“Marketplace” revamps tech show with new host

“Marketplace Tech,” a public radio show about tech news, is being overhauled with a new host, veteran tech reporter Molly Wood.

The new daily show launches Sept. 5.

Ben Brock Johnson had been the host. He is leaving “Marketplace” to work on a project with WBUR in Boston.

The show will now focus on uncovering themes that transcend the hype in an industry that’s constantly changing.

Segments will include:

• “Evenly Distributed,” A look at what happens when the economic divide also means that life-changing technology is available to some people, but not others.
• “Venture Capital,” which will provide insight into the opaque process behind how startups are funded.
• “Economics of Outer Space,” which will examine everything from asteroid mining to how NASA finds applications for its technology here on earth.
• “Technical Difficulties,” is stories about when tech goes too far.

Wood also co-hosts the podcast “Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly.” Before joining “Marketplace” in 2015, she worked as a tech columnist at The New York Times and an executive editor at CNET.

Previously, she launched the CNET podcast “Buzz Out Loud,” one of the early successes in podcasting and which fans still celebrate today. In the web video space, she was the force behind an original tech-focused video series at The Times called “Machine Learning,” and also created and hosted the broadcast-quality tech web show “Always On With Molly Wood.”