ACCESS

ACCESS is a show about the tech industry’s inside conversation. Hosted by Alex Heath, the most connected tech reporter out there, and Ellis Hamburger, the founder whisperer for today’s hottest AI startups, ACCESS features revealing conversations with Silicon Valley’s most influential leaders, from the tech titans of today to tomorrow’s most interesting entrepreneurs. It’s a show made by insiders for everyone who wants a glimpse into the future and the people building it. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Last refreshed: June 12th, 2026 at 12:34 PM

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Episodes

A top iPhone app developer reacts to Apple's new Siri

Alex and Ellis sit down with Ryan Jones, founder of Flighty and 13-year top indie developer, to talk about what it actually takes to build a beloved app in the age of AI. They talk about Apple's big WWDC announcements, the new Siri, and why every vibe coder who tries to clone Flighty eventually gives up. They also break a scoop about Flighty's upcoming AI launch, get into whether craft and design still matter when anyone can build an app, and discuss whether Apple is falling dangerously behind o...

Jun 12, 2026•1 hr 6 min

AI is turning sketches into real-world products

Alex and Ellis sit down with Jordan Taylor, founder of Vizcom, to talk about the AI design tool that lets anyone go from a rough sketch to a finished product. They discuss how Jordan built Vizcom out of a viral Reddit post during COVID, why a drawing is still a better creative input than a text prompt, and how hundreds of thousands of designers are already using it to design shoes, cars, and physical products. They also get into the caterpillar shoe that started as a doodle and became a 3D print...

Jun 04, 2026•1 hr 3 min

Is Polsia AI slop or the future of startups?

Some say he's making an AI slop factory. Others say he'll be the first one-man $1 billion startup. Ellis and Alex sit down with Ben Cera, founder of Polsia, a controversial AI startup that claims to build and run entire companies autonomously. They get into whether the product is vaporware or a genuine glimpse at the future of startups, what early users are creating with Polsia, and what a company even means when AI is doing most of the work. Follow ACCESS on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https:...

May 28, 2026•1 hr 8 min

Substack’s CEO on AI slop, free speech, and taking on YouTube

Alex and Ellis sit down with Chris Best, CEO of Substack, for a live interview at the ACCESS launch party at Notion HQ in San Francisco. They get into Substack's growth, the future of media, and the ongoing debate around free speech and moderation. They also press him on the Substack creator exodus narrative, break news about the platform's upcoming AI features, and discuss what happens to independent media when AI rewrites the internet. Follow ACCESS on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www....

May 22, 2026•1 hr 15 min

Anthropic’s hunt for the next Claude Code

Alex sits down with Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram and head of Anthropic Labs, to talk about what the team is working on after Claude Code and where AI is headed next. They discuss how Anthropic's skunkworks lab operates, why Mike stepped down as CPO to return to building, and what the competition with OpenAI's Codex looks like from the inside. They also get into the white spaces Mike is most excited about, why human creativity becomes more valuable as AI gets better, and what Anthropic's...

May 14, 2026•1 hr 21 min

'AI Coachella' Stanford prof on data center backlash

Alex and Ellis sit down with Anjney Midha, a venture capitalist, Stanford AI lecturer, and founder of AMP, to discuss why zero-sum thinking is holding the AI industry back. They discuss what it would look like if labs actually cooperated, why compute needs to work like electricity, and what his viral Stanford class on AI has revealed about the next generation of founders. They also get into the GameStop and eBay acquisition, why data centers need something like a nutrition label, and what AI is ...

May 07, 2026•1 hr 4 min

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