Introducing: Foundering - The John McAfee Story

The new season of Bloomberg's Foundering podcast retraces the life and gruesome death of John McAfee. In the 1980s and ’90s, the McAfee name was synonymous with computer antivirus software, and he helped establish the modern cybersecurity industry. But afterward, his life took a strange and dark turn. He was accused of murder, an allegation he denied, and then went on the lam. He sought to reinvent himself as a cryptocurrency guru and as a candidate for US president. Reporter Jamie Tarabay interviews McAfee’s colleagues, acquaintances, investigators and family members to demystify lies he told throughout his life, reveal the secrets he kept and resolve questions surrounding his public and decades-long self-destruction.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
In the nine eighties and nineties. John McAfee was a
Silicon Valley icon. Well great, um, we were supposed to
have a meeting at eight this morning. Again, he said yeah,
but I was hungover. His name was synonymous with computer
anti virus software, so I said, would you mind if
I came over to the lab and spent some time

(00:22):
with you there to try to understand the technology better.
And it took me all of fifteen minutes in the
R and D lab to realize he was brilliant. He
helped invent the modern cybersecurity industry, and it made him
fabulously wealthy. When we were together, women would just like

(00:45):
falling his spell and sleep with him or go away
with him. It's just amazing. But after he sold his
company and bosked in his riches, things took a dark
turn and he just slowly, like a spider throwing a
web around its cry. It just becomes this, this galloping

(01:09):
circus of stupidity that he finds so cute. A man
is dead. I will not allow them to imprison me
and shut my voice down. I'm your host, Jamie Tara Bay.
I cover cybersecurity for Bloomberg News. I've been a foreign
correspondent for over twenty years. Throughout my career, I've reported

(01:34):
on powerful people with God complexes, people who didn't believe
they had to be held accountable for their actions, people
who may have gotten away with murder. They want to
silence me. I will not allow that. This season on
Foundering will retrace the life of John McAfee, from his

(01:55):
rise in Silicon Valley to his chaotic journey through Central America,
and how his choices led him down the path towards
a public and decades long self destruction. When I heard
that he was arrested in Spain, I knew that he
had been with them, and Uh, these are very powerful man.
I don't want to get too far into it, just

(02:16):
to protect myself. Foundering a podcast from Bloomberg Technology. Listen
wherever you get your podcasts.