I actually wanted to see if I could do it in 2 lines now that I said it haha. There is probably a .NET inherent method that can do it nicer than what I did, but love a good mindfuck at 2am.
2 lines (1 for string -> binary, 1 for binary->string)
First line doesn't count as it's just declaring my word to translate to binary and back.
[highlight=vb.net]
Dim originalWord As String = "Jason"
Dim bits As String = String.Join("", System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(originalWord). Select(Function(b As Byte) Convert.ToString(b, 2).PadLeft(8, "0"c)).ToArray())
Dim word As String = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(Enumerable.Ra nge(0, bits.Length \ 8).Select(Function(i As Int32) CByte((From x In Enumerable.Range(0, 8) Where bits((i * 8) + x) = "1"c Select 2 ^ (7 - x)).Sum())).ToArray())
[/highlight]