Foundering

As news continues to break about Russia's attempts to influence and hack the U.S. election, this week we're re-airing an episode from 2016 about how investigators traced the breach of the Democratic National Committee's email servers to Russian spies. At the end of the episode, Brad and Bloomberg Technology's Jordan Robertson discuss everything that's happened since then. 

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Despite tremendous advances over the last decade, electric cars have yet to go mainstream. Even once Tesla ramps up production of its Model 3 cars, one obstacle will remain: a lack of infrastructure lining America's roads. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Pia Gadkari dives deep into the companies, led by Tesla, that are trying to tackle this problem -- by pouring millions of dollars into building a network of charging stations. 

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In China, parents are desperately seeking good teachers for their children. A number of local tech startups are meeting that demand; one is even connecting them with American tutors halfway across the world. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Peter Elstrom explores VIPKid's data-driven approach to online tutoring, to see what it means for Chinese students, as well as the U.S. teachers who are finding a new source of employment.

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The year is 2005, the company is Apple. The iPod is a smash hit, but then-CEO Steve Jobs decides it's time to cannibalize the company's star product with a gamble: a smartphone. A decade after those phones reached the hands of the first consumers and changed the history of computing, Bloomberg Technology's Mark Gurman goes deep behind the scenes with the people who raced to get that original iPhone ready. On the eve of the product's unveiling, a crisis almost derailed the entire project. Mark and Brad also discuss the various features that people can expect from the iPhone 8, which Apple's set to announce next month.

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We hear a lot about the approaching end of the fossil fuel era. But as various companies work on wind and solar, there's a group of scientists quietly working on another method of generating electricity, in the lab that once created the atomic bomb. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Jing Cao visits the researchers who are smashing hydrogen atoms together in a process called nuclear fusion. They say they're on the brink of a major milestone, but they face an age-old problem: not enough funding.

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A sailor and a windsurfing champion are trying to crack your morning commute with a new kind of transportation device: a zero-emissions boat that looks like it flies above the water. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Marie Mawad and Aki Ito take a look at the challenges that lie ahead for this startup, now that the company has developed a working prototype in France. This follows last week's episode on another entrepreneur's lifelong passion for flying cars.

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Silicon Valley currently has a serious case of flying car fever, but this isn't the first time enthusiasm for these vehicles has gripped the industry. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Alistair Barr and Aki Ito visit the man who's spent his entire life trying to turn his Jetson-like vision into reality. It's a story of unwavering and maybe even irrational optimism that's cost Paul Moller more than $100 million and led him to declare bankruptcy and face allegations of fraud. 

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Over the last few weeks, several woman have come forward with their accounts of being harassed in the tech industry. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Aki Ito and Sarah McBride hear from a woman who's never spoken publicly about her experience. The episode also includes interviews with multiple women who were instrumental in exposing what many have called Silicon Valley's "open secret" and recount what their lives have been like since sharing their stories. Please note: This episode includes discussion of adult content. 

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One of President Donald Trump's biggest priorities is to bring manufacturing jobs home, and advances in industrial automation are making it cheaper and easier to do that. But a plant full of robots requires fewer workers. This week Bloomberg Technology's Alex Webb takes a look at whether these factories of the future could still give a boost to communities in the heartland. 

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A few months ago, a startup called Meta started clearing out the computer monitors that sat on employees' desks -- asking them to instead use the company's augmented reality headsets, which overlay holograms on top of the real world. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Selina Wang visits Meta to see how its workers have fared in this transition. Could desktop computers soon become as outdated as typewriters?

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