Swati Mylavarapu is a tech investor and activist who spent $2 million in the 2020 election cycle on Democratic causes , in partnership with her husband, Nest co-founder Matt Rogers. Mylavarapu isn’t your typical Silicon Valley investor. She’ll explicitly admit that the tech industry has some culpability in the hollowing out of the middle of our economy, delivering wealth to the few while leaving the rest in a tough spot. She also served as Pete Buttigeg’s national finance chair in the 2020 Democ...
Nov 18, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 16
During Donald Trump’s presidency, tech products became explicitly political. Operatives from both sides picked apart their algorithms and features, examining how they shaped society’s beliefs. And the companies, meanwhile, made choices about what parts of the administration they’d work with. Hunter Walk, who spent nearly a decade at Google and is now a partner at Homebrew, has watched the evolutions firsthand. He joins the Big Technology Podcast to discuss tech’s impact on politics and where it ...
Nov 11, 2020•59 min•Season 1Ep. 15
As the election results come in, Noah Shachtman, the editor in chief of The Daily Beast, joins the Big Technology Podcast for an 'Emergency' show to dive into the results, the future of the Democratic Party, and how the tech platforms handled the election. Recorded on 11/4/2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 04, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 14
When Steve Schmidt was a senior advisor on John McCain’s campaign in 2008, Twitter was a curiosity. Now, he and a number of former Republican establishment members are using social media deftly to make the case against President Trump with the Lincoln Project. Their anti-Trump ads seem to go viral at least once a week, and may indeed influence the outcome of the election. Schmidt, a Lincoln Project cofounder, joins the Big Technology Podcast to discuss the evolution of the Republican Party since...
Oct 28, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 13
When I interviewed Tristan Harris about The Social Dilemma earlier this month, my mentions filled with people saying, "You should speak to the people who were critical of the social web long before the film.” One name, Meredith Whittaker, stood out. An A.I. researcher and former big tech employee, Whittaker helped lead Google’s walkout in 2018 amid a season of activism inside the company. On this edition of the Big Technology Podcast, we spoke not only about her views on the film, but of the fut...
Oct 21, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 12
The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Google on Tuesday, alleging the company unlawfully maintained a monopoly in search and search advertising. The antitrust action was the most significant since the DOJ's case against Microsoft, and is sure to send ripples through Silicon Valley where Facebook, Apple, and Amazon will be paying close attention since they might be next. To talk about what it all means, Yelp's senior vice president of public policy Luther Lowe joined the Big Technolog...
Oct 20, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 11
As the Media Equation columnist at The New York Times , Ben Smith is covering an industry going through transformation and turbulence. And as the former editor in chief of BuzzFeed News — a place I worked until this June — he lived that change while managing a newsroom of reporters who lived online in a VC funded media company. In this week’s edition of the Big Technology Podcast, I caught up with Smith for a discussion focused on how tech is changing journalism, what media companies can do to c...
Oct 14, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 10
You won’t find a more controversial film in Silicon Valley than The Social Dilemma . The film, now available on Netflix, features confessions from early consumer internet employees who rue the destruction their inventions have wrought. To address the film and its critiques, Tristan Harris, its star and the co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, sat down for an interview on the Big Technology Podcast with no questions off limits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...
Oct 07, 2020•57 min•Season 1Ep. 9
When the Big Technology Podcast debuted last month, The Verge ’s Casey Newton joined to talk about why people can’t stand the tech press. Our wide-ranging discussion explored how tech reporters should be more upfront about their values, how algorithms and social media reframe their work, and why some go astray in the quest for retweets. But there was more to discuss. This week, three talented reporters— Bloomberg ’s Eric Newcomer, the Financial Times ’ Hannah Murphy, and OneZero ’s Brian Merchan...
Sep 30, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Venture capitalists, founders, and others in the tech industry are feeling pretty raw these days. Once admired as upstarts fighting the status quo, they now feel under siege, under attack for the negative things their products do without being appreciated for how they improve our lives. Bloomberg Beta head Roy Bahat, a veteran venture capitalist, joins the Big Technology Podcast for a nuanced conversation about what's going with the tech world, how it's innovation may be connected to its problem...
Sep 23, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 7
China’s mass internment of Muslims in its Xinjiang region is one of the world's most under-covered stories The country has detained one million people there, putting them through a “re-education” program meant to erase their language and culture , sometimes through forced labor and sterilization . Though comprehensive, on-the-ground reporting from Xinjiang is sparse, BuzzFeed News reporter Megha Rajagopalan has been on the story from the beginning. She joins the podcast to discuss her reports fr...
Sep 16, 2020•53 min•Season 1Ep. 6
For years, Apple had a clear identity: It was the world’s best devices maker. Today, the company is trying to balance that identity with a new emphasis on software and services. To discuss this shift and what it means for Apple’s future, I sat down with my favorite Apple writer, GV Partner M.G. Siegler, who once covered the company for Techcrunch and continues to write about it on Medium while still working his day job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 09, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 5
As the pandemic flattens much of the U.S. economy, many technology firms are doing just fine. Business is moving online, and they’re well positioned to benefit. For tech CEOs like Box’s Aaron Levie, the experience can be bewildering. While you’re riding a wave most companies can only dream about, you’re watching the rest of the economy — including many of your customers — struggle to get by. In this conversation, Levie says this economy is “not sustainable,” and offers a look into his mindset as...
Sep 02, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 4
In May, Amazon VP and distinguished engineer Tim Bray said he was leaving the company. Amazon had just fired employees who spoke out against its working conditions, and Bray couldn’t tolerate it. He handed in his resignation and published an astonishing blog post detailing his decision—an unprecedented move for an executive inside the tech giants. “I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison," he wrote. By listening to Bray, we can learn a bit more about how people inside the tech giants vie...
Aug 26, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 3
The Verge's Casey Newton writes The Interface, a daily newsletter about social media and democracy. He joins the podcast to talk about the tech press, Facebook, and the newsletter life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 19, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Social media-fueled protests are a force to be reckoned with in politics today. Movements like Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, and Black Lives Matter have drawn millions into the streets in protest of central authorities. But can these movements be effective in the long term? Alex sits down with the field's leading writer and researcher, Zeynep Tufekci, to talk it through. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Aug 19, 2020•57 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Here's a little preview of what's coming your way on the Big Technology Podcast. Don't miss the BTP, subscribe today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 09, 2020•3 min
