Uncanny Valley | WIRED

She sits in on his business meetings, defends him on X, and travels to give talks about how she raised him, the richest man in the world — but who is Elon Musk’s mother? Today on the show, we learn all about the model, influencer and author, Maye Musk, while dissecting her most recent travels to China and her possible influence on foreign politics. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com.You can follow Michael Calore on BlueSky at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on BlueSky at @laurengoode,  and Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky @zoeschiffer. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

WIRED’s Vittoria Elliot joins Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond to discuss what real government auditors think of DOGE’s work, and what happened during DOGE’s first six weeks. Articles mentioned in this episode: ‘It’s a Heist’: Real Federal Auditors Are Horrified by DOGE, Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup’, Donald Trump Held Another Million-Dollar ‘Candlelight’ Dinner—With Elon Musk in Tow Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

If you’ve spent time in San Francisco or Phoenix in the last couple years, chances are you’ve probably seen a self-driving car making its way around. This week, we’re joined by WIRED’s Aarian Marshall to talk about the race to flood our streets with self-driving cars. We’ll get into safety regulations, the pros and cons of robo taxis, and we imagine a future where driverless cars become mainstream. You can follow Michael Calore on Bluesky at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on Bluesky at @laurengoode, and Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky @zoeschiffer. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

WIRED Senior Editor Leah Feiger joins Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond to discuss some breaking news about why Elon Musk would want a government shutdown. Plus, WIRED’s Emily Mullin joins for an update on misinformation surrounding the latest measles outbreaks in the United States.Articles mentioned in this episode: Elon Musk Has Wanted the Government Shutdown; This Is How Measles Kills; The Worst 7 Years in Boeing’s History—and the Man Who Won’t Stop Fighting for Answers Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Silicon Valley is obsessed with solutionism. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that when it comes to a declining birth rate some of the valley’s elite have a clear answer: more babies at all costs. Today on the show, we talk about the pronatalism movement and how ideas around increasing birth rates are trending among some of the valley’s biggest and wealthiest names. Articles mentioned in this episode:This Woman Will Decide Which Babies Are BornYou can follow Michael Calore on BlueSky at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on BlueSky at @laurengoode, and Zoë Schiffer on BlueSky at @zoeschiffer. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

WIRED’s Director of Business & Industry Zoë Schiffer and Katie Drummond, Global Editorial Director, talk about credit card freezes and AI technology at DOGE, and how each is a move from the Twitter playbook.Articles mentioned in this episode: DOGE Puts $1 Spending Limit on Government Employee Credit Cards, Elon Musk’s $1 Spending Limit Is Paralyzing Federal Agencies, DOGE Is Working on Software That Automates the Firing of Government Workers, Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Working on a Custom Chatbot Called GSAi Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

We’ve been so busy at WIRED, covering politics, science, culture, security, gear and so much more, that this week we decided to do something a little different – we’re talking through three stories from February that we just can’t stop thinking about. In today’s episode, we talk about the Tesla backlash, a saga involving deepfaked images, and we dive into the world of microchips. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

WIRED’s Deputy Editor Brian Barrett joins Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond to talk about the many conflicts of interests within DOGE which are popping up across the federal government, including most recently at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Plus, they unpack the chaos which followed an email that Elon Musk sent to federal workers over the weekend.  Articles mentioned in this episode: DOGE Staffers at HUD Are From an AI Real Estate Firm and a Mobile Home Operator, These Are the SpaceX Engineers Already Working Inside the FAA, DOGE Put Him in the Treasury Department. His Company Has Federal Contracts Worth Millions, Elon Musk Threatens FBI Agents and Air Traffic Controllers With Forced Resignation if They Don't Respond to an Email, DOGE Email Throws Federal Agencies Into Chaos and Confusion, No, 150-Year-Olds Aren’t Collecting Social Security Benefits, The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The relationship between Sam Altman and Elon Musk goes back to the early days of OpenAI– then, a non-profit research lab. But now, the two men find themselves in a very public feud over the billion dollar AI company. Today on the show, we catalogue their friendship-turned-feud and how the company that started it all still remains core to their beef. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Andrew Couts, WIRED’s Senior Editor of Security and Investigations, joins Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond to talk about how The 1974 Privacy Act is being leveraged as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency continues to collect massive amounts of sensitive federal data. Plus, they discuss how you can protect yourself from government surveillance. Articles mentioned in this episode: The 50-Year-Old Law That Could Stop DOGE in Its Tracks—Maybe, The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance, How a 'NULL' License Plate Landed One Hacker in Ticket Hell Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Dating apps have evolved a lot over the years, with apps dedicated to any romantic niche– dog lovers, astrology heads, and big, bushy beards. Despite the seemingly endless options of dating platforms, the industry seems to be at a low. So this week, we talk about the current state of dating apps and what it means for those looking for love (or something like it). Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

WIRED Politics Senior Editor Leah Feiger joins Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond to talk about the latest at DOGE and the inexperienced engineers holding key positions at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. They discuss how WIRED’s been preparing for this moment since the first assassination attempt on Trump last summer, and how, despite the unprecedented chaos of this moment, the courts will catch up. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On a Sunday in January, TikTok users were greeted with a notification in the app which said that TikTok was no longer available to use in the U.S., but that it hoped to be back soon. The following day, President Trump took office and signed an executive order keeping the app around another 75 days. But, it’s still unclear what will happen with TikTok after those 75 days are up. This week, we break down years of drama around the potential ban on TikTok, and we ask each other: what makes this app so unique and so uniquely vulnerable? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It wasn’t that long ago that one of Silicon Valley's most prominent and influential venture capitalists, Marc Andreessen, was a major supporter of the Democratic Party. So how did he, in such a short time, transform into a top advisor to the Trump administration? This week, we retrace Andreesen’s steps–from his early days at Netscape to his current role of “unpaid intern” at DOGE. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

With the news that Meta is ending its third-party fact-checking program, we dig into the future of content moderation. From Community Notes to automated systems, how do you manage trust and safety for a site with two billion daily active users?Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com.You can follow Michael Calore on BlueSky at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on BlueSky at @laurengoode, and Zoë Schiffer on Threads @reporterzoe. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Sometimes you just need a little help. That’s where the robots come in! But, have we actually reached a place where AI is more helpful than working with a human expert? This week, we compare notes on our week with AI assistants. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

What do Dogecoin and the Department of Government Efficiency have in common? Elon Musk, of course. This new government committee led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy is being tasked with cutting the federal budget. So this week, we examine the Silicon Valley mindset behind it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In her new FX docuseries “Social Studies,” the artist and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield delves into the post-pandemic lives—and phones—of a group of L.A. teens. Screen recordings of the kids’ social-media use reveal how these platforms have reshaped their experience of the world in alarming ways. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss how the show paints a vivid, empathetic portrait of modern adolescence while also tapping into the long tradition of fretting about what the youths of the day are up to. The hosts consider moral panics throughout history, from the 1971 book “Go Ask Alice,” which was first marketed as the true story of a drug-addicted girl’s downfall in a bid to scare kids straight, to the hand-wringing that surrounded trends like rock and roll and the postwar comic-book craze. Anxieties around social-media use, by contrast, are warranted. Mounting research shows how screen time correlates with spikes in depression, loneliness, and suicide among teens. It’s a problem that has come to define all our lives, not just those of the youth. “This whole crust of society—people joining trade unions and other kinds of things, lodges and guilds, having hobbies,” Cunningham says, “that layer of society is shrinking. And parallel to our crusade against the ills of social media is, how do we rebuild that sector of society?”Listen to and follow Critics at Large here:  http://swap.fm/l/tny-cal-feeddrop Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Wearable tech, self-driving cars and AI mishaps. There were a lot of new product launches this year – some more successful than others. This week on Uncanny Valley, we talk about the tech out there that we are most excited about and the tech that has us most terrified for the coming year. Plus, we share our gifting recommendations.  Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com.You can follow Michael Calore on BlueSky at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on BlueSky at @laurengoode, and Zoë Schiffer on Threads @reporterzoe. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In a post-Twitter world, text-based social media apps have taken a new shape. X, BlueSky, and Threads are home to wildly different types of discourse. So, which of these apps are actually worth our time?  This week on Uncanny Valley, we talk about the state of text-based social apps and how they impact journalism. And finally, we ask–is it time to quit?  Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com.You can follow Michael Calore on Mastodon at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on Threads and @laurengoode, and Zoë Schiffer on Threads @reporterzoe. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices