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Uncanny Valley | WIRED

Minneapolis Misinformation; TikTok’s New Owners; Moltbot Hype

Uncanny Valley | WIRED

WIRED

Technology

4.1571 Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s episode, Brian and Zoë are joined by WIRED’s Tim Marchman to discuss the news of the week — including how far-right influencers spread misinformation in Minneapolis, and why TikTok’s US version is off to a rocky start. Plus, we dive into why some people are currently obsessed with the AI assistant Moltbot. 

Articles mentioned in this episode: 

Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from Alexis Ohanian's newest tech venture to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests. 

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcript

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0:00.9

How is everybody doing?

0:02.5

I'm doing great.

0:03.8

Wow.

0:04.5

That is something.

0:06.0

Shocking, I would say.

0:07.2

Yeah.

0:07.9

Tim, what's your secret?

0:09.5

I am trying and doing an actually pretty good job of keeping in mind that my anxious perceptions do not reflect reality and that they have to be looked at.

0:20.2

Logically.

0:22.4

That's a better coping mechanism than mine, which is that my kids have discovered Mario Kart, so I'm playing a lot of Mario Kart.

0:28.2

Zoe? I'm doing fine. I would say that I think I have hit a bit of a mental, emotional wall with what is happening. And I'm really

0:40.0

grateful to be doing the work that we do, because if I was trying to pretend that my corporate

0:46.3

job mattered as I was during the early days of the first Trump presidency when I worked in tech,

0:52.5

I'm just so glad not to be back there. That was a tough time.

0:55.9

But Zoe, is there anything you're looking forward to say in a day or so?

1:01.2

Okay, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Showing how well-rounded I am. I am going to be seeing the premiere of the

1:08.2

Melania Trump movie, the movie that Amazon Studios poured millions and millions and

1:14.1

millions of dollars into the trailer. I have never been more jealous. I know. I know. Exceptional work.

1:21.3

They made it so dramatic. That woman, as far as I can tell, sorry to say this, does not have any

1:26.9

perceptible personality of any sort,

1:29.0

but they tried everything to cover that up.

1:32.5

Tim, in fairness, I think there's a safe bet you could still score a ticket.

...

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