Odd Lots - Introducing: Foundering - The John McAfee Story

Episode Date: February 9, 2023

The new season of Bloomberg's Foundering podcast retraces the life and gruesome death of John McAfee. In the 1980s and ’90s, the McAfee name was synonymous with computer antivirus software, and he helped establish the modern cybersecurity industry. But afterward, his life took a strange and dark turn. He was accused of murder, an allegation he denied, and then went on the lam. He sought to reinvent himself as a cryptocurrency guru and as a candidate for US president. Reporter Jamie Tarabay interviews McAfee’s colleagues, acquaintances, investigators and family members to demystify lies he told throughout his life, reveal the secrets he kept and resolve questions surrounding his public and decades-long self-destruction.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the 1980s and 90s, John McAfee was a Silicon Valley icon. Well, great. We were supposed to have a meeting at 8 this morning, and he said, yeah, but I was hung over. His name was synonymous with computer antivirus software. So I said, would you mind if I came over to the lab and spent some time with you there to try to understand the technology better? And it took me all of 15 minutes in the R&D lab to realize he was brilliant. He helped invent the modern cybersecurity industry, and it made him fabulously wealthy. When we were together, women were just like falling his spell and sleep with him or go away with him. It was just amazing.

But after he sold his company and basked in his riches, Things took a dark turn. And he just slowly, like a spider, throwing a web around its prey. It just becomes this galloping circus of stupidity that he finds so cute. A man is dead. I will not allow them to imprison me and shut my voice down. I'm your host, Jamie Tarabay.

I cover cybersecurity. for Bloomberg News. I've been a foreign correspondent for over 20 years. Throughout my career, I've reported on powerful people with God complexes, people who didn't believe they had to be held accountable for their actions, people who may have gotten away with murder. They want to silence me. I will not allow that.

This season on Foundering will retrace the life of John McAfee from his rise, in Silicon Valley to his chaotic journey through Central America and how his choices led him down the path toward a public and decades-long self-destruction. When I heard that he was arrested in Spain, I knew that he had been with him. And these are very powerful, man. I don't want to get too far into it just to protect myself. Foundering, a podcast from Bloomberg Technology. Listen wherever you get your podcast.

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