Business, Spoken
2,340 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago - ★★★★ - 16 ratingsGet in-depth coverage of current and future trends in technology, and how they are shaping business, entertainment, communications, science, politics, and society.
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Episodes
Why Porn on the Blockchain Won't Doom Bitcoin
March 30, 2018 07:10 - 13 minutesLast week the internet jumped on a new research paper proclaiming that the bitcoin blockchain contains child pornography. The authors of that paper conclude that if you’re one of the thousands of people running a full copy of the bitcoin software, or even just a curious researcher downloading the transaction history, you’re breaking the law. Because removing any data from the blockchain destroys the functionality of the system, this legal trouble could spell doom for cryptocurrencies. Learn m...
The Case That Never Ends: Oracle Wins Latest Round vs. Google
March 29, 2018 16:30 - 6 minutesOracle's nearly eight-year legal battle with Google just won't end. Tuesday a federal appeals court ruled that Google violated Oracle's copyrights when it built a custom version of the Java platform for its Android operating system. The court sent the case back to a district court to decide how much Google should pay Oracle. But Google can appeal to the Supreme Court. And it should, because the decision will affect not just Google and Oracle, but the entire software industry. Learn more about...
It's Going to Be A While Till We Find 'The Next Steve Jobs'
March 29, 2018 07:10 - 6 minutesIn 1933, Thupten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, died at the age of 57. According to Tibetan Buddhist doctrine, the spirit of a departed Dalai Lama chooses the next body into which he will be reincarnated. So when a group of elders noticed that Gyatso’s head had pivoted from facing south to facing northeast during the embalming process, they took it as an omen. A search party left Lhasa for the northeastern province of Amdo, where they found a 2-year-old boy named Lhamo Thondup. Learn more about...
This Startup Makes Augmented Reality Social—and Ubiquitous
March 28, 2018 16:30 - 10 minutesAt age 25, Anjney Midha has a stronger resume than some people twice his age. Before graduating from Stanford, he joined the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He led the firm’s investment in Magic Leap, the mysterious and much-hyped augmented reality company. Then he ditched venture capital to pursue a dream that had followed him from a technology-free young adulthood on a bird sanctuary in India, to the hyper-connected streets of Singapore, to his days at Stanford. Learn...
Companies Are Cashing in on Reality TV for Tots
March 28, 2018 07:10 - 3 minutesA grinning 4-year-old boy clambers up and down an inflatable backyard water park, collecting oversize Easter eggs, goaded from behind the camera by his mom. The boy, Ryan, stomps the eggs open and unveils plastic toys. It looks like a home movie, but it’s actually the most-watched video on one of the most-watched YouTube channels in the world, Ryan ToysReview. It has been viewed more than 1.1 billion times since 2016, and the leaders of a new startup, Pocket. Learn more about your ad choices....
No, a $38 Water Bottle Can't Turn You Into a #Brave #Boss
March 27, 2018 16:30 - 3 minutesSee this fancy pink water bottle I’m holding? Now watch as I bash my head in with it. This is not, I assume, what the makers of the $38 “beauty essential” intended. What they promised was “glamour sipping like a boss.” They wanted me to “be brave. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This Brooklyn Architect Wants to Rewire Puerto Rico with Solar
March 27, 2018 07:10 - 9 minutesThe sixth-month anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s grinding-up of Puerto Rico brought what might feel like good news. According to AEE, the Electrical Energy Authority, almost 93 percent of Puerto Ricans—1,365,065 people—now have power. The process has been agonizing—a misguided early repair contract to the unlikely Whitefish Energy for $300 million got cancelled, and it took months for crews from better-suited firms to get started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adc...
Why Some Schools Pay More Than Others When Buying From Apple
March 26, 2018 16:30 - 16 minutesWhen administrators in Ohio’s Mentor Public Schools were buying MacBooks during the 2015-16 school year, the local Best Buy was offering a lower price than Apple, even after the company’s standard discount for school districts. Superintendent Matt Miller pushed for a better deal, but Apple said it would not budge from its price list. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What Would Regulating Facebook Look Like?
March 26, 2018 07:11 - 9 minutesThe drumbeat to regulate Big Tech began pounding long before the Cambridge Analytica scandal rocked Facebook—six long years ago, the Obama administration pushed a “Privacy Bill of Rights” that, like most other legislative attempts to safeguard your data online, went nowhere. But this time, as they say, feels different. Thanks to repeated lapses from not just Facebook but all corners of Silicon Valley, some sort of regulation seems not only plausible but imminent. Learn more about your ad choi...
How a Boise Company Thrives in the Global Chip Business
March 23, 2018 16:31 - 8 minutesEven if you're not a gadget geek, you likely know whether your laptop is powered by an Intel chip or one from a competitor like AMD. The sticker plastered next to your keyboard won't let you forget. But even if you know your Ryzens from your Ice Lakes, you probably don't put much thought into who makes the memory chips that store your data and keep your laptop and smartphone working. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Travis Kalanick's Return and the 'Bad Boys' Who Always Come Back
March 23, 2018 07:10 - 7 minutesTravis Kalanick, Uber’s founder and former CEO, wasn’t gone very long. After he resigned from Uber in June 2017, Kalanick spent time hobnobbing at elite conferences like Davos and getting good at smartphone games. This month, he announced 10100, a fund for his personal investments. On Tuesday Kalanick elaborated on his plans: 10100 acquired a controlling stake in City Storage Systems, a holding company which invests in distressed real estate assets, for $150 million. Learn more about your ad ...
Facebook in the Age of the Big Tech Whistleblower
March 22, 2018 16:30 - 7 minutesA year ago, The Intercept published a story about a Trump campaign affiliate that was circulating personality tests to collect Americans’ personal information. The company, called Cambridge Analytica, had already been unveiled by the Guardian in a chilling report that detailed its voter-targeting operation. There was every reason to be concerned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Irreversible Damage of Mark Zuckerberg’s Silence
March 22, 2018 12:43 - 9 minutes“I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I'm responsible for what happens on our platform,” wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement that addressed a series of news stories reporting Facebook’s data had been misused. In the 937-word statement, posted on his Facebook profile Wednesday afternoon, Zuckerberg outlined all that Facebook has done and plans to do to keep our data safe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The FCC Should Use Blockchain to Manage Wireless Spectrum
March 22, 2018 07:10 - 6 minutesThe technology at the heart of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin—blockchain—has captured the world’s attention, much as the internet, peer-to-peer file transfers, apps, and the cloud did before it. Simply put, blockchains are distributed databases that can be securely updated without the need for central intermediaries. That makes them relevant to a whole host of uses, including everything from food safety to digital identity to insurance records. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...
A Hurricane Flattens Facebook
March 21, 2018 16:30 - 17 minutesTwo weeks ago, Facebook learned that The New York Times, Guardian, and Observer were working on blockbuster stories based on interviews with a man named Christopher Wylie. The core of the tale was familiar but the details were new, and now the scandal was attached to a charismatic face with a top of pink hair. Four years ago, a slug of Facebook data on 50 million Americans was sucked down by a UK academic named Aleksandr Kogan, and wrongly sold to Cambridge Analytica. Learn more about your ad...
At Y Combinator's Demo Day, The Age of Overpromises Is Over
March 21, 2018 09:56 - 7 minutesYou return home to your penthouse apartment after a long day at work auctioning Cryptokitties and other cryptogoods on a peer-to-peer marketplace. You grab a bottle of tangerine-flavored weed soda from the fridge and sink into your couch. With a flick of your hand, the overhead light switches on. A wooden side table, custom-built by a robot in India, holds a box containing your antidepressant patches. You peel off the back and slap one on your arm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc...
This Call May Be Monitored for Tone and Emotion
March 20, 2018 09:24 - 10 minutesWe all know how it feels to be low on energy at the end of a long work day. Some call-center agents at insurer MetLife are watched over by software that knows how it sounds. A program called Cogito presents a cheery notification when the toll of hours discussing maternity or bereavement benefits show in a worker’s voice. “It’s represented by a cute little coffee cup,” says Emily Baker, who supervises a group fielding calls about disability claims at MetLife. Learn more about your ad choices. ...
Europe's New Privacy Law Will Change the Web, and More
March 19, 2018 16:30 - 13 minutesConsumers have long wondered just what Google and Facebook know about them, and who else can access their personal data. But internet giants have little incentive to give straight answers — even to simple questions like, “Why am I being shown this ad?” On May 25, however, the power balance will shift towards consumers, thanks to a European privacy law that restricts how personal data is collected and handled. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tech Companies Try to Retrain the Workers They're Displacing
March 19, 2018 07:10 - 11 minutesOn January 16, a new course launched on the online learning platform Coursera with an unassuming name: The Google IT Support Professional Certificate. It promised to prepare beginners for entry-level jobs in IT in eight to 12 months. That day, it attracted the largest-ever group of first-time Coursera users, almost half of them people without college degrees. By February, it was Coursera’s second-most-popular offering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Susan Wojcicki on YouTube's Fight Against Misinformation
March 16, 2018 16:30 - 28 minutesWIRED Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Thompson interviewed YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki on Tuesday at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Here is an edited transcript of the talk. Nicholas Thompson: So you have had a crazy year and a half. All the social media companies have had a crazy year and a half. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI Has a Hallucination Problem That's Proving Tough to Fix
March 16, 2018 07:10 - 7 minutesTech companies are rushing to infuse everything with artificial intelligence, driven by big leaps in the power of machine learning software. But the deep-neural-network software fueling the excitement has a troubling weakness: Making subtle changes to images, text, or audio can fool these systems into perceiving things that aren’t there. That could be a big problem for products dependent on machine learning, particularly for vision, such as self-driving cars. Learn more about your ad choices....
California Net Neutrality Bill Would Go Beyond Original Protections
March 15, 2018 16:31 - 6 minutesIf broadband providers thought that they'd be subject to fewer regulations after the Federal Communications Commission voted in December to jettison its net neutrality protections, they could be disappointed. California state Senator Scott Wiener on Wednesday introduced a bill that would create a regime in some ways more strict than the Obama-era rules against blocking, throttling, or otherwise discriminating against content. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fundbox Wants to Be PayPal for Small Businesses
March 15, 2018 07:10 - 5 minutesTechnology keeps making it easier to separate you from your money. PayPal enabled you to easily send money via the internet. Square allowed businesses to use a smartphone to accept your credit card. Apple Pay and Android Pay flipped this idea on its head and let you pay with your phone instead of a card. Despite this innovation in how consumers can pay businesses, the way businesses pay each other hasn't changed much. San Francisco startup Fundbox wants to give businesses another option. Lear...
Fear of China Scuttles Deal That Didn't Involve China
March 14, 2018 16:30 - 5 minutesPresident Donald Trump blocked Broadcom's proposed $105 billion acquisition of fellow wireless chip giant Qualcomm on Monday amidst mounting fears that US could fall behind China on technology innovation. That’s a little odd, because on its face, the deal itself has nothing to do with China. Broadcom's key units are US-based; the company is headquartered in Singapore, which is generally considered friendly to the US. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Washington State Enacts Net Neutrality Law, in Clash with FCC
March 14, 2018 09:16 - 5 minutesWashington state Governor Jay Inslee Monday signed the nation’s first state law intended to protect net neutrality, setting up a potential legal battle with the Federal Communications Commission. The law bans broadband providers offering service in the state from blocking or throttling legal content, or from offering fast-lane access to companies willing to pay extra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Key to the Perfect March Madness Bracket: Evolution
March 13, 2018 17:30 - 5 minutesPredicting the winners and losers of March Madness is such a daunting challenge that it attracts math nerds like Starfleet voyagers lining up at Comic-Con. Statisticians, economists, Silicon Valley coders, the PhD quants at hedge funds and gambling syndicates: They’ve all tried to “solve” the outcome of the annual college basketball tournament’s 63 matchups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Maybe Election Polls Aren't Broken After All
March 13, 2018 07:10 - 9 minutesNo matter where you situate yourself on the political spectrum, don’t try to deny that the 2016 US presidential election made you go “whaaaaaaat?” This isn’t a judgment; if you believe Michael Wolff’s book, even Donald Trump didn’t think Donald Trump was going to be president. Partially that’s because of polls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why Facebook Has Been Less Important to News Publishers
March 12, 2018 17:32 - 6 minutesIn January, Facebook said it will reduce the volume of news in its news feed, in favor of more posts from friends and family. In fact, Facebook’s role in distributing news has been falling dramatically for more than a year. Data from Parse.ly, which tracks visits to more than 2,500 publisher sites, shows that ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, more than 40 percent of traffic to those sites came from Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apple's Swift Programming Language Is Now Top Tier
March 12, 2018 07:10 - 5 minutesApple's programming language Swift is less than four years old, but a new report finds that it's already as popular as its predecessor, Apple's more established Objective-C language. Swift is now tied with Objective-C at number 10 in the rankings conducted by analyst firm RedMonk. It's hardly a surprise that programmers are interested in Apple's language, which can be used to build applications for the iPhone, Apple Watch, Macintosh computers, and even web applications. Learn more about your ...
These Women Could Lose Their Right to Work in the US
March 09, 2018 16:30 - 12 minutesFrom the street, you can hear children at play. Inside the one-story house in Fremont, California, a fish tank gurgles by the front door. A plastic bin filled with Legos sits in the sun room. Renuka Sivarajan, 37, runs a home daycare here. Her path to this point has been like the stock market of late. When Sivarajan first came to the US from India, in 2003, she worked for a tech company in Phoenix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The High Cost of Lab-to-Table Meat
March 09, 2018 07:10 - 3 minutesForget free-range, antibiotic-free, and grass-fed—tomorrow’s burger will be lab-cultured. Scientists are creating a new slaughterhouse-free food group called clean meat: edible animal protein grown in a vat. Stem cells are extracted from animals, brewed in a bioreactor, fortified with nutrients like amino acids and glucose, and structured around collagen “scaffolds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bill Would Let Publishers Gang Up Versus Facebook and Google
March 08, 2018 16:30 - 8 minutesOn stage at a tech conference last month, Campbell Brown, Facebook’s head of news partnerships, fired a warning shot to publishers who think they get a raw deal from Facebook. ”My job is to make sure there is quality news on Facebook and that publishers who want to be on Facebook … have a business model that works,” Brown said. “If anyone feels this isn’t the right platform for them, they should not be on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This Publisher Foresaw an Internet of Fiction Mixed With Fact
March 08, 2018 07:10 - 4 minutesFacebook has had a bumpy couple of years. It makes money in torrents, but the way it's handled the manipulations of its platform has led critics to charge it was being irresponsible and craven. In recent months it's finally begun to signal it understands that criticism and to make specific and potentially meaningful changes. But competitors, especially Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, have no intention of letting this crisis go to waste. Learn more about your ad choices. V...
Millennial Viagra Startup Hims Is Now Worth $200 Million
March 07, 2018 16:30 - 3 minutesHims, a San Francisco-based e-commerce startup selling men’s wellness products, has raised $40 million in funding from venture firms IVP and Redpoint Ventures, according to sources familiar with the deal. The new round values Hims at $200 million not including the funding, the sources said. Launched in late 2017, Hims has already sold around $10 million worth of products for baldness and erectile dysfunction, according to a source. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/ad...
Recognizing the Women Behind the Web
March 07, 2018 07:10 - 3 minutesClaire L. Evans has discovered the solution to our social media woes: “Go back to BBS.” She means bulletin board systems, those grunge-era digital hangouts, like the Well and Echo, where users linked up based on mutual interests and supported one another. (So civilized.) Earlier this year, Evans even installed BBS server software on her Raspberry Pi to test her theory. “That kind of small-scale, self-policed social media could serve as a balm to us all,” she says. Learn more about your ad ch...
The Future of 'Fab Lab' Fabrication
March 06, 2018 16:31 - 5 minutesIn 1965, tech pioneer Gordon Moore noticed a trend: The number of components on an integrated circuit was doubling every year. He predicted this would continue, resulting in wildly powerful digital devices. It was an audacious forecast (he later revised the interval to every two years), but Moore’s law more or less held for five decades, shrinking the computer from room-sized appliance to pocketable smartphone. The world of bits was transformed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...
The Decentralized Internet Is Here, With Some Glitches
March 06, 2018 09:50 - 11 minutesI usually write in Google's online word processor Google Docs, even when noting the company's shortcomings. This article is different: it was drafted in a similar but more private service called Graphite Docs. I discovered it while exploring a nascent and glitch-ridden online realm known as the decentralized internet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How Technology Unsettled the Stock Market
March 05, 2018 16:30 - 9 minutesAt his coming-out hearing as chairman of the Federal Reserve on Feb. 27, Jay Powell made all sorts of news in finance-land, including a suggestion that the bank saw potentially faster inflation ahead. Also notable was his assessment of the causes for the volatility that roiled Wall Street and saw trillions of dollars lost, gained, lost, and then regained in a matter of days in early February. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
YouTube Doesn't Know Where Its Own Line Is
March 05, 2018 07:10 - 9 minutesAfter the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February, far-right conspiracy site InfoWars published a series of videos on YouTube accusing survivor and activist David Hogg of being an actor. In response, YouTube took down several of the videos, and reportedly handed the publication at least one “strike,” for violating its policies on harassment and bullying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The WIRED Guide to Net Neutrality
March 02, 2018 16:30 - 9 minutesNet neutrality is the idea that internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon should treat all content flowing through their cables and cell towers equally. That means they shouldn't be able to slide some data into “fast lanes” while blocking or otherwise discriminating against other material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Techies Pitch Obama on Building Startups Outside the Valley
March 02, 2018 07:11 - 6 minutesIt’s easy to make Jacob Hsu gush about the wonders of Baltimore. The former Silicon Valley executive moved to the Charm City in January 2017, to become CEO of Catalyte, a company that develops software using teams of non-traditional, algorithm-identified engineers. Once in Baltimore, Hsu was overwhelmed by the talent. He could work with city leaders and executives; he could recruit high-up federal employees—opportunities that would be impossible in the Bay Area. Learn more about your ad choic...
This Startup Is Challenging Mechanical Turk—on the Blockchain
March 01, 2018 16:31 - 10 minutesLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Embattled Tech Companies Charge Deeper Into Health Care
March 01, 2018 10:05 - 7 minutesBig tech has a lot of problems: fake news, sexual harassment, Russian interference, privacy concerns, and growing fears that too much screen time rots your brain. But even as they struggle to solve these day-to-day problems, the industry’s biggest players are putting more resources into another notoriously hard problem: health care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Using AI to Help Stroke Victims When 'Time Is Brain'
February 28, 2018 19:30 - 8 minutesSince entrepreneur Chris Mansi cofounded Viz.ai in 2016, the best-funded wizards of artificial intelligence have taken on board games, and created emoji that mirror your facial expressions. Meanwhile, Mansi has been developing algorithms to save the brain cells of stroke patients. This month, the Food and Drug Administration cleared Viz.ai to market its algorithms to doctors and hospitals. It was a small breakthrough toward using AI to make healthcare more efficient and powerful. Learn more a...
Why a Tiny Kentucky Firm Rules a Corner of the Crypto Market
February 28, 2018 07:10 - 12 minutesIf banks and hedge funds start holding large amounts of cryptocurrencies, much of the money will flow---virtually, of course---through Murray, Kentucky. That’s home to Kingdom Trust, a small company that’s quickly become the crypto industry’s go-to option for holding its digital coins. The crypto revolution has a few kinks to work out before it can revolutionize anything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Senate Democrats Have a Plan to Save Net Neutrality
February 27, 2018 16:30 - 5 minutesLast Thursday, the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission formally published a rule reversing long-standing and vital protections of the internet known as net neutrality. The FCC’s new rule would let big corporations restrict how consumers access their favorite websites by forcing them to buy internet access in packages, paying more for "premium” service, as with cable television. WIRED OPINION ABOUT Charles E. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Peter Thiel Is a Flawed Messenger With a Crucial Message for Tech
February 27, 2018 07:10 - 8 minutesPeter Thiel, never one to keep a low profile, made his most recent set of waves with reports that he is prepared to decamp from Silicon Valley to more benign haunts in Los Angeles along with several of his companies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A Short History of Technology Worship
February 26, 2018 16:30 - 8 minutes“Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.” That was how Donald Knuth, author of The Art of Computer Programming (1968), expressed the difference between pristine mathematics and buggy reality. “When programming, you abstract away the entire physical world as much as possible, because it’s messy. But then it comes back and bites you,” Paul Ford, cofounder of the platform-builder Postlight, told me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com...
Gothamist Lives, Thanks to a Boost From Public Radio
February 26, 2018 07:10 - 7 minutesAfter billionaire Joe Ricketts announced the shuttering of local news organizations Gothamist and DNAInfo last fall, readers across the country mourned the loss of the beloved sites, and worried about the vulnerability of journalism in the digital age. Now, a consortium of public radio stations, including WNYC in New York, WAMU in Washington DC, and KPCC in Southern California, has banded together to bring some of those sites back from the dead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast...
As Protection Ends, Here’s One Way to Test for Net Neutrality
February 23, 2018 16:30 - 1 minuteFederal protection for net neutrality will officially end in April. The Federal Communications Commission’s new regulations, which abandon rules against blocking, throttling, or otherwise discriminating against lawful content, are scheduled to be published in the Federal Register Thursday. They will take effect 60 days later. As the FCC withdraws from protecting net neutrality, states are taking up the fight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices