MIT Technology Review Narrated
Welcome to MIT Technology Review Narrated, the home for the very best of our journalism in audio. Each week we will share one of our most ambitious stories, from print and online, narrated for us by real voice actors. Expect big themes, thought-provoking topics, and sharp analysis, all backed by our trusted reporting.
Episodes
January 22, 2025 • 24 mins
Figuring out how the human body can withstand underwater pressure has been a problem for over a century, but a ragtag band of divers is experimenting with hydrogen to find out.
This story was written by Samantha Schuyler and narrated by Noa.
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January 14, 2025 • 17 mins
Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR, has set his sights on a new mixed-reality headset customer: the Pentagon.
His company Anduril Industries, which focuses on drones, cruise missiles, and other AI-enhanced technologies for the US Department of Defense, announced it would partner with Microsoft on the US Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), arguably the military’s largest effort to develop a headset for use on ...
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January 8, 2025 • 34 mins
Podcaster Joe Rogan, former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and football quarterback Aaron Rodgers are all helping revive AIDS denialism—a false collection of theories arguing either that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS or that there’s no such thing as HIV at all.
These ideas were initially promoted back in the 1980s and ’90s by a cadre of scientists from unrelated fields, as well as many science-adjacent figures and self-...
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January 1, 2025 • 33 mins
The newest versions of generative AI are bedazzling, with lifelike videos, seemingly expert-sounding prose, and other all too humanlike behaviors. Business leaders are fretting over how to reinvent their companies as billions flow into startups, and the big AI companies are creating ever more powerful models. Predictions abound on how ChatGPT and the growing list of large language models will transform the way we work and organize ...
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December 18, 2024 • 23 mins
Despite it being over 100 years old, radio technology is still critical in almost all aspects of modern warfare—including in the drones that have come to dominate the Russia-Ukraine war. But before the war, there was a frightening vacuum of expertise. Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, who has been obsessed with radios since childhood, stepped in to fill it. Now, the unlikely hero is sharing expert advice and intel on the ever-evolving te...
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December 11, 2024 • 27 mins
You can practically hear the shrieks from corner offices around the world: “What is our ChatGPT play? How do we make money off this?”
Whether it’s based on hallucinatory beliefs or not, an AI gold rush has started to mine the anticipated business opportunities from generative AI models like ChatGPT.
But while companies and executives see a clear chance to cash in, the likely impact of the technology on workers and the economy on ...
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December 4, 2024 • 30 mins
In the future, CRISPR will get easier and easier to administer, potentially opening up paths for tinkering with human evolution. What will that mean for our species?
This story was written by senior biomedicine editor Antonio Regalado and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com
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November 27, 2024 • 41 mins
Did you know that NASA intends to destroy the International Space Station by around 2030? Once it's gone, private companies will likely swoop in with their own replacements. Get ready for the great commercial takeover of low Earth orbit.
This story was written by David W. Brown and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com
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November 21, 2024 • 26 mins
Pump jacks and pipelines clutter the Elk Hills oil field of California, a scrubby stretch of land in the southern Central Valley that rests above one of the nation’s richest deposits of fossil fuels.
Oil production has been steadily declining in the state for decades, as tech jobs have boomed and legislators have enacted rigorous environmental and climate rules. Companies, towns, and residents across Kern County, where the poverty ...
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November 13, 2024 • 26 mins
Robots that can do many of the things humans do in the home—folding laundry, cooking meals, cleaning—have been a dream of robotics research since the inception of the field in the 1950s.
While engineers have made great progress in getting robots to work in tightly controlled environments like labs and factories, the home has proved difficult to design for. Out in the real, messy world, furniture and floor plans differ wildly; chi...
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November 6, 2024 • 34 mins
In an attempt to protect its forests and famous wildlife, Virunga has become the first national park to run a Bitcoin mine. But some are wondering what crypto has to do with conservation.
This story was written by Adam Popescu and narrated by Noa (newsoveraudio.com)
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October 30, 2024 • 16 mins
We live in an undeniably gamified world. We stand up and move around to close colorful rings and earn achievement badges on our smartwatches; we meditate and sleep to recharge our body batteries; we plant virtual trees to be more productive; we chase “likes” and “karma” on social media sites and try to swipe our way toward social connection.
But instead of liberating us from drudgery and maximizing our potential, gamification has ...
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October 23, 2024 • 27 mins
Digital clones of people's dead relatives are far from perfect: they're occasionally impersonal and sometimes downright creepy. But if the technology might help us hang onto the people we love, is it so wrong to try?
This story was written by news editor Charlotte Jee and narrated by Noa.
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October 16, 2024 • 35 mins
A Silicon Valley startup wants to supercharge trees to soak up more carbon and cool the climate. Is this the great climate solution or a whole lot of hype?
This story was written by Boyce Upholt and narrated by Noa.
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October 9, 2024 • 79 mins
Artificial intelligence is the hottest technology of our time. But what is it? It sounds like a stupid question, but it’s one that’s never been more urgent.
MIT Technology Review takes a deep dive into the competing answers from titans of industry and helps us understand how we got here—and why you should care, no matter who you are.
This story was written by senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven and narrated by Noa.
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October 2, 2024 • 27 mins
The growing business of surf pools wants to bring the ocean experience inland, making surfing more accessible to communities far from the coasts.
These pools can use—and lose—millions upon millions of gallons of water every year. With many planned for areas facing water scarcity, who bears the cost of building the perfect wave?
This story was written by senior features and investigations reporter Eileen Guo and narrated by Noa.
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September 25, 2024 • 28 mins
Open-world video games are inhabited by vast crowds of computer-controlled characters. These animated people—called NPCs, for “nonplayer characters”—populate the bars, city streets, or space ports of games. They make virtual worlds feel lived in and full. Often—but not always—you can talk to them.
After a while, however, the repetitive chitchat (or threats) of a passing stranger forces you to bump up against the truth: This is jus...
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September 18, 2024 • 21 mins
At any given time, the US organ transplant waiting list is about 100,000 people long. Martine Rothblatt sees a day when an unlimited supply of transplantable organs—and 3D-printed ones—will be readily available, saving countless lives.
This story was written by senior biomedicine editor Antonio Regalado and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com
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September 11, 2024 • 28 mins
Design thinking suggests that we are all creatives, and we can solve any problem if we empathize hard enough. The methodology was supposed to democratize design, but it may have done the opposite. Where did it go wrong?
This story was written by Rebecca Ackermann and narrated by Noa - newsoveraudio.com
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September 4, 2024 • 25 mins
Tokelau is a group of three isolated atolls strung out across the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand (of which it’s an official territory) and Hawaii. Its population hovers around 1,400 people. Reaching it requires a boat ride from Samoa that can take over 24 hours. To say that Tokelau is remote is an understatement: it was the last place on Earth to be connected to the telephone… in 1997.
Despite its size, Tokelau has become an in...
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