Verge Extras - podcast cover

Verge Extras

The Vergewww.theverge.com
Special events, discussions, interviews, and one-off shows from The Verge and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Episodes

How to future-proof a 30-year-old computer

Verge producer Will Poor attempts to fix up his family’s Mac Classic. The journey takes him to the finer points of soldering, message board flame wars, and a 2,000 year old Greek thought experiment. Links: The Vintage Computer Federation The “40th Anniversary Macintosh” Follow Jason's tech adventures: @compu_85 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dec 14, 202324 min

Pirate Radio » The PIRATE Act

Congress is in the process of passing a non-partisan bill to increase support for enforcement against illegal pirate radio operations: Fines can now go as high as $2 million, and the FCC will fund “enforcement sweeps” in major radio markets. Does this target well-intentioned community radio, designed to speak to immigrant communities? Episode three of The Verge's Pirate Radio mini-series featuring Bijan Stephen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nov 26, 201917 min

Pirate Radio » Dial Up!

How the Hmong diaspora uses the world's most boring technology to make something weird and wonderful. Episode two of The Verge's Pirate Radio mini-series featuring Mia Sato. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nov 22, 201920 min

Pirate Radio » Outside the wire

When the US entered Afghanistan, local DJs were hired to help with the war effort. And when the American military pulled out, they abandoned those voices, leaving many of them for dead. Episode 1 of The Verge's Pirate Radio mini-series featuring Chris Harland-Dunaway. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nov 19, 201937 min

Machine Of Loving Grace | Better Worlds Pt. 5

Welcome to Better Worlds, The Verge's new series of short fiction, audio, and animation that explores how technology can shape our society and environment in better, more equitable ways. "Machine Of Loving Grace" is the fifth and final installment of the Better Worlds audio adaptations that will appear in Verge Extras. Katherine Cross' story features an AI designed to moderate video games that goes rouge. For more videos, audio adaptations, and written stories from Better Worlds, go to theverge....

Feb 13, 201928 min

Skin City | Better Worlds Pt. 4

Welcome to Better Worlds, The Verge's new series of short fiction, audio, and animation that explores how technology can shape our society and environment in better, more equitable ways. "Skin City" is part four of five audio adaptations of Better Worlds that will appear in Verge Extras. In Kelly Robson's story, a street performer gets into trouble after falling for a radical privacy devotee. For more videos, audio adaptations, and written stories from Better Worlds, go to theverge.com. Learn mo...

Feb 06, 201925 min

The Burn | Better Worlds Pt. 3

Welcome to Better Worlds, The Verge's new series of short fiction, audio, and animation that explores how technology can shape our society and environment in better, more equitable ways. "The Burn" is part three of five audio adaptations of Better Worlds that will appear in Verge Extras. In Peter Tieryas' story, “The Burn,” people around the world fall victim to a mysterious illness called the Burn. Eventually, AR researchers begin to suspect a pattern. For more videos, audio adaptations, and wr...

Jan 30, 201924 min

Monsters Come Howling in Their Season | Better Worlds Pt. 2

Welcome to Better Worlds, The Verge's new series of short fiction, audio, and animation that explores how technology can shape our society and environment in better, more equitable ways. "Monsters Come Howling In Their Season" is part two of five audio adaptations of Better Worlds that will appear in Verge Extras. In Cadwell Turnbull’s story, “Monsters Come Howling In Their Season,” a journalist travels to St. Thomas in the aftermath of a massive hurricane and sees firsthand how the island’s res...

Jan 23, 201927 min

Online Reunion | Better Worlds Pt. 1

Welcome to Better Worlds, The Verge's new series of short fiction, audio, and animation that explores how technology can shape our society and environment in better, more equitable ways. "Online Reunion" is part one of five audio adaptations of Better Worlds that will appear in Verge Extras. In “Online Reunion,” author Leigh Alexander imagines a world in which a young journalist is struggling with a compulsive “time sickness,” so she sets out to write a tearjerker about a widow reconnecting with...

Jan 16, 201927 min

Introducing Better Worlds

Welcome to Better Worlds, The Verge's new series of short fiction, audio, and animation that explores how technology can shape our society and environment in better, more equitable ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dec 17, 20181 min

@dril tweets: a reading of his best work

Last month, Dril published Dril Official “Mr. Ten Years” Anniversary Collection, a 420-page collection of his best tweets of the last decade. And it works because during that same stretch of time, Dril has defined so much of what it’s meant to be online. Please enjoy a reading of his best work, presented by The Verge’s creative director and resident englishman James Bareham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sep 27, 20183 minEp. 28

VR pioneer Jaron Lanier on dystopia, empathy, and the future of the internet

Jaron Lanier is one of virtual reality’s most recognizable figures. He’s credited with popularizing the term itself, and he co-founded VPL, a short-lived but groundbreaking company that built some of the first commercial VR headsets. Since then, Lanier has been better known for his writing on digital ownership and internet ecosystems, with the books You Are Not A Gadget and Who Owns the Future? But his most recent work revisits the world of ‘80s and ‘90s VR, as well as the rest of Lanier’s life ...

Dec 08, 20171 hr 2 minEp. 27

Why watch people play video games?

About a month ago my colleague Dan Seifert admitted on Twitter to, basically, not understanding me as a person: "i will never understand the fascination with watching other people play video games" Instead of lashing out in his mentions, I sat on that information until the other day when I finally connected with Dan over Skype to hash it all out. Now you can enjoy our conversation in podcast form, thanks to the Verge Extras feed, which you should definitely subscribe to if you haven't already. F...

Aug 17, 201722 minEp. 26

Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on tweeting from space and brewing the first zero-G espresso

Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian astronaut with the European Space Agency. She currently holds a few spaceflight records — including being the first person ever to brew an espresso in space. In 2014 and 2015, Cristoforetti spent 199 days aboard the International Space Station, where she performed a variety of scientific experiments. She studied generations of fruit flies to chart gene changes in relation to disease; she looked after Caenorhabditis elegans worms used in a Japanese-led experim...

May 13, 201719 minEp. 24

How to build your own personal Westworld

Last year in Los Angeles, a mysterious cult began recruiting people through emails, phone calls, and one-on-one consultations. For nine months individuals were drawn into the group’s web of intrigue, discovering that a young woman from Ohio had been taken in and brainwashed. In September, the cult finally opened its doors, and people had the chance to walk its halls and try to find the young woman inside — or die trying. The only thing was, none of it was real. The Tension Experience represented...

Mar 22, 20171 hr 11 minEp. 23

Astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly on NASA’s twin experiment and the future of space travel

Mark and Scott Kelly are the only twins that have ever traveled to space — and their experience will be invaluable if we want to get to Mars one day. The brothers are taking part in what NASA calls the Twins Study — a genetic experiment to see how our bodies change in zero gravity in the long term. That’s important to understand before we put humans on a spaceship and send them on a round trip to the Red Planet. Between 2015 and 2016, Scott spent 340 days on the International Space Station, whil...

Mar 21, 201716 minEp. 22

The Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy: a conversation with my parents who worked the accident

On February 1st, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas and Louisiana as it returned from a 16-day mission in space. The cause of the accident was a piece of foam that had fallen off the Shuttle’s external fuel tank during launch. The foam struck the left wing of the shuttle, causing serious damage that ultimately led the vehicle to explode when it reentered Earth’s atmosphere. It was the second major failure for the Space Shuttle program, and all seven crew members onboard the ...

Feb 01, 201735 minEp. 21

Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines controversy explained

Now that President Trump has resurrected the hotly contested Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, here's what you need to know about their pasts — and their futures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCPWjg-bXTY Host: Rachel Becker Director: Miriam Nielsen & Kimberly Mas Audio: Andrew Marino Special thanks to: Mark A. Barteau Director, Energy Institute DTE Energy Professor of Advanced Energy Research; Professor , Chemical Engineering Monte Mills Assistant Professor & Co-Director, Margery Hunte...

Jan 30, 20175 minEp. 20

The delicate science of counting crowds

Here’s how we know how many people were in the crowd for Donald Trump’s inauguration — and why you won’t hear the number on TV. www.youtube.com/watch?v=boOWZXZXINU Host: Russel Brandom Director: Kimberly Mas Camera: Tom Connors Graphics: William Joel Audio: Andrew Marino Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jan 26, 20173 minEp. 19

Judges, not Trump, will decide Obama’s environmental legacy

President Donald Trump has vowed to dismantle many of the environmental policies passed under president Barack Obama. But environmental groups and some states are ready to fight back and bring the administration to court. Host: Alessandra Potenza Directors: Miriam Nielsen and Kimberly Mas Audio: Andrew Marino Special thanks to: Maria Belenky Director, Policy and Research at Climate Advisers Vicki Arroyo Executive Director, Georgetown Climate Center David Doniger Director of the Climate and Clean...

Jan 20, 20174 minEp. 18

Listening to machines to understand why they break

There is nothing more frustrating than taking your car into the mechanic with only the vaguest sense that something is wrong. You know that odd little creak or strange whine is new, but you don’t have a clue what it’s trying to tell you. You would like to know before it becomes a serious problem, and an expert is going to charge you a bunch of money to find out. What if we could diagnose machines, and keep them healthy, just by listening to the noises they make. That’s the premise of Augury, a s...

Jan 11, 20174 minEp. 17

A highly specific Tinder problem

What’s the biggest problem you run into while using the popular dating app Tinder? Is it that almost all the children of the Earth seem appalling when reduced to four photos and the opportunity to describe themselves in two sentences? Is it that you are a busy modern creature with precious little time to message the people in your life you already care about, much less strangers about whom you know nothing? Is it your terrible reflexes, never more inconvenient than when you have only a split-sec...

Dec 27, 201618 minEp. 16

Emotional (Tech) Support

as seen on Circuit Breaker facebook.com/circuitbreaker/videos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oct 14, 201641 minEp. 15

1,000 Words: bringing pictures of the internet to your ears

It's a familiar problem for podcast listener: a host vaguely references a picture or a video or something in their recording booth, but you can't see what it is this person is talking about. This happened recently on Vergecast 214. Yeah, a video would solve this problem, but you're standing on the train sandwiched between strangers or driving a car or jogging. Isn't that what you listen to podcasts for? You can't spend that time on Google, Reddit, or Tumblr, you can only rely on your ears. That'...

Aug 13, 201636 minEp. 14

Paul Miller's gadget corner 06/03/16

Paul Miller's gadget corner 06/03/16 by The Verge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jun 03, 20163 minEp. 13

Extended interview with Prof. Randal Picker

Nilay talks with Randal Picker; professor at University of Chicago Law School, to discuss the recent news about Google's antitrust charges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apr 20, 201618 minEp. 12

Extended interview with T-Pain

Recently, The Verge visited T-Pain at his home to talk about the music industry and the new Garageband software available. This is the full extended interview we had with T-Pain that day. http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/20/10799000/t-pain-interview-auto-tune-music-technology http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/20/10798478/t-pain-garageband-ipad-update-demo-video Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jan 22, 201634 minEp. 11

Chris Ziegler at Code/Mobile

Though the connected car is one of the hottest topics in the transportation sector this year, the concept of the connected car is anything but new: Systems like GM’s OnStar, BMW Assist and Lexus Link launched well over a decade ago, wirelessly linking millions of cars via GPS and the cellular networks that were just beginning to reach global penetration. By some accounts, those systems have been very successful — for instance, GM just recorded its billionth customer interaction via OnStar severa...

Oct 09, 201516 minEp. 10

John Gaeta can see the future of VR

Bryan Bishop (@ Bcbishop) and The Verge video team recently took a visit to Industrial Light & Magic’s xLab. It’s a kind of next-generation entertainment sandbox, exploring virtual reality, augmented reality, and other immersive experiences — all under the umbrella of the Star Wars universe. One of the people we spoke with is xLab creative director John Gaeta. John’s a real visual effects visionary. He created bullet time for the Matrix, pioneered new methods of virtual cinematography, he worked...

Aug 13, 201527 minEp. 9
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