We talk a lot about Silicon Valley on this show, so it seems fitting that this week's show is brought to you by a story from there. It's National Geographic Valley of the Boom, a limited six-part series that tells the insanely true stories of the inventors and

investors who built the internet without whom there'd be no amazing

podcast like this one. The series follows three different companies that were trying to change

the world using the new technology of the internet. Before Google Netscape pioneered

the first commercial web browser and launched the browser wars with Microsoft.

Before Facebook, the Globe.com was a rapidly expanding social network site built by Dreamers

on a college campus and before YouTube a con artist on the run from the

FBI reinvented himself in Silicon Valley to start a streaming video company

called Pixlawn resulting in an entrepreneurial rise and full almost too insane to be believed, but trust me, you have to see this one.

From the executive producer Ariana Huffington and the creator of Showtime's House of Lies and

starring Lamorne Morris, Bradley Whitford, and Steve Zahn.

Valley of the Boom premieres Sunday, January 13th, 9, 8th Central on National Geographic.

Welcome to Inside the Hive.

I am your host Nick Bilton.

So we're going to take a little break this week from Trump trash talking because we all

need a little break from Trump and we're going to talk about something that is slightly more important right now.

And that is when civilization as we know it is going to come to an end.

So you're probably wondering, well how on earth do we know that?

Ah, very good question. My guest today, William Poundstone is going to tell us, and the way he's going to tell us is

with a calculation and so he is the author of 14 books that's right one four that's

a lot of books that he's written. His new book that's coming

out this year is called The Doomsday calculation, how an equation that predicts the

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