Climate change is making products like chocolate and coffee more expensive, even as demand grows. WSJ technology columnist Christopher Mims tells host Alex Ossola how companies are looking to recreate them in the lab using biotechnology. Plus, TikTok is courting advertisers, in spite of the platform’s looming ban or sale. WSJ reporter Katie Deighton talks about what continues to make TikTok appealing for advertisers. 

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Plus: Senator Elizabeth Warren calls for the Pentagon to look into Russian troops’ use of Starlink. And Synopsys plans to sell its Software Integrity Group. Alex Ossola hosts.

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Boeing’s Starliner is set to take NASA astronauts to the International Space Station this week. It’s the spacecraft’s first crewed mission, and a major test for Boeing’s much-delayed project. WSJ reporter Micah Maidenberg tells host Alex Ossola what it took to get here. Plus, in an effort to increase her ability to focus, WSJ tech reporter Katherine Bindley gave up apps like Instagram and dating apps, and even TV. She talks about how these habits affected her. 

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In October 2021, Facebook announced it was changing its name to Meta. For a company that had built its business on social media, it was a gamble to seemingly pivot to a future version of the internet that didn’t yet exist and wasn’t well understood. On this first episode of our special series on the metaverse, host Alex Ossola takes you back to the vision that CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out for the metaverse, what was going on at the company at the time of the name change and how people reacted both inside and outside the company.

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Plus: Apple stock rallies the day after the company reported earnings. And shares of Coinbase fall. Alex Ossola hosts.

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EV maker Tesla announced this week that it was laying off much of the team responsible for the company’s Supercharger network, the largest and most successful EV charging network in the U.S. The move caught employees, and others in the industry, by surprise. WSJ reporter Ryan Felton tells host Alex Ossola what a Tesla pullback in charging could mean for the broader U.S. EV market. Plus, how did an iPhone survive a fall out of an airplane, but others crack when they get tipped off the kitchen counter? WSJ senior personal technology columnist Joanna Stern took on an experiment to find out.

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Plus: Universal Music and TikTok reach a new agreement. And Microsoft plans to invest over $2 billion in Malaysia. Alex Ossola hosts.

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Tasks like streaming movies or generating answers from artificial intelligence systems require a lot of computing power. So more, bigger data centers are cropping up in an effort to meet the demand. And that means more energy. Local energy companies are turning to natural gas and even coal to keep them going. WSJ energy reporter Jennifer Hiller tells host Alex Ossola what that means for the country’s energy transition. Plus, rebooting your device works for everything from computers to trains. WSJ personal tech reporter Cordilia James talks about why it became our go-to tech fix.

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Plus: Chinese EV makers post higher sales. And Doordash posts record revenue. Alex Ossola hosts.

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Last week, President Biden signed a law requiring the sale or ban of TikTok. But lawmakers’ concerns go back much farther. Some lawmakers and former employees of TikTok say that TikTok executives, particularly CEO Shou Chew, could have done more to prevent this outcome. WSJ tech reporter Georgia Wells tells host Alex Ossola about Chew’s missed opportunities to woo lawmakers. Plus, it’s a trend on TikTok to get AI systems like ChatGPT to talk to people like a boyfriend would… even if the systems weren’t designed that way. WSJ senior platform editor Julia Munslow undertook an experiment to find out just how hard it is to get the system to be R-rated.

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