Molly Wood

Host and senior editor

Molly Wood is the former host and senior editor of "Marketplace Tech," a daily broadcast focused on demystifying the digital economy, and former co-host of "Make Me Smart," where she and co-host Kai Ryssdal would try to make sense of big topics in business, tech and culture. What was your first job? Grocery store checker (but I also drove an ice cream truck once). Fill in the blank: Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you ______. Time, the most precious thing of all. What is something that everyone should own, no matter how much it costs? A pet! What’s the favorite item in your workspace and why? My electric fireplace! It is both cute and cozy.

Latest from Molly Wood

Oct 22, 2010
Facebook outs gays to advertisers
It's another day and another privacy problem at Facebook. This time the social network appears to be outing gay and lesbian users to advertisers.
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Oct 21, 2010
America the Slow
Akamai, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, tracks Internet speeds across the globe. And although this country may have created the web it's pretty shocking how slow U.S. mobile and broadband connections are compared to the rest of the world.
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Oct 20, 2010
What happens to your Facebook data now?
By now you may have heard that your Facebook data may have been taken by third party application developers and moved over to ad companies. The Wall Street Journal reported that of the top 10 apps on Facebook, all 10 were engaged in this practice. Some of them were even capturing info about your friends and then selling it. So what happens now?
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Oct 19, 2010
Cookies that cannot be killed
In Internet terms, a "cookie" is a bit of code placed on your computer when you visit a certain website. It's a way for that site to recognize you when you come back to visit again. Cookies have always been easy to delete. But new strains are virtually impossible to shake. And they may be robbing you of more of your privacy than you ever realized.
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Oct 18, 2010
Mind Blowing Monday: Copiers that spy on people, people who spy on people
It doesn't always get the attention that, say, smartphone technology does, but surveillance technology is making big leaps. And raising big issues. Today, another one of our Mind Blowing Mondays with Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder and co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He tells us about new surveillance software.
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Oct 15, 2010
Are political polls accurate in the age of cell phones?
As Election Day approaches, there are many polls predicting — with varying degrees of accuracy — the outcome of the elections. Many of those polls are conducted by automated calling of land line phones. But given how many people use cell phones instead of land lines, can we trust what the polls say?
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Oct 14, 2010
School district pays up after using webcam to watch student at home
A Pennsylvania school district will pay $610,000 to settle a case involving webcam spying. The conflict began when webcam-equipped laptops were loaned out to students. Then, one student was accused of doing drugs in his bedroom. Why? Because of photos taken secretively on the webcam. We talk webcams, computers, and individual rights.
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Oct 13, 2010
Facebook friends can put you in any publicly listed group they want
Facebook's recently announced features allow you to create groups of friends so you don't have to send all your info to everyone you know. It's easy to set up groups and add anyone you want — and also easy to get added to groups you might not want to be associated with. We talk about the new system and what it means for your privacy. Plus, Susan Orlean reviews to-do list apps.
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Oct 12, 2010
Is Windows Phone 7 the phone hater’s phone?
Microsoft has debuted the new Windows Phone 7 on a bunch of devices. The company is hoping that what sets it apart from the iPhone and Android devices already on the market will be the idea of getting your information quickly and then putting the phone away. Also in this program, kittens you can play with over the Internet.
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Oct 11, 2010
FCC to take on cell phone bill shock
Maybe this has happened to you: You get a bill with some crazy huge extra charge that you weren't expecting. Suddenly you owe hundreds of dollars more than you thought and you can barely even understand why. This week, the FCC is meeting to talk about cell phone bill shock. All this plus Justin Bieber (kind of).
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Molly Wood

Latest from Molly Wood