Can Fight Back”. They di...
We Don't Deserve (Immortal) Dogs
June 28, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Celine Halioua, the founder and CEO of Loyal — a company that researches drugs to extend the lifespan of dogs. They talk about the real meaning of longevity and when these drugs might be given to humans in the future. You can find Tom Simonite’s profile on Celine Halioua and Loyal in WIRED.
To Save The Planet, Start Drilling
June 21, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Jamie Beard, the founder of the Project Innerspace, about why geothermal energy could help solve the climate crisis -- but only if environmentalists and the oil and gas industry cooperate. You can find Maria Streshinsky's profile on Jamie Beard online at Wired.com.
To Fix Cities, Change This One Thing
June 14, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode discuss how parking has shaped the American city with writer Henry Grabar. His new book Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World explores how the abundance of free parking in our urban centers may be holding them back.
Weight Loss in the Age of Ozempic
June 07, 2023 09:00 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode are joined by WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani to talk about how we should think about diet culture and weight management when sophisticated appetite suppressing drugs like Ozempic are on the rise. You can read Lauren's Big Interview online at Wired.com and in the July issue of the magazine.
We'll Never Have Another Twitter
May 31, 2023 09:00 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode are joined by Ethan Zuckerman, a leading scholar of how people form communities online and the founder of the Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure at UMass Amherst. Zuckerman talks about why Twitter isn't dead just yet, and what the future of the "digital public square" might look like.
Why Fake Drake Is Here To Stay
May 24, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 30.3 MBIt's our first-ever crossover episode! This week Gideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode sit down with Puja Patel, co-host of The Pitchfork Review podcast, to discuss how AI is changing music. But first, they start with a pop quiz -- can our hosts differentiate between artists and their AI imposters?
Why Fake Drake Is Here To Stay
May 24, 2023 09:00 - 36 minutesIt's our first-ever crossover episode! This week Gideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode sit down with Puja Patel, co-host of The Pitchfork Review podcast, to discuss how AI is changing music. But first, they start with a pop quiz -- can our hosts differentiate between artists and their AI imposters? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How To Stop AI From Taking Your Job
May 17, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 31.6 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to MIT institute professor Daron Acemoglu about his new book Power and Progress, why we’re not necessarily destined for an AI takeover and why the writers' strike could be a harbinger for the rest of us.
Can We Get A Little Privacy?
May 10, 2023 09:00 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Meredith Whittaker, the president of the Signal Foundation, about whether we’re really doomed to give up all of our private information to tech companies. Whittaker, who saw what she calls the “surveillance business model” from the inside while working at Google, says we don’t need to go down without a fight and outlines strategies for getting our privacy back.
Slack’s New CEO Wants You to Stop Slacking
May 03, 2023 09:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode interview Lidiane Jones, the CEO of Slack, about how to disconnect from your job when the future of work is increasingly always-on… thanks to things like Slack.
Don’t Worry, It Gets Worse
April 26, 2023 09:00 - 32 minutes - 30.2 MBThis week, Gideon and Lauren are joined by someone whose full-time job was to predict the future. Noah Raford spent nearly 15 years working as the UAE’s chief futurist, where he advised the government on how to prepare for all sorts of futuristic challenges, from pandemics to global warming. His advice? Get comfortable with discomfort.
A Mortgage For Your Sandwich
April 19, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 15.8 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to Max Levchin, the CEO of the Buy Now Pay Later company Affirm, about the future of paying for things. But they also discuss the perils and pitfalls of socialism, biohacking, and so much more.
The Troubled City by the Bay with SF Mayor London Breed
April 12, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 32 MBGideon Lichfield and Lauren Goode talk to the Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, about how she plans to address the city’s problems, from homelessness to crime to abandoned downtowns, and how the changes she's proposing could shape not just San Francisco, but the cities of the future.
Coming Soon! WIRED’s Have a Nice Future
April 05, 2023 09:00 - 3 minutes - 3.53 MBHave a Nice Future is a new podcast from WIRED, where each week, WIRED’s Editor-in-Chief Gideon Lichfield and Senior Writer Lauren Goode speak with the top technologists, thinkers, and creators who are shaping this future we’re racing into. Every episode, we’ll ask each guest—and ourselves—the same question: Is this the future we want? And if not, where do we go from here? Our first episode airs April 12th!
Introducing: Hot Money
June 28, 2022 09:00 - 12 minutesWe’re shaking things up today and sharing a preview from Hot Money, a new podcast from our friends at Pushkin Industries and the Financial Times. When Financial Times reporter Patricia Nilsson started digging into the porn industry, she made a shocking discovery: Nobody knew who controlled the biggest porn company in the world. Now, Nilsson and her editor, Alex Barker, have figured out who the guy was, and much more. Their reporting reveals a shadowy power structure that includes billionaires...
Introducing Food People
August 26, 2021 09:00 - 1 minuteWelcome to Food People, a show from Bon Appétit made by, for, and about people who love food. Each week, BA’s editorial director Amanda Shapiro asks a serious or not-so-serious food question: What’s the best way to grill chicken? Can meal prep be less terrible? Are air fryers worth the hype? In search of answers or at least a spirited debate, she’ll bring in staffers, chefs, writers, and experts from across the culinary universe. Expect strong opinions, tons of recipe inspiration, and more fo...
Introducing "Smarter Better Faster Stronger"
July 01, 2021 11:00 - 1 minuteOlympic athletes push relentlessly to be physically and mentally stronger than their competition—Smarter Better Faster Stronger, hosted by GQ writer Clay Skipper, figures out how the they do both. Even if you're not gunning for gold, you'll come away with advice on how to build better habits, manage doubt and fear, handle sudden success, and push past your comfort zones. You know: advice we could all use. Subscribe everywhere you listen to podcasts. Apple Spotify Google Podcasts Stitcher ...
Gadget Lab: WTF Is an NFT?
March 12, 2021 15:20 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBFor the next few weeks, Get WIRED is bringing you episodes from Gadget Lab, WIRED's weekly tech news podcast! Be sure to subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts. When you think of digital media, you probably think of something like a YouTube video or a meme. Something you can access for free, any time you want. But some relatively new technologies are being used to make pieces of digital media sellable, thereby creating a high-stakes market for them. These NFTs—or non-fung...
Gadget Lab: Facing Our AR Future
March 05, 2021 14:19 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBFor the next few weeks, Get WIRED is bringing you episodes from Gadget Lab, WIRED's weekly tech news podcast! Be sure to subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts. While augmented reality has long been billed as the "next big thing" it hasn't quite arrived. Some pretty basic logistical problems get in the way. The headsets are too clunky, there aren't many decent apps, and the setup process can be a mess. But companies like Microsoft, Google, and (potentially) Apple are work...
Gadget Lab: Gadgets on Mars
February 26, 2021 15:49 - 45 minutes - 41.3 MBFor the next few weeks, Get WIRED is bringing you episodes from Gadget Lab, WIRED's weekly tech news podcast! Be sure to subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, did you know that the new Mars rover is really cool? Its eyes see crazy different colors! It shoots out a helicopter drone! It can vaporize rocks with a laser! Plus, Perseverance traveled more than 292 million miles through space, so that makes it just about the best gadget ever. This week on Gadget Lab, WIR...
Gadget Lab: How to Get a PlayStation 5
February 19, 2021 15:59 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBFor the next few weeks, Get WIRED is bringing you episodes from Gadget Lab, WIRED's weekly tech news podcast! Be sure to subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you have a PlayStation 5? If so, good for you. If not, well, join the club. Sony’s newest game console has been very difficult to purchase since it was released in November—so much so that folks have resorted to using sniper bots, inside sources, and other shady practices to sidestep the scrum and snag that PS5...
Gadget Lab: Who Let the Doge Out
February 12, 2021 15:03 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBFor the next few weeks, Get WIRED is bringing you episodes from Gadget Lab, WIRED's weekly tech news podcast! Be sure to subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts. When Bitcoin first appeared out of digital thin air, it was hailed as having the potential to upend the way people spent money. But more than a decade later, cryptocurrency is still only trickling into the mainstream. This week, Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and said it plans to start accepting it as...
Gadget Lab: Clubhouse’s Elon Moment
February 05, 2021 16:57 - 34 minutes - 32 MBFor the next few weeks, Get WIRED is bringing you episodes from Gadget Lab, WIRED's weekly tech news podcast! Be sure to subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts. Elon Musk made headlines again this week. As usual, it was something involving Mars, memes, Tesla, and ... monkey brain implants? These topics, among others, were the subject of a conversation Musk had on Clubhouse, the voice chat app that's big with Silicon Valley VC types. But Musk's appearance may have been a t...