Best Peter Kafka Podcasts (2025)

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The Man Who Fixed The New York Times Wants to Fix CNN 52:17

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7d ago52:17

52:17

Would you pay $7 a month to stream CNN? Because CNN CEO Mark Thompson would like you to do that. I know, I know, I’m skeptical, too. But Thompson has been here before: At his last job, as CEO of the New York Times, he helped shepherd that company’s subscription business, which had a gazillion naysayers at the start. And now the Times’ business mode…

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Scaling AI in Engineering with Peter Bell | Ep. 7 27:16

1d ago27:16

27:16

Listen: https://confluent.buzzsprout.com | Today, Adi Polak talks to her guest, Peter Bell (gather.dev), about his career in software engineering leadership, CTO community building, and AI-driven development. Peter’s first job: electronics lab technician at their school (alongside shifts at Tesco). His challenge/theme: working at scale with AI adop…

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Ep 727 - My Man Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse 1:02:57

1d ago1:02:57

1:02:57

Did you ever wonder why the name "Jeeves" has always been inseparable from the concept of "a very good butler"? It's because of these short stories (plus more short stories, plus several novels) by English novelist P.G. Wodehouse. Hapless gadfly Bertie Wooster relies on his man Jeeves for just about everything, from clothing advice to getting his v…

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Ken Burns on the future of PBS, the new age of media, and why documentaries will outlast TikTok 44:03

4d ago44:03

44:03

Ken Burns has been telling the story of America through his entire career with genre-defining documentaries on the Civil War, the Vietnam War, and now the American Revolution. This week, Ben and Max bring on the renowned documentarian to talk about his latest series, the parallels he sees between America’s founding moment and today’s media environm…

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How Kafka Expert Robin Moffat Tackles Open Source Problems | Ep. 6 24:50

8d ago24:50

24:50

Today, Viktor Gamov talks to his colleague Robin Moffat (Confluent) about his career in data engineering. His first job: paperboy. His challenge: working at a retailer with Oracle materialized views as well as teaching others how to productively approach Kafka’s internal systems. Blog posts mentioned in the podcast: ► Oracle Materialized Views trou…

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Ep 726 - I Know What You Did Last Summer, by Lois Duncan 1:18:47

9d ago1:18:47

1:18:47

Did you know that the classic 1997 slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer was actually based on a propulsive young adult thriller from 1973? Lois Duncan's original novel isn't too interested in bloody kills, however. It's more focused on how young people build their identities: around their regrets, around their parents, and around tragedies.…

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Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 04 - Mary Anne Saves the Day (The Baby-Sitters Club #4) 53:12

11d ago53:12

53:12

Fresh off their victory over the Baby-Sitters Agency, the girls of the BSC turn on each other in this month's entry. Quiet Mary Anne has to get the group back together, negotiate with her well-meaning but strict single father, make and repair a new friendship, and engineer an unlikely meet-cute. And, of course, she needs to tend to some babysitting…

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The inside story of Sydney Sweeney's 'Great Jeans' — and why American Eagle ignored crisis comms 42:26

12d ago42:26

42:26

American Eagle’s summer campaign with Sydney Sweeney blew up in ways no one could’ve imagined – but chief marketing officer, Craig Brommers, knew they were going to hit a cultural nerve. This week, Ben and Max bring on the AE CMO to give us an inside look into the “Great Jeans” campaign, what he made of the controversy that surrounded it, and how D…

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The End of Mass Media—and What Comes Next 56:54

13d ago56:54

56:54

We spend a lot of time on this show talking to people who run media companies. We also spend a lot of time talking to media reporters. So here’s our one-man Venn diagram: Brian Morrissey runs The Rebooting, where he podcasts, writes and hosts events, all geared at making people in the media business smarter about the media business. If you want to …

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Building Parquet into Apache Pinot ft. Neha Pawar | Ep. 5 26:07

15d ago26:07

26:07

Today, Tim Berglund talks to Neha Pawar (StarTree) about her career in real-time analytics and open source database engineering. Her first job: a year-long internship at NVIDIA. Her challenge: leading the technical effort to add native Parquet support into Apache Pinot. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited…

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Ep 725 - The Haunted Baby (Choose Your Own Nightmare #13), by Edward Packard 1:16:59

16d ago1:16:59

1:16:59

An official offshoot of the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series, the Choose Your Own Nightmare books cropped up for a couple of years in the mid-90s, an (alleged) response to the popularity of our old friend RL Stine’s Goosebumps series. Stine’s somewhat longer-lived Give Yourself Goosebumps sub-series would launch just months after the first …

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Episode #239 ... Authenticity and the history of the self. (Charles Taylor) 36:43

18d ago36:43

36:43

Today we talk about the work of the philosopher Charles Taylor. First, we trace the historical origins of how he views the modern self. From the Greeks to the Reformation. From Descartes to Rousseau. The modern self to him is something "irreconcilably multileveled". Then we talk about our modern focus on authenticity as a moral ideal and why Taylor…

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Governor JB Pritzker on Chicago, ICE, and the information war with Trump’s White House 49:03

19d ago49:03

49:03

Chicago is either a war zone quickly spiraling out of control, or a peaceful city under siege by an overreaching federal government. It all depends on who you ask — and which channel they watch. This week, Ben and Max bring on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to talk about how he’s navigating a communications crisis and a messaging battle against the …

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The PR Guy Who Says the AI Boom Is a Bust 54:36

20d ago54:36

54:36

The AI story is changing fast. A few months ago, it was all promise and inevitability. Now even AI boosters are asking if the numbers make sense. Ed Zitron got there early. He runs a PR firm for a living, which means he’s supposed to help people sell their stories. But he’s become best known for tearing tech’s biggest stories apart. And he’s been p…

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The Fix That Secured 1000s of Credit Cards ft. Brian Sletten | Ep. 4 29:37

22d ago29:37

29:37

In this episode, Tim talks to Brian Sletten (Bosatsu Consulting) about his career in software development. His first job: working at a small communications company that built network matrix switch interfaces. His challenge/theme: overhauling credit card storage and security at a major hospitality company. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak …

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Ep 724 - Dark Carnival, by Ray Bradbury 1:30:45

23d ago1:30:45

1:30:45

Everybody loves our old friend Ray Bradbury! This time we’re taking a spin with his first short story collection Dark Carnival, a smattering of spooky tales that wound up scattered across a number of other collections throughout Bradbury’s career. Stories discussed in this episode include: The Small Assassin The Dead Man Skeleton The Scythe The Emi…

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Alison Roman on cookbooks, food influencers, and the surprising way AI is changing her recipes 49:28

26d ago49:28

49:28

Alison Roman was one of digital media’s first food stars – she’s had recipes go viral since 2018 and an infamous ‘cancellation’ in 2020. Now, with her latest cookbook, Something From Nothing, she’s trying to move away from life on the Internet. This week, Ben and Max bring on the chef and author to talk about food media, the value of a physical coo…

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Episode #238 ... Frankenstein - Mary Shelley 30:06

27d ago30:06

30:06

Today we talk about the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. We talk about the mix of Romantic and Enlightenment attitudes and how it leads to problems without the proper oversight. We talk about technology and the responsibility that comes with creation. We talk about how ostracized people often learn to resent the world they live in. Hope you love …

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Why the Guardian Doesn't Need a Billionaire to Thrive 39:00

28d ago39:00

39:00

In lots of ways Guardian Media Group is facing the same problems as every other news publisher: A tricky ad environment, platform problems, looming AI threats. One big difference: The Guardian also has a $1.5 billion trust backing the non-profit, which seems way, way better than being owned by a run-of-the-mill billionaire who might want to meddle …

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How Viktor Gamov Stays Curious as Tech Rapidly Evolves | Ep. 3 30:11

29d ago30:11

30:11

Adi Polak interviews her co-host, Viktor Gamov, about his career’s evolution from distributed systems to streaming technology. Viktor’s first job: apple picking. His challenge/theme: staying curious and non-judgmental in the ever-changing landscape of tech. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produced and Edited by Noelle Ga…

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Ep 723 - Of Monsters and Mainframes, by Barbara Truelove 1:16:52

30d ago1:16:52

1:16:52

A buzzy title that came to life thanks to BookTok but came to our attention because of a good-old bookstore shelf display, this week’s book (and the kickoff to Spooktober 2025) is what it says on the cover: it’s about monsters and also computers. If you didn’t associate either of these things with “found family,” then it’s also here to challenge so…

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Blackbird Spyplane’s Jonah Weiner on Substack, resisting selling out, and Obama’s pants legacy 49:05

1M ago49:05

49:05

Blackbird Spyplane, a style and culture newsletter, launched in 2020 as one of the early adopters and success stories on Substack. This week, Ben and Max bring on co-author and longtime magazine journalist, Jonah Weiner, to talk about how the newsletter has evolved, how it changed his marriage, and why he’s ‘grossed out’ by affiliate links. They al…

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Almost Everyone is Taking Money from OpenAI. Why is Ziff Davis suing them? 34:22

1M ago34:22

34:22

In the future, digital publishers could get run over by AI. In the present, they are deeply concerned about Google, and the prospect that the search giant is going to choke off their last reliable traffic stream. That may explain why lots of publishers are making deals with OpenAI now -- and doing a lot of grousing about Google. Ziff Davis CEO Vive…

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Episode #237 ... The Stoics Are Wrong - Nietzsche, Schopenhauer 30:27

1M ago30:27

30:27

Today we talk about two famous critiques of Stoicism. One by Friedrich Nietzsche who thought the Stoics weren’t life affirming enough and so rob themselves of some of the best parts of life. The other by Arthur Schopenhauer who thought the Stoics were too life-affirming of worldly things to ever reach a deep understanding of things. Hope you love i…

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How Tim Berglund Found His Calling | Ep. 2 30:36

1M ago30:36

30:36

Viktor Gamov interviews his co-host, Tim Berglund, about his career in the world of streaming data. Tim’s first job: Burger King broiler steamer. His challenge/theme: pivoting from working in hardware and firmware to finding his calling in enterprise software and developer relations. SEASON 2 Hosted by Tim Berglund, Adi Polak and Viktor Gamov Produ…

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Ep 722 - The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling 1:09:56

1M ago1:09:56

1:09:56

Rudyard Kipling's classic story collection The Jungle Book doesn't have a jazz orangutan named Louie, but it does have the bare necessities of imperialist fiction. The stories about Mowgli and other trailblazing animals all contain a whiff of "But what about the rigid hierarchy of nature?" And when every animal is personified...well...those simple …

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Sit Me Baby One More Time Ep 03 - The Truth About Stacey (The Baby-Sitters Club #3) 47:53

1M ago47:53

47:53

The Club has encountered (gasp) competition! How will they manage to beat their new rivals, the Baby-sitters Agency? Also, Stacey's ready to spill her truth: her parents need to chill out. She's successfully managing her diabetes AND making friends AND crushing it as a baby-sitter, but their plan to see a new doctor in New York could ruin everythin…

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Can MS survive without NBC? Inside CEO Mark Lazarus’ efforts to save cable’s great brands 54:55

1M ago54:55

54:55

MSNBC and 10 other television channels, from CNBC to Golf Channel, are splitting from NBC over the next several weeks to form a new digital-focused, publicly traded company called Versant. In his first interview about the new “SpinCo,” Ben and Max talk to CEO Mark Lazarus about how he envisions the company will operate, how he wants to grow each of…

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The Future of Late Night TV, Jimmy Kimmel, and The First Amendment 26:53

1M ago26:53

26:53

When’s the last time you stayed up to watch a late night TV monologue? Months? Years? Decades? I’m not sure, either. But I stayed up Tuesday night to watch Jimmy Kimmel’s return. James Poniewozik, who covers TV for the New York Times, just caught up with it the next day on YouTube. Which underscores one of the odder parts of the Trump v. Kimmel fig…