Decrypted

Cottage Grove, Minnesota, has had a 3M factory in town since 1947. It makes everything from Post-It Notes and Scotch Tape to reflective road signs. In 2017, the city found out the state was lowering the acceptable level of PFAS, a chemical made and used at the factory, in its drinking water. Scientific studies show there could be serious health consequences for people exposed to it. And now dozens of U.S. cities are discovering PFAS is in their water too. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg's Tiffany Kary and Pia Gadkari tell the story of how a Minnesota lawyer first learned of PFAS contamination, and discuss documents revealed through lawsuits that suggest 3M knew of certain risks for decades and never disclosed them. 3M says those documents have been taken out of context and that the chemical isn't a danger to public health.

Where does a medical cure come from? 100 years ago, it wasn't uncommon for scientists to test medicines by taking a dose themselves. As medical technologies get cheaper and more accessible, patients and DIY tinkerers are trying something similar—and mainstream medicine is racing to catch up. Prognosis explores the leading edge of medical advances, and asks who gets—or should get—access to them. We look at how innovation happens, when it fails, and what it means to the people with a disease trying to feel better, live longer, or avoid death.

Electric scooter-sharing programs have become very popular, and very polarizing. With companies like Bird and Lime operating in over 100 cities globally, an increasing number of grisly accidents have made it into the headlines. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Olivia Carville and Joshua Brustein ask whether scooters are as safe as they should be, and who bears responsibility when accidents do happen?

In 1987, a young couple was killed in Washington state. This case, and others like it, were unsolved for decades — until a new technology emerged. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg's Kristen V. Brown visits CeCe Moore, who's at the forefront of using genetic genealogy to hunt killers. Her work is made possible by consumers who upload their DNA test results to the internet to learn about their family lineages and their own health. But did these consumers intend for that information to be used to track down criminals?

The e-cigarette maker Juul has seen stratospheric sales since early 2017, making it one of the buzziest startups in Silicon Valley. But now a backlash over the company's popularity with teenagers could jeopardize that. This week on Decrypted, Olivia Zaleski and Pia Gadkari trace the company's story from its origins. Juul says it only ever wanted to help adults quit smoking. Instead, it's become a social media sensation. And critics fear teen vaping is nothing short of a new public health crisis in the making.

Facebook is used to dealing with rogue actors antagonizing politicians on its platform. But what happens when a country's own government is the one bending the rules? This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Sarah Frier and Pia Gadkari look at what happened when officials in Sri Lanka reached out to Facebook to help build the government's online presence, and Facebook's responsibility when ambitious world leaders start using the platform for their own political ends.

For years, Elon Musk had been testing the limits of acceptable decorum for a public company CEO. This summer, he may have finally gone too far. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Brad Stone and Dana Hull trace how the two words "funding secured" helped trigger a more than 20 percent decline of Tesla's stock price, and led the government to open two separate investigations into the company. Musk has never seemed to care much about consequences, but now that strategy could have big implications for the future of Tesla.

Advances in photo and video editing technology have enabled fake news, birthed viral hoaxes and even empowered corrupt governments. But they've also had a less publicized consequence: complicating mankind's search for extraterrestrial life. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Austin Weinstein and Pia Gadkari examine the recent boom in UFO sightings -- and how they've become more convincing than ever. This is part of a special season of Decrypted, where we examine the unintended consequences of modern technology.

When Andrew Friedman pulled out an old Flip Video camera to watch a cherished video of his newborn son, his camera wouldn't turn on. It's happened to many of us: we buy the latest new app or gadget, but within a few years it becomes obsolete as the tech industry moves on, often leaving our files behind with it. So Andrew turned to Bloomberg Technology's Brad Stone for help. This week on Decrypted, Brad and Kristy Westgard go on a mission to get the videos back. It's part of a special season exploring the unintended consequences of technology.

Ocean Falls in Canada had been mostly abandoned for the last 40 years—until an entrepreneur started building a facility to mine bitcoin there. Residents hoped the new business would help revive the struggling community. This season on Decrypted, we'll be exploring the unintended consequences of technology. In this episode, Bloomberg Technology's Joshua Brustein travels to Ocean Falls to see whether bitcoin's arrival has actually been good for the Canadian town. 

The third season of Decrypted launches Sept. 4, and we're dedicating the entire season to exploring the unintended consequences of technology. We'll be releasing new episodes every Tuesday.

We have a new host on Decrypted! Aki and Brad welcome Pia Gadkari to the mic, and Aki fills us in on some exciting news of her own.

Last month, the world's most far-reaching data privacy regulation took effect in Europe. Consumers there can now not only ask companies to delete or hand over their data, but they can also sell that data to other businesses. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Nate Lanxon sets out to get his data back from several businesses and see whether anyone will pay him for his personal information.

When Jared was just a pre-teen his childhood hobby, playing video games, morphed into a compulsive and eventually harmful obsession. Years later, he's still working to move past it, and he's not alone. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Pia Gadkari goes to Boston to meet Jared and his pediatrician Dr Michael Rich, whose research shows there are mental health repercussions for some children who spend hours online. Pia explores what parents as well as tech companies can do to identify — and address — the problem.

When entrepreneur Mitchell Lee decided it was time to hire another engineer at his startup Penny, he set out to hire someone who broke the mold of a typical Silicon Valley programmer. This week on Decrypted, we're re-airing this episode that we first published in January 2017. At the end, you'll hear an update from Bloomberg Technology's Ellen Huet about what's happened at Penny since then.

Texas food delivery startup Burpy was doing well, expanding from Austin to Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. But then Amazon got in to the same business. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Olivia Zaleski goes to Austin to chart one startup's struggle to survive while going up against a tech behemoth.

The true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown creator of the cryptocurrency bitcoin, is one of the tech industry's biggest unsolved mysteries. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Brad Stone and Julie Verhage ask the journalists who tried to find Satoshi why this secretive genius remains so elusive. And now that bitcoin is a global phenomenon, does unmasking Satoshi still matter anyway?

Venezuela's spiraling economic crisis has forced many citizens to seek new ways of making money. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg's Camila Russo and Brad Stone hear from one businessman who made the decision to quietly start mining bitcoin -- a smart move until it attracted the attention of the police. Authorities raided his office, and he says, tried to extort him -- forcing him to flee the country.

There's a standoff brewing in Seattle. After years of double-digit growth in home prices, homelessness is surging and the city council is weighing a tax on big businesses to fund new affordable housing. But Amazon, Seattle's largest employer, threatened to curtail its expansion plans in the city if the tax took effect. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Karen Weise and Brad Stone explore this showdown between one of the world's largest companies and a city that has experienced both the benefits and drawbacks of Amazon's meteoric growth.

In July, we brought you an investigation of the Moscow-based antivirus software maker Kaspersky Lab and its connections with the Russian government. A lot has happened since then. This week on Decrypted, you'll hear a shortened version of that original episode, as well as an update to catch you up on the latest developments.