Vergecast: Nothing Phone 1 review, Congress takes on VPNs, and Project Genesis adventures

Every Wednesday and Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where our editors make sense of the week’s most important technology news. On Wednesdays, editor-at-large David Pierce leads a selection of The Verge’s expert staffers in an exploration of how gadgets and software affect our lives — and which ones you should bring into your home.

David starts today’s episode with Verge managing editor Alex Cranz and news writer Mitchell Clark to chat about what it took for Mitchell to get service from Dish’s new cellular network Project Genesis and why he was rewarded with NFTs to test the connectivity in Spokane, Washington.

Later in the show, David talks with senior policy reporter Makena Kelly about VPNs and why US lawmakers are urging the Federal Trade Commission to step in and address deceptive practices. David also leaves us with a few tips he learned from talking to the VPN industry about how to choose the best VPN (and whether you actually need one).

After that, reviews editor Allison Johnson and news reporter Jon Porter go deep on the Nothing Phone 1 — Allison’s review, Jon’s tracking of the hype leading up to its launch, and the reality of it now that we got our hands on it.

We have lots of ideas about how to do this show, and we’re going to do a lot of experimenting with it, so we hope you’ll tell us what you like and don’t like. Either way, we’ll see you again on Friday!