Iran Targets U.S. Tech; Polymarket’s Bar Flop; Trump's Plans for Midterms

Summary

Uncanny Valley | WIRED

Episode: Iran Targets U.S. Tech; Polymarket’s Pop-up Flop; Trump's Plans for Midterms
Air Date: April 2, 2026
Hosts: Zoë Schiffer, Brian Barrett, Leah Feiger
—

Episode Overview

This week’s Uncanny Valley dives into the rapidly shifting intersections of global politics, technology, and culture. The team tackles Iran’s unprecedented threats against major U.S. tech companies, ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to influence the midterm elections, and an on-the-ground report from a much-hyped—and somewhat disastrous—Polymarket pop-up bar in D.C. The conversation is candid, skeptical, and at times wry, delivering insights from deep tech and politics reporting on both coasts and in D.C.

---

1. Iran Targets U.S. Tech Giants

[03:00–09:51]

Key Topics & Insights

• Iran’s Escalating Threats: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recently issued warnings to over a dozen U.S. tech firms, naming 18 companies—including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta, IBM, Tesla, and Palantir—that it could attack if additional Iranian leaders are killed as the current war intensifies.
• Deadline for Action: This time, Iran gave a specific deadline—April 1—which further escalates tensions and uncertainty for both corporate operations and local communities in the Middle East.
• Company & Employee Reactions: Most companies are refusing to comment publicly or discuss their protective measures. This reluctance reflects the high-stakes bind these firms are in: admitting concern could undermine government assurances or invite panic.
• First Confirmed Attack: There have already been two attacks on Amazon Web Services data centers, seen as the first public strike on American-owned, hyperscale cloud infrastructure in the region.
• Markets & IPO Impact: The threat environment has shaken tech markets, with significant declines in stock prices for companies like Nvidia and Meta, and raises questions about the viability of upcoming IPOs (e.g., OpenAI).

Notable Quotes

• “It’s a little bit like, we will definitely put up a stop sign after someone gets run over.” – Brian Barrett (05:52)
• “They don't even want to say if they're taking it seriously, because if they're taking it seriously, they're not trusting that the US Government... It’s a lose, lose situation.” – Leah Feiger (05:22)
• “What’s happening here...is not Trump’s, like, childhood wars. This is, we are in a globalized world where he is not going to be able to remove himself from the blowback if American companies are indeed attacked.” – Leah Feiger (04:18)
• "The rank and file are, like, shrugging." – Zoë Schiffer on Silicon Valley workers’ indifference to the war (06:44)

Context & Consequences

• There’s a disconnect between tech company execs (who are quietly worried and moving strategically) and lower-level employees (many of whom seem disengaged until financial losses hit home).
• The hosts emphasize the unprecedented nature of these explicit threats and the difficulty of planning for both physical and cyber risks in a volatile region.

---

2. Trump’s Midterms Maneuvering: The SAVE Act and the War on Voting

[09:51–15:54]

Key Topics & Insights

• SAVE America Act: The administration’s push for legislation that would require proof of citizenship (passport or birth certificate) to vote—a move critics say could disenfranchise millions.
• Strategic Messaging: The SAVE Act is cast by Republicans as a response to debunked theories about immigrant “voter fraud” and is central to Trump’s messaging amid primary season turbulence.
• Mail-in Voting Assault: Trump’s well-known hostility to mail-in voting continues, despite the fact that such policies often benefit Republicans as well as Democrats.
• Centralization of Elections: Recent executive orders seek to federalize portions of the election process, including demanding states provide voter rolls two months in advance—a move likely to be challenged as unconstitutional.
• Election Deniers: Many former conspiracy theorists are now embedded at various levels of government, driving what the hosts describe as a “comprehensive approach” to changing how American elections are run.

Notable Quotes

• “This act would disenfranchise millions of people because it would require anyone trying to vote to produce a passport or birth certificate, which is something that a lot of voting-eligible Americans do not have access to.” – Leah Feiger (10:42)
• “It is weird to me that Trump seems to think that mail-in voting is only a Democratic thing. A lot of Republican voters use mail-in voting.” – Brian Barrett (12:06)
• “If we lose, we need to figure out who to blame it on. And it’s certainly not going to be Republican voters or Republican strategists.” – Leah Feiger (15:36)

Analysis & Forward Look

• The hosts note that, although some of these efforts may stall in the Senate or the courts, the cumulative effect is to undermine trust in electoral processes and to prepare a scapegoat narrative in the event of poor performance at the ballot box.

---

3. Polymarket’s Pop-up Situation Room Fails to Impress

[18:11–30:41]

Reporting from the D.C. Spectacle

• Pop-up Overview: Polymarket, an online prediction market, held a highly publicized pop-up “Situation Room” bar in D.C. The experience was meant to blend real-time news, betting, and social spectacle.
• Technical & Logistical Fiasco: The event opened late amid pouring rain. When finally allowed in, most promised tech (screens, Bloomberg terminals) didn’t work. The only consistent deliverable was free drinks.
• Attendee Breakdown: Most casual attendees left while reporters stayed, turning the event into a journalist-heavy gathering.

On-the-Ground Reactions

• “When doors opened about an hour and a half after they originally scheduled to, nothing worked. Absolutely nothing worked. And really, the only promise that they kept was, like, a free night of drinks for anyone who showed up.” – McKenna Kelly (20:24)

• “It was only a block away from the CFTC, like on K Street, which colloquially in D.C. is known as lobbyist central. And then a block away from the one regulator who regulates it...saying this is our coming out party...” – McKenna Kelly (28:46)

Reporter Details & Memorable Moments

• Strange Vignettes: Sightings included guys in Palantir hoodies, “Doge guys,” and a t-shirt stating “Surveillance is the new sovereignty.”

• Palantir Partnership: The event coincided with news that Palantir would partner with Polymarket, focusing—somewhat bizarrely—on integrity controls for sports betting rather than geopolitics.

• “If you’re gonna get Palantir involved, why wouldn’t you have them do the geopolitical stuff instead of March Madness? Wild, wild times.” – Kate Nibbs (25:22)

• Demographic and Cultural Relevance: The event was less about substance and more about self-promotion to D.C. insiders—and highlighted the rising influence (and chaos) of prediction markets in U.S. culture.

The Big Picture

• Cultural Moment: Prediction markets are booming, helped by Trump administration links (Donald Trump Jr. is an advisor to both Polymarket and Kalshi) and speculation that the family may launch their own market.

• Legitimacy in Question: Despite their growing financial footprints and regulatory schmoozing, most U.S. users still can’t legally bet on Polymarket, highlighting the gap between hype and reality.

• “Their name is out there. The power, the cultural capital here that was, didn’t exist a year ago is very much present...This is definitely, I think, the beginning of something for better or worse.” – Kate Nibbs (27:28)

• “After spending several hours here, the whole thing is kind of janky.” – McKenna Kelly (29:35)

---

4. Notable Quotes & Moments (With Timestamps)

• “It feels like it opens up a lot of serious questions regardless of whether these attacks go through. Hopefully they don’t, but it’s really an escalatory time.” – Brian Barrett [03:00]
• “I think people were a little bit shocked by how many hands were in so many different pockets. Like, this is a very comprehensive approach. Like, how do you change an entire vision of elections? This is it. It's an unbelievable roadmap. I'm like, I've got to hand it to them.” – Leah Feiger [12:17]
• “Polymarket announced a partnership with Palantir...Palantir is helping them protect the integrity of their sports market...which I thought was freaking weird.” – Kate Nibbs [25:22]

---

5. Segment Timestamps (Major Blocks)

• Iran Threats to U.S. Tech: 03:00–09:51
• Trump’s Midterms Maneuvering (SAVE Act & Voting): 09:51–15:54
• Polymarket Pop-up Bar Deep-Dive: 18:11–30:41

---

Summary Takeaways

This episode paints a picture of how Silicon Valley is now deeply entangled with geopolitical crises, domestic political struggles, and cultural experiments that verge on the surreal. The stakes feel existential for U.S. tech companies and for American democracy—and the crew at Uncanny Valley bring just the right mix of skepticism, humor, and on-the-ground reporting to expose how these tectonic shifts are shaping the Valley and the world.

Recommended for:
Anyone interested in international tech risks, the evolving landscape of U.S. elections, or the sometimes-absurd pageantry of today’s tech-political culture. This is insider reporting with an eye for both the big picture and the weird details.

Transcript

[Uncanny Valley Sponsor Voice]

I am a corduroy boy. I've been obsessively collecting all manner of corduroy clothing for years, and on any given day my outfit is nearly guaranteed to have at least one piece of corduroy in it. Today, I'm wearing my new favorite, a pair of corduroy pants that I just picked up from Quince. These pants are made using premium 11 wale corduroy fabric, which is 98% organic cotton. I also love that they offer tons of sizing options for men of all proportions. It's usually pretty tough for me to find my perfect fit, but Quince made it easy. Given that Quince's prices are 50 to 60% lower than other brands I bought from, it is an unbeatable value and I know that I'll be coming back to Quince to buy more corduroy. Refresh your spring wardrobe with quince. Go to quince.com uncanny for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Go to quince.com Uncanny for free shipping and 365 day returns.

Quince.com uncanny this show is supported by CleanMyMac. CleanMyMac helps you clear space, reduce background strain, and maintain steady performance without constant interruptions. It's not about cleaning files or fixing machines, it's about removing the friction that breaks momentum. CleanMyMac is the quiet presence that keeps creativity uninterrupted so that when you're finishing a pitch check at midnight or exporting a large final product, you can trust your Mac to keep up. Experience all the app's optimization essentials in a sleek, user friendly dashboard. Get tidy today, try seven days free and use my code Valley for 20% off.

[Brian Barrett]

Hey it's Brian. Zoe, Leah and I have really enjoyed being your new host these past few weeks and we want to hear from you. If you like the show and have a minute, please leave us a review in the podcast or app of your choice. It really helps us reach more people and for any questions and comments you can always reach us@ uncannyvalleyired.com thank you for listening onto the show,

[Zoe Schipper]

Leah. Did you make it to Chicago?

[Leah Feiger]

Honestly, barely. I have spent more time in airports in the last three days than I care to admit.

[Brian Barrett]

You told me yesterday that you were excited to be flying out of Newark instead of other, which is the first time I've heard that.

[Leah Feiger]

I can't even I was young when I said that.

[Zoe Schipper]

Welcome to Wired's Uncanny Valley. I'm Zoe Schipper, Director of Business and Industry.

[Brian Barrett]

I'm Brian Barrett, executive editor.

[Leah Feiger]

And I'm Leah Feiger, senior politics editor.

[Zoe Schipper]

This week on the show, we have a pretty well rounded episode for you all. A little bit of international politics as Iran threatens to target US Tech firms. There's also election news as we're tracking Trump's attempts to control the midterms. And a scene report from our D.C. colleague who had the great assignment of hitting up the polymarket pop up bar, which was a bit of a fest situation.

[Brian Barrett]

To let people in behind the scenes of the Magic of the Uncanny Valley podcast. We're recording this on a Wednesday. It's going to come out on Thursday. That's the magic. So things could happen between then. But on this Wednesday, yesterday, Tuesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that it planned to begin attacking more than a dozen American companies across the Middle east if more of Iran's leaders are killed during the ongoing war. They'd made this threat before, but what was different is that they set a deadline to it. They said on April 1, we are going to start targeting companies in these regions. There are 18 total companies on that. They actually gave a list. On that list include Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta, IBM, Tesla, Palantir, a bunch more. As of now, that hasn't happened other than an attack that we can talk about later that sort of affects Amazon Web Services. But it does seem to be another one of these escalations. And I'm really curious what is going on with these companies, what obligations they have to their employees to protect them, what it means for all kinds of investment in that region, which has been increasingly important. It feels like it opens up a lot of serious questions regardless of whether these attacks go through. Hopefully they don't, but it's really an escalatory time.

[Leah Feiger]

I was pretty struck by parts of this where calling on employees of these tech firms in the region to distance themselves from workplaces, for residents living near offices of these companies to move away to a safe place. This is a very serious warning. And so much to me reminds us that what's happening here, this war that is very much becoming a war with a capital W, is not Trump's like childhood wars. This is, we are in a globalized world where he is not going to be able to remove himself from the blowback if American companies are indeed attacked. This is very different than military. This is an impact that I think would be very hard to escape from. Beyond the fact that it's, it's horrible, it's sad. These, these are people's lives. Yeah.

[Zoe Schipper]

I mean, we reached out to Every company on the list, it turns out that they don't largely want to comment on their feelings about this or what they're doing. I actually was kind of surprised. I was like, I don't know. You're on a target list and you don't want to say anything.

[Leah Feiger]

No, they don't. They don't want to share what their plans are. They don't want to say if they've moved out employees. No, but, but even. They don't even want to say if they're taking it seriously. Because if they're taking it seriously, they're not trusting that the US Government and its military is be able to handle it. This is a lose, lose situation. You have Trump on one side posting messages about how the US Is winning, and if it's not, then they're going to rain hail fire. You have to at least pretend if you're in charge of these companies that you believe that question mark while putting, of course, thousands of your employees at risk.

[Brian Barrett]

And the US did say after this latest thing, there was a comment that someone gave that was basically like, well, we'll respond if they do something here. Which is a little bit like, we will definitely put up a stop sign after someone gets run over. I alluded to this before. Iran is willing to do this. They've already had two strikes on Amazon Web Services data centers last month and damaged another one. It is sort of the first publicly confirmed attack on American owned hyperscale cloud infrastructure. And I guess my question is how much do we think the targets are sort of the symbolic headquarters, even if they're empty versus actual critical infrastructure or actual infrastructure powering the cloud, manufacturing facilities, whatever is there. Curious to see what shape those targets take again. Hopefully it's all bluster and this will move on.

[Zoe Schipper]

I mean, but it does come on the heels of Sam Altman's trip to the Middle east with members of the Trump administration, where he was there striking deals and presumably setting up what will become large scale data centers. So, you know, he and other AI leaders have been eyeing that region as a really lucrative place to begin doing business or expanding business. And I think that, that, you know, is something that, for example, Dariel Amade said, like, hey, we should be wary about putting data centers in the Middle East. And I think, you know, they're taking that seriously. It's been interesting, though, I will say, like, I've reached out to people at Anthropic and sources at OpenAI being like, what do you think of the war in Iran? Like, what is top of mind for you right now on the whole, people who are working in these companies in San Francisco are like what war? Like they are just focused on what is happening here at home and do not seem to be paying an enormous amount of attention. I don't think that's true for the executives, but the rank and file are like shrugging.

[Brian Barrett]

I'm a little surprised by that because, you know, a knock on effect of all of this is a stock market that is way down, including tech companies have been really, really hit down 20% in some cases. Nvidia is really pretty far down. Meta I'm a little surprised in that I feel like the IPO climate is going to be less hospitable to a lot of these companies who are looking for that for their exit. And a lot of people who have or invest in their companies have options at these companies. They're seeing their value dwindle by the day. So it's a shame that it takes hitting their wallet to get people to pay attention. But presumably at some point and I

[Zoe Schipper]

think if the effect on their wallets continues, like we will see these people really, really care. I'm sure we will see chatter and slack about this, but I think they're pretty used to like the ups and downs. And so while this is a pretty dramatic drop for some of the public companies, especially because, you know, when we're talking about say OpenAI, like the thought was that they were eyeing an IPO near the end of the year. So I think at least from the people I've talked to, which of course is a handful of the overall employee base, it's kind of like, well, you know, a lot could change.

[Leah Feiger]

This week is going to be a real bellwether as well. You know, Trump delivers an address Wednesday night about Iran. But regardless in some ways of what Trump says, Iran has indicated that it feels the exact opposite. Trump says the war is over in two weeks. Iran says that like the war is over when they say it's over when they have won. So we have backed them against the wall in a very serious way. And it doesn't really appear that there's an end in sight, especially if these are the kinds of companies on a target list which are so near and dear to the Trump administration's heart.

[Brian Barrett]

I'll say just one more thing on this off of what you just said, Leah, is that there were an amazing trifecta of quotes over the last couple of days where Trump said something like negotiations are going great, we're making a lot of progress. Iran said, we haven't even started negotiations. It's not going to happen. And then Pete Hexeth jumped in and said, we see ourselves as part of this negotiation as well. We negotiate with bombs, we'll negotiate with bombs. And that really kind of sums up where we're at.

[Leah Feiger]

And of course, the Iran war is going to continue to be a point of contention probably going into the midterms. We have months to go here, but we are deep in primary season right now, which, as you guys know, is one of my favorite times of the year, because it's a moment where really we get our political crazies out. I love it. But we really do have to talk about all of the ways that the Trump administration is already making moves that threaten the integrity of the elections. David Gilbert, senior politics reporter at Wired, published a really good write up on this this week. And and one of the main things that his reporting draws attention to is the Save America Act. Are you guys super familiar with that?

[Brian Barrett]

I'm familiarish in that it seems bad.

[Zoe Schipper]

Strong take.

[Leah Feiger]

This was a strong take. This is why people come to Uncanny Valley. It's for these kinds of takes.

[Brian Barrett]

Okay, how about this? It seems really bad.

[McKenna Kelly]

Good.

[Leah Feiger]

Even better. Yes, that's what I was looking for. Look, it's basically the Republican response to the debunked conspiracy theory that millions of immigrants are flooding polling stations every election, voting for Democrats, Democrats making lives really, really bad for Republicans, stealing elections around the country. This act would disenfranchise millions of people because it would require anyone trying to vote to produce a passport or a birth certificate, which is something that a lot of voting eligible Americans do not have access to. It's narrowly passed the House. Democrats are still trying very, very hard to block its passage in the Senate. It has come up in conversation a lot. I feel like this is something that I and other politics focused people were talking a lot about a few weeks ago, where everyone else would go, what is that? But now with everything, you know, with the TSA not getting funded and partial government shutdowns, etcetera, Trump has made this like a core point of his administration. It's like, we have to pass the SAVE Act. So this is just one of the ways that the Trump administration is putting a lot of pressure in trying to make this happen that would result in a very inequitable midterms for all. And amongst that, they have a bunch of other things that they're working on as well. The war against mail in voting. Trump historically hates it, even though he loves to mail in Votes himself and

[Brian Barrett]

has benefited from mail in voting. I'd say, like, I feel like it is weird to me that Trump seems to think that mail in voting is only a Democratic thing. A lot of Republican voters use mail in voting.

[Zoe Schipper]

Yes.

[Leah Feiger]

And if anything, all of the pushing against mail in voting has like, frankly hurt their bottom line a little bit because all these Republicans are like, oh God, screw mail in voting. And then they're not mail in vote. It's very messy. And like that one is a very strange one. But like, they've continued to work on that. Election deniers are across government right now recruited because they were boosting election conspiracy theories back when Trump was out of office. They have not stopped doing so since being appointed. They're all over the government in a variety of agencies, you know, and even right down to like possible concerns day of the administration is suggest to the possibility of sending ICE agents to election sites. So there's a lot here and I was really taken, I think with some of the comments on Wired.com or online, just about how people were like, oh, yes, this is horrible. I knew that the Trump administration was doing all these things. I think people were a little bit shocked by how many hands were in so many different pockets. Like, this is a very comprehensive approach. Like, how do you change an entire vision of elections? This is it. It's an unbelievable roadmap. I'm like, I've got to hand it to them.

[Brian Barrett]

Well, and then it continues, right? It's a dynamic thing. On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that is sort of part of that war on mail and voting that we talked about. It would require states to give a list of eligible voters to the US government 60 days before the election in order for the right to have the postal service deliver those mail in ballots. So that's been a long time. No, no. I think one thing that I want to make really clear is that elections in the US are inherently, structurally, and for good reasons, very, very localized. Like you have your local election. And that is, though by design, there is a reason the federal government doesn't control elections in the way that Trump seems to want to. For obvious reasons, one central authority having that much power over elections could do a lot of harm. Leah, my question for you is how likely is any of this to actually get through? The SAVE act is stalled. The Senate doesn't want to go for it. The executive order is going to get probably shot down in courts, although, who knows? We know what Trump wants to do. And again, it's really bad. As my analysis showed. But how much can he actually do? What's the appetite to actually push this stuff through? And what are the mechanisms for.

[Leah Feiger]

That's a really good question. And it's a little bit hard to say right now while we're in this primary period, which is why this approach, which is just throw a ton of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks, has worked for them very well in the past. So they're making a lot of really educated guesses on what that would mean for them and what that would mean on, like the very specific voting breakdowns. When you say, for example, registering 60 days beforehand to vote. The election is in early November. That brings us to early September. That cuts out college students that are registering to vote on their college campuses. That's, that's who we're looking. And so there's, it's, it's a very specific, targeted approach. Also, I guess, to be clear, there's like a very decent chance that the Republicans do very, very badly come November. Like, things are not looking good for them polling wise. And so to amp up your populace into being like, if we lose, it's because of cheating. And they're like, they're not gonna do great. Like if, if the war in Iran continues, if we all continue to like, not be able to travel or some of us spent eight hours straight in the New York airport.

[Brian Barrett]

Leah is a single issue voter now

[Leah Feiger]

I'm a single issue voter. And it's about funding TSA and making weather better. It's all to say that, like, we're hitting an era where they're hedging their bets and going like, if we lose, we need to figure out who to blame it on. And it's certainly not going to be Republican voters or Republican strategists.

[Brian Barrett]

Coming up after the break, we're going to take you inside Polymarket's pop up Bar in D.C. stay with us.

[Sponsor Voice]

As a listener of Uncanny Valley, we know you want to stay on top of today's biggest stories in tech. And if you're curious about how tech and innovation are changing the healthcare landscape, check out Mayo Clinic's chart topping podcast, Tomorrow's Cure. Back for a brand new season, host and award winning journalist Kathy Werzer dives into the breakthroughs, challenges and human stories shaping the future of medicine, from advances in AI and cancer research to the rise of chronic disease and autoimmune disorders. Not sure where to start. We Recommend the season 4 premiere where dermatologist Dr. Saranya Wiles and biomedical engineer Dr. Adam Feinberg explore how 3D bioprinting is revolutionizing medical research and accelerating breakthroughs in healthcare. Whether you're a healthcare professional, patient, or simply curious about what's ahead, tomorrow's Cure invites you to imagine what healthcare could look like and shows you the future is already here. Find tomorrow's cure on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening now. This show is supported by Odoo.

[Uncanny Valley Sponsor Voice]

When you buy business software from lots

[Sponsor Voice]

of vendors, the costs add up and

[Uncanny Valley Sponsor Voice]

it gets complicated and confusing.

[Sponsor Voice]

Odoo solves this.

[Uncanny Valley Sponsor Voice]

It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need.

[Sponsor Voice]

Check out [e-mail] that's o d o

[Dina Temple Rasten]

o.com the digital world feels more chaotic than ever. Huge data breaches, AI threatening jobs, foreign meddling, that creeping feeling of obsolescence. It's information overload. I'm Dina Temple Rasten, host of Click Here from PRX and Recorded Future News. Want to understand how we got here and how you can get ahead of it all? Listen to Click Here. We can help you make sense of all the noise. Click here wherever you get your podcasts.

[Brian Barrett]

So a few weeks ago, Polymarket, which is the online prediction market where people bet on the outcomes of real world events. It's insanely popular. You might have an account decided to create an in real life experience in the form of a pop up bar which they called the Situation Room. Not to be confused with Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room. No betting there. The space was outfitted with tons of bright TV screens showing everything from the news to stock quotes, even a Bloomberg terminal. So you got to monitor global events while you bet and drink. What could go wrong?

[McKenna Kelly]

So I just got in. We're waiting outside for an hour and a half almost.

[Brian Barrett]

It was a one weekend only type of thing so we sent our DC based reporter McKenna Kelly to check it out.

[McKenna Kelly]

Nothing is working. There's a couple of tablets set up. I'm seeing some people playing what looks like a video game.

[Brian Barrett]

It seems to have been a messy experiment to say the least.

[McKenna Kelly]

Hey McKenna, good to be here.

[Brian Barrett]

Good to have you. And here is Kate Nibs, our in house expert on all things prediction markets who also has some thoughts to share. Hey Kate.

[Kate Nibbs]

Hi. Thanks for having me. And I'm truly sad that I missed going there in real life.

[McKenna Kelly]

I don't know.

[Kate Nibbs]

Yes, but it's only Because I hate myself.

[Brian Barrett]

Well, okay, so take us there. When you went, you visited the Pop Up. What were you expecting and what did you actually see? I feel like there's a gap there.

[McKenna Kelly]

Yeah. So from the promotional materials that Polymarket put on X and blasted in their press release, my expectations were really high. They had this orb in the promotional images. There's all these Bloomberg terminals. People are supposed to be downing drinks and placing bets and wandering around in this kind of highly fluorescent room where there was just endless screens, endless content to be monitoring whatever situation you wanted to monitor, whether that was who the next Republican presidential nominee was going to be or the war in Iran or things like that. And so when I got there, it was supposed to open at 5pm it was pouring rain. And we all waited outside for about an hour and a half, getting soaked, getting drinks handed to us outside by a very apologetic polymarket. And when doors opened about an hour and a half after they originally scheduled to, Nothing worked. Absolutely nothing worked. And really, the only promise that they kept was, like, a free night of drinks for anyone who showed up.

[Zoe Schipper]

What was the ratio of reporters to.

[McKenna Kelly]

Yeah, so the ratio to reporters and everyone else. There was a lot of people who were leaving the line because it was starting to feel like this place was never going to open. And so anyone who is like a casual, like, I'm gonna show up here for a drink and gawk at the spectacle, for the most part, left. And all the reporters who were assigned to this all, for the most part, stuck around. And, you know, later in the night, after things had opened up, more people continued to come in. Some of the Doge guys were there, of course, that we saw mixing around because they're a part of the same kind of social circle as these folks. I saw some guys wearing Palantir hoodies and a shirt that said, this didn't make into the story, because I had completely forgotten, but he was wearing this shirt that said, surveillance is the new sovereignty. Palantir. Something, something.

[Zoe Schipper]

Wow.

[Brian Barrett]

Before we get too deep in the night, I do wanna say, not to make you relive this, but we do have tape of Josh Trucker, chief marketing officer of Polymarket at the moment. He let everyone know how badly things were going. Can we play that real quick?

[Josh Tucker]

As a result of an electrical issue earlier tonight, we had to reset all the TVs. With that being said, we want you all to have a great evening tonight. There is. There are drinks, food, past apps. We are here to answer any questions overnight. We will remedy it so that the situation can be properly monitored tomorrow. Appreciate you all coming out. We're so excited to meet you. Thank you all. And let's go back.

[McKenna Kelly]

Yes, could I get a glass of white, please? Yeah.

[Zoe Schipper]

Did you want, like, a red or a white?

[McKenna Kelly]

A white, please.

[Zoe Schipper]

Yeah.

[McKenna Kelly]

Do you have, like, a Sauvignon one? Sauvignon one's great. Thanks so much.

[Brian Barrett]

I love that. We also got your drink order in there.

[Leah Feiger]

Was it good? Was the alcohol at least top shelf? That's the part to me that I'm like, this is. This company makes so much money and they, like, couldn't even put, like, their screens together.

[Kate Nibbs]

I don't know.

[McKenna Kelly]

This is.

[Leah Feiger]

This is so messy.

[McKenna Kelly]

So, yes, I had a glass of white wine. It was totally fine. But the apps that were passed around, I was a little bit disappointed because the things that I saw were, like, some pretzel bites and then like, these little skewers of, like, pineapple, strawberry, pineapple. And that was about it for the most part. On the second night, they brought in pizza from somewhere else and put it in these, like, boxes that said, like, Pentagon pizza on them. So there was, like, more food the second night. But, yeah, I gotta say, I was a little.

[Kate Nibbs]

But you went twice.

[McKenna Kelly]

Yes, Kate, I went twice.

[Kate Nibbs]

I missed that.

[Zoe Schipper]

Wait, is the Pentagon pizza thing a joke about the, like, pizza predicting the war?

[McKenna Kelly]

Yeah, because they had these Pentagon pizza trackers up when I returned the second night. Yes, I came back the second night. Everything was working for the most part. There were still some screens that were turned off, but I never saw any, like, actual Bloomberg terminals. There were, like, some monitory Bloomberg type terminal things that it looked like Polymark had developed themselves, but the real, like, $50,000 Bloomberg terminal was nowhere to be found. And yeah, the second night, again, it was like, mostly people looking to gawk at the event. Except I did find a couple of people who placed some bets on platforms like polymarket and Kalshi. One was named William, and he said he was a member of the military. Wouldn't give me his full name. And he last year got involved in this for the first time by putting in, I think, like, all of his tax return into, like, Oklahoma City sports betting. So you use Calshi?

[Kalshi User]

Yes.

[McKenna Kelly]

When did you first start using the service?

[Kalshi User]

Probably when I got my tax return back.

[McKenna Kelly]

Okay.

[Kalshi User]

So I filed my taxes pretty early and I was like, oh, sweet, I got my tax return. What am I going to do with the. So I was like, I'm gonna just put it on cowsheet.

[McKenna Kelly]

He said that he goes up and down like $100, but he hasn't, like, made any major winnings. Like, some of the stuff that we've heard, you know, some people making crazy insider bets, making millions and millions of dollars. This is just a guy who was interested in this and just plays it for fun. It sounds like.

[Brian Barrett]

Kate, what do you see when you see a pop up like this and like Polymarket trying to. Is it an attempt to legitimize itself to just a marketing stunt? Like, and how does it, how does it tie into what you're seeing with these companies anyway, that the explosive growth that they've got, trying to reach out to so many people and getting so many people hooked on what they're offering.

[Kate Nibbs]

I mean, this particular event definitely seems like a very bald effort to woo D.C. based journalists. If nothing else, one thing that McKenna said sort of encapsulates what's going on right now. The thing about the guys in the Palantir hoodies. So I think it was the same week that this bar opened. Polymarket announced a partnership with Palantir. And Palantir is helping them protect the integrity of their sports market. So Palantir is going to be basically attempting to help Polymarket catch insider traders and market manipulators in, like, all the sports games, which is kind of wild. I actually asked Polymarket last week whether they had any other deals with Palantir when I was like, trying to get them to say anything about whether they were investigating the Iran bets that. That have been raising a lot of eyebrows. And they said that Palantir was only helping them with sports, which I thought was freaking weird. And, like, it speaks to how they're, like, rapidly expanding, but doing so in this, like, really messy, ad hoc way that, like, doesn't really make a lot of sense because I was like, if you're gonna get Palantir involved, why wouldn't you have them do, like, the geopolitical stuff instead of March Madness? Yeah. Wild, wild times.

[Leah Feiger]

It does all feel like quite piecemeal, but like, sort of together as like a big step back. What does all of this say to you guys? McKenna, you have now spent two read, two nights with all of these people. Kate, this is your beast that we know of. Just two guys we know of, maybe. Yeah.

[McKenna Kelly]

And I went back for brunch on Sunday morning.

[Leah Feiger]

What does this say about this increasing popularity, the power of prediction markets and how this is becoming really like a cultural phenomenon? The fact that they were able to get folks to come out for this, to get excited about this, even, even, like as it all like vaguely blew up in their faces. Their name is out there. The power, the cultural capital here that was, didn't exist a year ago is very much present. What does this say to you?

[Kate Nibbs]

I mean, I don't think it's going to subside anytime soon. At least not while the Trump administration is in power. The Trump administration is so, so friendly to this industry. Donald Trump Jr. Is an advisor to both polymarket Alan Kelshi. The Trump family is still prepping, allegedly prepping its own prediction market, truth predict, although I haven't actually heard anything about that since like late 2025. Gotta check on that. But yeah, like this is definitely, I think the beginning of something for better or for worse. I also just. So one of the reasons I was just telling you guys about my ill fated travels home to Chicago from New York, I was at this Kelshi conference last week that wasn't open to the public. So it was like different from the Poly Market bar. But who it was for was really interesting to me. It was like very, very focused on basically highlighting the ways that Kelshi is already super entrenched in the global financial system and has all of these big finance players involved. And it was really eye opening how far they've already gone down that road. Like they, they announced that day that they had gotten approval for margining. And that basically means that we're going to see a lot of big institutions putting way more money into these markets sooner rather than later.

[McKenna Kelly]

Yeah, I think my main takeaway from the event and the thing that stood out to me the most and that I put in the piece of, is that the guy who was running it, Josh Tucker, who made that announcement that we played the tape of earlier, his last job was at Mr. Beast doing viral marketing. And I think, you know, talk about where polymarket is right now very much. Even with people who are familiar with the name and all that, it's very much a spectacle, you know, like this is like very much playing on that and trying to grow its kind of name. And then when I was at the bar too, like it was only a block away from the CFTC, like on K Street, which colloquially in D.C. is known as lobbyist central. And then a block away from the one regulator who regulates it trying to make this big party saying that this is our coming out party and we're here to have this conversation and they're there for the spectacle about blowing up all this stuff. But when it comes to actually following through with the party and the planning or having this kind of productive discussion that really was nowhere to be seen. The promotional material on X promoting this event by Polymarket made this out to be a very highly produced event that was going to be kind of otherworldly and highly technical. But after spending several hours here, the whole thing is kind of janky.

[Kate Nibbs]

It's super bonkers to me too because like Polymarket had that whole party in D.C. and as of now, like most of Polymarket, you're still not legally allowed to bet on from the US so like they're really focusing on getting their name out there over people actually using the product.

[Brian Barrett]

Just to recap, we had Palantir, Doge, Donald Trump Jr. Mr. Beast and an absent Bloomberg Terminal. I feel like we're checking a lot of boxes with this one event.

[Leah Feiger]

This is Wired. Mad Libs in every way, shape or form. Yeah,

[Zoe Schipper]

that's our show for today. We'll link to all the stories we spoke about in the show. Notes Uncanny Valley is produced by Kaleidoscope Contest. Adriana Tapia produced this episode. It was mixed by Amar Lal at Macrosound. Pran Bandy is our New York studio engineer, Mark Leda is our San Francisco studio engineer, Kimberly Chua is our senior Digital Production manager, Kate Osborne is our Executive producer and Katie Drummond is Wired's Global Editorial director.

[Lizzie O'Leary]

Now more than ever, technology is a dominating force in our lives. Then there's the threat of AI everywhere. And yet tech can be inspiring and help level playing fields. I mean, a YouTuber with a self funded debut movie just dominated the box office.

[Brian Barrett]

I thought, hey, if you interview me it'd be good for your publication. And that's not ego, I just have a lot of followers. But it's that stigma. It's like YouTubers, they're not real.

[Lizzie O'Leary]

Join me Lizzie O', Leary, the host of what Next TBD, Slate's podcast focused on technology, power and the future. Follow what Next TBD Now. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[McKenna Kelly]

From, prx.