Ben Johnson

Former Host, Marketplace Tech and Codebreaker

SHORT BIO

Ben Johnson is the former host of Marketplace Tech and the podcast Codebreaker. He joined Marketplace in 2012 and became the host of Marketplace Tech in early 2014.

Ben started his career in journalism in 2003, working as a features and general assignment reporter for the Day newspaper in New London, Connecticut. While there, he won a regional award for feature writing and was recruited to write a weekly entertainment column for the Tribune Media Service. In 2006, Ben relocated to New York City to be an entertainment and music reporter at the Staten Island Advance newspaper, where he soon moved into hard news, working the cops beat and as a weekend city desk editor.

In 2010, he began to work as a freelance web producer at the Takeaway, a national radio show produced out of New York’s WNYC Radio in partnership with WGBH, The New York Times and the BBC. Ben went on to be a freelance radio producer at WNYC, serving as the digital editor for the Takeaway while also doing live and features reporting for the station on everything from Occupy Wall Street to New York's last functioning ship graveyard. While working at WNYC, Ben started blogging for Slate Magazine's breaking news blog, the Slatest.

In 2012, Ben left WNYC to manage a partnership between Slate and YouTube, producing daily breaking news videos and other content for SlateV, the magazine's video department. He also wrote regularly for Slate's Future Tense blog and drew the extreme ire of his fellow Radiohead fans by asking the band to stop touring.

Ben doesn't like to brag about it, but over the years, he has interviewed Jay Z, Hillary Clinton, Luciano Pavarotti, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Josh Homme, Biz Stone, Guy Kawasaki, Col. Chris Hadfield, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Neil Young and more. He enjoys and engages in ’80s movie references, plus pie baking and high-fives. His Twitter feed has never been polluted by a subtweet. His interest in swimming knows no bounds, especially if there is a high dive and a high-five involved.

 

Latest Stories (245)

Why your cell phone battery life still stinks

Apr 9, 2015
Unlike massive leaps in computing technology, batteries are tough to improve.

A group of Atlanta educators caught cheating

Apr 7, 2015
It's being called the largest cheating scandal in American history.

Should weapons have a kill switch?

Apr 6, 2015
...or a "not kill" switch, rather.

Is this the most elaborate Easter egg ever?

Apr 3, 2015
Just in time for Easter, an egg hunt through the show Archer.

Algorithm as Art

Apr 2, 2015
Imagine an auction where you could buy algorithms...

Jay Z is Apple’s newest rival in streaming music

Mar 31, 2015
How powerful is the Jay Z brand?

Live-streaming comes to the smartphone era

Mar 26, 2015
Periscope, Meerkat, YouNow and others have ushered in a new "wild west."

Women get “swatted” too

Mar 26, 2015
Swatting, the act of calling a SWAT team as a prank, isn't just victimizing men.

Using technology to empower women in Saudi Arabia

Mar 25, 2015
Princess Reema talks about her efforts to train women to join the workforce.