This week, special guest Nitasha Tiku charts Juul's ever-changing relationship with its consumers, its investors, and those who oppose its product.
Interesting things come out of teens’ mouths all the time, but one of the most controversial things to emerge recently is the wispy tendril of nicotine vapor from a Juul, a compact and discrete vaping device. Legislators and the FDA have been slow to move on the vaping craze, which has left the door open for companies like Juul to advertise and position themselves without the oversight many feel is necessary for products that have been proven to be physically addictive. Juul’s platform in particular has taken root in our youth culture thanks to its popularity among influential internet celebs. All of this has led to a chaotic marketplace that’s benefitted the vaping startups but made things rather sticky for everyone else. Nitasha Tiku joins the show to walk us through the weeds. Some notes: Read Nitasha’s latest story about Juul’s relationship with regulators and legislators. She also recommends the New Yorker article on vaping from May, and Recode‘s story from July about the scrutiny faced by Juul’s investors. Nitasha’s first story about Juul from 2015, published at The Verge. David Pierce wrote about Juul for WIRED at the same time. Recommendations this week: Killing Eve on BBC America, “Cult of the Machine” at the de Young, and the Hario ceramic coffee mill. Send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. Arielle Pardes is @pardesoteric, Nitasha Tiku is @nitashatiku, and Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. Our theme song is by Solar Keys. How to Listen You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how: If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed. If you use Android, you can find us in the Google Play Music app just by tapping here. You can also download an app like Pocket Casts or Radio Public, and search for Gadget Lab. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed. We’re also on Soundcloud, and every episode gets posted to wired.com as soon as it’s released. If you still can’t figure it out, or there’s another platform you use that we’re not on, let us know.
Interesting things come out of teens’ mouths all the time, but one of the most controversial things to emerge recently is the wispy tendril of nicotine vapor from a Juul, a compact and discrete vaping device. Legislators and the FDA have been slow to move on the vaping craze, which has left the door open for companies like Juul to advertise and position themselves without the oversight many feel is necessary for products that have been proven to be physically addictive. Juul’s platform in particular has taken root in our youth culture thanks to its popularity among influential internet celebs. All of this has led to a chaotic marketplace that’s benefitted the vaping startups but made things rather sticky for everyone else. Nitasha Tiku joins the show to walk us through the weeds.
Some notes: Read Nitasha’s latest story about Juul’s relationship with regulators and legislators. She also recommends the New Yorker article on vaping from May, and Recode‘s story from July about the scrutiny faced by Juul’s investors. Nitasha’s first story about Juul from 2015, published at The Verge. David Pierce wrote about Juul for WIRED at the same time.
Recommendations this week: Killing Eve on BBC America, “Cult of the Machine” at the de Young, and the Hario ceramic coffee mill.
Send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. Arielle Pardes is @pardesoteric, Nitasha Tiku is @nitashatiku, and Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. Our theme song is by Solar Keys.
You can always listen to this week’s podcast through the audio player on this page, but if you want to subscribe for free to get every episode, here’s how:
If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, open the app called Podcasts, or just tap this link. You can also download an app like Overcast or Pocket Casts, and search for Gadget Lab. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed.
If you use Android, you can find us in the Google Play Music app just by tapping here. You can also download an app like Pocket Casts or Radio Public, and search for Gadget Lab. And in case you really need it, here’s the RSS feed.
We’re also on Soundcloud, and every episode gets posted to wired.com as soon as it’s released. If you still can’t figure it out, or there’s another platform you use that we’re not on, let us know.