Misinformation 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 (aka Twitter) for the latest news on the conflict. But they've been met with a flood of bad info—old videos, fake photos, and inaccurate reports—that researchers say is unprecedented.

This week on Gadget Lab, we talk with WIRED reporter David Gilbert about how misinformation and disinformation spreads across social media, and how recent changes made by X before the Israel-Hamas war have made the problem even worse. We also talk about how the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence tools is making fake photos and videos look more believable.



Show Notes:

Read David and Vittoria Elliot’s WIRED story about how disinformation is getting worse on X. Read David on the role misinformation played in coverage of the recent Gaza hospital explosion. Also read David’s story about how posts by X owner Elon Musk are seemingly making the platform’s misinformation problems worse.

Recommendations:

David recommends the book A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney. Mike recommends Bono’s memoir Surrender. Lauren would like you to send her workout playlists. (She prefers Spotify.)

David Gilbert can be found on social media @daithaigilbert. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

Gideon 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?

Gideon 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 Century’s Greatest Dilemma is available on September 5th.

Gideon 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 episode with Puja Patel, the editor in chief of Pitchfork, about the new wave of generative AI in music—and AI-generated Drake—you can catch up here.

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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.

Have 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 discuss the wide range of chemicals, dyes, and treatments that get put into our clothes and offer tips on how to avoid the worst offenders while shopping for a new wardrobe.


This episode originally aired June 29, 2023. Listen to every episode of Gadget Lab wherever you get your podcasts.

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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? 

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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.

It'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?

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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.

This 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. 

Gideon 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.

Gideon 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.

Have 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!

Gideon 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.

For 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-fungible tokens—are the latest internet buzzword, and they’ve raised a lot of questions about how we determine the value of online goods.

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior writer Kate Knibbs and WIRED politics writer Gilad Edelman talk to Lauren Goode about the nascent NFT ecosystem and what it's like to sell one of your tweets.

Show Notes: 

Read Kate’s story about selling her tweet here. Read Gregory Barber’s story about the climate impacts of NFTs here. Steven Levy's newsletter entry about NFTs is here. Read more about NFTs in the art world here.

Recommendations: 

Kate recommends the novel Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Gilad recommends the yard game Kubb and also a way to make a quick cucumber infusion. Lauren recommends New Haven pizza.

Kate Knibbs can be found on Twitter @Knibbs. Gilad Edelman is @GiladEdelman. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

The advertising in this episode was developed by WIRED Brand Lab, a creative studio from the publisher of WIRED. The WIRED newsroom is not involved in the creation of Brand Lab content.

For 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 working on these problems, with the ultimate goal of creating consumer-level mixed-reality devices. AR is coming, whether people are willing to wait for it or not.

This week on Gadget Lab, we talk with WIRED digital director Brian Barrett about the future of mixed reality and when we'll all be wearing AR glasses.

Show Notes: 

Read Lauren’s story about mixed-reality headsets and Microsoft Mesh here. Read more about the HoloLens 2 here. Read about the AR “Mirrorworld” here. Follow all of WIRED’s AR coverage here. Read Lily Hay Newman’s story for Slate about how baths are better than showers here.

Recommendations: 

Brian recommends the novel A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet. Lauren recommends taking a bath. Mike recommends the mobile game Really Bad Chess for iOS or Android.

Brian Barrett can be found on Twitter @brbarrett. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

Advertising note: The ads in this episode were developed by WIRED Brand Lab, a creative studio from the publisher of WIRED. The WIRED newsroom is not involved in the creation of Brand Lab content.

For 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, WIRED senior correspondent Adam Rogers joins us to talk about all the wild tech built into Perseverance and what the big deal about Mars is anyway. Then a very special guest crashes the show to talk about cheese.

Show Notes: 

Read Adam’s story about the cameras on the Perseverance rover. Watch the video of the landing and read about it here. Read more about the LA musician who helped design the microphones on the rover here. Read Gilad Edelman on the health benefits of cheese. Preorder Adam’s book, Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern, here.

Recommendations: 

Adam recommends granite tile drill bits for drilling through metal. Lauren recommends Vigorous Innovations massage gun. Mike recommends the tech news website Rest of World. Gilad Edelman recommends cheese, of course.

Adam Rogers can be found on Twitter @jetjocko. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Gilad Edelman is @GiladEdelman. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

WIRED Brand Lab is a creative studio from the publisher of WIRED. The WIRED newsroom is not involved in the creation of Brand Lab content.

For 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.

This week, we’re joined by Alan Henry and Saira Mueller from the WIRED video games team, and Jeffrey Van Camp from WIRED’s reviews team to talk about the issues keeping PS5 supplies low. They’ll also tell us about their own experiences trying to buy a console. At the end of the show, we share some shopping tips you can use on your own quest to get this year’s most scarce gadget.

Show Notes: 

Read some advice about how to (maybe) buy a PS5 here. Read more about the scalper bots buying up all the PS5s here. 

Recommendations: 

Saira’s recommendation is to try cryotherapy. Brrr! Alan recommends Discord, which is great for gaming parties. Jeff recommends that you get a snow shovel, because you never know when you might need it. Lauren recommends this CBS guide to how you can help people in Texas during this deadly cold weather. Mike recommends the Vice show Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, now in its third season.

Saira Mueller can be found on Twitter @SairaMueller. Alan Henry is @halophoenix. Jeff Van Camp is @JeffreyVC. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

Advertising note: WIRED Brand Lab is a creative studio from the publisher of WIRED. The WIRED newsroom is not involved in the creation of Brand Lab content

For 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 a form of payment for its electric vehicles. The price of Bitcoin immediately spiked as the move seemed to signal a shift toward broader acceptance of cryptocurrency in general. But is this just another fleeting Elon Musk stunt, or will it actually be a sustainable way of doing business?

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED staff writer Greg Barber joins us to talk about Tesla's crypto plans, the reemergence of Dogecoin, and why the blockchain hasn't exactly revolutionized currency yet.

Show Notes: 

Read Greg’s story about Tesla and Bitcoin here. Read more about how WIRED lost over $500,000 in Bitcoin here. Don’t miss Greg's CRISPR cow cover story. And here’s a good David Bowie playlist.

Recommendations: 

Greg recommends the cooking website The Woks of Life. Mike recommends the Off the Record: David Bowie podcast from iHeartRadio. Lauren recommends the New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears on Hulu.

Greg Barber can be found on Twitter @GregoryJBarber. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

Advertising note: WIRED Brand Lab is a creative studio from the publisher of WIRED. Gadget Lab and the WIRED newsroom are not involved in the creation of Brand Lab content.

For 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 turning point for the app that moves it into the mainstream. After Musk's talk, Clubhouse's user base nearly doubled, going from 3 to 5 million almost overnight. It's a powerful, popular format, and one that other social media companies are eager to get muscle their way into.

This week on Gadget Lab, former cohost of the show and WIRED senior writer Arielle Pardes joins us to dish about Elon, Clubhouse, and where this kind of social platform goes from here.

Show Notes: 

Read more about Elon Musk’s visit to Clubhouse. Coverage of GameStop and Robinhood is here. You can also listen to audio of Musk’s Clubhouse appearance.

Recommendations: 

Arielle recommends the wine delivery service from Eater Wine Club. Lauren recommends the show Your Honor on Showtime. Mike recommends the autobiography Being Ram Dass by, well, Ram Dass.

Arielle Pardes can be found on Twitter @pardesoteric. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

Back in March, right as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to change our world, WIRED Senior Associate Editor Zak Jason discovered something else that would forever change him. He was going to be a father. In the middle of a global pandemic, historic wildfires and political upheaval, Zak and his wife Kristen spent 2020 trying to think of how they would explain everything that’s happened this year to their unborn daughter. On this episode, the season finale of Get WIRED, Zak takes us on a journey into parenthood in the form of a letter to his child, full of voice memos recorded throughout the year and reflections on the future.

Before it even existed, the Osé was on TIME’s 100 Best Inventions list as a sex toy using micro-robotics to fix the orgasm gap. But reviewers and users say it didn’t deliver. Reporter Lux Alptraum lays out the story of the Osé and the fascinating history of sex toys that got us here.

Mike Postle played poker with an old school disregard for game theory and patterns. He was on a win streak like no one had seen before. And the livestream audiences loved him, calling him the “Messiah of Poker.” So how did Postle go from poker god to cheating pariah without any material evidence? Reporter Brendan Koerner takes us on a journey into the crowdsourced investigation that brought Postle down. 

If you know Pepe the Frog, it’s probably as a meme that white nationalists used to spread hate on the internet. But Pepe started out as a lovable character in a little-known webcomic created by cartoonist Matt Furie. This week on Get WIRED, Senior Editor Angela Watercutter interviews the filmmakers of the new documentary Feels Good Man about Pepe, meme magic, and Matt’s journey to try to take Pepe back from the trolls.

Elon 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 years, the idea of the unimpeachable Silicon Valley founder has lost its sheen. Narratives such as the 2022 series “WeCrashed” tell the story of startup founders who make lofty promises, only to watch their empires crumble when those promises are shown to be empty. “It dovetails for me with the disillusionment of millennials,” Fry says, pointing to the dark mood that the 2007-08 financial crisis and the 2016 election brought to the country. “There’s no longer this blind belief that the tech founder is a genius who should be wholly admired with no reservations.” 



New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/tnycriticsatlarge_feeddrop

We knew it might be an Election Day unlike any other. But after last Tuesday, it soon became evident that this year’s US presidential race would culminate in an election week. On this week’s Get WIRED podcast, we talk to Gilad Edelman, Lily Hay Newman, and Emma Grey Ellis about why the forecasting polls were so wrong (again), how we know we can trust the election results, and why people keep spinning up conspiracy theories online. Also: Election Memes.

You’ve probably heard of Rock the Vote, the MTV approved get-out-the-vote campaign aimed at mobilizing young people. But how do you reach young voters when everyone’s stuck at home and the sheer volume of political ads on social media can feel mind-numbing? WIRED Senior Writer Arielle Pardes takes us into the TikTok world that’s organizing to get out the vote through memes, mashups, and dance videos. 

Boston Dynamics is one of those companies that either makes you feel like we’re living in a Black Mirror episode or like we’re on the cusp of technological innovation. Over the past decade they’ve made a name for themselves through viral videos that demonstrate unparalleled robotics engineering. You’ve probably seen some of these: robot dogs loading the dishwasher, a humanoid robot doing a backflip, a segue-like robot effortlessly moving heavy objects. And now, after almost 30 years, their products are finally on the market. Reporter Matt Simon talks to Marc Raibert, the founder of Boston Dynamics, to check in on the ambitious robotics company.

California’s catastrophic 2020 wildfire season kicked off midway through the hottest August on record with a dry thunderstorm in which 12,000 lighting strikes ignited hundreds of fires over the course of a week. America’s best fire researchers have been trying to learn more about what causes fires—especially extreme fire events like fire tornadoes. Reporter Daniel Duane talks to Get WIRED Host Lauren Goode about his November cover story for Wired magazine, which goes deep into the cutting edge of fire research. 

As protests filled the streets this summer, WIRED Senior Writer Jason Parham went looking for radio broadcasts from 1992, when he watched Los Angeles go up in flames. What he found instead was a trove of broadcasts from throughout his 1990s coming of age, archived by a French YouTuber. Parham then talks with cultural critic Jace Clayton, also known as DJ Rupture, about how the move from analog to digital has changed our relationship to music.

Think about your favorite video game growing up. You can probably imagine exactly how it sounded and even hum some of the tunes.

As it turns out, a lot of the iconic video game scores of the 80’s and 90’s were created by a group of women, young Japanese composers - sometimes just out of college. This music has such a strong legacy - but it’s almost impossible to find information about the women who wrote it. 

So for this episode of Get Wired, Host Lauren Goode talks to Dia Lacina--a writer and video game music expert. Dia recently went on a journey to find out more about this group of composers—who they were, and what they worked on—and ultimately, how these women shaped the scores we know so well, despite working in a male-dominated gaming industry.

And then later on in the show, we hear from Eímear Noone, a conductor who has brought 8-bit video game music to the symphony.

In another special episode of Get WIRED, join WIRED 25 as host Lauren Goode sits down with Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar to talk about the hyperlocal platform. They discuss human vs. AI content moderation, how Nextdoor is measuring its efforts to prevent racial profiling, and the importance of knowing at least six neighbors. You can watch past interviews and join the remaining WIRED 25 virtual events at events.wired.com.

In this special episode of Get WIRED, join this year’s WIRED 25 conference as we sit down with filmmaker Nia DaCosta, one of the WIRED 25 innovators who are shaping culture and using technology to lead society through this period of global uncertainty. In 2020, the horror of a global pandemic, natural disasters, and police brutality are as tangible as the grip of a boogeyman. That doesn’t mean fictional dread no longer has its place. For Nia DaCosta, the director behind the upcoming remake of the 1992 horror classic Candyman, it is as relevant and crucial as ever. DaCosta’s breakout debut, Little Woods, was a Western thriller. Now, she turns to the horror genre for the Candyman remake produced by Jordan Peele and written alongside Peele. DaCosta speaks with WIRED senior writer Jason Parham about her upcoming film, Candyman (now delayed to 2021), the horror genre, and how the pandemic will change the future of the movie industry. 



Find out how you can join the remaining WIRED 25 virtual events at events.wired.com. See the trailer for Candyman here and tune in next week, September 21st, for Get WIRED Host Lauren Goode’s interview with Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar.

In this week’s episode of Get WIRED, host Lauren Goode and reporter Ben Wofford tell the story of an election clerk and computer scientist who spent years at odds with each other over election security, until finally taking up arms to tackle the problem together. The problem? Too much power in the hands of a few private companies. We trace their tough journey to develop and build technology that could change the future of voting. 

This Fall, back to school is unlike anything we've ever experienced. Due to COVID-19, some school districts in the US are going entirely remote, while others are trying hybrid learning. Parents suddenly had to change plans. Teachers are watching the pandemic exacerbate the digital divide. And little kids who really hate Zoom now have to do it all day long. In this episode of Get WIRED, host Lauren Goode talks to Adrienne So, WIRED Senior Writer, about the chaos of raising her kids and figuring out her daughter’s first day of kindergarten amid the pandemic. Later, Education Technology Specialist Regina Schaffer tells us what her district is doing to address the digital divide and discuss the future of our schools.

Gideon 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?

We're sharing the latest episode of our sister podcast, Gadget Lab. And we need your help! For our upcoming Back to School episode of Get WIRED, please call 415-534-9498 and leave us a voicemail about the challenges you're facing, and tricks you've learned for dealing with school and kids during the coronavirus pandemic.

As smart speakers for the home continue to grow in popularity, police departments have started to take notice. Now, whenever attorneys and law enforcement officials are investigating a crime, they can put your virtual assistant in the hot seat. They can cross-reference a variety of information from smart devices, including location data, audio recordings, and biometric data. Together, it can paint a picture of where a suspect was and when, often far more reliably than any human witness.

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior writer Sidney Fussell joins us to talk about the strange murder case where a smart speaker became the star witness. We also share tips about how to manage the privacy settings in your own smart tech.

Warning: This episode features a brief conversation about domestic violence and assault.

Show Notes: 

Read Sidney’s story about law enforcement collecting information from smart speakers here. Find more episodes of the Get WIRED podcast here.

Recommendations: 

Sidney recommends the show I May Destroy You on HBO. Lauren recommends Vanity Fair’s September issue, with a cover story about Breonna Taylor. Mike recommends the episode of the podcast Questlove Supreme with Bootsy Collins.

Sidney Fussell can be found on Twitter @SidneyFussell. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our executive producer is Alex Kapelman (@alexkapelman). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

Last week, we took you inside a factory farm with the co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), a group the meat industry says is one of the “most dangerous animal rights groups out there.” In this episode, WIRED senior writer Andy Greenberg joins us for another chapter in the story of slaughterhouse break-ins. This one unfolded alongside the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s an example of how everyday tech is being used for surveillance of typically secretive operations—in this case, a massive pig farm that is killing its pigs in a morally questionable way. 

Who is an animal activist? What do they do? Described as “the most dangerous animal rights organization out there,” Direct Action Everywhere (or DxE) hopes to expose the controversial practices of the factory farm industry. A self-described “global grassroots network of animal rights activists,” DxE engages in non-violent forms of protest as a way of both educating the public and pushing reform. WIRED Senior Writer Andy Greenberg learned more about the people who make up this network of activists and their operations.

On this special episode of Get WIRED, WIRED’s Editor-at-large, Steven Levy talks with Bill Gates— philanthropist and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At the start of the pandemic, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation pledged more than $1 billion to vaccine development, and $100 million of that is specifically for Covid-19 vaccines. Meanwhile, he’s also become the target of conspiracy theories related to the coronavirus. They discuss everything from the US response to the pandemic, to a timeline when things might go back to “normal.” They also cover the recent Big Tech antitrust hearings, and of course, they talk about TikTok!