Tom Merritt Biography
Tom Merritt is an American technology journalist, writer, and presenter best known for hosting multiple podcasts. He is a former co-host of Tech News Today on the TWiT.tv Network, as well as an executive editor for CNET and the creator and host of the daily podcast Buzz Out Loud.
How old is Tom Merritt? – Age
He is 53 years old as of June 28, 2023. He was born in 1970 in Greenville, Illinois, United States. His real name is Thomas Andrew Merritt.
Tom Merritt Family – Education
Merritt was born in Greenville, Illinois, to Bill Merritt, a food scientist who contributed to the Coffee-Mate project. Merritt earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before pursuing doctoral studies in communications at the University of Texas in Austin.
Tom Merritt Wife – Children
Merritt is married to Eileen Rivera, and they live in Los Angeles, California, with their dogs Sawyer and Rey (another dog, Jango, died of natural causes on January 25, 2017), having formerly lived in Marin County and Oakland. The St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball are his favorite team.
Tom Merritt Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $500,000.
Tom Merritt Podcast
The show counted down a new Top 5 list every week released on Tuesday until November 1, 2011. He then did a similar show, CNET Top 5, for TechRepublic (part of CNET). Merritt appeared in two early episodes of his Frame Rate co-host Brian Brushwood’s Revision3 show Scam School.
On March 3, 2013, Merritt and Molly Wood began the It’s a Thing podcast, described as a show grown from the brain of Molly Wood, derived from a regular segment on the CNET podcast Gadgettes. In early January 2014, following his departure from TWiT, Merritt began co-hosting a podcast with Brian Brushwood called Cordkillers, while also starting a new podcast, Daily Tech News Show (DTNS). Merritt continued to appear on the Frogpants Network, hosting a section called Tom’s Tech Time on the Wednesday edition of The Morning Stream, a podcast presented by Scott Johnson and Brian Ibbott.
Merritt officially debuted his second new show, FrameRate, on TwitTwitter on November 10, 2010. Co-hosting the show with magician and NSFW podcast presenter Brian Brushwood, Merritt focused on video in all its forms—television, film, and the Internet. Along with Veronica Belmont, his former coworker at CNET, Merritt has been hosting Sword & Laser, a science fiction and fantasy book club podcast, since February 4, 2008.
He debuted a new program for Tom’s Top 5, initially for Revision3, on June 22, 2010. The show counted down a new Top 5 list every Tuesday until November 1, 2011. He then hosted a similar show, CNET Top 5, for TechRepublic (a division of CNET). Merritt appeared in two early episodes of Scam School, a Revision3 show hosted by Frame Rate co-host Brian Brushwood.
On March 3, 2013, Merritt and Molly Wood launched the It’s a Thing podcast, which is characterized as a show born from Molly Wood’s brain and evolved from a regular part on the CNET podcast Gadgettes. After leaving TWiT in early January 2014, Merritt began co-hosting Cordkillers with Brian Brushwood, as well as beginning a new podcast, Daily Tech News Show (DTNS).
Tom Merritt Foxconn
In 2012, newspapers reported on consumer groups’ requests to boycott Apple products in reaction to reports of worker suicides and hazardous working conditions at the Foxconn plant in China. Merritt, who has been following tech news since 2005, commented, “Boycotts of Apple might be good to nudge Apple into doing something to improve conditions, but you’re going to have to boycott buying electronics if you really wanted to punish China.” I’m not sure if that’s necessary.
Citing a Forbes infographic that purportedly showed Foxconn to have fewer suicides per million workers (18) than Chinese citizens (220), Merritt recommended looking into the possibility that Foxconn’s lower suicide rate is because “people who are gainfully employed are in some way less likely to commit suicide.” Worker suicides may be caused by factors other than the plant’s working circumstances.
Instead of boycotts, he argued for a more comprehensive approach to resolving harmful working conditions. Comparing Foxconn’s conditions to those of American coal mines in the 1800s and early 1900s.
Tom Merritt Books
Merritt has published several books, chiefly science fiction novels. Boiling Point, which he later narrated as an audiobook, is about a civil war in the United States that occurs in the near future. Chapters from United Moon Colonies (2006) were uploaded on his blog. Both books were released on Lulu.com under a Creative Commons license.