Banks, healthcare providers, and retailers around the world still rely on COBOL, a programming language originally developed in the 1960s. By all accounts the code is powerful, practical, and very rarely problematic. But the small group of people who still know the language are aging out of the workforce. 

What happens when there are no more COBOL coders left?

Guest: Clive Thompson, journalist and author of "Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World."

Host: Lizzie O’Leary

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices