Some of tech’s most powerful players are investing money in life-extension technologies. The founders of Amazon, Oracle, and Google are just some of the elite looking to live forever. That has some people wondering, will only the rich be able to escape death? On this episode of Marketplace Tech, host Molly Wood talks to author Stanley Bing. His new sci-fi novel “Immortal Life” looks at how anti-aging technology could shape society.

Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods is making a lot of grocery chains rethink their strategies. Albertsons, the country’s second-largest grocer (after Walmart), just announced a partnership with the on-demand grocery delivery company Instacart. Kroger is also testing delivery with Instacart. But that isn’t the only change in the works.  Grocers have also created something called “click and collect,” where customers order online and then pick up the groceries at the store. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks about shopping for groceries in the digital age with Jennifer Bartashus, a senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.

Cash is becoming a thing of the past. More than one-third of Americans don’t carry it anymore, according to a recent survey by the bank ING. The U.S. hasn’t totally embraced a truly cashless society, but China has. People use WeChat to pay for taxis, groceries and rent. Even panhandlers on the street accept digital contributions. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with our correspondent Jennifer Pak, who recently spent a whole month living without cash in Shanghai.

An increasing number of big companies are starting their own investment branches. One of them was formed just last year — JetBlue Technology Ventures. It’s led by Bonny Simi, who was an Olympic luger and TV sportscaster, as well as a commercial pilot, before she became an investor. JetBlue invests in travel-related startups, such as electric airplanes — technology that JetBlue might be able to use. Simi spoke with Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood about the company’s approach to investing. 

You take your cell phone everywhere you go. And the whole time, it’s keeping a digital record of your location. Today, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case about whether law enforcement needs a warrant to access that information. Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has been trying to pass his GPS Act, which would establish rules around the use of location information. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talks with Wyden about what the bill would do.

As we get closer to sending humans to Mars, there’s been more talk about the technology and money it will take to colonize the planet. But science fiction writers have been pondering this for some time. Andy Weir is author of “The Martian,” which showed us how to survive on Mars. His new book, called “Artemis,” is about a colony on the moon. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talked with Weir about the real research that went into his science fiction. 

Americans spend 293 hours driving each year, according to AAA. That’s more than 12 days worth of data on where we go, what we listen to, and where we stop for lunch. And make no mistake, our cars are “watching” us. John Ellis, a former global technologist with Ford and author of a new book called “The Zero Dollar Car,” imagines that we’ll be able to trade in that data for cars one day. Marketplace Tech host Molly Wood talked with Ellis about the value of car data.

Digital home assistants like the Amazon Echo and Google are becoming more common. eMarketer estimates the number of people using virtual assistants will grow nearly 25 percent this year. With all these new talking machines around, does it matter how we speak to it?  Do we need to be polite? Does it matter if we’re mean? We pose those questions to Michael Littman, a professor of computer science at Brown University, who has thought a lot about how we treat artificial intelligence.

Americans eat and drink about 400 million pounds of cranberries each year. Twenty percent of that is during Thanksgiving. The technology that goes into growing, harvesting, and selecting cranberries has changed significantly in the last handful of years. Marketplace’s Adriene Hill talks with Hilary Sandler, director of the Cranberry Station, a research center at UMass Amherst, about how cranberry farming has changed.