Vergecast: Hear what happened when big tech went to Capitol Hill this week

It’s basically two shows in one

by Andru Marino

Jul 19, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Andru Marino is an audio and video creator at The Verge since 2015.

Look, I’m going to be honest with you. We had so many topics we wanted to discuss on The Vergecast this week that we basically jammed two or three shows worth of material into one episode. You’ll see (or hear) why.

First, we had to talk about the big tech hearings in Congress this week with our reporters who watched them (policy reporter Makena Kelly and senior reporter Adi Robertson). Hear why some members of Congress think Facebook should not launch their cryptocurrency and what Senator Ted Cruz had to say to Google.

In the second half of the show, we talk to Verge deputy editor and Elon Musk expert Elizabeth Lopatto to help us figure out what his “brain machine interface” Neuralink is and how it can possibly work.

And of course, we couldn’t do a Vergecast without talking about our experience with the 2019 versions of Apple’s Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. Executive editor Dieter Bohn runs through his review.

There’s definitely a whole lot more discussed in this 90-minute show with six people — including Paul Miller’s weekly segment “You’ve been a good boy” — so listen to the whole show to get all that and more.