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 | WIREDOn the Road Again
While every economic sector in America has been upended by the coronavirus, few have been hit as hard as the transit and food service industries. It's not so…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Argument for Making End-of-Life Decisions Early
Back in March, counter-culture icon and founder of the Whole Earth Catalog Stewart Brand made a statement on Twitter that surprised some people: He had…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDOpen For Business
Depending on where you live, the stores, parks, playgrounds, and offices in your area could be shut down for the rest of this summer. Or, they could all be…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWill Contact Tracing Work?
Even amid a global pandemic, the world of tech keeps on turning. Some companies have responded directly to the outbreak, offering up smartphone-based contact…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Race to Make a Vaccine
Researchers around the world are toiling to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. But the creation of a working vaccine that can be safely distributed to a…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDSupply Demand
The coronavirus outbreak is accelerating in the United States. According to projections, the number of Covid-19 cases in the US is expected to peak around the…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDPandemic Panic
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be hard to keep track of what's real and what's not. There is a constant deluge of news from across the world…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Generation Gap
As the number of coronavirus-caused quarantines has spiked across the globe, people are being driven into isolation en masse. In some countries, social…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDSocially Distanced
As COVID-19 sweeps across the world, it has prompted thousands of people to isolate themselves to avoid spreading the virus. This week on Gadget Lab, we look…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDIs Facebook Forever?
Facebook started in 2004 as a simple network for connecting students at Harvard University. At the time, nobody could have predicted that it would grow to…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThere’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior writer and former show host Arielle Pardes drops by to talk about how Silicon Valley has ruined work culture. Then WIRED…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Anti-Bias Bot
Many companies say they want to diversify their workforce. Far fewer have actually succeeded in doing so, even if they're earnestly trying. And one of the…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDSmartphone Launch Events Are Silly
On Tuesday of this week Samsung held its annual Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco. It did what most tech companies set out to do when they host a big…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Virus and the Vote
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED digital director Brian Barrett joins us to talk about the app that derailed the Iowa caucus—and what it means for elections to…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDEverything Old Is New Again
It doesn’t take much to make people nostalgic anymore. With the rapid pace of technological advancement, folks get whimsical for even their clunky cell phones…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDOpen Wide for Mouth Tech
There's money in your mouth. Figuratively speaking (we hope). A growing number of startups and full-fledged companies are looking to bring their smart…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDOne Wheel, Zero Buttons
There’s an old joke about Steve Jobs, that he never wore a suit because he hated buttons. There’s some truth to that old trope about designers always trying to…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDBest of CES
CES, the all-consuming tech trade show, took over Las Vegas this week. Convention halls and hotels were jam packed with shiny gizmos, bleeding-edge technology…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDSex Toys and Toothbrushes
Next week, we’ll be bound for the largest consumer electronics showcase of the season. CES starts on January 7 in Las Vegas, and we’ll be heading into the fray…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDOur Favorite Stuff from 2019, Plus Our 2020 Predictions
2019 was a tumultuous time for technology. While product engineers created hybrid franken-gadgets and software companies turned nearly everything into a…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Case for Cassava
The cassava plant is one of the most important food sources in the world. In Africa, it sustains 500 million people and provides a stable income for farmers…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDGoing Places
In May, Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer run by billionaire Elon Musk, filed a patent to put lasers on its cars. While this might sound like a step…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDLife After Facebook
Former Facebook bigwig Chris Cox has been busy. In March, Cox left his position as chief product officer of the social media giant, where he had overseen…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDFinally, We Can ‘Like’ Apple’s Keyboards Again
Tech companies say they want to serve their customers, but sometimes they’re curiously resistant to fixing problems with their products. Their solutions can be…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWhen Big Tech Buys Your Darlings
Given all the criticism, mistrust, and investigations that have been levied at Facebook in the past couple years, one might think that they would do their best…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDDeep Listening
The way we listen to audio has evolved with technology. Headphones, once bulky skull-huggers that kept us plugged into a device, are going increasingly…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDYouTube Creators Want More From YouTube
Without video creators, YouTube wouldn’t be one of the world’s biggest social platforms. Without the platform, YouTubers wouldn’t be, well, YouTubers. But…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDFacial Recognition Tech Is Coming to a School Near You
Despite a lack of evidence that more technology makes kids safer, facial recognition technology may soon be coming to a school near you. It’s part of a growing…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDIt's Time to Put Down Your Phone
How long have you gone without checking your phone in the past week? 10, 15, maybe 20 minutes while you’re awake? Our screens have commandeered our eyeballs…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDPanos Panay Says Microsoft’s New Phone Isn’t a Phone
Microsoft surprised just about everyone this week by showing off a pair of new mobile devices with two screens apiece. The pocketable Surface Duo and the…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDSpot, the Robot Dog, Learns New Tricks
For 25 years, Boston Dynamics has been building robots and releasing videos of the terrifying things running around, opening doors, and fending off…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDYour DNA Belongs on the Blockchain
You may not realize it, but when you send a spit-filled tube off to a lab that’s going to analyze your DNA, you’re linking the most unique identifier possible…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDiPhones to the Max
New iPhones! A shinier Apple Watch! So many camera lenses! On this week’s episode of Gadget Lab, it’s Apple week yet again. Lauren, Mike, and Arielle discuss…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDHow Uber Went Down in Flames
Once upon a time, there was a true unicorn, a startup named Uber. Led by CEO Travis Kalanick, the company broke all the rules of business and truly disrupted…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWhy It’s So Hard to Unlink Yourself From Facebook
If you have both an Instagram and Facebook account, chances are they are connected, whether you like it or not. But what if you didn’t connect them in the…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDYou’ve Got Microplastics
Plastic is everywhere. No, really, it is everywhere. Tiny bits of plastic waste, called microplastic, have come to permeate nearly every part of the planet. We…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDHow Google’s Secrecy Lead to Company Turmoil
For years, Google has flourished in large part because of its famously open internal structure. Leadership encouraged active and vocal communication between…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDAmazon's Quest for World Domination
Amazon didn’t become the behemoth it is by accident. Its services, like Amazon Prime, and products, like the Echo smart speaker, were designed to learn…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDBumps in the Road to Our Robo-Car Future
From fledgling startups to automotive giants like General Motors, there’s a whole lot of companies looking to develop fully self-driving cars. But that goal is…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWhy New York’s Revenge Porn Law Is Flawed
This week, New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill criminalizing the spread of nonconsensual pornography, or revenge porn. WIRED’s Emma Grey…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDTwitter’s Redesign Is Impressive. Is It Enough?
On Monday, Twitter began rolling out its first desktop redesign in seven years. It was a mostly aesthetic makeover, with changes like a new layout, dark mode…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDFacebook's Libra and the Future of Money
Last month, Facebook announced its plans to get into the cryptocurrency race with Libra. A blend of blockchain and partnership with 28 companies, Libra has…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDRebalancing Our Relationship With Tech
This week, a conversation with Aza Raskin, cofounder of the Center for Humane Technology at Stanford University, about the “asymmetric power relationships”…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDA Genius Move
If you thought an internet giant stole your hard work and claimed it as their own, how would you ever prove it? Well, what if you could booby trap the…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Biggest News From E3
This week was E3, the trade show where the biggest names in gaming debut their latest shiny products and software. On this week’s Gadget Lab podcast, WIRED’s…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDEverything From Apple’s WWDC
The iPhone is still undoubtedly Apple’s most important product. So why were some of the biggest announcements this week at the company’s annual developers…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDMaking Surfing More Sustainable
The great irony in the sport of surfing is that the process of making a surfboard puts a great deal of strain on the environment. The various chemicals and…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDSamsung’s Innovation Dilemma
What’s a giant consumer electronics maker to do when it notices that younger customers are more interested in paying for experiences, rather than things?…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDYouTube’s Latest Beauty Scandal
Beauty product reviews on YouTube aren’t just about beauty products and internet capitalism. They’re a conduit for drama, loyalty politics, and “cancel”…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDIf You Build It, They Will I/O
Developer conferences aren’t just a chance for tech companies to incentivize app makers and show off the latest tricks and tools in software. The events also…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Making of Adam Savage
You might know Adam Savage as the co-host of the television show MythBusters, as the editor of Tested.com, or as the host of countless web videos that show him…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDPreserving Your Right to Repair Your Gadgets
What happens when your drop your phone and shatter the screen? Or when its battery starts to grow noticeably weaker? These common technological woes are things…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDWhat Happens to Uber After Its IPO?
Uber filed to go public this week. No big surprise there; everyone in the industry has been waiting months for the ride-hailing giant to hit the accelerator on…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDIntroducing Citadel Dropouts: A Game of Thrones Podcast
We’re confused about what exactly this hoped-for Targaryen Restoration is about, politically. And is Game of Thrones, like, good anymore? Laura Hudson and…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDReporting From Syria
This week, we’re joined by a special guest: freelance war correspondent Kenneth R. Rosen. Ken is working on a series of stories for WIRED about the…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDThe Case for Male Birth Control
Hormonal male contraception is not a new idea––in fact, researchers have been working on solutions for men the pill was invented for women. But early tests…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDGame On at Google
Google’s Project Stream, first unveiled last October, gave gamers a taste of what it would be like to stream heavy games directly from the cloud – from a…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDFlickr Cofounder Questions Big Tech
“Should this exist?” is not typically a question that technologists ask themselves, Caterina Fake says. The Flickr cofounder-turned-investor says that most…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDHow to Quit Your Tech Job
Jessica Powell was the top communications executive at Google when she found herself Googling, in no uncertain search terms, how to quit her job at Google. She…
Uncanny Valley | WIREDAlex Kipman’s Holographic Tendencies
Microsoft just unveiled a brand new product, but it really doesn’t want to hype it. That’s according to Alex Kipman, technical fellow at Microsoft who is…