Podcasts about what's tech

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates eclipse the imagination as founders of tech behemoths. But being a computer science major isn't the only way to succeed in tech, either as a founder or an executive. Host Sophia Matveeva was initially embarrassed of her status as a non-technical founder when she was building her first business. Now, Tech for Non-Techies is a thriving business. No one expected that, least of all its founder.

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It's raining, it's pouring, and nobody here is snoring! In the wake of Uncle Buck's hernia surgery, you'd best double up on pain meds and put on your poncho in preparation for the deluge of issues as we bring in the following:-Ambush Journalism-Umbrellas-Suicide by Cop-Tech WeekEveryone loves to be the hero. Everyone loves to get in on the action, to participate, to make their contribution. That's fine. I get that. But, not everyone can pull it off in a timely manner, so that it doesn't come off as hackneyed tagging along. That's precisely what happened when Laura Loomer decided to ambush Hilary Clinton during her book signing tour. Now, far be it from me to take pity on Hilary Clinton, but if someone is going to go to the effort of taking her down a peg or two, I'd prefer you at least ACTUALLY take her down a peg or two instead of just rapid-fire shouting the equivalent of two year old political memes in the middle of a mall as you're dragged away by security in a straight jacket. Everyone knows that the emails, Seth Rich, and Benghazi are issues that need to be addressed, but showeing Hilary with spittle isn't going to do it. It's just going to make everyone wish they'd brought their umbrellas. . .What exactly is an umbrella for? You unfurl it, hold it over your head, and it does what? You may be tempted to say "it shields you from rain", but according to Tab, you'd be wrong. Umbrellas are the 'too little, too late' of the preparedness world. They only protect a small portion of your person, and only if you hold it at exactly the right angle, if you even happen to have the thing physically with you when you need it. But, unless you last name is "of the west", is a little rain really going to hurt you that much? I mean, your body is already some very high percentage of water; why would a little more touching the outside of you be a problem? Health advocates are always preaching about hydration, so maybe we're looking at this rain issue the wrong way. Maybe what we need are inverted umbrellas that capture water, filter it, and pump it directly into your veins via an IV. And then, once you're good and hydrated, you can just go inside, which is where you are for 90% of your life anyway, and not worry so much about how much liquid you're coming in contact with. Maybe society would benefit from people just having a little more common sense about the scope and scale of the things that we allow to bug us. Maybe a little common sense would go a long way. And speaking of common sense . . .Time for a thought experiment. You're a college student. You're standing or walking in a parking lot, carrying a tool that, in your mind, isn't really suited as a weapon. Suddenly, police officers converge on you, and instruct you to put down the tool. They have handguns drawn and aimed at you. What do you do? Well, if you're smart, you put down the tool and attempt to find out what's going on. Now, why would you do the opposite and NOT put down the tool? That's what I'd like to know. Because this, or something resembling this, took place and the kid decided not only to not put down the "knife", but started advancing towards the police, instructing them to "shoot me". In waht world does that set of actions make any sense? But, on the flip side of that coin, in what world does a kid with a multi-tool warrant a bullet to the chest? As we discuss in the episode, I get that an officer has no way of knowing a person's intentions, and little means of knowing whether or not that person has another, more deadly weapon concealed, but it seems like a stretch to think that a confused student slowly shambling towards you necessitates the use of lethal force. I'm sure we'll hear from every armchair law enforcement specialist out there on this one.Tab's been a busy guy this week. Why? It's Tech week. What's Tech week? It's the week when the tech guys at the theater essentially forego sleep in favor of nailing down all of the last minute bugs. And, this week in particular, is when Tab has precisely zero free time, yet still made the time to record an episode with us, so instead of a long write-up about tech week, how about you listen to what he has to say about it, and throw him a 'thanks', or at least some sympathy.We get some great call-ins about a handful of topics, spanning a number of prior episodes. Who paid an absolutely absurd amount of money to drive on a shoddy road? You'll have to listen to this week's episode to find out!

Over the past couple years web security has become a staple of the nightly news. The stories usually hinge on government leaks, foreign hackers, or web encryption. There’s menacing subtext that practically everything put online is vulnerable to “cyber attacks.” Though one might wonder what steps are being taken to protect not just the government and giant corporations, but you, the individual. What keeps you safe when you stumble your way into a Wikipedia hole or click a strange link sent from a friend? To find out, I invited my colleague Russell Brandom to talk about web security, and particularly HTTPS. As Russell explains, while your information isn’t necessarily less vulnerable, websites themselves are becoming safer. This is a dense topic, but fortunately Russell brought a helpful metaphor. It involves pie. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our most sacred and special task as human beings is to document our own existence with a single-minded dedication. That's why we have massive iCloud photo libraries, 15GB of video of that really cool Springsteen concert on our phones, Instagram accounts for ourselves, our pets, and our alter egos, and dusty yearbooks stacked up in our closets. The latest in this personal digital archive: personal GIFs. Apps like Boomerang, Motion Stills, Giphy, DSCO, and more help us make GIFs and other short, looping videos of life's most precious moments. And of course, of life's most 'grammable sammies. The Verge tech reporter and gadget blog queen Ashley Carman joined me (Kaitlyn Tiffany, your friendly Chris Plante stand-in) in the single-stall What's Tech recording booth this week to compare sweat mustaches and GIF-creation techniques. We had a nice conversation about art, technology, ourselves, and the utility of acronyms. If you tune in, you'll also learn a little something about the future of keepsakes! It's a good, emotional time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here at The Verge, we love Halloween and everything about it. Horror movies, non-horror seasonal movies, seasonal beverages, seasonal bots, this Pumpkin Guy, horrifying makeup tutorials, poop-shaped candy — bring it on. In particular, we love to be scared. It gives us a sweet little adrenaline burst to get us across the daunting dark tundra of November to April. This Hallo-season, senior entertainment reporter Bryan Bishop has embarked on a journey to find the most immersive, creative, and high-tech scares in all of Los Angeles. In a new series called "The Future of Fear," he's taking us all where we're too East Coast or too chicken to go. These aren't your grandma's haunted houses (although Bryan and I will both stan for the original Haunted Mansion at Disney World, may it live forever). I love Halloween so much I, Kaitlyn Tiffany took over the seat usually warmed by your friendly neighborhood What's Tech host Chris Plante. You can't tell from the audio, but I wore a blazer to the recording because I take Halloween very seriously! Bryan told me about all the terrible things he's subjected himself to this fall, and it was delightful even while it shook me to my core. Basically, it's a haunted house of a podcast and don't listen to it before bed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Samsung has officially recalled the Galaxy Note 7 worldwide, after more than 90 of the large smartphones in the US overheated due to defective batteries. Overheating is, in this case, an understatement, as some owners have claimed their smartphones outright exploded. Exploding lithium-ion batteries actually aren’t so uncommon. As my colleagues Angela Chen and Lauren Goode noted earlier this month, there are many ways for a lithium-ion battery to become dangerous, and they aren’t limited to any one smartphone or electronic device. “An exploding phone seems like a freak accident,” write Chen and Goode, “but the same chemical properties that make batteries work also make them likely to catch fire.” To learn more about the lithium-ion batteries, I invited The Verge’s science reporter Angela Chen to the show. We talk about how manufacturers are pushing the battery to its limit, and what alternatives we may see in the future. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I didn’t take many selfies until I downloaded Snapchat. But like so many people I’ve fallen in love with lenses, the optional tools that make my face look like a dog or an emoji or an advertisement for junk food. Now, a day doesn’t go by that I don’t mug into my front-facing camera. The magic of lenses is how they erase the perception of the selfie as an act of narcissism — an insipid criticism that comes from a certain clump of people who feel the need to bash people for showing a fleck of confidence. Why didn’t I take selfies? I was too embarrassed. Anyway! I digress! I’m clearly fascinated by the popularity and power of lenses, so I invited my friend and colleague Ashley Carman to the show. We talk about the potential of the lens, and the possible future of a would-be gimmick that has birthed a broader pop culture trend. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Late last month, news broke of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. Orbiting the closest star to our Solar System, there’s a lot to love about Proxima b since it shares a few key traits with our own home planet. But before we start making intergalactic vacation plans, let’s pump the space-brakes: half the planet is locked in darkness, it’s pelted by radiation from close proximity to its sun, and the rock is 25 trillion miles away. Our current best option for sending a probe there involves a laser-propelled space-sail, which would reduce travel time from tens of thousands of years to 20. Which is to say, while potentially astonishing, even the best case scenario seems like a long-shot for our lifetime. To explain Proxima Centauri b, I invited my friend and colleague Loren Grush onto the show. This is, I think, the first episode in which we don’t talk about the Nic Cage film Knowing, so just keep that in mind. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first trailer for No Man’s Sky, published in December 2013, promised a universe with enough planets, creatures, and vegetation that it could not be fully explored by one player in a lifetime. The hype was immediate, and it only continued to build with each month between the game’s announcement and its release this summer. This, some fans speculate, could be a game that lasts forever. My buddy Austin Walker concisely dismantled that logic at Vice before the game’s release, but No Man’s Sky has nonetheless attracted a good deal of controversy. To explain the game, and the community’s reaction, I invited my colleague Andrew Webster to the show. Andrew wrote a great series on his time in the game that I encourage you to enjoy along with the podcast. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine if grocery shopping was just another online subscription service, like Netflix or Spotify. You complete a survey, sharing your likes and dislikes, and the platform sends, week after week, precisely measured portions of proteins, veggies, fruits, oils, and spices required to make dinner and the necessary recipes to alchemize these ingredients into Food Network-level dinners. My friend and colleague Kaitlyn Tiffany lived this modern spin on the home cook life this past spring, after she volunteered to review the many "fresh box" food delivery programs currently available. Plated, PeachDish, Blue Apron, Purple Carrot, Hello Fresh: a neighbor has probably tried to convince you to adopt one of the platforms, claiming the over-packaged nourishment saves precious hours each week. But are the services all they cracked out to be? Or is the future life in our home pleasure prisons, never leaving, always waiting for deliveries? Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new round of video game consoles has began last week with the release of Microsoft’s One S. The slim, white hardware is a minor upgrade to the original Xbox One, and the predecessor to next year’s flashier upgrade, codenamed Project Scorpio. Next month, Sony is expected to announce its own update for the PlayStation 4, codenamed Neo. If it feels a little early in a generation of consoles to be talking about dropping cash on the next great thing, you’re right. But these consoles don’t follow the traditional cycle of new video game hardware, which last around seven years. They’re more iterative. Microsoft’s hardware is built around backwards compatibility with Xbox One, and its expected that PlayStation Neo will play PlayStation 4 games. The new era of game consoles is closer to smartphones: a variety of annually updated hardware with a variety of features that shares same large, ongoing collection of apps. To talk about the ways these new game consoles are similar and different from the hardware of the past, I invited my friend and colleague Megan Farokhamnesh to the show. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listenon Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I had never heard of Nextdoor when I lived in New York City. Social media services catering to individual neighborhoods weren’t useful in an apartment building where most tenants lasted a year, and longtime residents kept to themselves. In my first year in Texas, however, I’ve regularly relied on Nextdoor, along with my neighborhood’s private Facebook group and the handful of sites that provide hyper-local support. I’m not the first to say local online forums are the bulletin boards and community papers of our times. They allow neighbors to promote garage sales, find babysitters, or request help to find a lost dog. They’re far from perfect, but in my experience they have helped lower the barrier between me and my community. To talk about online neighborhood groups, I invited my colleague Ben Popper to the show. Popper is our business editor and has covered Nextdoor a few times, but he’s also a member of his own share of local online communities. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud or Spotify, orsubscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For 72 episodes, What’s Tech has invited guests to explain technology and its cultural periphery — from drones and fan fiction to ASMR and biohacking. We were bound to make a podcast about podcasts eventually. This was inevitable. For this momentous occasion, our guest is Alex Goldman, co-host of one of my favorite podcasts, Reply All. After you listen, visit Reply All’s publisher Gimlet Media, which is responsible for a number of the best examples of the podcasting form. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud or Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pokémon Go had a week unlike any video game I’ve covered in my career. Here’s a collection of the posts we penned last week, ranging from players finding dead bodies to Craigslist entrepreneurs selling pre-played accounts. My friend and former boss Chris Grant wrote about the staggering demand for coverage at our sister-site Polygon. In "Some thoughts on Nintendo’s big week," Grant contextualized the game within Nintendo’s unusual year. And he noted how Pokémon Go inspired the most popular posts not simply on the video game outlet, but across Vox Media, from The Verge to Racked to Vox.com. But why? And how? And when will this moment pass, or has it already? I invited our Games Editor and Pokémon expert Andrew Webster onto the show to provide background on the phenomenon, and speculate as to what its future might look like. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud or Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a teenager, my only interaction with the world of webcomics was Achewood. Launched in 2001 and published sporadically ever since, Achewood is like Seinfeld crossed with Adult Swim. It felt for me in the early 2000s like this lone, weird thing. A few years later, around when I got my first writing gig, I realized how much bigger webcomics were than the stories of Téodor and Cornelius. I inevitably came across Penny Arcade and the rush of video game-inspired webcomics its inspired. And after that, I found people on Twitter and Tumblr and other platforms, all of whom created beautiful, weird, powerful art. It took me awhile to get into webcomics, but the gradual epiphany is one of the internet’s great pleasure. You look at one star in the sky, and as your eyes adapt to the darkness, you discover this dot is part of a crowded constellation. This week, I invited my friend, colleague, and webcomic artist Dami Lee to talk about the format. Webcomics literally changed the direction of her life. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud or Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Is The Bachelor tech?" You might ask this question while listening to this week’s episode of What’s Tech, a podcast that provides introductory explainers into the many pockets of technology and the culture around them. I believe the answer is yes. The Bachelor series has aired for over 14 years and spun-off numerous programs, totaling over 35 seasons, but its most recent surge of critical significance stems from the rise of social media. Who watches The Bachelor and how they watch it have changed dramatically since the first episode has aired. Credit belongs to an expanding ecosystem of critics, fans, and former participants that meet any given Monday. To explain, I invited my colleague Kaitlyn Tiffany to the show. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud or Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My entire body clenches when I hear the word doxxing. Each time I write something that, for whatever reason, upsets a corner of the internet, I wonder if my personal information — phone numbers, address, social security number, credit card information — will be made public, or doxxed. And if it is made public, then how will it be used? Even though our identities on the internet are more public than ever, we are still individually afforded a certain amount of privacy. Our passwords, our forum names, our Google habits: these are, for most of us, secret. And because they are secret, people on the internet can threaten their reveal as a form of harassment. That’s the sticky core of doxxing; the erasure of one’s sense of privacy, and with it, safety. This method of publishing personal information has become more mainstream, alongside the ubiquity of the internet. So, to spread awareness, I invited my colleague and security expert Russell Brandom to discuss the origins of doxxing, how it has evolved, and why people use doxxing today. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud or Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was a teenager in the days of Napster and LimeWire, when illegal files flowed through the internet like free hamburgers through a freshman dormitory orientation session. I didn't understand the legality of file sharing, let alone the technical explanation of how it worked. Peer-to-peer file distribution has changed over the years. Though I feel more savvy to the legal issues, I am no less dumbfounded by how it all works. That’s why I invited my colleague Ashley Carman onto this week’s show. She provides a brief history of file sharing, then explains how torrenting works in the present. Is it legal? Who does it hurt? Why do people use it? We have answers to all that and more. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud or Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For longer than I would like to admit, I thought Raspberry Pi was a dessert. I'm not proud of that. Fortunately, I eventually learned what Raspberry Pi actually is, and though it's not nearly as tasty, it's just as exciting: an affordable, customizable computer the size of a credit card. Raspberry Pi has changed how thousands of people tinker with and learn about computers. People have used the hardware to create Game Boy emulators and synthesizers, tiny cameras and jukeboxes. To learn more about Raspberry Pi and how the hardware is changing computer education, I invited my pal and colleague, The Verge video director Miriam Nielsen, to the show. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud or Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Share on Facebook Tweet Share Pin Drake is a former child actor, current pop star, and the secular god of memes — even if he denounces that last label. Born Aubrey Drake Graham, the Canadian celebrity has been inescapable, not just for fans of music, but enthusiasts of technology. That's because Drake is a meeting point of the two. To talk about Drake's give-take relationship with technology — specifically social media — I invited my friend and colleague Jamieson Cox onto this week's episode of What's Tech. Jamieson is one of my favorite music critics, and as an added bonus, shares the same hometown as Drake, and nearly the same birthday. None of this is relevant, but this is my post, gosh dang it, and I'll include what I want. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud or Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A couple weeks ago, my friend and colleague Bryan Bishop visited Las Vegas for a flashy conference called CinemaCon, where movie studios and theater owners discuss the future of the film industry — a future that isn't as predictable as it used to be. Many theater owners worry that in the age of streaming, the cineplex will become less relevant. The message from studios, however, was clear: theater owners have nothing to fear, because studios still believe big, communal screens are the true home of movies. Of course, that's not entirely true. Over the past decade, more and more movies have been released directly to VOD, or video-on-demand. VOD is a large umbrella of a format, covering everything from online streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon, to the On Demand section on your cable box. The format has grown dramatically, over the years, in terms of users, but also in terms of reach and power. Movies transition from theaters to home viewing formats faster than ever. And Sean Parker, known for his involvement in Napster and Facebook, is pitching a service called the Screening Room that would allow people with a $150 set-top box to stream movies that are currently in theaters for a $50 flat fee. So, James Cameron may have been sincere when took the stage at this event to allay concerns about threats to the relevancy of the traditional movie theater. But studios are not so quietly trying to glean their best options from a murky future. To provide us some context and prediction, I invited Bryan onto this week's episode of What's Tech. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you own a smartphone or have a Facebook account, odds are you've played a free-to-play game. Maybe you grew crops in Farmville or scrimmaged in Clash of Clans. If you're anything like me, one of those city-building games (the kind that publishers shrewdly pair with a popular intellectual property like The Simpsons or Star Wars), has sunk its claws into your free time and shredded it into gory pulp. Odds are you haven't, however, paid for your free-to-play games. The format, which makes money from secondary purchases inside of the game after its been downloaded for free, only sees purchases from 2.2 percent of its players, according to 2014 report by Swrve. This year's Swrve report has an even more seemingly grim stat: nearly half of free-to-play revenue comes from 0.19 percent of players. So with those numbers in mind, why is free-to-play gaming still popular amongst some of the industry's best and smartest video game publishers? And why might it be the dominant revenue model for big publishers in the future? I invited my friend and colleague Andrew Webster to explain on this week's episode of What's Tech. Subscribe to What's Tech? on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech? stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, The Verge launched a gadget blog. It's called Circuit Breaker, and you can read about its origin and purpose in The New York Times. Paul Miller, the editor of Circuit Breaker, has spoken a lot this week about the broader hopes and ambitions for the new site. But ever the dullard, I wanted to learn the basics: what is a gadget blog, anyway? I invited Miller onto the show to get an answer. Miller co-launched The Verge years ago, and before that he worked for Engadget, one of the original gadget blogs. In today's episode we talk about how that site and other former gadget blogs evolved and expanded over the past decade, and why Miller and his crew are returning to the looser, faster, scrappier format. After you give the show a listen, be sure to visit Circuit Breaker on its two homes: The Verge and Facebook. Subscribe to What's Tech? on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech? stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2016 is shaping up to be the year of the bot. Late last month, Microsoft made a big bet on tools that will help developers create artificial intelligence software meant to improve the lives of humans by completing small tasks, and last week Facebook launched an entire bot platform for its communication tool, Messenger. I invited my buddy and colleague Casey Newton — who wrote one of my favorite features on bots — to explain the technology. Newton has some predictions for the applications of bots that I think you'll find interesting. But in the meantime, the most useful bots may be the ones that just order a pizza. The episode pairs well with our recent episode on artificial intelligence, so be sure to give that a listen, too! Subscribe to What's Tech? on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech? stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For nearly 60 episodes, one question has persisted through What's Tech: what is happening in the ending of Steven Spielberg's 2001 sci-fi film A.I. Artificial Intelligence? To settle the question once and for all, I invited my friend and artificial intelligence expert, Sam Byford, to appear on the show. Sadly, as you will hear me learn, Sam Byford is in expert in actual artificial intelligence, not the film Artificial Intelligence. Truth is, he's never even seen the film. But that's okay. This is still one of my favorite episodes of What's Tech, as Byford shares what it was like to attend the recent match-up of human Go champion Lee Se-dol and artificial intelligence AlphaGo. As for the ending of A.I., I'm sure we'll have an answer in the next 60 episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I love Slack, the mega-popular corporate-friendly chat client. I love it so much that I desperately want to delete it from my phone, because I can't help but check its messages every hour of every day. Yesterday night, I responded to a message at 3AM. Lol, I have no self-control and this is a cry for help! Anywho, Slack is still so new that it's possible you haven't heard of, let alone used, the service, which I describe to newcomers as something between text messaging, AOL chatrooms, and AIM — it's no less addicting than a combination of the three. I invited my buddy, colleague, and Slack expert Casey Newton to tell me more about the app, and more importantly, guide me onto a road of self-improvement. Subscribe to What's Tech? on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech? stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Sunday the WWE will host the Super Bowl of professional wrestling. Wrestlemania will takeover the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, which has a maximum capacity of 105,000. If things go as the WWE plans, the show will be the biggest pro wrestling event in history. That's only partly why you should tune in. After decades of ups-and-downs, pro wrestling is expanding beyond the ring, becoming a superhero-like universe of comedy shows, gaming streams, and reality programs. Wrestlemania is the culmination of storylines that span thousands of hours of live and prerecorded events and programs — and is somehow made accessible to newcomers. I will actually be in attendance. I haven't been passionate about pro wrestling since childhood, but I've always heard that Wrestlemania — like the Kentucky Derby, a NASCAR race, and competitive noodling — is a sporting event that must be experienced in person. To prepare, I invited my friend and colleague Bill Hanstock to appear on this week's What's Tech. Hanstock is the wrestling editor at SB Nation and Cageside Seats, and hosts pro wrestling podcast Rudo Radio. Hanstock is a passionate evangelist for the sport, and he provides countless reasons why now is the best time to welcome pro wrestling into your life. Wrestlemania 32 begins Sunday at 7PM ET. You can watch it the old-fashioned way on pay-per-view, or stream via the WWE Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My colleague Adi Robertson, I recently learned, is a fan of oddball transportation. On our work trip to the Sundance Film Festival, she gleefully introduced me to the funicular, a small and nicely furnished box that travels up and down a cliffside on a steel track, like a rollercoaster pushing through molasses. The funicular, she told me with the confidence of an expert in these things, was cool, but not nearly as cool as the PRT. Robertson had been traveling elsewhere in the country to research personal rapid transit. In West Virginia, she actually got to ride on a PRT, which is sort of like a subway, but different in two crucial ways: each vehicle is roughly the size of a car, and each goes directly to your destination — no unnecessary stops. You can now read Robertson's feature, "The Road Not Taken." For the audio-inclined, we also recorded this episode of What's Tech. Subscribe to What's Tech? on iTunes, listen on SoundCloud, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories at http://www.theverge.com/whatstech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Normally we publish What's Tech on Tuesday morning, but we couldn't hold next week's episode until then. A federal court has requested Apple help the FBI gain access to the contents of an iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple has refused. For some, the issue appears, at first glance, quite cut and dry: Apple should do everything in its power to help the FBI. But the case is more complex than a company collaborating with the government, and plays into a larger and ongoing debate about encryption and privacy. I recorded this episode with The Verge's Russell Brandom last week, so we don't address Apple specifically, but the episode does provide the crucial context for conversations you're likely to have at the office coffee machine or family dinner table. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am perpetually envious of my friend and colleague Sam Byford. He lives in Tokyo, and has access to new Hatsune Miku vinyls, Nintendo 3DS limited editions, and Sega arcades. His is the technological life I wish I could live. There's one gadget, however, Sam says I can and should buy today in the States: a traditional film camera. I invited Sam to What's Tech? to defend this suspicious claim, and I admit, his love for the classic camera is contagious. To learn how you can get started with a film camera, give the show a listen. And afterwards, stop by iTunes and give us a review. It goes a long way to introducing What's Tech? to more listeners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emoji have become such an everyday part of my life that I can't remember my iPhone keyboard without the adorable icons. The tiny cartoon characters have been my go-to solution for Poe's Law, a way for me to express that my text messages should be read with the sobriety of a smiley face farting a stack of flying money. As is a recurring theme on What's Tech, I know little about the emoji despite relying on them. Are emoji the descendants of the ASCII art of the 1990s, or do they stem from the emoticons of AOL Instant Messenger? I invited The Verge Senior Editor Ross Miller to explain the origin of emoji, how they became so ubiquitous, and what I must do to create an emoji of my own. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uber is an ideal topic for an episode of What's Tech. It's a ubiquitous piece of technology that millions of people use across the planet. But even intelligent veteran tech executives throw around the name without really knowing what it represents. We've heard about "the Uber for tailors," "the Uber for trucking," and "the Uber for alcohol," along with countless other wannabes. Sometimes it seems all Uber lacks is a white cat and secret lair. And despite all of this, I now and then use the service. What is it about Uber that has me coming back, even while knowing about the company's less savory method? I invited The Verge's Uber expert Casey Newton to explain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I love my new camera, even though I have little understanding of how it works. I recently wrote about the Fuji X100T, which I swear is less complicated than its Terminator-esque name would have you believe. I love how it looks, how it feels, how its pictures look like the photographs I used to take on my mother's SLR. Plus, the X100T is so easy to use, that my not knowing much about its inner workings, or even some assumed photography basics, doesn't prevent me from enjoying the experience of photography. In fact, it's been a belated re-entry point. Now, I want to know the nitty-gritty — even if I don't have to. To learn about the scope of cameras, I invited resident photography expert Sean O'Kane to this week's episode of What's Tech. But beware, this week's episode begins with a particularly spooky story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If only new episodes of What's Tech appeared on Mondays, we could have run this week's explanation of the Singularity on 4/20. That would have been appropriate. This is, after all, the strangest thing we've recorded — and our pilot involved a man almost crashing a drone into a woman and her child. This week, I invited The Verge's video, binaural audio, and singularity expert Ryan Manning to discuss a possible future in which a technological singularity occurs. Will we achieve a higher form of consciousness? Or will artificial intelligence view humanity as a bump on its infinite road of self-improvement? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don't smoke. At least, don't start smoking because of this episode. Vaping has become a niche of tech culture, to the point that I can't attend a press event without getting lost in a plume of root beer flavored vapors. I don't particularly enjoy the stench, but I am curious to know how electronic cigarettes became so popular, so fast. On this week's episode of What's Tech, The Verge's Executive Editor and resident smoker explains vaping. Is it healthier than smoking? Can it be used to fight nicotine addictions? Is vaping a sport? We'll get to the heart of a probably unhealthy habit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back in the Bohn Zone this week. Nilay is away, but Dieter, Ross, Chris, and Sam are here to weave a tapestry of technology and pop culture, with a very professional introduction to kick it all off. Plus, this episode features the premiere of What's Tech, Chris Plante's new podcast. If you like What's Tech, be sure to subscribe on iTunes, or paste this feed into your favorite podcast app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices