Shows / Uncanny Valley | WIRED
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
Welcome to Uncanny Valley—an insider look at the people, power, and influence of Silicon Valley—where each week, WIRED’s writers and editors bring you original reporting and analysis about some of the biggest stories in tech. On Tuesdays, The Big Interview with WIRED’s Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond in conversation with influential figures in culture, politics, business, science, and beyond for a discussion captured through the WIRED lens. On Thursdays, WIRED writers and editors Zoë…
Episodes
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWhy WeWork Didn't Work
In the 11 years since its founding, WeWork has had a wild ride. At its core, it's a real estate company that subleases trendy office spaces to other…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDI Bike, You Bike, Ebike
Electric bikes are exploding. Not literally—most of the time, anyway—but ebikes are certainly in demand. Companies that operate bikeshare networks are…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDPaging Dr. Algorithm
Artificial intelligence is everywhere. And increasingly, it's becoming a critical part of healthcare. Doctors use it to try to suss out symptoms of deadly…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDInto the Great Wide Open
People are heading outdoors this summer. Transportation services—from airlines to rental car companies to public transit agencies—are offering deals and prizes…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDCutting to the Core of Apple
Apple held its annual WWDC event this week, where it announced a whole bunch of new software features for its mobile and desktop platforms. It was also yet…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDVaccine Incentives, From Donuts to Dollars
So, you want to vaccinate your populace. Sometimes it's not enough to appeal to people's basic sense of self-preservation. You have to find other ways to…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDOh, the Huemanity
For as long as humans have existed, we've been obsessed with color. Everything from the color of your clothes to the brightly illuminated pixels on your screen…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDAndroid Dreams
Google made a slew of announcements at its IO developer conference this week. A whole new look for Android! New privacy features! Better smartwatch software! A…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDMuchos Bezos
Few tech companies have charted a more fascinating course than Amazon. It's expanded from its humble beginnings as a bookseller to an absolute juggernaut that…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Truth About Section 230
There's no way the lawmakers who drafted Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act way back in 1996 could have known that it would go on to determine the…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDLeave No Trace
Facebook, Apple, and Google may have very different approaches to user privacy, but they do have something in common: All three companies are currently being…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDFacebook’s Andrew Bosworth
Facebook doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to keeping user data private. So when it revealed a few weeks ago that it was working on a prototype…
Uncanny Valley | WIRED500th Episode Extravaganza
This week marks the 500th episode of Gadget Lab. That is an astonishingly huge number; to pay proper tribute to it, we’ve invited some of Gadget Lab’s past…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDBreaking Up, Hooking Up
Tech companies are very good at serving up personalized content based on what they know about you. But they're not very good at picking up on big, sudden…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDFree Shipping
Last week, the cargo ship Ever Given got itself stuck in the Suez Canal for six days. The blockage completely disrupted maritime trade routes, captured…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDReentry Anxiety
Vaccines are here, unemployment is down, and the pandemic is nearing its end. These are obviously good things. Still, the idea of returning to "normal" might…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDFuture Computing the Facebook Way
How will we interact with computers in the future? When we finally evolve beyond keyboards, mice, touchscreens, and voice controls, what’s next? This month…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWTF Is an NFT?
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…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDFacing Our AR Future
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…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDGadgets on Mars
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…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDHow to Get a PlayStation 5
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…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWho Let the Doge Out
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…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDClubhouse’s Elon Moment
Elon Musk made headlines again this week. As usual, it was something involving Mars, memes, Tesla, and ... monkey brain implants? These topics, among others…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDYour Covid Vaccine Questions, Answered
Vaccines are here, but they’ve had a bit of a bumpy landing. In fact, the US is way behind on the distribution goals set by the federal government, and the…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDReboot Your Brain
Look, last year wasn't great. And just because it's 2021 now, that doesn't mean things are magically better. If you feel burned out, stressed, or just plain…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDCES Wrap-Up
You'd be forgiven if you didn't pay much attention to CES this week. There's been quite a lot going on outside the world of consumer tech, plus the virtual…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDFacebook and Twitter Finally Respond to Trump
New year, new ... coup? On Wednesday, angry supporters of President Trump stormed the US Capitol building and violently disrupted a congressional session to…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDOur 2021 Predictions
You'd be forgiven if the New Year's resolutions you made at the beginning of 2020 haven't exactly panned out. It's been a ridiculous, infuriating year that…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDGift Rap
It's been a rough year, and the typically stressful holiday season is bound to be even more so. You might be having a hard time figuring out what gifts to give…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDRide Share’s Road Ahead
Uber and Lyft had it pretty good in the beginning. The companies could roll out their services to new cities, entice a bunch of drivers and riders to their…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDPedal Revolution
Ebikes are having a moment. Today's electric bikes are powerful, elegant, maneuverable, and, as battery technology improves, they're able to ride for miles and…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDApple Chips Ahoy
Another month, another Apple event. This time around, we saw three new Macs, all with a shiny new chip inside them. Apple's M1 processor is a great big leap…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDConsole Wars
Consoles: They're new, they're shiny, they'll be here next week. Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X launch a couple days apart, and together…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDCar Talk
On November 3, Massachusetts voters will get to weigh in on Question 1, a proposal on the ballot that would make the data on a car’s computer available to…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDGoogle and the Government
This week, the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against Google. It accuses the company of stifling competition and operating a near-monopoly on…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe iPhones 12
Less than a month after its last hardware event, Apple held another one this week where it announced a slate of new iPhones. The standout feature of all four…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDBattling Burnout
Trying to be a functional human being in 2020 can feel exhausting. Our devices send us constant notifications, social media demands all our attention, and even…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDInvasion of the Home Drone
In the past few weeks, we’ve seen hardware announcements from Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. In them, there’s been a lot of emphasis on gadgets and…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe TikTok Dance
In August, Trump signed executive orders that labeled both TikTok and another Chinese-owned app, WeChat, as national security threats. Unless they could broker…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDApple Bundles Up
Apple's September product events are usually noteworthy for their hardware announcements. But this year, like with just about everything else, was different…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDConnected Cardio
Even before the pandemic, Peloton was the clear leader in connected, at-home workout equipment. So it was really no surprise that when gyms closed down and…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDTech the Vote
Whether you're prepared for it or not, the United States is hurtling toward another presidential election. Like just about everything in 2020, the voting…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDAlexa, Play My Alibi
As smart speakers for the home continue to grow in popularity, police departments have started to take notice. Now, whenever attorneys and law enforcement…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDLet’s Talk About Texts
Maybe you aren't a political dissident engaging in top secret conversations over text messages. But if you care about privacy, you should probably be using…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Foldable Future
This week, Microsoft's dual screen Surface Duo became available for sale. Like many other folding devices, the Duo has been marketed as a product for busy…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWe Love Cheap Phones
Used to be that if you wanted a new phone, you had to choose between something cheap and something good. But a recent slate of smartphones like the new Google…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDAmazon’s Hidden Prime Secrets
If you have an Amazon Prime membership (maybe it’s where you’ve been buying all your toilet paper during the pandemic) then you’re likely aware of the key…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDTick Tock, TikTok
All the kids are talking about it. And now, so are government officials and corporate bigwigs. An app typically known for short, clever videos (and lots of…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDGet WIRED: Citizen and the Bizarre World of Live-Streamed Crime
The idea behind the Citizen app is that its users upload videos of the things that are going on in the neighborhood in real time — anything from as a gas leak…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDIntroducing: Get WIRED
Get WIRED is a new podcast about how the future is realized. Each week, we burrow down new rabbit holes to investigate the ways technology is changing our…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDI Stream, You Stream
It’s hard to remember what television on the internet was like before Netflix started streaming original programming on demand. But maybe that fact just…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDI Can't Stop Doomscrolling
Doomscrolling—everybody's doing it! You’re lying in bed, on your phone, trying to fall asleep, but then you end up staying awake for hours as your social media…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDHome Bodies
Getting through this pandemic hasn't been easy. Each day can feel like a slog, especially when, for many people, the necessary shelter-in-place restrictions…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDArrested Developer Event
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference is normally an energetic, bustling affair. This year, of course, things are anything but normal. Instead of live…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDInside the eBananas Scandal
A package showing up on your doorstep normally gives you a little hit of excitement. But for one Massachusetts couple last year, the arrival of each new…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWhen Can I See You Again?
As states and cities lift shelter-in-place restrictions, there’s still so much we don’t know about the coronavirus and how it spreads. Which has left a lot of…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDTech and the Police State
Across the world, millions of people have gathered to protest police brutality and systemic racism after an officer in Minneapolis killed George Floyd, an…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDTrump v. Twitter
A political firestorm erupted this week when Twitter flagged two of President Trump’s tweets about mail-in voting, calling them potentially misleading, and…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDRemote Desktop
Silicon Valley loves its disruption. If any industry was prepared to handle the monumental changes brought on by the coronavirus, it’s big tech. Companies like…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Dark Secrets of a Hacking Hero
In May of 2017, Marcus Hutchins saved the internet. A vicious ransomware attack known as WannaCry had infected computer systems across dozens of countries. It…