Mary Lou Jepsen is an accomplished display technology expert who has worked on futuristic projects at Google, Oculus, Intel, and One Laptop Per Child, among other places. She created Pixel Qi, a low-power display technology, and her latest company, Openwater, is focused on building advanced imaging technology that can better read the brain – both for medical use cases, and eventually, to interpret our thoughts and emotions.

Jepsen joined the Gadget Lab team recently at Wired’s 25th anniversary festival in San Francisco, where we had the chance to ask her how her tech differs from MRI, how and when she plans to bring it to market, and what she thinks about the current state of AR and VR.

Show notes: You can read The New York Times story here about allegations of past sexual misconduct among top executives at Google. In the time period after we taped this podcast, former Google executive and Android co-founder Andy Rubin tweeted that The New York Times story contained inaccuracies and “wild allegations” and that it was part of a smear campaign against him.

And the iPhone XR review we mentioned is here.

Recommendations this week: Arielle recommends Sky Guide, a $2.99 app that gives you real-time astronomical information. Lauren recommends the Netflix series Salt Fat Acid Heat. Mike recommends Nimble’s $40 wireless chargers.

Send the Gadget Lab hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. Arielle Pardes can be found at @pardesoteric. Lauren Goode is @laurengoode. Michael Calore can be found at @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. Our theme song is by Solar Keys.

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