Best Recode Events Podcasts (2025)

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Why the Algorithm is Making Comedy Boom, Again 58:53

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2h ago58:53

58:53

The last time I talked to Jesse David Fox about the comedy boom it was… March 5, 2020. Since then, some things have changed. But in other ways it’s just the same: comedy - or at least, some kinds of comedy - seems almost custom-built for our current technological and cultural moment, and it’s easier than ever to get this stuff on your devices whene…

1
Why tech is racing to adopt AI coding 59:59

2d ago59:59

59:59

This is Casey Newton, founder and editor of the Platformer newsletter and cohost of the Hard Fork podcast. I’ll be guest hosting the next few episodes of Decoder while Nilay is out on parental leave. For the next three weeks, I’ll be talking to leaders in the productivity space about what they’re building, and how they can help us get things done. …

1
Why AI researchers are getting paid like NBA All-Stars 43:44

6d ago43:44

43:44

This is Alex Heath, your Thursday episode guest host and deputy editor at The Verge. Today I'm joined by Hayden Field, The Verge’s new senior AI reporter to talk about the AI talent wars and why some researchers are suddenly getting traded like their NBA superstars. Both Hayden and I have been reporting on this for the past several weeks to get a s…

1
What is TV’s endgame? 47:28

7d ago47:28

47:28

A decade ago, Disney CEO Bob Iger freaked out the media industry by acknowledging something many of us saw coming — his previously unassailable TV business was starting to erode. But even with a 10-year warning, today’s moguls seem unable to cope with 2025’s reality: The pay TV business is permanently eroding, and there’s nothing in its place that’…

1
Can we ever trust an AI lawyer? 54:53

9d ago54:53

54:53

This is CNBC journalist Jon Fortt. This is the last episode I’ll be guest-hosting for Nilay while he’s out on parental leave. My guest today is Richard Robinson, who is the cofounder and CEO of legal tech startup Robin AI. Richard is a corporate lawyer-turned-startup founder working on AI tools for the legal profession. But law and AI have not mixe…

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We are not ready for better deepfakes 1:00:56

13d ago1:00:56

1:00:56

This is Alex Heath, your Thursday episode guest host. Today I'm talking with Gaurav Misra, the CEO of Captions. You may not have heard of Captions yet, but by now, you’ve probably seen a video that was generated using its AI models. The company’s Mirage Studio platform lets anyone generate AI versions of real people, and the results are alarmingly …

51
Why Trump is defunding NPR and PBS - and suing Rupert Murdoch 35:59

14d ago35:59

35:59

Reporting on the place you work is not fun. But it is an occupational hazard for media reporters — particularly for NPR’s David Folkenflik. That’s because National Public Radio — along with Public Broadcasting Service, its TV counterpart — is quite frequently the target of attacks from critics on the right, who would like the federal government to …

1
Why tech billionaires want a ‘corporate dictatorship’ 1:06:15

16d ago1:06:15

1:06:15

This is Jon Fortt, CNBC journalist. I’m guest-hosting for a couple more episodes of Decoder this summer while Nilay is out on parental leave. Today, I’m talking with a very special guest: Gil Duran, an old friend, journalist, and author of The Nerd Reich, a newsletter and forthcoming book about the shifting politics of Silicon Valley and the rise o…

1
Perplexity CEO on why the browser is AI's killer app 53:45

20d ago53:45

53:45

This is Alex Heath, deputy editor at The Verge. Nilay’s out on parental leave for the next few months, so I’ll be stepping in to host our Thursday episodes while he’s out. My guest today is Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, who is betting that the browser is where more useful AI will get built. Perplexity just released Comet, an AI web browser for t…

1
Inside the Rise and Fall of Condé Nast with Michael Grynbaum 47:38

21d ago47:38

47:38

Here's one way New York Times reporter Michael Grynbaum described Condé Nast to me in this week’s chat: “A real exporter of American cultural influence in the late 20th century.” And here’s another one: "A kind of enchanted land” but also a “lost world." And here’s one way I’d describe it: it’s hard to imagine in 2025, but just a few decades ago, m…

1
How decision making will change when AI answers are cheap and (too) easy 1:07:28

23d ago1:07:28

1:07:28

This is Jon Fortt, CNBC journalist, co-host of Closing Bell Overtime, and creator and host of the Fortt Knox podcast. I’m stepping in to guest host a few episodes of Decoder this summer while he’s out on parental leave, and I’m very excited for what we’ve been working on. For my first episode of Decoder, a show about how people make decisions, I wa…

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Inside the AI startup frenzy: ‘Everyone’s pivoting, then pivoting again’ 52:42

27d ago52:42

52:42

On this episode of Decoder, Ellis Hamburger — former journalist at The Verge, early Snap employee, and founder of the brand strategy studio Meaning — joins guest host Alex Heath to share why many AI founders are missing the bigger picture. Links: Meaning | Ellis Hamburger Social media is doomed to die | Verge I used the ‘cheat on everything’ AI too…

1
Inside the NYT - and Everywhere Else - with Semafor's Max Tani 48:09

28d ago48:09

48:09

You’re probably a normal person, so you didn’t spend your holiday weekend talking to people at the New York Times about a local politics story that some people didn’t like. But that’s Max Tani’s job: He’s Semafor’s media reporter, which means he’s supposed to burrow into the paper of record — as well as other important media institutions — and tell…

1
How SharkNinja took over the home 1:28:01

1M ago1:28:01

1:28:01

It’s summertime, which means it’s time for our annual grilling episode. In years past we’ve talked to the leaders of Big Green Egg, Traeger, and Blackstone, and it’s always fascinating how those companies have all the same kinds of problems and ideas as any of the tech companies we have on the show. This time, I finally had the opportunity to sit d…

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Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker on the problem with tech - and people 43:47

1M ago43:47

43:47

"Black Mirror" creator Charlie Brooker knows that everyone thinks his show is about tech-fueled dystopias. But he says it's really about humans, not their tools. I loved this chat back when we recorded it in 2023, when Brooker was promoting the sixth season of his Netflix show. Now there's a new season - and Brooker's vision of the world is as rele…

1
Why Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg went to war over WordPress 1:09:01

1M ago1:09:01

1:09:01

Today, I’m talking with Matt Mullenweg, the founder and CEO of Automattic and the public face of WordPress. Last year, Matt essentially went to war, publicly and in the courts, against a hosting company called WP Engine, and there’s been significant fallout at Automattic and the broader WordPress community. It’s been a long, drawn-out saga. That sa…

1
How to become a Substack Star with Emily Sundberg 47:07

1M ago47:07

47:07

What's the best way to describe what Emily Sundberg does? Substacker? Influencer? Journalist? Brand-builder? Let's go with "yes". And she does a much better job of describing herself in our conversation, where we talk about how she went from being a laid-off marketer at Meta to a one-woman business with a devoted following and a revenue line that’s…

1
Hinge CEO Justin McLeod says dating AI chatbots is 'playing with fire' 1:07:28

1M ago1:07:28

1:07:28

Today, I’m talking with Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod. Hinge is one of the biggest dating apps in the United States — it’s rivaled only by Tinder, and both are owned by the massive conglomerate Match Group, which has consolidated a huge chunk of the online dating ecosystem. Justin and I dug into that here, and we also explored some of the tho…

1
Why did Apple ice out the most famous Apple blogger? 1:04:48

2M ago1:04:48

1:04:48

If you want smart, nuanced insight into Apple’s products and would-be products, you turn to John Gruber, who’s been blogging about this stuff for more than two decades at his Daring Fireball site. So in March, when Gruber announced that Something is Rotten in the State of Cupertino — focusing on Apple’s botched plans to imbue its ailing Siri servic…

1
Monopoly isn’t a game (with Lina Khan) 1:04:36

2M ago1:04:36

1:04:36

Hey everyone, it’s Nilay. Decoder is on a short summer break right now, but we’ll be back starting June 23 with new episodes, and we’re very excited for what we have on the schedule. In the meantime, we have an episode from the excellent podcast Stay Tuned with Preet, with host and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Last month, Preet sat down with…

1
On the hunt for media optimism, with Semafor’s Ben Smith and The Rebooting’s Brian Morrissey 28:22

2M ago28:22

28:22

Here’s one where we try to do two things at once: Have a convo about green shoots in media with two smart guys who know media really well — Semafor’s Ben Smith and The Rebooting’s Brian Morrissey. Try to find new audiences for our respective podcasts, by cutting up that conversation into 3 parts, and distributing those parts to our respective feeds…

1
Scott Frank on Netflix, the future of Hollywood, and Dept. Q 43:42

2M ago43:42

43:42

Scott Frank used to write great movies, like “Out of Sight.” Now he’s a Netflix guy, and a super successful one: he made “Godless,” a horses-and-everything Western for the streamer, then had a pandemic-era phenomenon with “The Queen’s Gambit.” Now he’s back with “Dept. Q”, his take on the British mystery genre. You can find that one on Netflix’s to…

1
Taskrabbit CEO Ania Smith isn’t afraid of AI robots replacing human labor 1:11:45

2M ago1:11:45

1:11:45

Today, I’m talking with Taskrabbit CEO Ania Smith. Taskrabbit is an interesting company; it’s known best for being a platform for hiring people to put together your furniture, so much so that Ikea acquired it in 2017. But Taskrabbit is still operating as a mostly independent company all these years later, and Ania is now in charge of maneuvering a …

1
Why Runway CEO Cris Valenzuela thinks AI filmmaking is the future 56:54

2M ago56:54

56:54

Today, I’m talking with Runway CEO and co-founder Cris Valenzuela. This one’s special: Cris and I were live at an event in New York City last month hosted by Alix Partners, so you’ll hear the audience from time to time. Runway is a leading AI video generation platform, and it’s getting better all the time. That puts Cris and his company on the same…

1
Bluesky Wasn’t Supposed to be a Twitter Rival. Now It Is. 37:01

2M ago37:01

37:01

I admit it: I most definitely rolled my eyes in 2019, when Twitter announced vague plans to build an "open and decentralized standard for social media". At the time I didn't really understand what then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was trying to do — or why the head of a social media company with plenty of problems was messing around with plans to create…

1
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky wants to build the everything app 1:17:31

2M ago1:17:31

1:17:31

Today, I’m talking with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. This is Brian’s fourth time on the show, and he’s one of my favorite guests because he’s so clearly obsessed with things like company structure, design, and decision making. You know, Decoder stuff. This time, Brian came on to talk about the company’s new services product and the full-scale redesign …

1
How private equity kills companies and communities 49:21

2M ago49:21

49:21

Today, I’m talking with journalist Megan Greenwell about her new book Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream. It comes out June 10th. It's fantastic and maddening in equal measure. I highly recommend it. In this episode, we discussed the genesis of Megan’s interest in the subject and its genesis in media — including her tim…

1
How to Reinvent a Magazine, with Wired’s Katie Drummond 47:58

2M ago47:58

47:58

Today we’re talking about how you take a media property that’s been around for a long time, and find a way to bring in new eyeballs — and new revenue. That property is Wired — the place that told you about the internet before the internet even existed — and the person who’s reviving it is Katie Drummond, who has been running the property for a coup…

1
Google CEO Sundar Pichai on the next phase of AI 46:24

2M ago46:24

46:24

In what's become a bit of a Decoder tradition, I spoke with Google CEO Sundar Pichai in person after I/O. The conference this year was all about AI, particularly a slew of actual AI products, not just models and capabilities. To Sundar, this marks the beginning of a new era for search and the web overall. So I had to ask: what happens to the web wh…

1
Why Uber's CEO is okay with reinventing the bus 1:07:28

3M ago1:07:28

1:07:28

Today, I’m talking with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. We recorded this conversation on the same day Uber announced a big set of product updates, including new options for shared rides. Dara was in New York for all that, so he came to our studio and we did this one together, which always makes for a great episode. If you’ve been listening to Decoder r…

1
Meta's Adam Mosseri explains how Instagram really works - and how he wants to build Threads 58:46

3M ago58:46

58:46

Adam Mosseri's official title is head of Instagram, Meta's massive photo and video app. He also runs Threads, the Twitter clone the company launched two years ago. Unofficially, he's become one of Meta's chief explainers, frequently jumping on social media to defend and proselytize on behalf of his employer. So when I got a chance to interview Moss…

1
Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on how AI can save the web, not destroy it 1:14:38

3M ago1:14:38

1:14:38

Today, I’m talking with Kevin Scott, the chief technology officer of Microsoft, and one of the company’s AI leaders. Kevin is one of my favorite repeat Decoder guests, and he joined the show this time to talk about the future of search. Microsoft just announced an open-source tool for websites to integrate AI powered natural language search with ju…