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Marketplace Tech

American Public Media

Hosted by Molly Wood, “Marketplace Tech” demystifies the digital economy. The daily radio show and podcast uncovers how tech influences our lives in unexpected ways and provides context for listeners who care about the impact of tech, business and the digital world. Transforming breaking news to breaking ideas, Marketplace Tech uncovers themes that transcend the hype in an industry that’s constantly changing. Reporting from Oakland, California host Molly Wood asks smart questions that connect the dots and provide insight on the impact of technology to help listeners understand the business behind the technology rewiring our lives. Molly has spent two decades covering the tech industry on all platforms and is known as a pioneer in podcasting. She is an IDEAS contributor at Wired and has been recognized for her dynamic reporting by the Webbys, the National Magazine Awards, and is a Gracie Award winner. Prior to joining Marketplace, she was a tech columnist at The New York Times and before that an executive editor at CNET. The Marketplace Tech daily news podcast is available worldwide on platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, RSS Feeds and any place else where you get your podcasts.

Hosted by Molly Wood, “Marketplace Tech” demystifies the digital economy. The daily radio show and podcast uncovers how tech influences our lives in unexpected ways and provides context for listeners who care about the impact of tech, business and the digital world. Transforming breaking news to breaking ideas, Marketplace Tech uncovers themes that transcend the hype in an industry that’s constantly changing. Reporting from Oakland, California host Molly Wood asks smart questions that connect the dots and provide insight on the impact of technology to help listeners understand the business behind the technology rewiring our lives. Molly has spent two decades covering the tech industry on all platforms and is known as a pioneer in podcasting. She is an IDEAS contributor at Wired and has been recognized for her dynamic reporting by the Webbys, the National Magazine Awards, and is a Gracie Award winner. Prior to joining Marketplace, she was a tech columnist at The New York Times and before that an executive editor at CNET. The Marketplace Tech daily news podcast is available worldwide on platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, RSS Feeds and any place else where you get your podcasts.

Location:

Los Angeles, CA

Description:

Hosted by Molly Wood, “Marketplace Tech” demystifies the digital economy. The daily radio show and podcast uncovers how tech influences our lives in unexpected ways and provides context for listeners who care about the impact of tech, business and the digital world. Transforming breaking news to breaking ideas, Marketplace Tech uncovers themes that transcend the hype in an industry that’s constantly changing. Reporting from Oakland, California host Molly Wood asks smart questions that connect the dots and provide insight on the impact of technology to help listeners understand the business behind the technology rewiring our lives. Molly has spent two decades covering the tech industry on all platforms and is known as a pioneer in podcasting. She is an IDEAS contributor at Wired and has been recognized for her dynamic reporting by the Webbys, the National Magazine Awards, and is a Gracie Award winner. Prior to joining Marketplace, she was a tech columnist at The New York Times and before that an executive editor at CNET. The Marketplace Tech daily news podcast is available worldwide on platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, RSS Feeds and any place else where you get your podcasts.

Language:

English

Contact:

261 South Figueroa Street #200 Los Angeles, CA 90012 (213) 621-3500

Episodes

Tech companies should make it someone’s job to think about ethics

7/6/2020
From hate speech to privacy, to labor and biased algorithms, society is reckoning with the power of technology and how it affects our lives. Molly Wood speaks with Emanuel Moss, a researcher at the nonprofit Data & Society and author of an upcoming report called “Ethics Owners.” It argues that data-driven tech companies should be creating specific positions for people whose entire job is to think about policies and product development with ethics in mind. Basically, a person who is hired to...

Duration:00:04:46

The technology behind the discovery of a new blue hue

7/3/2020
Throughout human history, the color blue has been a conundrum. Now, an Oregon State University lab is pushing color science forward. Researcher Mas Subramanian discovered YInMn blue, the first new blue pigment discovered since Thomas Jefferson was president and one of the most vivid blue colors ever created. Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Jes Burns reports.

Duration:00:03:59

Content creators look for more fan support as brands pull back ad spending

7/2/2020
You aren’t seeing ads from hundreds of brands on Facebook and Instagram right now because companies froze their advertising over how Facebook handles hate speech. That’s on top of a drop in advertising due to the pandemic. For online creators, the drop in advertising is even more of a push to diversify their revenue sources and support themselves without relying on sponsorship or ads.

Duration:00:05:27

Ethical hackers are busy stamping out bugs during the pandemic

7/1/2020
There are a lot of juicy targets for hackers these days, with millions of people working from home and companies working on valuable COVID-19 drugs. One of the ways companies fight attacks is to try to fix bugs in their software before they can be exploited. They do it by hiring ethical hackers. Molly Wood speaks with Jesse Kinser who works as the chief information security officer for the precision health care company LifeOmic. She also moonlights as a hacker, finding jobs using the...

Duration:00:08:16

When immigrants come to the U.S., investments often follow

6/30/2020
The Trump administration put a temporary freeze on new foreign workers that come here through the H-1B visa program. The administration argues that if the U.S. stops the flow of immigrants, there will be more jobs left for Americans in this recession. But researchers say the policy may backfire, because when immigrants go to a new country, they frequently bring new ideas, start companies and attract new investment money. Molly Wood speaks with Zeke Hernandez, a professor of global strategy...

Duration:00:11:12

Why the racism in facial recognition software probably can’t be fixed

6/29/2020
It’s been proven that facial recognition software isn’t good at accurately identifying people of color. It’s also known that police departments around the country use facial recognition tools to identify suspects and make arrests. And now we know about what is possibly the first confirmed wrongful arrest made as a result of mistaken identification by software. The New York Times reported last week that Robert Williams, a Black man, was wrongfully arrested in Detroit in January. Molly Wood...

Duration:00:06:46

If the internet was a utility, could more cities provide it?

6/26/2020
In this country, internet access comes from companies. And in many states, those companies have lobbied for laws that prevent cities from building their own infrastructure to provide access. But some cities have. A decade ago, Chattanooga, Tennessee, laid fiber to every business and home in the city to prevent power outages and offer internet access to everyone. Molly Wood speaks with Katie Espeseth, vice president of new products at the city’s electricity and internet utility.

Duration:00:09:25

Want affordable, abundant internet access? Competition’s the key.

6/25/2020
All this week, we’ve been looking at internet access, cost, infrastructure, and today, competition. Actually, the almost complete lack of competition. More than 129 million people in the U.S. only have one option for broadband. Is that a government problem or a free market problem? Molly Wood speaks to Susan Crawford, a law professor at Harvard and the author of the book “Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution — and Why America Might Miss It.”

Duration:00:10:21

Gaps in internet access: Low-income, communities of color most left out

6/24/2020
All this week, Marketplace Tech is doing a new series called “The Internet Is Everything,” where we look at access, infrastructure and cost. That question of cost comes down to competition, infrastructure and whether telecom companies have invested in bringing service to where you live. Molly Wood speaks with Mignon Clyburn, a former member of the Federal Communications Commission. She says we have to acknowledge that race and poverty play a role in where companies decide to offer access.

Duration:00:11:45

Mapping internet access: no clear data on haves and have-nots

6/23/2020
This fall, the FCC is planning to award up to $16 billion to increase broadband availability across the country. But the data the FCC is using to decide where broadband is most needed is wildly inaccurate, even by the agency’s own admission. Host Molly Wood speaks with Nicol Turner Lee, who researches technology access as a fellow in the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution. She said the pandemic has made the mapping problem even more obvious.

Duration:00:09:44

The pandemic has shown us that the internet is everything

6/22/2020
Internet access is the ultimate essential service. But, like so many things in this country, access is not equal. This week, host Molly Wood starts a new series called “The internet is everything,” starting with listeners’ personal stories.

Duration:00:03:50

What happened to coronavirus contact tracing on our phones?

6/19/2020
Earlier in this pandemic, Apple and Google joined forces to help create a shared underlying technology for digital contact tracing apps. But at least in the United States, they haven’t caught on. Apple and Google’s tech only work with apps developed by government health authorities. And almost no states have developed those apps. Marketplace’s Jack Stewart speaks with Ina Fried, chief technology correspondent for Axios.

Duration:00:07:27

Can working from home help employees speak out against racism?

6/18/2020
There’s a national conversation going on about race and inequality, and that includes at work. A lot of companies are holding internal listening sessions to start to address systemic racism. And because of the pandemic, many of those tough conversations are happening via videoconference. For some, it may be easier to have tough conversations from the comfort of their own home. Marketplace’s Jack Stewart speaks with Kira Banks, a professor of psychology at Saint Louis University, where she...

Duration:00:07:03

In automated warehouses, robots’ reach exceeds their grasp

6/17/2020
Amazon, along with other online retailers, has seen a massive increase in demand in the past few months. The company has also faced accusations about its working conditions being unsafe, especially during this pandemic. The coronavirus has accelerated the push to automate warehouses, but the technology isn’t quite there yet to improve conditions for human workers. Marketplace’s Jack Stewart speaks with Ken Goldberg, a professor of industrial engineering at the University of California,...

Duration:00:07:45

How to prepare our communications for the next natural disaster

6/16/2020
Our computers and cellphones are an increasingly huge part of how we work, socialize and even organize protests. In a natural disaster, those communication tools become even more important but often less reliable. That’s particularly an issue for first responders, who are soon going to have to start dealing with this year’s inevitable hurricanes and wildfires. Marketplace’s Jack Stewart speaks with Craig Fugate, a former FEMA administrator who now consults for goTenna, one of the companies...

Duration:00:07:32

Hacktivism on the rise in wake of national protests

6/12/2020
Hacktivism, or computer hacking as activism, is in the news again with the group Anonymous claiming responsibility for a cyberattack on the Minneapolis Police Department this month. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood interviews M.R. Sauter, assistant professor at the University of Maryland and author of “The Coming Swarm: DDoS Actions, Hacktivism, and Civil Disobedience on the Internet,” for a dive into the history and tactics of so-called hacktivists.

Duration:00:07:13

Tech companies scrap facial recognition products

6/12/2020
After largely ignoring demands from civil rights groups, tech giants IBM, Amazon and Microsoft have put moratoriums on sales of facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies as protests against police brutality continue.

Duration:00:05:27

Lots of industries are bad at diversity. But tech stands out.

6/11/2020
Big tech companies and investors have a bad track record when it comes to hiring, investing in and retaining people of color. Especially Black employees. Host Molly Wood speaks with Tiffani Ashley Bell, an alum of the Y Combinator startup accelerator and founding director of the water nonprofit the Human Utility. She wrote the Medium post “It’s Time We Dealt With White Supremacy in Tech” and originated the phrase “Make the hire. Send the wire.”

Duration:00:06:59

Can 15,000 moderate the content of 2 billion?

6/10/2020
Pressure is growing on social media platforms to intervene more against misinformation, hate speech and other content. A new report says a big barrier, especially at Facebook, is that content moderators are mostly outside contractors and there aren’t nearly enough of them. Host Molly Wood speaks with Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, who wrote the report.

Duration:00:07:04

Climate change isn’t going anywhere, and investment could soon rise

6/9/2020
While people around the country deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and protest for police reform and racial justice, the climate is continuing to change. The U.S. just experienced the warmest May on record. A U.N. report last week warned that mass extinctions are happening far faster than expected. While climate change solutions are on the back burner for now, they’re as urgent as ever. Host Molly Wood speaks with Seth Bannon, a founding partner at the venture firm Fifty Years.

Duration:00:05:40

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