Recode Media

Today, CNBC’s Alex Sherman joins Recode’s Peter Kafka to ponder several media mysteries: Why did Netflix lose 2 million subscribers? Why was Disney executive Peter Rice unexpectedly fired? What’s going on at Warner Bros. Discovery? Is someone gonna buy VICE? Why is Wall Street meh on BuzzFeed? Featuring: Alex Sherman (@sherman4949), Media and Tech Reporter for CNBC Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of...

The Bill Simmons Podcast is, by its own description, "the most downloaded sports podcast of all time." This week, it hits its 1,000th episode. Bill Simmons began his career as a Boston sportswriter and went on to found ESPN's sports and pop culture blog Grantland. After ESPN shut down the site, Simmons started the Ringer — which he sold to Spotify in 2020. In this wide-ranging conversation, Recode’s Peter Kafka talks to Simmons about how he became a podcasting pioneer, and when he realized...

TikTok isn’t just funny dances and glow-ups anymore… it’s also for venture capital!!! Logan Bartlett, managing director at the VC firm Redpoint, reaches out to startups via the socials. He also hosts a podcast called Cartoon Avatars. Bartlett talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about wooing the next generation of tech entrepreneurs, the VC world’s abrupt shift to restraint, and, of course, more crypto stuff. Featuring: Logan Bartlett (@loganbartlett), Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures and...

Software engineer Molly White has emerged as one of Web3’s most high-profile skeptics. Her website “Web3 is going just great” chronicles scams, bugs, “rug pulls” and thefts plaguing the world of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), and other blockchain technologies. She and Recode’s Peter Kafka discuss her take on all things Web3, why she took on this project in her free time, and how the feedback she’s received compares to her previous work on GamerGate...

Lots of people will tell you that misinformation is a big problem online. But exactly what the problem is, and what tech companies can and should do about it, is up for debate. It’s also what Bloomberg reporter Davey Alba covers every day. In this conversation, she talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about the recent massacre in Buffalo, which the shooter promoted on Discord and live-streamed on Twitch; copies of his manifesto and clips of the killing then migrated around the internet. All of...

The markets are crashing - and that includes both Netflix and the media companies that wanted to be Netflix. What’s next? Wall Street analyst and investor Rich Greenfield weighs in. Then, Recode’s Peter Kafka has a conversation with Tony Fadell, who helped bring the iPod and iPhone to life, and then built and sold Nest, the smart home company. His new book is “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making.” Fadell talks about how developing a product begins with creating its...

Ronan Farrow’s latest investigative work for The New Yorker looks into the surveillance technology Pegasus — spyware that gives remote access to a smartphone’s camera, microphone, and contents. Be sure to power your phone completely off after you listen to the episode; Farrow will tell you why. Recode’s Peter Kafka also asks Farrow about his career — what it’s like to have his work put under a microscope, the impact of his Pulitzer-winning reporting on Harvey Weinstein, and what he doesn’t...

Design genius Jony Ive was Steve Jobs’ chief collaborator at Apple. But Ive didn’t run Apple after Jobs’ death: That role went to Tim Cook, the supply chain guy. Now Apple is a company that’s increasingly interested in making money from services and is less dependent on jaw-dropping devices. And Ive doesn’t work at Apple anymore. Journalist Tripp Mickle, who covered Apple for years at the Wall Street Journal, has a new book about the fraught relationship between Cook and Ive, and Apple’s...

Wesley Morris wrote his first review when he was 15 years old, about the movie “Cape Fear.” Since then, he’s become one of the most celebrated cultural critics of our time, and has two Pulitzers to prove it. Recode’s Peter Kafka talks to Morris about his work as a critic at large for the New York Times and the new season of his podcast, “Still Processing.” Other topics discussed in this very fun and thoughtful interview include The Slap, why we’re not getting another “Basic Instinct,” and...

It’s been a big week for media events involving tens of billions of dollars: Elon Musk is buying Twitter for $44 billion, meanwhile, Netflix lost more than $50 billion in value. First, Recode’s Peter Kafka talks to The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel about the multiverse of possibilities of how Musk’s Twitter might operate. Will we enter the “darkest timeline” of supervillain nihilistic world-burning, or revert to Twitter’s pre-2016 stance on content moderation? Then, Peter checks in on Netflix,...

Elon Musk loves Twitter and also thinks it’s broken. So he wants to buy it. Can he, really? And who would help him? And why? And wtf does it mean when the world’s richest man is also one of its best shitposters? Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner and the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson try to help Recode’s Peter Kafka figure it out. Featuring: Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8), tech and social media reporter for Bloomberg Derek Thompson (@DKThomp), staff writer for The Atlantic and host of Plain English for The...

Within the past few months, Disney CEO Bob Chapek managed to piss off his shareholders, the LGBT community, and right-wing conservatives. Today we talk about how he did it, why it happened, and what’s next. First, Puck’s Matt Belloni joins Recode’s Peter Kafka to compare Disney’s old and new Bobs, Iger and Chapek. Belloni details the inner turmoil at Disney over the company’s initially tepid response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law - and why Disney investors are dissatisfied with Chapek for...

It’s time to check back in on the state of the streaming wars, with two binge-worthy conversations. First, Recode’s Peter Kafka talks to analyst Michael Nathanson about Big Media’s new problem: TV ratings are plummeting because all the good stuff is streaming — but now Wall Street doesn’t just want streaming, it wants *profitable* streaming. Then, we travel into the time stream to talk about the past, present and future of the streaming wars with Dawn Chmielewski, co-author of Binge Times:...

Legendary comedy director/writer/producer Judd Apatow was busy during lockdown: He wrote a book and made two movies. One of them is The Bubble, a movie about… making a movie during the pandemic. Apatow talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about what success looks like in the streaming era, coming to terms with TikTok, and his Oscar tweets. Also discussed: How many meetings it took to design a CGI flammable alien dinosaur penis. Featuring: Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow), Writer, Director, Producer Host:...

The Oscars used to be one of the biggest things on TV. Now they’re… not. Does that matter to the movie business and to movie-goers? We discuss with our annual Oscar experts: Vox’s Alissa Wilkinson and Slate’s Allegra Frank, who talk about their favorite movies, and try to sell Recode’s Peter Kafka on watching a 3-hour foreign language film. But more important: How and why should the Oscars try to remake itself for a TikTok world — and will a Twitter poll + DJ Kahled and Tony Hawk do the...

March Madness has started, but this isn’t a podcast about that: Today, it’s a podcast about sports media, about leaving sports media to do your own thing, and about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may radically reshape big-time soccer. First Dan Le Batard, formerly of ESPN, joins Recode’s Peter Kafka to talk about his “fool’s quest” to found Meadowlark Media, “a company with a soul.” And why that company needed a big infusion of cash from the sports betting business to get off the ground....

Silicon Valley goes out of its way not to upset countries around the world - even when that means making embarrassing compromises. But it has taken a stand against Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, limiting services or cutting them off entirely. What happens next? Recode’s Peter Kafka and the New York Times’ Shira Ovide both wrote about this separately, and now they’re talking about it together. Then, Wall Street Journal reporter Kirsten Grind talks about her new book, Happy at Any Cost:...

Recode's Peter Kafka talks to three reporters about the realities of covering the war in Ukraine and sorting truth from disinformation -- from the ground, from afar, and online. In Ukraine: CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward discusses the challenges of war reporting in 2022, everything from planning food and exit routes to working with a remote team to analyze online videos. In DC: Puck co-founder and Washington correspondent Julia Ioffe talk about how hard it is to learn...

When Recode’s Peter Kafka advises you not to write your book, WRITE THAT BOOK. That’s the lesson Mike Isaac learned: His book “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber” is now a Showtime series starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Not only that, Showtime announced that Mike’s next, yet-to-be-finished book about Facebook will be the basis of season 2. Peter talks to Mark about what it’s like to shift from the world of reporting to prestige TV drama. Then, host of LinkedIn’s “Hello Monday” podcast, Jessi...

Make sure no one’s on your home phone while you use your dial-up modem to listen to this week’s show on your 1998 Bondi Blue iMac. Recode Media’s Peter Kafka talks to bestselling Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs author Chuck Klosterman about his new book: The Nineties: A Book. But first, NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik walks us through Sarah Palin’s defamation suit against The New York Times, which was rejected by a jury and a judge this week. Featuring: David Folkenflik...