Technology

Jesse Thorn has built a sizable audience with his podcast business Maximum Fun. His NPR interview show, “Bullseye With Jesse Thorn,” has brought on guests including Jonathan Majors, Tom Hanks and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But during the last few years, he said, running the MacArthur Park-based business drove him to a …

The pandemic’s formal end on May 11 marks neither victory nor peace: It’s a cessation of hostilities with a dangerous virus that is still very much with us. To maintain such an uneasy truce, Americans will have to stay protected enough to prevent humanity’s viral foe from staging a break-out …

With federal data showing a surge in deaths among pregnant women during the pandemic, California advocates say it is furthering their resolve to continue trying to prevent as many of those deaths as possible. The National Center for Health Statistics reported Thursday that 1,205 pregnant women died in the United …

Modern workers increasingly find companies no longer content to consider their résumés, cover letters and job performance. More and more, employers want to evaluate their brains. Businesses are screening prospective job candidates with tech-assisted cognitive and personality tests, deploying wearable technology to monitor brain activity on the job and using …

Austin, Texas —  For every problem you can think of, someone is out there pitching a solution that involves artificial intelligence. AI could help solve such intractable problems as climate change and dangerous work conditions, the technology’s most eager boosters promise. It could even fix the much-maligned “Game of Thrones” finale, …

Eli Lilly & Co. played the altruism card like a champ on Mar. 1, when it announced steep price cuts on its insulin products of as much as 70%. The big drug company said its action was all about helping diabetes patients, its goal being to “help Americans who may …

A cancer-causing chemical that is widely used to degrease aviation components and heavy machinery could also be linked to Parkinson’s disease, according to a new research paper that recommends increased scrutiny of areas long contaminated by the compound. Trichloroethylene, or TCE, is a colorless liquid that has been used to …

BEED, India —  Ravindra Gaikwad did what is expected of cyberpolice chasing an online scam: He followed the money. But what initially seemed like an ordinary fraud case in his small town in western India ended up sending him on a 2,000-mile trip across three Indian states. Only then did he …

Locked out of her three accounts with failed Silicon Valley Bank, cookbook author Anna Vocino spent the weekend in a state of high anxiety, unsure about the future of her sauces and spices company. “I spent most of Friday afternoon writing all of our creditors and saying, ‘Hey, I know …

The levee breach that left an entire California town underwater this weekend is putting a spotlight on how the state’s vital flood control infrastructure is being weakened by age, drought, climate change, rodents and neglect — leaving scores of communities at risk. On Friday night, the swollen Pajaro River burst …