Recode Media with Peter Kafka

Succession — the HBO drama about a Murdoch-ish family of media moguls — feels authentic thanks, in part, to consultant Merissa Marr. Marr covered the Murdochs and other media titans for years at The Wall Street Journal, and she’s worked with the creative team behind Succession since the beginning. Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to Marr about Succession’s obsession with getting tiny details about Big Media just right; which non-Murdoch moguls influence the show’s depiction of the Roy clan; what happens when art and reality clash — and, of course, some Elon Matsson talk. Featuring: Merissa Marr (@mermarr), media journalist and TV consultant Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York, it’s Upfronts week, where TV networks sell billions of dollars of advertising with glitzy presentations. It’s also the third week of the writers’ strike, which means the people who make the shows that run in between ads are picketing those presentations. So it’s a good time to talk about the state of the post-streaming boom TV business. Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw drops by the studio to talk to Vox’s Peter Kafka about challenges facing the networks as they sell ads, and the writers as they try to get better deals - and whether either side really thinks AI is going to write a script anytime soon. Featuring: Lucas Shaw (@Lucas_Shaw), media reporter for Bloomberg Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ken Jennings won 74 straight episodes of Jeopardy back in 2004. Somehow he’s turned that winning streak into a career, and now co-hosts the surprisingly resilient game show. Peter Kafka talked to Jennings about his job and much more at the Crosscut Ideas Festival in Seattle. And while the sound quality isn’t pristine, the conversation covers a lot of ground. Jennings, for instance, talks about the tension between Jeopardy’s producers, who want to refresh the show in the hopes of bringing in new viewers, with its large and loyal audience, who want things kept the way they are. Also discussed: Why you still can’t stream Jeopardy! (blame it on syndication), the show’s attempts to diversify the contestant pool, and how, as a man who once competed against an AI named Watson (and lost), he sees AI could be used as a tool to help Jeopardy! in the future. Featuring: Ken Jennings (@KenJennings), Jeopardy! Co-Host Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI is amazing… or terrifying, depending on who you ask. This is a technology that elicits strong, almost existential reactions. So in the final episode of our special series about AI, we dig into the giant ambitions and enormous concerns people have about the very same tech. Featuring: New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose (@kevinroose), who tells me why his viral conversation with Bing’s AI chatbot changed the way he thought about the new tech. Then: Google has everything to lose here, so I speak with James Manyika, Google’s Senior Vice President of Technology and Society, about the company’s ambitions for AI. [9:23] Plus: I talk to Professor Emily M. Bender (@emilymbender), one of the people behind a now-famous paper on AI’s limits. Her “stochastic parrot” seems to have hit a nerve with some of AI’s biggest proponents. So maybe she’s onto something. [29:30] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s our first four-way pod, featuring BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and Semafor founder (and former editor-in-chief of the recently shuttered BuzzFeed News) Ben Smith, who wrote a book about them both. Peter Kafka talks to all of them in conjunction with Smith’s new book “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral.” What lessons did Smith learn from Peretti and Denton’s mistakes? If Disney offers to buy you out for hundreds of millions of dollars, should you take it? And is TikTok our last, best hope? Featuring: Jonah Peretti (@peretti), Founder of BuzzFeed Nick Denton (@nicknotned), Founder of Gawker Ben Smith, (@semaforben), Editor-In-Chief of Semafor Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Silicon Valley needs a new thing and AI is that new thing: investors are supposed to pour 43 billion dollars into AI this year. But will individual startups cash in on the boom, or will the real winners of AI be the same handful of big, established companies? Featuring: Renate Nyborg (@renate), a tech veteran who is launching an AI startup, and got a firsthand look at the AI funding frenzy. (00:00) Then: Dror Berman (@drorberman), a venture capitalist at Innovation Endeavors, which he co-founded with the former CEO of Google. He’s one of the guys throwing a ton of money into AI. The reason he thinks he’ll get it right is because he’s done it before. (06:47) And: Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin), founder and editor-in-chief of The Information. She knows Silicon Valley inside and out and translates this moment for us. (24:00) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI has captured the imagination of Silicon Valley seemingly overnight. And in all this excitement, it's hard to tell what's really going on. What is this technology, how does Silicon Valley plan to change our world with it, and what exactly has a bunch of smart people very worried? I'm doing a special series to figure that all out. Over the next three weeks, I'll talk to true AI believers and its sharpest detractors to get the real story about where this technology stands, and what it might mean for us. First up: I meet Joshua Browder (@jbrowder1), a Stanford computer science dropout who tried to get an AI lawyer into court. Then: Microsoft's CTO Kevin Scott (@kevin_scott) pitches me on a bright AI future. (5:10) Plus: I talk to hype-deflator, cognitive scientist and author Gary Marcus (@GaryMarcus). He believes in AI, but he thinks the giants of Silicon Valley are scaling flawed technology now—with potentially dangerous consequences. (25:30) Subscribe for free to Recode Media to make sure you get the whole series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fox News, accused of repeatedly and knowingly spreading lies about Dominion Voting Systems, opted Tuesday to fork over $787 million rather than find out what its correspondents had to say under oath in a court of law. Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to NPR's David Folkenflik about what, if anything, this will change when it comes to Fox News and the wider media. Featuring: David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik), NPR Media Correspondent & Author Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s a TikTok double-header! Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to ‘Chef Reactions,’ the semi-anonymous TikTok star whose hilarious culinary critiques skyrocketed him to viral fame in less than a year. After that, The Washington Post’s Will Oremus catches us up on the controversy over TikTok - the debate over national security issues, and how likely it is the platform could actually get banned in the United States. Featuring: Chef Reactions (@chefreactions), Chef & Content Creator Will Oremus (@WillOremus), Tech reporter for The Washington Post Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Endeavor started out as a traditional Hollywood talent agency - CEO Ari Emanuel, famously, was the model for Jeremy Piven’s character on “Entourage.” But suddenly, it’s become a giant media company focused on real and fake fighting, by merging its UFC business - featuring people who are really fighting each other - with the WWE - the one where the fights are scripted. Journalist Ariel Helwani, who knows both worlds very well, joins Vox’s Peter Kafka to explain the deal and what it means for the TV and streaming landscape. Then Dave Finocchio, who co-founded the sports site Bleacher Report and kept running it after it was acquired by Time Warner, joins to discuss his newest media company: The Cool Down. It’s aimed at consumers who want to be greener, save money or both. Finocchio started his last company by figuring out how to capitalize on search and social media, but those worlds changed dramatically in the last few years. So what’s his new game plan? Featuring: Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani), Host of The MMA Hour Dve Finocchio (@DaveFinocchio), Founder of The Cool Down Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’ve had questions about Apple’s new VR headset — supposedly set to debut in June — for some time. Starting with: Who’s going to pay $3,000 for these things, and what will they do with them? Turns out some Apple employees have the same questions — which is very unusual for a Big Deal Apple Debut, to say the very least. The NYT’s Tripp Mickle joins Vox’s Peter Kafka to explain. Then Peter checks in with Men In Blazers co-founder Roger Bennett, who is finally ready to talk about the business of running a soccer-mad digital media company, why niches are good, and his plans to scale up before the 2026 World Cup. Featuring: Tripp Mickle (@trippmickle), Tech Reporter for the New York Times Roger Bennett (@rogbennett), Co-Founder of Men In Blazers Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jesse Thorn has been podcasting for so long it was called radio. Over time he turned his career into a business - Maximum Fun, a network of eclectic pop culture shows like Bullseye; My Brother, My Brother and Me; and Judge John Hodgman — and relied primarily on listener donations to fund it. But, as Thorn tells Vox’s Peter Kafka, running a business was running him down, and he didn’t want to sell the company to a Spotify or Sirius. So he found a unique solution: He turned Maximum Fun into a worker-owned co-op. That means Thorn still owns a piece of the company he built over two decades, but so do his former employees, who are now his co-workers. And he thinks other media companies can and should do this, too. Featuring: Jesse Thorn (@JesseThorn), Founder of Maximum Fun Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First: A Silicon Valley Bank check-in with Dan Primack of Axios. Why, exactly, did so many tech companies (and, um, media companies) bank with SVB, and what happens next? Then, Peter Kafka has a great, wide-ranging conversation with tech analyst / thinkfluencer Benedict Evans. They talk about artificial intelligence, Amazon’s ad business (or whatever we should call it), YouTube’s place in the streaming wars, and what the metaverse and jetpacks have in common. Plus, cow hooves! Featuring: Dan Primack (@danprimack), Business Editor at Axios Benedict Evans (@benedictevans), Tech Analyst Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Zuckerberg wants to build the metaverse. Neal Stephenson created the meta verse three decades ago. The author’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash popularized the use of the term “avatar” in a digital context, inspired the makers of Google Earth, and, of course, imagined (and named) the dystopian metaverse that Silicon Valley is racing to make a reality. Stephenson has also tried his hand at actual science - helping Jeff Bezos build his private rocket ship business, and later working with Magic Leap at its fizzled AR goggles attempt. Now he’s trying his hand at the blockchain and says he’s not dissuaded by last year’s crypto crash. And if you act right now, you can bid on some of his real and digital goods at a Sotheby’s auction. Stephenson talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about all of that, plus his failed (so far) attempts to turn his work into TV shows or movies, the future of VR, and why his vision of cautious optimism involves calamitous climate disasters. Featuring: Neal Stephenson (@nealstephenson), Author Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

De La Soul was legendary for their trail-blazing approach to hip-hop. But in recent years the trio become notable for another reason: You couldn’t hear their music on any streaming platform. This means that generations of fans - including Recode’s Peter Kafka - couldn’t find them on the likes of Spotify, and potential new fans would never hear them at all. Today that’s changed, thanks to Reservoir Media's CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi, who purchased the company that owned the trio’s music, and then spent 18 months clearing the legal path to get them online. Khosrowshahi talks about the work and money that went into getting De La Soul streaming again and explains how her independent music company operates in a world dominated by giant players. Featuring: Golnar Khosrowshahi (@ReservoirMedia) CEO of Reservoir Media Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Veteran business journalist James B. Stewart specializes in getting behind the scenes to tell the stories of rich, powerful, and complicated subjects. He has a doozy with “Unscripted”, the new book he co-wrote about the last days of media mogul Sumner Redstone, who at one point was one of the most powerful men in the industry, and whose decline fueled years of fighting between his family, his employees, and his mistresses. If you like tawdry tales of sex, avarice, and greed — or wanted to know some of the real-life backstories behind HBO’s “Succession” — this is for you. Stewart also talks about other massive media stories he’s covered, including Bob Iger’s rise at Disney, and the AT&T/Time Warner shotgun marriage and divorce. Stewart also offers reporting tips and explains why his background as a lawyer helps him as a journalist. Featuring: James B. Stewart (@jamesstewartnyt), Columnist for New York Times and Author Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It used to be that a human would have to write a BuzzFeed quiz about “Which Fictional Artificial Intelligence Are You?” But now, BuzzFeed writers are using real artificial intelligence tools — from Open AI, the company behind ChatGPT — to help craft the site’s famous quizzes. Investors love the idea. Not all of BuzzFeed's employees are quite sure about it, though. Recode’s Peter Kafka talks to BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti about the new technology, which one of this show’s producers used to go on a virtual Valentine’s Day date with Henry Cavill where they attended “a secret rave at his dad’s law firm.” Featuring: Jonah Peretti (@peretti), CEO of BuzzFeed Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech and media companies (including the one that brings you this podcast) are laying off workers left and right. Meanwhile, the latest national jobs report is shockingly strong. So… why? Do the excuses make any sense? First, Recode’s Peter Kafka talks to Vox’s Emily Stewart about the overall economy, the likelihood of a recession, and when we’d actually know if one is happening. Then, New York Times correspondent Mike Isaac is back to dive into the specifics of the tech sector. Featuring: Emily Stewart (@EmilyStewartM), Business reporter for Vox.com Mike Isaac (@mikeisaac), New York Times tech reporter Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we bring you an episode of The Cut and The Verge’s latest season of Land of the Giants: Dating Games. This episode is all about Match Group, the company that went on an acquisition spree and now controls two-thirds of the dating apps market. To hear more stories about how dating apps became a billion-dollar industry and the algorithms that control your love life, subscribe to Land of the Giants wherever you subscribe to podcasts. Hosted by Sangeeta Singh Kurtz (@sangeetaskurtz) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (@Shmi_So_Far) Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investor Li Jin helped popularize the idea of the Creator Economy — the theory that many people who make stuff online could and should get paid for that work. Then she merged that pitch with an embrace of crypto/Web3 — and by 2021 the New York Times was calling her the “It Girl in venture capital.” Now many of the people who embraced both creator economy investments and crypto want nothing to do with that. But not Jin, who says she’s still all in. She talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about launching a fund in a pandemic, riding out a down cycle, and what it’s like to be the face of thesis. Featuring: Li Jin (@ljin18), Co-Founder & General Partner at Variant Fund Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices