Leah Feiger: When we come back, we share our recommendations on what to watch us at wired.com this week. Welcome back at Ominous valley. Before we take off, Makena says, Tori our listeners to read on wired.com today. Tori, what do you have for us?
Vittoria Elliott: Our colleague Kate Knibbs wrote about the imminent malnutrition crisis in the aftermath of USAID cuts. I think it’s very important, because when I worked abroad, Leah and I both worked in a certain capacity in international development or around those circles, you know exactly how important our food aid is. A, it is very useful for farmers to make the US government buy their excess crops and send them overseas, it offers a very important market for American farmers. But in humanitarian crises as we now see all over the world, American food is a real lifeline for people in dire situations. What Kate’s reporting has found is that because USAID has been so badly cut by the Trump administration and dog, this food sits in warehouses, is wasted, and in places like South Sudan children are hungry. I think this is a very good example of the way these systems that are not very visible to the average; Every day in the US is so critical to other people around the world, and helps US diplomatic position as a powerful and supportive entity for many people.
Leah Feiger: Good recommendation. Agree a lot. Makena, how are you?
Makena Kelly: Yes. This week this week was quite the week for grok.
Leah Feiger: Ugh.
Makena Kelly: The Chatbot of Elon Musk, it had a complete Hitler mode this week and said that some horrific, anti-Semitic posts are online. But I think I would recommend that everyone read is Parish Dave’s reporting on Grok 4, the brand new version of this chatbot released after this absolute chaos of a week for Elon and his business.
Vittoria Elliott: Leah, what is your choice for this week?
Leah Feiger: Well. It is incredibly different from both of you, which I think is a good thing, and a slightly lighter note to end us. Elana Klein wrote an article about Zillow and how people look up to how much their friends’ homes cost, and this whole culture around it. It is in the cultural section, it is so well read. Everyone is very gossip and delicious and obsessed with finding information about their friends’ net worth. Strongly recommend.
Makena Kelly: I would say I’m guilty of this!
Leah Feiger: Yes, of course you are. All of us are.
Vittoria Elliott: I would say that, after going to a specific party over the past year, my partner, after we left, was: “You know, I start believing that this person would have family money” while I tracked down their Zillow thing.
Leah Feiger: All these articles we recommended are also really wired. It’s like, “Ah, ai is now, uid, dog, all this crumbling. And also, Zillow, what happens there? How can we use technology to spy on our friends and family?” This is our performance for today. We link to all the stories we talked about in the program notes. Look at Thursday’s episode of Ominous valleyWhere we dive into the mailbox and answer the questions of listeners, 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 sound is Chris Bannon. Katie Drummond is Wired’s global editorial director.