This episode welcomes journalist Mark Sullivan to discuss the question, "what is going on with this thing called the metaverse?" Mark has written a number of articles about the topic at the news media outlet, Fast Company. He is going to explain to us what the metaverse is, and how it might look in the future. We cover questions about how companies will make money, advertising, hype, how this could be a privacy and misinformation hellscape, and the little-discussed prospect of digital colonialism. Mark Sullivan is a reporter at Fast Company. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheSullivan. Follow Tech Empire at @TechEmpireCast and the host, Michael Kwet, at @Michael_Kwet.