Bobby Allyn
Bobby Allyn is a business reporter at NPR based in San Francisco. He covers technology and how Silicon Valley's largest companies are transforming how we live and reshaping society.
He came to San Francisco from Washington, where he focused on national breaking news and politics. Before that, he covered criminal justice at member station WHYY.
In that role, he focused on major corruption trials, law enforcement, and local criminal justice policy. He helped lead NPR's reporting of Bill Cosby's two criminal trials. He was a guest on Fresh Air after breaking a major story about the nation's first supervised injection site plan in Philadelphia. In between daily stories, he has worked on several investigative projects, including a story that exposed how the federal government was quietly hiring debt collection law firms to target the homes of student borrowers who had defaulted on their loans. Allyn also strayed from his beat to cover Philly parking disputes that divided in the city, the last meal at one of the city's last all-night diners, and a remembrance of the man who wrote the Mister Softee jingle on a xylophone in the basement of his Northeast Philly home.
At other points in life, Allyn has been a staff reporter at Nashville Public Radio and daily newspapers including The Oregonian in Portland and The Tennessean in Nashville. His work has also appeared in BuzzFeed News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
A native of Wilkes-Barre, a former mining town in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Allyn is the son of a machinist and a church organist. He's a dedicated bike commuter and long-distance runner. He is a graduate of American University in Washington.
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A Facebook whistleblower has revealed that the social media giant tried to hide evidence that suggested it knew the platform was used to spread hate, violence and misinformation.
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The debate: Why have male CEOs, who promised the moon and failed, not been prosecuted? Holmes faces possible prison time over fraud charges tied to her former blood-testing company Theranos.
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A mysterious attendee at Elizabeth Holmes' fraud trial derided the case against her to reporters. Turns out, he was not whom he claimed to be, but was the father of Holmes' partner. -
Fortnite maker Epic Games sued Apple over its App Store policies. Now, the federal court's decision could reshape the multibillion-dollar digital economy.
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Defense lawyers say Holmes believed the company could screen for hundreds of diseases with just a finger prick of blood, a pledge that attracted millions of dollars in investment.
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E-cigarette maker Juul wanted to disrupt Big Tobacco, and largely succeeded before politicians, regulators and experts accused it of stoking the youth vaping epidemic.
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Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of the health technology corporation Theranos, promised miracles with just a finger prick of blood. Jury selection in her fraud trial begins Tuesday.
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Holmes and her former business partner and ex-boyfriend, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, have pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding investors and patients of the blood-testing company Theranos.
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The Taliban of today has a sophisticated social media presence. It has harnessed online platforms as a tool of propaganda and is now using it as a way to govern.
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Apple's new feature to fight child sexual abuse is encouraging to families of survivors. But privacy advocates are trying to convince Apple to drop its plans, fearing they could lead to surveillance.
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Because there aren't enough drivers, people using Uber and Lyft have been noticing long waits and higher prices. Executives at the companies are scrambling to fix the problem.
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Employees of Activision Blizzard, which makes the online game "World of Warcraft," are outraged at their leaders after California sued the company, alleging pervasive sexism and harassment.
