GeekWire

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Amazon and critics wage a PR war in the company’s first virtual annual meeting. One employee said working at an Amazon warehouse is like getting the "golden ticket," but a former employee and critic talked of "toxicity" in the company's culture. We watched, and cringed, and we’ll tell you all about it. Forme...

NASA and SpaceX are keeping a close eye on the weather in Florida and beyond as they get set for a second attempt to launch two NASA astronauts in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule this weekend. Read more on GeekWire .  What’s the significance of this launch? What does it mean for the commercial space race and the future of space exploration? On this special episode of the GeekWire Pod...

"Virtual-Classes Trend Alarms Professors." That was the headline on a 1998 New York Times story about an open letter to then-Gov. Gary Locke from University of Washington professors “worried about the enthusiasm he and one of his advisers are showing for instruction via CD-ROM's and the Internet.” More than 20 years later, with the pandemic making distance education an unavoidable real...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Word leaked out this week that Uber is considering buying food-delivery service Grubhub , and it turns out there are many Seattle connections behind the possible deal, including links to Expedia and several other companies. Food delivery is a tough market to make a buck in, for companies and their drivers, so what's in...

COVID-19 has upended the tech startup hiring market: There used to be more jobs than talent, but the situation has flipped in the face of business challenges from COVID-19. Tech giants and startups who are hiring now find they can pick from the cream of the crop. We've been looking into who's hiring, and what it's like to hire and onboard new employees remotely. Plus, how Silicon Valley's cutbacks...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast: Amazon's sales rose 26% in the first quarter as the COVID-19 crisis made the online retailer an even bigger part of many lives, but profits were down 30% due to expenses from dealing with the virus. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave a clear message to shareholders, saying they "may want to take a seat," because there are big c...

Here's what we're talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. “Picture restaurants that only seat people at every other table, and airplanes where every middle seat is empty.” That is what the “semi-normal” next phase of the pandemic will look like, Bill Gates says , offering a starkly pragmatic take that contrasts with predictions from President Trump that the economy...

For startup leaders accustomed to building their businesses in boom times, the economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic goes beyond mere setback, into the realm of complete shock. But even in these unprecedented times, there are lessons to be learned from past downturns, and from the steps other startups are taking to navigate the current crisis. "We have a whole generation of people who never w...

Here's what we're talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast: As numbers on COVID-19 improve, the debate begins over when and how Seattle, Washington state and the country will return to normal life. Gov. Jay Inslee and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have some thoughts. Washington’s attorney general sues Facebook for violating the state’s law on political ads. Microsoft says Amazon has onl...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Bill Gates talks about how work will change after the coronavirus ... and how school shouldn't. A Seattle startup that is trying to make a safer football helmet gets a new lease on life. And Lego and Nintendo bring Super Mario into the physical world in a surprising way. We have a lot of tech news to discuss on this wee...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Amazon is under pressure as workers in dozens of its warehouses test positive for the coronavirus, and an Amazon exec makes a major blunder in employee relations. Amid the gloomy COVID-19 news, there are some stories that fill us with hope. And it was never a dull moment with John Legere as CEO of T-Mobile. As the compa...

Kevin Scott is Microsoft’s chief technology officer, its executive vice president of AI and Research, and the author, with Greg Shaw, of the new book, “ Reprogramming the American Dream: From Rural America to Silicon Valley, Making AI Serve Us All. " Scott, who joined Microsoft with its acquisition of LinkedIn, goes back to his roots in rural Virginia in the book, making the case that...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Seattle’s latest week under the cloud of the coronavirus began with Gov. Jay Inslee’s long-expected shelter-at-home announcement . It requires all but essential workers to stay at home and limits what everyone else can do outside of home. We also take a look at how Seattle’s big tech firms are respondi...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. It was another tumultuous week in Seattle, the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, with restaurants and bars ordered closed, gatherings of more than 50 people banned, and the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths continuing to climb. Among the week’s events: A worker at a tech company in Seattle became the first pe...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. The gravity of the COVID-19 virus outbreak hit home hard in Seattle this week: Large events were banned, schools were closed, and thousands of people struggled to adjust to working from home. Restaurants began to feel the pinch – some even closed temporarily – as people stayed home. The Seattle Archdiocese s...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. Seattle became ground zero in the U.S. coronavirus outbreak this week and tech firms were trying to adjust. Meetings and conferences were cancelled or moved online and many firms told employees to work from home for the rest of the month. GeekWire was no exception: Our annual awards event has been postponed. How will th...

GeekWire Podcast listeners, we’re sharing this special episode of our GeekWire Health Tech Podcast with you given the widespread interest in the novel coronavirus outbreak. For more GeekWire Health Tech episodes, see geekwire.com/healthtech . A new generation of cutting-edge vaccines could dramatically accelerate the global response to future outbreaks such as the current coronavirus epidemi...

On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast, a conversation with veteran tech journalist Steven Levy, Wired editor-at-large, about his new book Facebook, The Inside Story . GeekWire editor Todd Bishop spoke with Levy this week during a University Bookstore event in Seattle. And as a special bonus for GeekWire Podcast listeners, stick around to the end for a chance to win your own signed copy o...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. In a surprise move, Seattle-based travel site Expedia laid off about 12 percent of its workforce this week, including 500 people in Seattle. Chairman Barry Diller had called the company a “bloated organization” on a recent earnings call. It sounds like he is cracking down and wants more focus, more profit an...

America's housing crisis is a nationwide problem, but it's especially acute in San Francisco and Seattle, home to the country's largest technology industries. The "terrible twins," as New York Times reporter Conor Dougherty describes them, represent a perfect storm of rapid job growth, an influx of wealth, and rampant single-family zoning that makes it difficult to densify housing. In an interview...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast. PBS’s Frontline profiled the Amazon empire and painted a complicated picture of unrelenting ambition. Frontline spent a year examining Amazon’s impact on commerce, technology and society, and landed interviews with several current executives and former employees. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos didn’t sit for an...

Here’s what we’re talking about on this week’s episode of the GeekWire Podcast: Voting online is fast, convenient and also … vulnerable. In the wake of the Iowa caucuses app fiasco, we tried voting with a smartphone in a Seattle regional election . While there are valid concerns about security in mobile voting, organizations behind this test are confident it will be safe a...

Here’s what we’re talking about this week on the GeekWire Podcast: Amazon’s second headquarters may be closer to Seattle than you think . Amazon says it plans to grow its presence in Bellevue , in the Seattle suburbs, to 15,000 employees in the next few years. That could be comparable to the number of employees working in the official HQ2 site of Arlington, Va. Will the company f...

Here's what we're talking about on this new episode of the GeekWire Podcast:  Amazon employees are responding to threats of termination for their climate advocacy by intentionally violating the company’s corporate communications policy. More than 350 workers criticized Amazon’s contribution to climate change , violating corporate PR rules that prevent employees from discussing com...

How can we create modern workplaces where everyone can thrive? That's one of the questions at the heart of the new book, Female Firebrands , by human resources professional Mikaela Kiner, founder and CEO of Seattle-based Reverb Consulting . "Female Firebrands" profiles 13 women from a variety of backgrounds, exploring the realities of the modern workplace through their eyes and experiences. The bo...