Radio Motherboard

Radio Motherboard discusses the extent that memes have taken over political discourse with Ryan Milner, a College of Charleston assistant professor who wrote his PhD. dissertation on memetics. We also discuss the idea of meme warfare, meme insurgency, and meme use by nation states. Milner is the author of World Made Meme, published by MIT Press.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A preview for the new Nintendo Switch has brought us to the startling realization that Super Mario is not a homo sapien. On this episode, we discuss the geographic location of the Mushroom Kingdom and how excited we should be for Nintendo’s new console. Waypoint managing editor Danielle Riendeau and Motherboard contributor Zack Kotzer join the discussion—listen to Waypoint Radio wherever you get your podcasts.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dozens of scientists working at schools like the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Toronto, and a handful of others are frantically working on a series of projects to preserve government science from alteration or deletion under the Donald Trump administration.  In this episode, we’ll be checking in with Nick Shapiro and Bethany Wiggin, who are organizing efforts to download and rehost vital climate change data before Trump takes office.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Diabetes is usually considered a disease of excess—so why are so many starving people in India getting it?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Like much of America, we are big fans of HBO's 'Westworld,' but not because of the science in the show. To be honest, the show doesn't really bother trying to explain how its hosts work, but in doing so, it allows the show to ask some of the big ethical questions associated with artificial intelligence and our pursuit of the singularity. Radio Motherboard talks to Facebook AI researcher Antoine Bordes about where we are in the development of artificial intelligence right now, and the show brings back our former managing editor Adrianne Jeffries (hi Adrianne!), who now runs our favorite Westworld podcast, called "Out West," over at her lovely new website The Outline. Listen to Out West: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/out-west-westworld-fan-theories/id1167700780?mt=2 And check out The Outline: www.theoutline.com    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Radio Motherboard was recently down for a few days because we migrated our feed to a new address. If you have had trouble getting this through any of your apps, please change the feed to: http://radiomotherboard.vice-media.libsynpro.com/rssAlso: We are beginning an every Tuesday publishing schedule starting now.Thank you for listening!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Motherboard takes a trip to Biofabricate, a synthetic biology conference at the Parsons School of Design. We talk to Aaron Nesser and Kenji Higashi, two entrepreneurs who are hoping that fibers made of spider silk and alginate could help clean up our disastrous fashion industry.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Motherboard's writers, editors, and contributors have spent the last week talking to activists, researchers, and policy makers about the powers that Donald Trump will inherit when he takes power in January. There's little sense in speculating about what Trump will do when he takes office, but it's important to understand the powers he will have to affect things like climate change, energy policy, surveillance, cybersecurity, and the other things Motherboard holds dear.   Credits for this episode: Host/producer: Jason Koebler Editor: Tim Barnes Space/NASA: Becky Ferreira  Border, immigration, and drug trafficking: Brian Anderson Trade: Nicholas Deleon Energy and Climate: Sarah Emerson Vaping: Kaleigh Rogers Health: Ankita Rao Hacking and Cybersecurity: Lorenzo FB Privacy: Joseph Cox Drones: Ben Sullivan    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We couldn't ignore the fact that an impending Trump presidency feels like a Black Mirror episode. We discuss his campaign and the election through the lens of Black Mirror, and discuss 'San Junipero,' 'Men Against Fire,' and 'Hated in the Nation.'  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’ve always sort of called Charlie Brooker’s “Black Mirror” the Motherboard show, because while we love tech, we’re probably a bit more wary of its ability to lean dystopian than your average tech publication. So this week and next, we’re going to be talking about the new season of Black Mirror on Netflix. Today, we’re going to be talking about what the first three episodes—Nosedive, Playtest, and Shut Up and Dance say about our culture. Next week, we’ll be back talking about the end of the season—San Junipero, Men Against Fire, and Hated in the Nation. This week’s episode has spoilers for the first three episodes and some light discussion of the first season episode “Fifteen Million Merits.”  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Werner Herzog doesn’t care what you think about him, about his mythos. He does care about myth, the stories people tell and why. His newest movie, "Into The Inferno," in which he tours six active volcanoes around the world, is as much about the culture and beliefs that surround volcanoes as it is about the science. Editor Alex Pasternack speaks with Herzog about his filmmaking, science and scientists, distributing his film through Netflix, and police body cameras. Read more at Motherboard: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/into-the-herzog-radio-motherboard-podcast  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

'Berlin Station' is a new spy drama/thriller from the cable network EPIX, which focuses on a leak of classified information at the titular CIA office, and the agents tracking it down. Motherboard spoke to series writers Brad Winters and Larry Cohen, who also worked together on a separate project: a graphic novel series called 'Americatown' about a near-future dystopia where Americans are the immigrants.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tens of thousands of iPhone 6 Plus phones have been spontaneously losing their touchscreen capability because of an engineering flaw, but Apple still won't admit there's a problem. Motherboard spoke to Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, about what's causing the issue and what Apple should do about it. We also talk with an Apple Genius about your options if you have a phone with the problem.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Motherboard reflects on a week exploring time, money and how we decide what to value.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Periods are having a moment in mainstream consciousness. We talk to Kiran Gandhi, a drummer and activist about how the technology and ideas are menstruation are changing, and what it was like to run a marathon “free bleeding.”  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Between the hours of 3 AM and 5 AM Friday morning, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump went on a tweetstorm in which he was, you know, just saying that Hillary Clinton helped former Miss Universe (and a target of Trump’s misogyny) Alicia Machado become a US citizen “so she could use her in the debate.” Is that true? Like, almost certainly not—but in this election season, truth and facts hardly seem to matter. Trump's attacks on Machado are just the latest data point in an election cycle that has seen wild speculation, rampant exaggeration, and outright lies become accepted as fact by huge swaths of the electorate on both sides of the aisle. If we’re living in a post-factual era, how did we get here? Vincent F. Hendricks set up the Center for Information and Bubble Studies at the University of Copenhagen to study how individual and media behavior online has created a reality where virality, social spread, and repetition is all that’s required for people to believe something is true. While “facts” have

At times, Oliver Stone’s ‘Snowden’ feels like a remake of ‘Citizenfour,’ Laura Poitras’s Oscar-winning documentary. Citizenfour is the superior film, but Stone’s spy thriller is still a fun look into this generation’s most important whistleblower. The most interesting thing about ‘Snowden’ the film, however, doesn’t even happen onscreen. The film’s success won’t be viewed in terms of box office numbers, but in whether it has the ability to culturally and politically move the needle for its protagonist. Just days before ‘Snowden’ was released, the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International launched the most serious bid to secure a presidential pardon for Edward Snowden. So, is the movie good enough to change the hearts and minds of those who still view him as a traitor?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode of Radio Motherboard, we speak with Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, about the show's upcoming hour-long special and how a show about a 90s vision of modern living has stayed relevant today. We also chat with Sean Yeaton, formerly of Motherboard and now of Parquet Courts, about his vision for our technofuture and how cartoon like Rocko will influence our kids.    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Elon Musk’s new temple of energy is open for business in the middle of the desert outside Reno, Nevada. A few weeks ago, I went to the opening of the Tesla Gigagfactory, where Musk proposes to ramp up production of car batteries to the point where Tesla can begin to sell an affordable, mass-market electric cars. Musk’s ideas and Tesla’s futuristic cars get a lot of attention, but the company has still only sold just over 150,000 cars. The good news for Tesla is that many of those 150,000 customers are rabid fans who are happy to evangelize for the company. I went to the Gigafactory’s opening party to meet the people who not only owned a Tesla, but also convinced five of their friends to buy one. This podcast is meant to be a quick primer on the world of Tesla—what’s it like to own one? Who are these superfans and why do they love the company so much? What’s it like to drive a Model S in “Ludicrous Mode?” What’s inside the Gigafactory? And what is Elon Musk’s long-term vision for the future of transportation a

Your phone uses the equivalent of two refrigerators’ worth of electricity every year. If you add in all of the electricity required to store and move data across high-speed cable and wireless networks and climate-controlled server farms to deliver an hour of video to your phone each week, in the space of a year it adds up to more power than two new Energy Star refrigerators consume in the same time. This week, Douglas Rushkoff takes over Radio Motherboard in partnership with his brand new podcast,, Team Human. You can find future episodes of Team Human at teamhuman.fm.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.