Leah Feiger: When we come back, we’ll share our recommendations for what to check out on WIRED.com this week. Welcome back to Uncanny Valley. Before we take off, Makena, Tori, tell our listeners what they absolutely should read on WIRED.com today. Tori, what do you have for us?
Vittoria Elliott: Our colleague Kate Knibbs wrote about the looming malnutrition crisis in the wake of USAID cuts. I think this is really important because if you’ve ever worked abroad, Leah and I have both worked in some capacity in international development or around those circles, you know exactly how important US food aid is. A, it’s really helpful for farmers to have the US government buy their excess crops and ship them overseas, it provides a really important market for US farmers. But in humanitarian crises like we’re seeing all over the world right now, US food is a real lifeline for people in dire situations. What Kate’s reporting found is that because USAID was so severely cut by the Trump administration and DOGE, this food is sitting in warehouses, going to waste, and in places like South Sudan, children are going hungry. I think it’s a really great example of the way in which these systems that are not super-visible to the average, every day person in the US are so critical to other people around the world, and frankly really help the US’ diplomatic position as a powerful and supportive entity to a lot of people.
Leah Feiger: Good recommendation. Highly, highly agree. Makena, how about you?
Makena Kelly: Yeah. This week has been quite the week for Grok.
Leah Feiger: Ugh.
Makena Kelly: Elon Musk’s chatbot, it went complete Hitler-mode this week and said some very just horrifying, anti-Semitic posts online. But I think I would recommend everyone read after all of this is Paresh Dave’s reporting on Grok 4, the brand new version of this chatbot that is being released after this absolute chaos of a week for Elon and his company.
Vittoria Elliott: Leah, what is your pick for this week?
Leah Feiger: Okay. It is incredibly different than both of yours, which I think is a good thing, and a slightly lighter note to end us out on. Elana Klein wrote an article about Zillow and how people are looking up how much their friends’ houses cost, and this entire culture around it. It’s in the culture section, it is such a good read. Everyone is very gossipy, and fun, and obsessed with finding information about their friends’ net worth. Highly recommend.
Makena Kelly: I will say I’m guilty of this!
Leah Feiger: Yeah, of course you are. We all are.
Vittoria Elliott: I will say that, after going to a particular party once in the past year, my partner, after we left was like, “You know, I’m beginning to believe that this person might have family money,” as I looked up their Zillow thing.
Leah Feiger: All of these articles that we recommended are really WIRED at its finest as well. It’s like, “Oh, AI is Hitler now, USAID, DOGE, all of these crumbles. And also, Zillow, what’s happening there? How can we use tech to spy on our friends and family?” That’s our show for today. We’ll link to all the stories we spoke about in the show notes. Make sure to check out Thursday’s episode of Uncanny Valley, where we dive into the mailbag and answer listeners’ questions, your questions. Adriana Tapia produced this episode. Amar Lal at Macro Sound mixed this episode. Kate Osborne is our executive producer. Conde Nast’s head of global audio is Chris Bannon. Katie Drummond is WIRED’s global editorial director.
