Decrypted

Mountain View, California, is home to Google and Silicon Valley's tech boom. Rents and home prices have soared, and hundreds of people have been forced to live in recreational vehicles parked on the city's streets. This week on Decrypted, we explore how the rising cost of living is fueling tension between homeowners and vehicle residents, resulting in a parking ban on RVs. 

Cycling enthusiasts have a new way to work out at home: By hooking their bikes up to Zwift, they compete in a video game with other stationary cyclists. This week on Decrypted, reporter Gerrit de Vynck spends a month training on Zwift. He explores whether its new racing leagues could soon become a spectator sport. 

It's finally happening. A decade after Uber started out as a black car service in San Francisco, it's going public in one of the largest IPOs of all time. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Eric Newcomer joins Brad Stone to discuss what it will take for Uber to become a profitable business, the potential of its other ventures, and what it would mean for Silicon Valley if Uber achieves the stratospheric valuation it’s seeking. 

A growing number of experts believe that a promising technology, known as carbon capture, will be an essential part of any plan to confront climate change. But until now the science of removing carbon from the air has only ever been demonstrated at a small scale—and the process of turning that carbon into useful products, such as fuel, has cost too much to make a real difference. This week on Decrypted, meet two startups that think they may have a solution.

Jason Boyce built a successful business selling sports equipment on Amazon. As the platform has grown, Amazon has pushed sellers to lower prices, shorten delivery times and compete harder for every sale. This week on Decrypted, we explore whether entrepreneurs like Jason have reached a breaking point. They now face a competitor who's potentially unbeatable: Amazon itself. 

On this new show from Bloomberg, hosts Mike Regan and Sarah Ponczek speak with expert guests each week about the main themes influencing global markets. They explore everything from stocks to bonds to currencies and commodities, and how each asset class affects trading in the others. Whether you’re a financial professional or just a curious retirement saver, What Goes Up keeps you apprised of the latest buzz on Wall Street and what the wildest movements in markets will mean for your investments. 

 With 40 million users, Blued is a popular dating app for gay men in China. This week on Decrypted, we explore the company's next venture: a service to help gay couples have babies by surrogate in California. 

A company called Ambrosia Health signed up about 150 patients for a novel anti-aging procedure: young blood plasma transfusions. The only problem was the FDA. This week on Decrypted, the story of a startup that claimed it could restore lost youth with young people's blood. We’ll hear from a patient who got the treatment, the researchers who say it endangered patients, and the scientists who believe the idea isn’t as crazy as it seems.

The Pay Check is back for a second season! For the next six weeks, we’re going to dig into the number one reason women still make less money than men: Motherhood. Women start their careers earning just about the same as men do, but once they have their first kid, that pay gap grows to a chasm. This season, we’ll show you how this “motherhood penalty” plays out for real women, in real life and how it affects the global economy.

Instagram is full of vacation pics, brand campaigns and celebrity posts. But it's also a place where people go to find counterfeit prescription drugs and illegal street drugs. This week on Decrypted, we follow the story of Eileen Carey, who has tried for years to bring this troubling issue to Instagram's attention. Thanks in part to her efforts, Instagram has taken some steps to curbing drug-related content. But the problem still has not been contained.

Decrypted will be back next week. Here's an early peek at the stories we'll be covering this season. 

The Pay Check is collecting stories for our upcoming season, and we want to hear from you! Did having a kid change your career trajectory or the way you work? If you have anything you want to share, call and leave us a voicemail at (212) 617-0166. Stay tuned for more very soon!

On this new show from Bloomberg, hosts Francesca Levy and Rebecca Greenfield navigate the productivity industry by way of their own experiences. In each episode, one of the two becomes a human guinea pig as she tries to solve a specific work-related problem. Using the advice of so-called productivity experts, the duo tackles obstacles like ineffective to-do lists, overflowing inboxes and unruly meetings. Follow along with their attempts, insights and missteps, and maybe find a solution that will work for you.

Jody Pagliocco drives for Uber and Lyft in Maine. Like many working mothers, she depends on the income and the flexibility of the job—but she can't stand the constant harassment from male passengers. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Selina Wang and Brad Stone hear from women in the gig economy. Selina and Brad also discuss one study that examines the gender disparities that are putting women at a disadvantage in this emerging corner of the job market.

'Tis the season to give your loved ones the latest and greatest tech gadgets. The only problem: a lot of them are now listening, watching and tracking us. As part of Decrypted's exploration of the unintended consequences of technology, this week Pia Gadkari and Mark Gurman look at the potential dark sides of your holiday generosity.

When Theo Patt was 15 he built a software program that displayed his Google location data on a map online. For the teenager, it was a sentimental keepsake. But since then, hundreds of thousands of people have used it -- often in ways Theo never intended. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Alistair Barr and Pia Gadkari explore the myriad secrets that our location data can reveal and some of the ways it can be used against us.

In August, Apple was worth a trillion dollars and analysts wondered when the other tech giants would join its ranks. But over the last three months, the stock prices of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google have all plunged. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Joshua Brustein and Brad Stone explore what's driving the losses and ask whether it's a sign the tech boom may finally be coming to an end.

This week on Decrypted, we're bringing you an episode from Bloomberg's newly-launched health and medicine podcast: Prognosis. Bloomberg's Kristen V Brown takes you on a tour of a biohacker's DNA experiment to change how frogs -- and possibly people -- grow muscles. It's an experiment he insists anyone can try at home. He'll even sell you a kit (frogs included) to do it.

Facebook’s ad platform is quick to learn, easy to use and incredibly profitable. But the complex algorithms that make the ads run are still a black box for most people, and that can create problems—particularly when it comes to politics. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology’s Sarah Frier and Brad Stone  take a look at how the system works and explain why fixing issues on the platform is harder than you might think.

What’s the most sure-fire way to get a flight upgrade? How can you find the best, secret local restaurants by asking just one question? What's the first thing you should do when you get into a hotel room? On Bloomberg's new podcast Travel Genius, we'll give you those answers—and plenty more—as hosts Nikki Ekstein and Mark Ellwood quiz the world’s most experienced globetrotters for their tried-and-true travel hacks. Listen weekly, and even your work trips will go from a necessary evil to an expert art form. Plus, you'll be padding out your bucket list with dreams of amazing future vacations.