Wired Storyboard Audio Podcast: Recent Episodes
Wired
Wired Storyboard: Are you Wired? Want to know what really went on in making this month's magazine? Wired's editors, writers and designers take you deep into the stories they've been working on for a behind-the-scenes look at the latest issue. Join this podcast for an in-depth look at the tech, science, gadgets and culture stories by the people behind Wired magazine.
Andrew Blum talks to senior editor Adam Rogers about his book Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet.
Terence Samuel talks to senior editor Adam Rogers about covering the 2012 election for The Washington Post.
Director Rich Moore talks to senior editor Caitlin Roper about assembling an all-star cast of video game characters for the new movie Wreck-It Ralph.
Astronomer Geoff Marcy talks to senior editor Adam Rogers about the possibility of intelligent life on other planets—and how to find it.
Science writer David Quammen talks to senior editors Adam Rogers and Bill Wasik about the growing threat of zoonotic diseases.
Senior editor Adam Rogers and composer Paul Buckley hit the road in search of the meaning of time.
Olympic foil fencer Doris Willette sits down with Adam Rogers to discuss their shared love of the bladed sport.
Author Darcy O’Neil talks to senior editor Adam Rogers about the surprisingly dark history of soda fountains.
America's Cup correspondent Adam Fisher talks to senior editor Adam Rogers about turning sailing's biggest race into compelling live TV.
Veterinarian Monica Murphy and Wired Senior Editor Bill Wasik talk to fellow Senior Editor Adam Rogers about the history, science, and horror of rabies.
Author Charles Yu talks to Wired Senior Editor Adam Rogers about using sci-fi tropes to tell emotional stories...and answers the question of why zombies go to Walmart.
Author Paolo Bacigalupi talks to Wired Senior Editor Adam Rogers about dystopian futures, political sci-fi, and writing for young adults.
Vince Gilligan, creator and showrunner of AMC's hit drama "Breaking Bad," talks to Wired Senior Editor Jason Tanz about the creative process behind the dark drama.
Amy Berg, TV writer who's worked on Eureka and Person of Interest, talks about her trade with Wired Senior Editor Adam Rogers in Los Angeles.
Architect Jennifer Devlin talks to Wired Senior Editor Adam Rogers about the role of the building in the urban landscape.
Wired's Shoshana Berger talks to Wired Senior Editor Adam Rogers about the rise of DIY and design culture, and how a community's built around it.
Legendary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson drops by Storyboard to talk about his new book, '2312,' out May 22. Wired Senior Editor Adam Rogers hosts.
The U.S. National Security Administration's building a massive data center in the Utah desert. James Bamford talks to Wired Senior Editor Adam Rogers about how scary the center's surveillance technology is, and how Bamford was able to learn about it.
Erik Martin talks about the Reddit phenomenon; specifically, how user James Erwin's post piqued Hollywood's interest. Senior Editor Adam Rogers hosts.
Matthew Rowley talks about the culture and creation of moonshine to Wired senior editor Adam Rogers and contributor Nathan Mattise.
Joanna Pearlstein talks to Wired senior editor Adam Rogers about accuracy in journalism.
Brian K. Vaughan talks to Wired senior editor Adam Rogers about a new comic book series.
Silicon Valley coders are no strangers to hackathons: multi-day competitions of idea generating that aim to crank out the Next Big Thing: e.g., Facebook's Like button. This week, Wired writer Steven Leckart joined Adam Rogers to talk about a hackathon's behind-the-scenes ins and outs.
NYC is second to none when it comes to bar culture, and PDT’s Jim Meehan is one of the bartenders who’s shaped it in recent years. He joined Adam Rogers this week to talk all things PDT – the book, the design and the state of the cocktail.
Television writers’ rooms are a world Ben Acker and Ben Blacker know intimately. The duo worked most recently the CW’s Supernatural and they also created The Thrilling Adventure Hour. They join Adam Rogers on this week’s Storyboard to talk TV writing as a craft, then bring the Storyboard to them (to discuss magazine writing with Adam on this week’s Nerdist Writer’s Panel).
Cooley Distillery wants you to lose your preconceived notions of Irish Whiskey. Global Brand Ambassador John Cashman joins Storyboard Engineer Nathan Mattise to discuss the marketplace and what distinguishes the distillery.
New York Editor Jason Tanz joins the podcast to discuss his January feature on Cow Clicker, Ian Bogost’s satire of a social game… that ended up becoming a major social game.
Dave Sanders was a fiber optics salesman who moonlit as a bouncer. Then he decided to take up some work as an executive protection agent. Writer Josh Davis discusses one of the wildest stories of the Wired year.
Senior Editor John Bradley returns to the Storyboard as guest. He and Adam discuss what went into the Wired wishlist and more about the year in gear.
Jon Christensen, the Executive Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford, stops by to discuss the cultural significance of the region.
Director David Fincher is notorious for precise visuals and bleak stories, also a bit of press-shyness. Contributing Editor Brian Raftery got a rare opportunity to spend time with him, the people he’s worked with and the set of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
BBC America recently announced Top Gear’s Richard Hammond has a new show for Spring 2012. “Crash Course” finds Hammond coming to the US and trading speed for power. He joined Storyboard Engineer Nathan Mattise to discuss.
Merrill Garbus combines unique compositions, interesting looping combinations and dance rhythms in each tUnE-yArDs track. She joined the Storyboard to discuss her latest album and more.
TV personality, podcast host and author Chris Hardwick’s latest book, The Nerdist Way, offers advice from his experiences of hitting rock bottom then looking to his nerd roots to get out. He talked that and more on this week’s Storyboard
Even for a master, time travel is tricky business. That didn’t stop Stephen King in his new novel, 11/22/63. He joined Story Editor Sarah Fallon to discuss.
No one is going to eat it, but famed paleontologist Jack Horner hopes to make one. He joined Adam Rogers to discuss his latest research highlighted in the October issue of Wired. div
Whisky’s been seeping into the Wired consciousness more and more lately. Glenmorangie’s Head of Distilling and Whisky Creation, Dr. Bill Lumsden, was in town for SF Whisky Fest and stopped by to discuss. div
Stop your diet. We’re all losing weight, literally. Just not the way you think. The standard much of the world uses to measure it is mysteriously getting lighter. Writer Jonathon Keats explores that and the related quest to create a constant kilogram in Wired’s October issue. He joins the Storyboard to discuss. div
Wired’s October issue set out to help you move through time and space better. Lead editor of Wired’s Travel Optimizer, Sarah Fallon, joins this week’s Storyboard podcast to discuss. div
Ryan Singel, the new editor of Wired.com’s Threat Level blog, stops by to talk privacy in the digital age. div
Pop Culture’s hidden treasures were unearthed in Wired’s September issue. Senior Editor Chris Baker led the project and joins Adam to discuss. div
Senior Associate Editor Caitlin Roper fills in for Adam this week. She invites Mr. Know-It-All (Brendan Koerner) in for a behind the scenes look at his column.
Adam is joined by Stanford University climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh to discuss his research on how climate change will impact the west coast wine industry.
Adam discusses September’s America’s Cup story with Articles Editor Robb Capps and contributor writer Adam Fisher.
Adam discusses August’s Extreme Science story with Senior Editor Bill Wasik and contributing writer Erin Biba.
Film/TV writer Marti Noxon talks vampires, Buffy, women in genre writing and the lure of Don Draper with host Adam Rogers. Keep the garlic cloves nearby just in case as you sink your teeth into this one. .
In the July issue of Wired, host Adam Rogers has a Q&A with the main writer of the BBC scifi show Doctor Who. Here we bring you the full, uncut interview, Adam's silly jokes and all. Enjoy the magic - and the fantastic British accent.
Writer Judy Dutton was running out of room in her freezer. Extra breast milk crowded out family staples like hotdogs and hamburgers. So she did what many mothers are doing: she turned to the Internet to get rid of it. Dutton found a new crop of websites that cater to women in just her situation. But she didn’t stop at trying to sell her own milk. Instead, she began investigating the world of breast milk as a commodity, and discovered an emerging niche market with its own factions and controversies. Should women be paid for taking the trouble to pump? How much screening does milk need to be safe? It is ethical for companies to profit on a food that studies increasingly show is unique and important for babies’ development? Should insurance cover breast milk? Dutton takes on these questions and more in the June issue of Wired magazine. And today on the podcast, she gives the inside story to host Adam Rogers. Drink up.
When Wired senior editor Bill Wasik and his pal Adam Davidson (who just happens to be the cohost of NPR’s awesome economics series, Planet Money) decided to team up on a special report about the future of work, big things were bound to happen. Planet Money has a reputation for turning even the most arcane business concepts into gripping radio, and Wired’s designers are the best in the biz at eye-popping infographics. Still, neither of them expected to be pushing the boundaries of human knowledge about jobs in America. Today on the Storyboard podcast we add another angle to this multi-platform jobs extravaganza, as host Adam Rogers sits down with both Wasik and Davidson for the inside scoop on their report and how it happened. THIS is the future, people! Listen up!
The writer E. B. White famously remarked that “analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies.” Nevertheless, this week on the podcast writer Joel Warner and editor Chris Baker join host Adam Rogers to talk about one professor’s attempt to explain every joke ever. Tune in to go behind the scenes of “The Humor Code,” a story from the May special issue of Wired.
Think of a city – Chicago, Los Angeles, New York. What defines it? The climate? The people? The food? Maybe it’s buildings. That’s the idea John King, urban design critic at the San Francisco Chronicle, explores today on the podcast with host Adam Rogers. To help the non-locals navigate all the San Francisco talk, we’ve created an annotated Google map with all the local landmarks: http://wrdm.ag/sfcityscape
Ten years ago, letters laced with anthrax killed five people. The FBI says it traced the spores to a single US scientist. But could the Feds have gotten the wrong man? Writer Noah Shachtman and editor Rob Capps join Adam Rogers to discuss “The Strain,” a feature from the April issue of Wired. Update: At the request of the Ivins family, this podcast was edited on 4/21/11 to remove language that implied Bruce Ivins had a negative relationship with his children.
Disaster: It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when -- so you’d better get ready. That’s according to this week’s podcast guest, disaster-management guru Joseph Pred. “Being prepared is a civic duty,” he says. But it doesn’t have to be hard or cost a lot. In this special bonus episode, Pred sits down with regular host Adam Rogers to give you the straight scoop on what you’ll really want to have on hand when the next earthquake hits or the zombies attack.
The kitchen is the lab in everybody’s house. But with his new cookbook Modernist Cuisine, former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold has taken the science of food to a whole new level. At six volumes, $625, and 50 pounds, it may be the last cookbook you’ll ever need - if you can handle it. Wired special projects editor Mark McClusky got exclusive access to Myhrvold and his kitchen lab for the story “Mad Science” in the March issue of the magazine. Today on the podcast, McClusky dishes to regular host Adam Rogers about how to use science to bend food to your will. Listen in for a mouth-watering and mind-bending trip into the world of molecular gastronomy. Bon appetit!
Social media has been at the heart of popular uprisings sweeping across the Middle East, and one of the best sources for hearing what’s going on has been Al Jazeera English. Now the Qatar-based network is bringing the social media experience inside your TV with its new show “The Stream.” Scheduled to launch in May, the talk show will be like none other: no tape, no script, no satellite hookups. “It’s about people talking to each other,” says Shihab-Eldin, the show’s co-host. Today on the podcast, regular host Adam Rogers grabs an interview with Shihab-Eldin about the show and Al Jazeera English’s growing U.S. cred.
What makes a smart, well-educated mother of four go on a killing spree? That’s the question writer Amy Wallace set out to answer in her story “The Fury,” which appears in the March issue of Wired. The piece digs into the story of University of Alabama scientist Amy Bishop, who stands accused of shooting six of her colleagues last year. The tragic event, which left three professors dead, got lots of attention in the press, but Wallace wanted to take advantage of the magazine format to go deeper, to get inside Bishop’s mind. Wallace never got to interview Bishop, but she did manage to get her hands on three unpublished novels the scientist had written — more than 900 pages in all. In this episode of the Storyboard podcast, Wallace explains to Wired senior editor Nancy Miller how the novels gave her a glimpse into Bishop’s thoughts. She also delivers a master class on how to convince tricky sources to talk. Listen for the inside scoop on this chilling tale of murder and madness.
In some scratch lottery games, it’s not that hard to beat the odds. For our February Underworld issue, Jonah Lehrer unravels the tale of a statistician who cracked the code and picked winning tickets 90 percent of the time – before scratching them. Today on the podcast, host Adam Rogers gets the inside scoop on this lottery saga from Lehrer and Wired features editor Mark Robinson. Could we have uncovered a new way the Mob launders money? “There disturbing anomalies,” says Lehrer. Listen in for more on how Lehrer found the story and why he suspects this scheme reaches farther than just one guy. Special bonus content: writers going off beat, why Lehrer makes other journalists jealous, and the neuroscience of lotto glee. You can’t win if you don’t listen…
Stick a fork in it: in the long term, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is done for. That’s according to Gary Greenberg, a practicing psychotherapist and author of a feature in the January issue about the controversy surrounding the book’s future fifth edition. For decades, the DSM has been the definitive almanac of psychiatric disease. But the effort to update the book has highlighted the challenge of categorizing slippery, subjective mental states with the same certainty as say, high blood pressure. Today on the podcast, Greenberg and senior editor Bill Wasik join regular host Adam Rogers for a mind-bending conversation about the drama behind the DSM-V and the quest to name our pain.
Crash avoidance and automatic parking are just the start; our future automobiles could redefine the term “smart car” and our understanding of artificial intelligence to boot. In this episode, podcast host Adam Rogers sits down with Gizmodo features editor (and former Wired staffer) Joe Brown to talk about Joe’s story on intelligent cars from the January issue. Fasten your seat belts, sit back, and enjoy the ride.
On a recent visit to California, FEMA chief Craig Fugate's agenda read like an all-star roster of tech companies: Start the day at Twitter and Craigslist, drop by Wired at lunch, then on to visit Apple and Facebook. Why is this bureaucrat, head of the oft-maligned Federal Emergency Management Agency, on a tour of the techno-elite's offices? Because he's seen that when all hell breaks loose, disaster survivors turn to social networks -- both in their neighborhoods and online. Even in the rubble of Haiti's 2010 earthquake text messaging still worked. "We're there to support the survivors," Fugate says. "They shouldn't have to fit our system, we should fit how they communicate, the tools they're using." Fugate wants to harness the power of the digital world to help the U.S. government and citizens respond to disasters. He's pushing government agencies to make their websites and their data streams freely available for whatever mashups coders can cook up. And the sharing goes both ways: When a gas pipeline exploded near San Francisco last fall, Fugate watched the situation develop on Twitter. "We don't want to innovate at the speed of government, or we'll never get there," he says.During Fugate's visit, we sat him down with Storyboard podcast host Adam Rogers to discuss FEMA's social media strategy, emergency management's coolest hashtag, and why you should be prepared at home for anything from zombies to earthquakes. "Think of yourself as part of a team," says Fugate. "Don't mooch off the weak. Do feel free to tweet about it.
The glasses are goofy and the prices are still high, but Wired products editor John Bradley bets that your living room will soon feature the 3D experience. Why? One word: sports.
Bradley is fresh off the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where every January, tens of thousands of tech industry insiders descend on Sin City for four days of gadget geekery. This week on the podcast Bradley sits down with senior editor Adam Rogers to share his stories from the trenches.
Tune in to hear more about why you need a 3D TV, the future of tablets, the phone that could kill the netbook, and what CES is really like behind the scenes.
Unless you've been living in an isolation chamber, you might have heard about this new movie, Tron:Legacy. It's hard to ignore the deluge of hype. There was a scavenger-hunt like viral campaign, a dead-on recreation of Flynn’s Arcade at Comic-con, an attraction at Disneyland and an old Jeff Bridges battling a young Jeff Bridges thanks to a computer-magic. How many Tron soundtrack fake-outs have you downloaded? The first Tron, never got this much love. Will the Tron re-boot make up for the mainstream flop of the first one? Who cares? It has lightcycles. And according to Senior Editor and Storyboard Host, Adam Rogers, you are going to love this movie. Why? Well, all of this is written up in our December cover story penned by Adam.. The article delves into the cultural importance of the old flick, reveals how Disney even came to take a risk on a weird movie like Tron and why every geek out there should care. Adam sits down with Senior Editor, Chris Baker to talk about the story, on newsstands now.
The cover story of the November issue takes a good hard look at breast augmentation, that’s right, boob jobs. But this is more than just a superficial read, this article takes a look at an ambitious new method of breast enhancement is a less controversial way to introduce stem cells usage to the mass market. The pursuit of the perfect breast could be the key to a major breakthrough in regenerative medicine. Filling in for Adam Rogers is Senior Editor, Jason Tanz. He sits down with ace science writer, Sharon Begley who is known for explaining complex subject matter to the masses She's at it once again in All Natural, as she explores the first practical application of stem cell enriched fat tissue, that in this case, it allows women to grow a new pair of breasts but can eventually be used to enhance, heal and rebuild damaged organs.
We at Wired love a good cocktail, not just a good cocktail, a great cocktail. And making a great cocktail is more than just art, it’s a science. You have to consider flavor combinations and liquor to mixer to ice ratios. And bar patrons pallets have expanded — vodka tonic or a Cosmo just doesn’t cut it anymore. What you imbibe has become a sophisticated blend of ingredients like infused syrups and egg whites. In this bonus podcast, host Adam Rogers geeks-out with San Francisco-based bartender Jennifer Colliau. Jennifer tends some of the city's greatest bar. Recently, she began handcrafting pre-prohibition era cocktail ingredients with her business Small Hands Foods. Hoist a glass to and find out why orgeat is not usually made with bitter almonds and what bartenders drink when nobody is looking.
Forget about other EV's, Elon Musk might have the sexiest electric vehicle out there. The Tesla Roadster, is a sleek, fast, high-performance electric car that almost didn't make it. The company, Tesla Motors was about to stall out but is now slated to win the race. (Yes, car puns) This dramatic rise, fall, rise, fall and rise again, is the topic of Wired's October cover story by Contributing Editor Josh Davis. On this week's Storyboard podcast, Josh takes us for a ride as he talks Tesla with Features Editor, Mark Robinson. Since 2002, Josh has chronicled diamond heists and waterless urinals in the pages of Wired. In this episode, Senior Editor and host Adam Rogers gets the untold stories you won't read in the magazine and is privy to a master class on brilliant storytelling.
The much beloved Supersoaker (and Storyboard host Adam Rogers' college prank instrument of choice) started out as PVC piping and a 2-liter coke bottle. Some of our favorite inventions had the very humblest of origins — a few of which were photographed in this month's issue. This week on Storyboard, Adam interviews Special Projects Editor Mark McClusky to get the story on the coolest gadget prototypes of all time. If you want to hear the hidden history of the touch tone phone, listen in as McClusky reveals the development of the prototype photo spread and discusses how Wired's iPad edition gets created.
Television is supposed to be easy — there's a reason its called the idiot box. Somehow between cable, Hulu, Netflix, Itunes and all the rest, how you watch it has become riddled with too much choice and anxiety. Never fear, Adam Rogers to the rescue. In this week's Storyboard podcast, Adam sits down with Articles Editor, Rob Capps to discuss this month's TV package. Get expert advice on how to ditch cable and learn why Community is the best show on TV (as if you didn't know already.)
In between panels, movie screenings and general crowd-watching at this year’s Comic-Con International, Wired senior editor Adam Rogers found time to interview British “weird fiction” writer China Mievelle — A self professed “classic geek’, who grew up nurturing an “astonishing fidelity to a love of monsters” that inspires his work. Also in this bonus podcast, Adam discusses his own personal fixation with cities and the difference between British and American geekery.
It’s your lucky day — a bonus edition of the Storyboard. This week Senior Editor Adam Rogers travels to interview Comi-Con to Namoi Novik, the brains behind the Temeraire series. Novik discusses how she re-imagined the Napoleonic wars with an air force of dragons, reveals details from her upcoming book Tongues of Serpents and gives fanfic all the love it deserves.
Whatever happened to my jetpack? What about my robot maid? Why on earth do I still have to chew food instead of taking my meal pill? And why is Will Ferrell on the cover of this month’s Wired with two white dogs! Hear the story behind the Future issue in this week’s Storyboard podcast as Adam Rogers talks shop with fellow Senior Editor Robert Capps.
Senior editor Adam Rogers talks to Fred Vogelstein about the bad blood between the two companies, and the consumer uprising that's changing the way big companies respond to pissed off users. Turns out a little hashtag on Twitter packs more of a punch than those strongly worded letters you've been writing.
Ever wonder what it’s like to maneuver a monster truck or pilot a supersonic spy plane? We can’t get you a test ride, but we can put you in the driver’s seat. Writer Steven Leckart discusses his photo essay "Cockpits" from the July issue along with the essay's photo editor Anna Alexander and Storyboard host Adam Rogers.
Google cofounder Sergey Brin has a 50 percent chance of developing Parkinson's. It's coded in his DNA. So he's pushing for a new kind of science—heavy on the data—to find a cure before the disease finds him. Executive editor Thomas Goetz discusses his cover story on the topic in the July issue of Wired with senior editor Adam Rogers.
Preserving human organic material is complicated. It doesn't help that the nations biobanks—Huge libraries of flesh—use out-moded and inadequate technology. Writer Steve Silberman discusses his feature from the June issue of Wired with Articles Editor Robert Capps.
In the series finale, the score of Lost kept viewers on their toes and drew more than a few tears. Erik Malinowski talks to Nancy Miller about how composer Michael Giacchino and writer Eddy Kitsis orchestrated the sounds that kept us watching the series.
Nancy Miller plumbs the depths of Lost with senior editor Joanna Pearlstein, who talks about her conversation with the creators of lost and a theoretical physicist.
The iPad is Apple's hot new thing, and we take a look at how it will change your life in the April issue of Wired.
YouTube recently celebrated its fifth birthday, and in the April issue of Wired we take a look a look back at the five secrets that have made YouTube one of the most successful sites on the internet.
Don your foil hats for a look at “Geeks Versus Spies”, Noah Shachtman’s essay about breaking up the NSA, and two other front-of-the-book pieces from Wired's April issue. Editors Robert Capps, Chris Baker, and Adam Rogers break down these three tasty chunks of Wired goodness and discuss how they arrived in the pages of your magazine.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the time of scarce bandwidth, it was the time of 24 hour ice cream delivery. Senior Editor Joanna Pearlstein reminisces with contributors Matt Honan and Steven Leckart about the Dotcom era's major players, massive failures, and missed opportunities. And the schwag. Oh, the schwag.
Life is complicated—especially when it comes to our health. Once we reach a certain age, we start to realize that health is variable, not a constant. On this weeks Storyboard story editor Sarah Fallon hosts a conversation with executive editor Thomas Goetz about the exclusive excerpt from his book in the February issue of WIRED. It's called "The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine"
How do you put products designed to withstand the most extreme conditions to the test? After all, burly bulletproof vests are all tested and rated by professionals before they're ever available to the public. So in the March issue of Wired, our testers took rugged gear designed for extreme conditions and pushed the limits of it's capabilities. On this episode of Storyboard, Associate Editor Joe Brown and Contributing Editor Mat Honan talk about unloading clips into bulletproof vests, getting lost in the sub-zero wilderness, and unleashing animals on bear resistant gear.
In an age of open source, custom-fabricated, DIY product design all you need to conquer the world-and to profit-is a brilliant idea. In his previous best seller Chris Anderson discussed the long tail of bits, that described how open source software products that served a niche market collectively take up a larger market share than the large bestselling products. In his latest Wired story he argues that thanks to the democratization of the tools of manufacturing, we're starting to see a new movement towards the long tail of stuff. Is this the new industrial revolution?
After more than 10 years of development and millions of dollars down the drain, Duke Nukem Forever will probably never see the light of day. It's the biggest video game failure ever. Released in 1996, Duke Nukem 3D changed the way the world thought about video games. So when it came time to make a sequel, the game's developer 3D realms set out to make Duke Nukem Forever surpass every other game that had ever existed. Thanks to the success of Duke Nukem 3D, the firm had unlimited time and money; a factor which granted 3D Realms chief George Broussard the luxury to feel that Duke Nukem Forever wasn't ever ready. The supposedly almost finished game is currently locked up in litigation as 3D Realms and the game's publisher Take-Two Interactive duke it out in court. This week, Senior Editors Chris Baker and Mark McClusky talk about "How Success Killed Duke Nukem" by Clive Thompson. The story is part of the January 2010 cover package about failure.
Amy Wallace's story debunking the theory that vaccines cause autism was so controversial that we received hundreds of letters, emails and online comments in response. Why is this debate so polarizing? It turns out there is a whole spectrum of opinions on the matter. This week assistant research Rachel Swaby and senior research editor Jonanna Pearlstein read some of the comments as well as well discussing the evidence on both sides of the debate.
Why is it so hard to call air strikes in Afghanistan? Wired sent Noah Shachtman to Afghanistan to learn about the war in the air. Shortly after taking control of US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley A. McChrystal put an end to the air war by making it almost impossible to call air strikes. He argues that the United States' enormous technological advantage in the air makes it easy to win battles, but harder to win the war. Every dead Afghan civilian sets the war effort back. But with enormous political pressure upon McChrystal and President Obama to accelerate the United States' exit from the region, can this new policy work? This week, Nancy Miller is joined by Senior Editor Robert Capps and Noah Schachtman to discuss "The End of the Air War" from The January issue of Wired.
The December issue of Wired has two feature stories about "Avatar." The first story, “The Creation” by Frank Rose examines the unique filmmaking technology behind Avatar. “Second Coming” by Joshua Davis delivers a penetrating profile of the man behind this $250 million science fiction thriller. On this weeks Storyboard, Nancy Miller is joined by Wired Articles Editor Mark Robinson and Joshua Davis to finally answer the question: what is "Avatar?" And will anybody care?
You'll never guess the most profitable question on the internet. How do I donate I car in Dallas? Seriously. We don't know why, and we didn't figure it out, an did. algorithm Founded by veteran startup guru Richard Rosenblatt, Demand Media is a fiendishly clever firm that's revolutionizing, by shear mass, the way we find information online. The company knows what we're googling and churns out cheap videos and articles to meet our every demand. The company publishes more than 4,000 articles and videos a day, and makes millions of dollars by selling premium advertising based on the search terms. The content isn't perfect, but hey, it's good enough. Will this type cheaply produced, targeted media soon supplant the need for journalists? On this week's Storyboard, WIRED senior editor Nicholas Thompson asks senior writer Daniel Roth about his November 2009 feature "The Answer Factory."
WIRED staff love "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" Believe it or not, the demented antics of Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim might be the future of comedy. Why? It's hard to explain. WIRED senior editors Chris Baker and Robert Capps discuss Brian Raftery's feature in the November 2009 issue.
The text books written by Roy A. Gallant taught a generation of students that science could also be art. Wired Senior Art Director Carl DeTorres discusses how "Intlleligence Redesigned" was born with a musty text at a flea market. Wired ditches the nostalgia and revises the work of classic artists with the help of graphic artists and researcher Timothy Leslie.
Claims that vaccines cause autism are not only untrue, they're dangerous. Executive Editor Thomas Goetz joins Nancy Miller for a conversation about the "An Epidemic of Fear," Wired's November cover story by Amy Wallace.
Nancy Miller is joined by Senior Editor Mark McClusky and Senior Photo Editor Zana Woods for a behind the scenes look at a feature in the October 2009 issue of Wired, "The Slow and the Furious." At Florida's largest retirement community, seniors are hot-rodding the the golf carts they use to get around- on and off the course.
This week Nancy Miller hosts a conversation between Wired Senior Editor Nick Thompson and Executive Editor Thomas Goetz about Wired Magazine's 2009 Smart List. 12 Dangerous (possibly brilliant) ideas.
First a conversation between Wired Contributing Editor Daniel Roth and Senior Editor Nick Thompson. Nick wrote an article about a Soviet Doomsday Machine built at the end of the cold war and has a new book out called "The Hawk and the Dove." Next Nancy Miller talks to Chris Baker about the piece he edited, which describes in humorous detail the war between Project Chanology and The Church of Scientology.
The Placebo Problem: Sugar Pills Are Getting More Effective and Drug Companies are Desperate to Know Why-- Senior Editor Nancy Miller hosts a conversation between articles editor Mark Robinson and Steve Silberman about pharmaceutical advertising, bedside manner and why Italian men find little blue pills so invigorating (hint: It has to do with scoring!). The Good Enough Revolution: Why Lo-Fi High Tech Will Rule the World-- If you’re still clinging to your vinyl record collection and complaining about the quality of MP3s, you’re in the minority. Nancy and Mark talk to Robert Capps about digital technology’s crappifying effect on almost everything—and why we’re better off this way.
The pressure is on. The boss notices you’ve maxed out the company credit card on “business trips” to Barbados and lavish dinners with important “clients” like your best friend’s wife. Some people fess up and face the music. Others fake their deaths, ditch their lives and try to start over. Senior Editor Nancy Miller hosts a discussion between Executive Editor Thomas Goetz and Evan Ratliff about what it takes to really disappear. Evan also details his vanishing act experiment. He’s currently on the lam. If you can find him before September 15th, you’ll win $5,000. From Crank calls, to viral YouTube pranksters, and tweets from celebrity-imposters, it’s never been easier to find suckers to fool. Nancy and fellow Senior Editor Jason Tanz discuss the anatomy of a perfect hoax.