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The latest in-depth coverage covering the intersection of technology and culture will help you make sense of a world in constant transformation. Join us as we explore the ways technology is changing our lives.
- Technology chart
- #158
- Episodes
- 2,542
- Releases
- Twice a week
- Typical length
- 37 min
- On air since
- 2016
- Latest episode
- 1 day ago
Episodes
2,542 episodes, newest first
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39 min
The Big Fight Over 403 Very Small Wasps
Show notes
To hear stories three days earlier, listen on The Big Story: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
Earth is teeming with unknown species, and they’re dying off faster than ever. Now biologists are battling over an old question: how to catalog life?
Written by Brooke Jarvis. Originally published on November 10th 2022.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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37 min
From The Big Story: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran
Show notes
To hear stories three days earlier, listen on The Big Story: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
Sneaking six Americans out of Iran in 1979 would take an audacious plan, false identities, and an epic Hollywood cover story.
Written by Joshuah Bearman. Originally published on April 24th, 2007.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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1 hr 25 min
From The Big Story: She Was the DEA’s Premier Crypto Detective. The Clues Led Straight to Her Own Family
Show notes
To listen to episodes a day early, follow The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
To escape the chaos of her Russian childhood, Lili Infante became an American law enforcement prodigy. She pioneered the DEA’s investigations of the dark web—never suspecting who she’d find hiding there.
Written by Joshuah Bearman and Owen Long. Originally published on October 21st, 2026.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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1 hr 48 min
From The Big Story: Inside the Bitcoin Bust That Took Down the Web's Biggest Child Abuse Site
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
They thought their payments were untraceable. They couldn’t have been more wrong. The untold story of the case that shredded the myth of Bitcoin’s anonymity.
Written by Andy Greenberg. Originally published on April 7th, 2022.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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1 hr 10 min
From The Big Story: Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here's What Happened
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
He shed his identity with the goal of disappearing for one month. Then the manhunt began.
Written by Evan Ratliff. Originally published on November 20th, 2009.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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50 min
From The Big Story: Nathan Fielder Tells Us Everything
Show notes
Including what Elizabeth Holmes said to him last week. A WIRED exclusive interview with the comic auteur, as his first feature film hits theaters.
The conversation between Katie Drummond and Nathan Fielder is performed by voice actors. These are not their actual voices.
Written by Katie Drummond. Originally published on October 19th, 2026.
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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48 min
From The Big Story: A College Girl Was Exploited on Camera. A Network of Anonymous Men Got to Work
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
Maddie Kowalski is one of countless young women who’ve had their lives destroyed by the burnerverse, a loosely connected online community of sports fans. Now she’s fighting back.
Written by EJ Dickson. Originally published on September 14th, 2026.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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1 hr 1 min
From The Big Story: The Accidental Zillionaire
Show notes
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Microsoft spawned two billionaires. Paul Allen is the other one.
Written by Paulina Borsook. Originally published on August 1st, 1994.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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46 min
From The Big Story: In Search of the Heart of the Online-Cat Industrial Complex
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
A cat wearing a short tie plays music on a cat-shaped keyboard (“Pancake Meowsic Video,” 185,459 views). A woman performs sun salutations with a cat on her back (“Cat Loves Yoga,” 1,539 views). A man slaps two cats on an ironing board to the beat of “Atmosphere” (“Cat Slap Joy Division,” 357,605 views).
Written by Gideon Lewis-Kraus. Originally published on August 31st, 2012.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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33 min
From The Big Story: The Internet Runs on Cats and Porn. It’s About to Get Cattier and Pornier
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
Soon, hundreds of new top-level domains, including .meow and .fart, could be added to the internet. WIRED goes inside the backroom shenanigans of ICANN, the organization at the helm.
Written by Pete Millspaugh. Originally published on October 6th, 2026.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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29 min
From The Big Story: Billions Registered
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
Right now, there are no rules to keep you from owning a bitchin’ corporate name as your own internet address.
Written by Joshua Quittner. Originally published on October 1st, 1994.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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1 hr 18 min
From The Big Story: Why the Future Doesn't Need Us
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
Our most powerful 21st-century technologies—robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech—are threatening to make humans an endangered species.
Written by Bill Joy. Originally published on April 1st, 2000.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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37 min
From The Big Story: Choke Points
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
Lost time. Lost jobs. Lost friends. Lost family.
Lost Lives.
How Israeli checkpoints suffocate Palestinian life in the occupied West Bank.
Written by Lama Rabah, Sabrina Slipchenko, Charles Boutaud, Firas Tawil and Elena DeBre. Originally published on September 30th 2026.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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39 min
From The Big Story: How a Research Blog Took on Big Surveillance in China—and Won
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
Digging through manuals for security cameras, a group of gearheads found sinister details and ignited a new battle in the US-China tech war.
Written by Amos Zeeberg. Originally published on April 4th, 2023.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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31 min
From The Big Story: Greetings From Burning Man!
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
Dispatches from the New American Holiday: Writer Bruce Sterling takes the kids to the Temporary Autonomous Zone, where survival is a personal choice.
Written by Bruce Sterling. Originally published in WIRED on November 1st, 1996.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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39 min
From The Big Story: She's 28, Loves God and Her Family, and Might Be the Reason You Can't Have Kids
Show notes
No IVF. No surrogacy. No polygenic tests. Emma Waters is leading a national fight against fertility tech—with her hot husband’s permission, of course.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-storyLearn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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27 min
From The Big Story: Sayaka Murata Inhabits a Planet of Her Own
Show notes
Listen to more of The Big Story here: http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop
The novelist makes the Earthly rituals of sex, marriage, childbirth—and all of human life—appear delightfully outlandish.
For more of the most ambitious, future-defining stories from our favorite human writers, subscribe to The Big Story newsletter: https://www.wired.com/newsletter/the-big-story
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11 min
Open Source AI Has Founders—and the FTC—Buzzing
Show notes
DC went to YC to talk OS.
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15 min
Bitcoin Bros Go Wild for Donald Trump
Show notes
At the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Trump told crypto enthusiasts exactly what they want to hear.
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14 min
Polluted Lakes Are Being Cleansed Using Floating Wetlands Made of Trash
Show notes
Platforms combining plants and recycled garbage could offer a cut-price solution for reviving polluted bodies of water.
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