Foundering
Foundering
Foundering is an award-winning, serialized podcast from the journalists at Bloomberg Technology. Each season, Foundering brings you inside a different high-stakes drama from the technology industry, where its companies are wielding unprecedented capital and power.Social links:
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Bob Lee Part 4: The Made-for-TV Murder Trial
Nima Momeni's trial for murdering Bob Lee began in October 2024. Lee's killing, no longer a stand-in for random street crime, no longer fit neatly into the political zeitgeist. Instead, the tabloids latched onto the story for its salacious mix of drugs, violence and sex. Reporter Shawn Wen brings l…
50:08Explicit
Bob Lee Part 3: The Brilliant Programmer and a Lot of Wild Living
Weeks after his death, Bob Lee’s toxicology report was released, indicating that he had alcohol, cocaine, and ketamine in his system. While his killing no longer fit neatly with the San Francisco Doom Loop narrative, a new story emerged that Lee traveled through an underground party scene known as …
38:42Explicit
Bob Lee Part 2: The Brother Did It
Nine days after Bob Lee was found stabbed in San Francisco, police arrested Nima Momeni for his murder. Desperate to squash the ‘Doom Loop’ narrative, San Francisco officials insisted that Bob Lee was killed by someone he knew, a fellow tech executive. But the Cash App founder’s friends and family …
47:39Explicit
Bob Lee Part 1: San Francisco Has Blood On Its Hands
Three years ago, Bob Lee, a tech executive famous for creating Cash App, was found stabbed in San Francisco. His killing set off a wave of online fury. Reporter Shawn Wen takes us back to the turbulent days before his killer was arrested, when misinformation and rumors ran rampant. Several tech ind…
37:14Explicit
Foundering: The Killing of Bob Lee (Trailer)
Three years ago, Bob Lee, a tech executive best known for creating Cash App, was found stabbed in the streets of San Francisco. His killing set off a wave of online fury. Rumors and misinformation ran rampant. Several tech industry leaders weighed in, including David Sacks, who “bet dollars to dime…
01:49
OpenAI Part 5: Beware the Ides of November
Right as Sam Altman was at the peak of his success, touring the world to espouse the virtues of AI, his board turned on him. Altman was unceremoniously fired. OpenAI’s coup is a story of secrets, betrayal, employee revolt and Altman’s expert political maneuvering to regain his position of power. In…
47:50
OpenAI Part 4: Heaven and Hell, Part 2
It’s widely predicted that AI will upend the economy and threaten many existing jobs. Sam Altman, in trying to stay ahead of public fears of mass unemployment, has offered universal basic income as a solution. He also has envisioned an AI future of abundance. In this episode, reporter Ellen Huet lo…
21:59
OpenAI Part 3: Heaven and Hell, Part 1
A group of high-level early employees who had glimpsed the fluidity and power of the technology behind ChatGPT left OpenAI to start a new company. Their exit sparked concerns that OpenAI is not prioritizing safety. Meanwhile, the success of ChatGPT drove a craze within the tech industry but also ad…
31:37
OpenAI Part2: Ilya Dreams of AGI
OpenAI employees were motivated by the dream of building an artificial general intelligence, which could think and solve problems like a human mind. In reality, they sometimes spent their days building bots that played video games. But new research allowed the company to create increasingly powerfu…
35:13
OpenAI Part 1: The Most Silicon Valley Man Alive
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, shot to tech stardom with the release of ChatGPT. His company is one of the most valuable startups in the world, and he is treated like an ambassador for the AI future, zipping around the globe, meeting with world leaders. But how did he amass so much power? In this episo…
39:20