Ever since police used a DNA platform called GEDmatch to crack the Golden State Killer case in 2018, police departments around the country have rushed to use genetic genealogy to crack their own cold cases. The result? Hundreds of violent cases solved. So--why are some states passing new laws to limit this new technology?Guest: Nila Bala, senior staff attorney at the Policing Project at NYU Law. HostLizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last decade, billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson have come to embody the future of space travel and exploration. What does it mean when the ideas and ambitions of a few powerful men come to dominate the conversation so thoroughly?Guest: Lucianne Walkowicz, astronomer at the Adler Planetarium and founder of the Just Space AllianceHostLizzie O’LearyThis episode is sponsored by Teamistry. You can listen here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two weeks ago, as wildfires burned north of Los Angeles, the crime app Citizen offered $30,000 for information that would lead to the arrest of a suspected arsonist. They had the wrong guy. Why is Citizen offering bounties in the first place? And what does this bounty debacle say about the app’s aspirations for the future?Guest: Joseph Cox, reporter at Motherboard HostHenry Grabar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After years of careful planning and public spats, Apple and Epic—the maker of Fortnite—have spent the last three weeks in court, fighting over the future of mobile gaming. What happens if, for once, Apple loses?Guest: Elizabeth Lopatto, deputy editor at the Verge HostLizzie O’Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, a hacker group called DarkSide shut down the Colonial Pipeline, which supplies 45 percent of the fuel consumed on the East Coast. Gas prices skyrocketed, people started hoarding gas, and DarkSide walked away with over $4 million in Bitcoin. How did they do it? And what makes this hack different from those we’ve seen before?Guest: David Uberti, cybersecurity reporter at the Wall Street JournalHostLizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Serum Institute of India was supposed to supply vaccines not just to India, but to the entire Global South. Now, with cases surging, there aren’t nearly enough vaccines for India’s population, not to mention the many countries that are relying on it. How did such a successful institution come up so short? And what are the costs of that failure?Guest: Samanth Subramanian, senior reporter at QuartzHostLizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The question of Donald Trump’s banned account--to keep it blocked, or reinstate it--is one of the toughest that Facebook has ever faced. But the social network had a plan: punt the decision to its newly minted Oversight Board, a semi-independent “Supreme Court” tasked with making hard decisions about what content stays up, and what comes down. Did that plan just backfire?Guest: Kate Klonick, professor at St. John’s University School of Law HostLizzie O’Leary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There was a time—back when Steve Jobs ran Apple and Mark Zuckerberg was in his early days as Facebook’s CEO— that Apple and Facebook were friends.. Or, at worst, frenemies. But as the companies grew, so did two competing views of how the internet should work. What led to the rift between Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook? And will Apple’s new privacy rules undercut Facebook’s vision for the internet?Guest:  Mike Isaac, tech reporter at the New York Times HostLizzie O’Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, a Tesla Model S crashed into a tree in a neighborhood north of Houston. Both men inside the car were killed. But according to police, neither of them was in the driver’s seat. This is not the first crash in which Tesla’s “autopilot” feature has likely played a role. Should we really be trusting this technology?Guest: Missy Cummings, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke UniversityHostLizzie O’Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like countless venture-funded start-ups before it, Substack is “disrupting” the media industry. The newsletter service is siphoning off high-profile talent with a promise of independence and bigger paychecks. But the platform’s influence might reach far beyond the media. Will Substack change the way we think about online creators and their audiences? Can it create a new kind of relationship between them?Guest:  Charlie Warzel, writer of Galaxy Brain HostLizzie O’Leary  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices