It’s 160 degrees outside, a massive sandstorm could appear at any moment, and you’re trying to capture footage of a pack of lions chasing a giraffe. They’re bigger, faster, and scarier than you are. Oh, and you’ve been out in the desert for weeks, waiting for this exact moment. Don’t screw it up.

That, evidently, is what it’s like to be a member of the crew for Planet Earth II. And as we watched the show, we found ourselves wondering how it all comes together. So we asked! This is the second episode in a miniseries in which we’re sitting down with some of the people who make Planet Earth II to talk about the cameras, infrared lights, helicopters, home-made lens protectors, and all the other things that go into making this crazy show.

Many of the show’s creators have been working in these places for years or decades, finding themselves suddenly able to capture new things in new ways as technology gets better. Wasn’t that long ago you could barely get a camera on your shoulder, much less have one flying quietly through the air. For this week’s episode, “Deserts,” David Pierce chatted with director and producer Ed Charles. They talked about how to film in a sandstorm and not ruin your camera (spoiler: it’s impossible), and how to find and capture a tiny animal that almost never comes above ground.

You can watch Planet Earth II on BBC America, Saturdays at 9pm. If you haven’t seen anything yet, you can watch the premiere free on BBC America’s website. See all of our recent Planet Earth II coverage. We’ll do this for the next few episodes, too, through the rest of the season. We still have lots of questions. If you do too,

send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds (David Pierce is @pierce, and Michael Calore is @snackfight) or bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab.

It was a big week for the security community. On Tuesday, WikiLeaks published some 9,000 pages of documents detailing various hacking tools the CIA had developed to spy on intelligence targets. They hit the public like a punch to the gut. Your cellphone can be hacked. Your Windows PC or Mac is pudding in the hands of government snoops. Even a smart TV can be converted into a bug that records private conversations. Jiminy! That’s pretty nuts. WIRED’s security editor Brian Barrett joins Michael Calore to talk about the Vault 7 revelations, and what they mean for consumers.

Some links: Andy Greenberg details the tools exposed in the Vault 7 leak. Mike tells you how to find out if your Samsung television is spying on you (it very likely is not, you can trust it). See all of WIRED’s Vault 7 coverage. Recommendations this week are Last Chance U and the New York mag conversation with David Letterman.

Send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. David Pierce is @pierce and Michael Calore is @snackfight. Brian Barrett is @brbarrett. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab.

In case you missed it, Planet Earth II has finally made its debut on your television. A couple episodes into the season, we found ourselves with lots of questions. Questions like, how do you put a camera right in the face of a spider monkey? Or, what happens when you’re filming and a capybara decides you’re what’s for dinner? So we asked.

Over the next few weeks, we’re sitting down with some of the people who make Planet Earth to talk about cameras, drones, insect repellent, M&Ms, and all the other things that go into making this crazy show. Many of them have been working in these places for years or decades, finding themselves suddenly able to capture new things in new ways as technology gets better. Wasn’t that long ago you could barely get a camera on your shoulder, much less have one flying quietly through the air. For this week’s episode, “Jungles,” David Pierce chatted with director and producer Emma Napper. Turns out the jungle is a tough place to bring a bunch of really heavy, expensive camera gear, especially when a bunch of hungry caimans show up.

We’ll do this for the next few episodes, too, through the rest of the season. We still have lots of questions. If you do too,

send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds (David Pierce is @pierce, and Michael Calore is @snackfight) or bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab.

Two big news events this week: The release of the Nintendo Switch and the heap of announcements out of Mobile World Congress. We start the show with a visit from WIRED’s culture editor Peter Rubin to talk about Nintendo’s new $300 handheld (but also a console) gaming device. Next, we have a segment from Paul Sarconi on the Motorola Razr—the latest installment in our Brief Histories of Important Gadgets series. In the last half of the show, Michael and David discuss all of the news from Barcelona this week, where the giants of the mobile industry congregated to release cool phones, stupid phones, boring phones and exciting phones. Phones!

Some links: Nintendo Switch review. Also, the review of the new Zelda game. Our roundup of cool phones from MWC. Also see our coverage of the Nokia 3310, the Sony Xperia XZ Premium, and the Samsung Galaxy Book. Recommendations this week: Hot Ones, MySpaceTom, and Daily Mix.

Send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. David Pierce is @pierce and Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab.

Instagram got another new feature this week (Galleries), the latest artifact of the app’s years-long expansion. Though it started as a very simple, iOS-only photo-sharing app some six years ago, Instagram has grown to become a diverse, feature-rich social giant. The Facebook acquisition helped. So did market pressure from Snapchat. There currently aren’t many types of content you can’t share on Instagram. On this week’s show, the hosts dissect Insta’s latest moves, look at how people are using it today, and try to figure out where else the little app can go.

Some links: Instagram galleries. Max Chafkin’s story in Bloomberg Businessweek about becoming an Instagram influencer. The Gotham filter. All WIRED Instagram coverage. Recommendations this week are the Shure MV88 and

Moment founder Marc Barros makes accessories for mobile phones. His company’s optical glass lenses screw onto special mounting brackets that you fasten to your phone, much improving the quality of your handset’s camera. The company’s cases also feature physical shutter buttons with DSLR-like behaviors. Moment’s lenses and cases have taken off among mobile photo enthusiasts; they’re really great. But we didn’t bring Marc on to plug product. He’s here to talk about the smartphone accessories business. From design to marketing, from crowdfunding to manufacturing, it’s a wooly world, complete with copycats, bankruptcies, and brand managers who focus all of their marketing on Amazon search. Marc’s insights are invigorating and informative, and we hope you enjoy our talk as much as we did when we taped it.

Some links: See what Moment can do by browsing the photos. The company has a new battery case for iPhone on Kickstarter. Recommendations this week include Hundred Pushups, Streaks, and F.lux.

Send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. David Pierce is @pierce and Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab.

With David out snorkeling in the alps, we welcome WIRED editor Brian Barrett to the show. Brian recently wrote about Lady Gaga’s drone-backed performance at the Super Bowl, and all of the crazy tech that went into planning the spectacle. He tells us how the Intel engineers control hundreds of drones at once, plus how the company plans to deploy its automated platform in situations that aren’t all about entertainment and marketing. Also this week, Jack Stewart talks to UNICEF about its use of drones, and Paul Sarconi interviews Parrot founder and CEO Henri Seydoux, maker of the first real consumer drone.

Some links: Brian’s story about Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl. Brian also wrote about the Disney drone show. WIRED’s 2010 review of the Parrot AR drone. Recommendations this week: The North Water by Ian McGuire and the Stooges documentary Gimme Danger.

Send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. Brian Barrett is @brbarrett and Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab.

Super Bowl weekend is upon us. This episode the crew tackles the topic of sports on TV, on the internet, and in person. Live streaming of sporting events is something we’d all like to see happen more often (and better), but there are roadblocks from the league and from the networks that need to be cleared. Highlights and full-length broadcasts in VR are also pretty dope—when they work properly. It’s not all bad news though; we visit the best intersections of sports and the internet. Halfway through the episode, WIRED writer Paul Sarconi talks to Populous, an architecture firm that designs stadiums with the aim to substantially improve the fan experience.

Some links: How to watch the Super Bowl without cable. Tim’s stories on the NFL and NBA’s flirtations with VR. Streaming options on NFL Sunday Ticket. Populous designs stadiums. Many stadiums have interesting roofs. David’s inside look at the web’s first live-streamed football game. Recommendations this week: Recomendo, BookBub, and seven-layer dip.

Send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. David Pierce is @pierce and Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab.

What will your next computer look like? A convertible hybrid? A Chromebook? A massive 28-inch touchscreen? Will you just buy an iPad and slap a keyboard on it? The PC landscape is being reshaped by new habits, new workflows, and new economics. Hardware designs are getting weirder, touchscreens are taking over, and mobile processors are getting crazy powerful. Two guests help us make sense of it. First, we welcome WIRED staff writer Tim Moynihan to talk about his reporting in the Windows PC metaverse. In the second half of the show, Steven Sinofsky joins us. Steven was the President of Windows in his last job (of many) at Microsoft. He’s currently a board partner at Andreessen Horowitz. His main rig these days is an iPad. He’ll tell you: It’s the future.

Some links: Read Tim’s survey of the innovations in Windows hardware. David tells you how to switch to an iPad. Steven Sinofsky’s thoughts about using an iPad as an everyday computer. Recommendations this week are the Quilla e-ink whiteboard from QuirkLogic, Liner, and the KZ-ATE earbuds.

Send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. David Pierce is @pierce, Steven Sinofsky is @stevesi (he’s on Medium too), and Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab.

 

Were you wondering what the Game|Life podcast crew thinks about the Nintendo Switch? Wonder no longer, for here are TIME’s Matt Peckham, WIRED’s Julie Muncy, and me to tell you all about it: Our impressions of the games, of the platform, how we think it’ll do out there on the market, and also some stuff about Fire Emblem. And why I think they should just rename it the “Nintendo Chris Kohler.”