Marketplace Tech

This Friday’s “Quality Assurance” segment takes a deeper look at the different approaches the United States and European Union are taking to regulate Big Tech.

To many, the term infrastructure conjures roads, pipes and walls—pretty much the antithesis of nature. But some scientists and engineers want to reverse that impression by harnessing nature as infrastructure. The idea that plants and soil can prevent flooding and purify water is gaining traction in an era of rising seas and severe storms.

It seems like Uber and Lyft are everywhere these days. And for many people, it’s great because those services make it easier — and often cheaper — to get where you need to go. But they don’t work for everyone.

It’s Amazon’s fifth annual Prime Day. Or days? It’s 48 hours this time. Customers are expected to spend more than $5 billion, which means millions of orders processed in giant warehouses, which Amazon calls fulfillment centers. This work is increasingly automated, but there are more than 100,000 human workers in its North American centers because humans are more economical for some things, especially if they must work unceasingly. (7/16/2019)

One of the strangest things to get used to about electric vehicles is how eerily quiet they are. It makes you realize how much we associate engine noise with driving. That lack of sound can be problematic — even deadly. Think about the visually impaired, or anyone oblivious to vehicles because they’re staring at their smartphones.

The masses have flocked on Anaheim, California, for VidCon, where industry executives and fans get to interact with their favorite influencers. And, of course, take selfies with a giant rainbow slide and Barbie’s glittering Dream House. Marketplace’s Jed Kim also spoke with Taylor Lorenz, who covers internet culture for The Atlantic. She said Instagram and TikTok are gaining ground on YouTube among creators.

Marketplace’s Jed Kim continues his conversation with Margaret O’Mara, whose book “The Code” is out this week. Think of it as a biography of Silicon Valley — all the circumstances over more than half a century that made it what it is today.

We’re fascinated with tales of visionary entrepreneurs, trillion-dollar companies, the American tech success story. Foreign leaders are keen to understand and replicate the innovation juggernaut that is Silicon Valley. But little has been written about the entirety of it — the economic ecosystem of Silicon Valley and how it evolved. Margaret O’Mara’s new book, “The Code,” offers a more comprehensive look at the American tech industry dating back to the 1940s.

If you’ve got a design problem you need to fix, you could lock a bunch of engineers into a room to help brainstorm. Or you could look to the natural world, which is called biomimicry, the practice of replicating adaptations found in nature. Jed Kim talks to Janine Benyus, co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 crew landing on the moon. PBS is releasing a six-hour documentary series about it, “Chasing the Moon.” Marketplace’s Jed Kim watched the whole series and calls it thrilling, even though we all know how it ends, right? Kim spoke about this and more with the filmmaker Robert Stone.