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

Jan 22, 2019
Why more streaming services won’t necessarily mean lower prices
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Most services still seem cheaper than a night on the town.
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Jan 22, 2019
Why more streaming services won’t necessarily mean better prices
In 2019, media giants Disney and Warner both plan to enter the streaming service fray, as if there weren’t a whole lot of on-demand content options already out there. Streaming has definitely disrupted the way we watch TV. What about the way we pay for it? With predictions of widespread cord cutting and the demise of cable television, are we actually seeing that? Marketplace’s Jed Kim talks with Brian Wieser, who focuses on media and advertising as a senior analyst at Pivotal Research Group. Today show is sponsored by the University of Florida Warrington College of Business and Triple Byte_JD.
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Jan 21, 2019
The blockchain is coming to Wall Street
Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images
Future ICOs might start to look a lot more like old-fashioned stock
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Jan 21, 2019
The blockchain is coming to Wall Street
In 2018, ICOs, or initial coin offerings, were the hot new thing in startup fundraising. A company could raise money by selling you a little bit of value or equity in the form of a digital coin, similar to bitcoin but specific to that company. ICOs raised about $22 billion, or so we think. It’s hard to know because the practice has been unregulated. A lot of them turned out to be scams. The Securities and Exchange Commission started fining celebrities like Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled over sketchy paid promotions for ICOs. It got weird, and now it’s regulation time. That means that future ICOs and their digital coins might start to look a lot more like good old-fashioned stock, except traded on the blockchain, and that has big ramifications for Wall Street. Molly Wood talks with Kristen Howell, a partner with the law firm Fox Rothschild who helps companies create ICOs. Today’s show is sponsored by Kronos, Mozilla/Firefox and Lenovo for Small Business.
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Jan 18, 2019
Tech IPOs were set for a comeback, then the government shut down
Adam Berry/Getty Images
Is the tech IPO resurgence at risk?
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Jan 18, 2019
Tech IPOs were set for a comeback, then the government shut down
It’s been a big story that tech companies are staying private longer. And there are fewer and fewer tech IPOs. It seemed like the drought was lifting: Uber and Lyft have filed for initial public offerings, and there were rumors that Airbnb, Pinterest and Slack might finally pull the trigger. But three weeks into 2019 and the Securities and Exchange Commission isn’t picking up the phone. The SEC lawyers and accountants who work on IPOs are shut down along with the government. And if this shutdown goes on much longer, the big names might be fine, but it could chill the whole tech IPO resurgence. Molly Wood talks about it with Corrie Driebusch, a reporter who covers markets for The Wall Street Journal. Today’s show is sponsored by Triple Byte_JD and Amazon Web Services.
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Jan 17, 2019
New tech doorbells can record video, and that’s an ethics problem
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
They might be recording a lot more than who's at the front door.
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Jan 17, 2019
New tech doorbells have cameras, and that’s an ethics problem
Internet-connected doorbells with cameras built in are becoming very popular. Amazon-owned Ring is the best-known product. Google also has the Nest Hello. But the phenomenon of doorbell video has privacy experts worried. There’s the potential for misuse and abuse of these home surveillance devices by people who are shaming each other or labeling people as suspicious. And the companies that make them may have access to video at a level customers don’t understand. Molly Wood talks with Laura Norén, director of research at Obsidian Security. She says part of the problem is that owners of video doorbells are filming a lot more territory than the terms of service say they should. Today’s show is sponsored by the University of Florida Warrington College of Business and Indeed.
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Jan 16, 2019
Facebook is looking to Instagram for the future of digital ads
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Stories are the hottest social media format — so what if they disappear in 24 hours?
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Jan 16, 2019
Facebook is looking to Instagram for the future of digital ads
In yesterday’s show we talked about how advertisers are not leaving Facebook. But lots of them are migrating from Facebook proper to another platform it owns: Instagram. One analyst estimates that ads on Instagram will account for 70 percent of Facebook’s new revenue by 2020. And the most exciting thing for the company is Stories, the little posts that expire after 24 hours. Instagram may have stolen the idea from Snapchat, but it’s working. There are even Stories on Facebook now. Mark Rabkin is vice president of ads and business platform at Facebook. In the second part of his conversation with host Molly Wood, he says people are posting over a billion Stories a day, and advertisers better get on board. Today’s show is sponsored by Pitney Bowes and Indeed.
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