In this week's listener mail segment: Hootsifer hips the guys to a controversial "better babies" company called Nucleus. Duane Berry shares a story about the early nights of dynamic gas station pricing. Y2curious replies to the earlier episode about AI psychosis. A Benevolent Dungeon Master asks the crew to consider making a tabletop game for charity.
Strikes escalate in Iran. War powers vote fails in the Senate. Middle East conflict pushes up gas prices. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has these stories and more on the World News Roundup.
Plus: A federal trade-court judge says the Trump administration owes more than $130 billion in tariff refunds. And Morgan Stanley fires 2,500 employees. Luke Vargas hosts.
Iranians are fleeing as Israel and the U.S. keep striking Iran, the fighting continues in Lebanon, and the war’s spillover is rattling Gulf countries. President Trump is offering shifting explanations for why the U.S. struck Iran, as the White House tries to line up its message and Americans remain wary about what the war is meant to achieve. And China says it will send a special envoy to the Middle East as Beijing’s annual “Two Sessions” get underway, with leaders warning the world is getting more volatile even as growth slows at home.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Bloch, Miguel Macias, James Hider, Tina Kraja, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Ben Abrams.
Our director is Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
And our Deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.
(0:00) Introduction (02:10) Iran War Expanding (06:13) Khamenei Successor (09:49) China Mediates Middle East War
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Ashwin Agrawal came to the US when he was 17, to Rochester for school. He now lives in the Bay Area, and admits he misses his friends on the east coast, as they all stayed back in that area - but he does NOT miss the winters. He has been building his current venture for 3-4 years, and prior to that, he was as at Google for a decade, apart of Google Cloud's huge growth trajectory. Outside of tech, he has a family with 2 middle school sons, with whom he likes to spend a lot of time with, hiking or eating good sushi.
Ashwin was laid off from a few jobs in the past. After experiencing this, he vowed to build a solution that would help people going through this sort of experience. After the last layoff, he formed his company at 4:30 am in the morning, to help anyone in point A wanting to go to point B.
As the war in the Middle East intensifies, one risk facing American banks is the possibility of cyber attacks by hackers linked to Iran.
There is some historical precedent for this: from late 2011 to mid-2013, nearly 50 financial institutions in the U.S. were attacked repeatedly by a group of hackers aligned with the Iranian government. The attacks disabled bank websites and prevented customers from accessing their accounts.
Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with Rafe Pilling, Director of Threat Intelligence with the cybersecurity firm Sophos about what those attacks looked like and whether banks are better equipped to fend off those attacks now.
Steve Burns didn’t set out to become a children’s TV icon. He moved to New York with only a duffle bag full of clothes, $300 in his pocket, and a dream to become an actor. When Steve got hired to host “Blue’s Clues” from 1996 to 2002, he found himself disoriented by fame and uncertain of his career trajectory. Reema talks with Steve about finding meaning outside of work, feeling like an imposter in a role he never expected, and how he redefined his money values … when he escaped to the forest.
Have you ever struggled with imposter syndrome in a new job? We want to hear about it, so give us a call at 347-RING-TIU or send us an email at uncomfortable@marketplace.org.
And you can check out Reema’s interview on Steve’s podcast, “Alive with Steve Burns” here.
When scientists began tinkering with DNA in the 1970s, biotechnology was not welcome in leafy residential neighborhoods or many college towns. But it was embraced by an industrial city by the Bay. In today's episode we come to learn how South San Francisco became one of the world's most valuable hubs of biotech.
This story was reported by Lesley McClurg. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.
In which Futureling Robert educates John about Germany's all-time best-selling author—and fraudster—Karl May. Special appearance by Einstein. Certificate #23821.
