Molly White is a crypto researcher and critic. She joins Big Technology Podcast to break down the latest in the U.S. case against ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried. In this episode, we go through the charges, the defense, and the likely outcome. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss how SBF pulled this off, his ties to the 'effective altruism' movement (and what happens next for that cause), and where crypto goes from here. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐...
Oct 18, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 226
Reed Albergotti is the tech editor at Semafor. He joins Big Technology Podcast to break down the week's news. We cover: 1) Whether social media is useful during times of crisis. 2) Cancel culture "switcheroo" 3) The value of free speech in conflict 4) Is social media a moderating force after all? 5) Do we actually want news on Threads? 6) NPR leaves Twitter and finds it didn't matter 7) Reflections from the SBF trial 8) Is Apple building a search engine 9) OpenAI puts building human-level intell...
Oct 13, 2023•55 min•Ep. 225
Christopher Leonard is the author of The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy . Ranjan Roy is the author of Margins. Both join Big Technology Podcast for a special episode where we dig into the Federal Reserve's outsized role in the economy, how its recent moves may send asset prices spiraling, and whether we're heading toward a financial crisis as a result. Tune into a timely and important episode as the Fed's aggressive interest rate shock is starting to broa...
Oct 11, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 224
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Plans to attend the SBF Trial 2) Welcome to Compound and Friends listeners 3) The legal case against SBF 4) The environment in the court 5) How SBF might win? 6) Michael Lewis update 6) Over 40% of Amazon users now use Temu 7) Blue Apron, once valued at $2 billion, sold for $103 million 8) Anthropic's potential $2 billion raise from Google 9) Should we use AI for therapy 10) Brief update on Twitter nu...
Oct 06, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 223
Taylor Lorenz is a technology columnist at the Washington Post and author of Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet. She joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss her book, exploring the tradeoffs of life as an online influencer, and whether people have a choice to pursue power online. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss Lorenz's various controversies, including her view on content moderation, and then close with a discussion of why the intern...
Oct 04, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 222
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Meta Connect, and Zuck's new vision for the Metaverse 2) Whether the Metaverse finally makes sense now 3) Alex's first purchase on Temu 4) Your questions + audio quality issues 5) TikTok takes center stage in the Republican debates 6) Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino's poor performance at Code 7) Did Yaccarino get sandbagged? 8) Amazon's new Anthropic deal, worth up to $4 billion 9) Our interview with Bill...
Sep 29, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 221
Vanessa Otero is the CEO of Ad Fontes Media. The company rates publications based on their biases, and allows advertisers to concentrate their spending in news media that may disagree, but isn't so wildly biased it loses rooting in reality. Listen for a conversation about the ad industry's broad defunding of news, what it would take to return that money, and why artificial intelligence might help scale the efforts of Ad Fontes' human news raters. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate ...
Sep 27, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 220
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) An update on our Yahoo episode quest 2) A recap and further analysis of Airbnb Brian Chesky's appearance on the podcast 3) Recent tech IPOs falling back to earth 4) The broader market's downturn and the chance of a recession 5) Jack Dorsey's Return to Square 6) The success of Snapchat+ 7) Generative AI announcements from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft 8) Does Generative AI take off in enterprise settin...
Sep 22, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 219
Brian Chesky is the CEO of Airbnb. He joins Big Technology Podcast for an in-depth discussion covering Airbnb's product, business, culture, and roadmap. In the first half, we cover a series of product improvements the company is rolling out, breaking news on the state of cleaning fees, verified listings. and more. In the second half we go deep into how Airbnb builds its products, how it impacts neighborhoods, and the fallout of New York's new restrictions on the company. Tune in for a deep, uniq...
Sep 20, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 218
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) The return of tech IPOs 2) Is Arm's stock bounce really a good sign? 3) How Instacart is looking ahead of its IPO 4) Why every business is an ad business now 5) Our forthcoming interview with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky 6) Google's antitrust case 7) Tom Brady's new job with Delta 8) Why we're buying the iPhone 15 --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of c...
Sep 15, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 217
Kristi Coulter worked at Amazon for twelve years and is the author of the new book, Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career. She joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the state of Amazon today: What is it? Who should be leading it? Where's the culture going? Then, she discusses her experience at the company, which she details in depth in the book. We talk about the paranoia within the company, the difficulty Amazon employees have switching jobs, why she stayed, and everything...
Sep 13, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 216
Walter Piecyk is a partner at LightShed Partners and GP at LightShed Ventures. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a special episode looking entirely at Apple as the company lost $200 billion in market cap this week. In this episode, we break down Apple's entanglements in China, its expensive share price, and what to expect with next week's iPhone 15 launch. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Charter's dispute with ESPN at the end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...
Sep 08, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 215
Sridhar Ramaswamy is the co-founder of Neeva, SVP at Snowflake and former SVP at Google. He joins Big Technology Podcast to reflect on the strange year Google’s had in 2023, working on the fly to reimagine search and ship faster than it was initially comfortable with. In this episode, Ramaswamy delivers deep insights on the future of search, generative AI, and how his former employer will adapt in these times. Stay tuned for the second half where Ramaswamy candidly discusses his search competito...
Sep 06, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 214
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Disney stock hitting a ten year low 2) The rise of white noise podcasts 3) Google's new Duet AI that attends meetings for you 4) Everyone returns to office 5) Commercial real estate bust looms? 6) Ranjan's report from San Francisco 7) An excerpt from Walter Isaacson's new Elon Musk book 8) Fidelity marks up Twitter 9) Meta promotes Threads in Instagram 10) The Metaverse gets legs! --- Enjoying Big Tec...
Sep 01, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 213
Colin Murdoch is the chief business officer at Google DeepMind. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a conversation about artificial general intelligence, discussing why we want to get there at all, and what the path looks like. We also discuss DeepMind’s merger with Google Brain, how pursuing the AI business changes Google, and how DeepMind’s AlphaFold AI is revolutionizing the healthcare space. Tune in for a dynamic conversation with one of the world's leading AI executives. --- Enjoying Big Te...
Aug 30, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 212
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) ChatGPT used as an insult in the Republican debate 2) Whether Generative AI is leading to real business returns 3) Bing's poor performance vs. Google 4) NVIDIA's blowout earnings 5) NVIDIA's moat 6) ARM's forthcoming IPO 7) Ronan Farrow's new profile of Elon Musk in the New Yorker 8) Government's role in privatization. Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast ap...
Aug 25, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 211
Sarah Guo is the founder of VC firm, Conviction, and co-host of the “No Priors” podcast. She joins Big Technology to talk about generative AI, where the opportunity for new investment lies, and whether the fears surrounding AI are grounded in reality. She gives us unique insight into what the next round of AI tools might look like, and what the impact on our jobs and lives will be as this tech becomes more accessible and affordable. Stay tuned for the second half where we run down how each Big T...
Aug 23, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 210
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) How the Zuck v. Musk cage match fell apart. 2) Whether Musk's antics are actually a problem for his business. 3) Why Walter Isaacson writes so positively about his subjects 4) Why Goldman Sachs is running into trouble 5) The issues Goldman is finding with its Apple partnership 6) Ranjan's observations from his trip to Taiwan 7) A bunch of new studies cast new light on social media algorithms 8) Cruise...
Aug 18, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 209
Kyle Vogt is the CEO of Cruise, a self-driving car operator owned mostly by General Motors. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss self-driving's rapid expansion, explaining why the technology is hitting an inflection point and how quickly these cars are filling the roads. Tune in for a conversation filled with real data and direct analysis of what might be one of the most meaningful technologies developed in our lifetime. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ...
Aug 16, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 208
Julia Boorstin is a senior media and tech correspondent at CNBC and author of When Women Lead: What We Achieve, Why We Succeed and What We Can Learn. She joins Big Technology Podcast this Friday to break down the week's news. We cover: 1) Linda Yaccarino's message to advertisers 2) X's goal of becoming an "everything app" 3) AI and the Hollywood Strikes 4) Disney's entrance into sports betting. 5) "Streamflation" 6) Julia's book, and the positive financial impacts of female leadership and repres...
Aug 11, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 207
David Risher is Lyft's new CEO. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a frank discussion about his plan to put the company back on the right track after it's spent years languishing. Tune in for a frank discussion of the economics of ride hailing, the reality of leading a company after its founders depart, and Risher's plan to compete in a category that hasn't traditionally been easy to succeed in. We also discuss autonomous driving (but recorded ahead of my recent experience in San Francisco)e. T...
Aug 09, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 206
Brian McCullough and Chris Messina are starting a new, $15 million fund for pre-seed through Series A investments in AI companies. They've already raised money from Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, and Dennis Crowley and join Big Technology Podcast for a special episode where they share their strategy and the opportunity they're going after. At the core of this question is whether AI companies are worthy of investment or will just be subsumed by larger players. Stay tuned for the second half where ...
Aug 07, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 205
Sarah Kunst is the managing director at Cleo Capital. She joins Big Technology this week for a recap of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Self-driving cars, Waymo & Cruise 2) Meta's new personalized chatbots 3) Threads' declining usership 4) Sam Altman's Worldcoin 5) DateMe docs 6) What Stripe's IPO means for the broader market. Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on Li...
Aug 04, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 205
Matt Wood is the VP of product at Amazon Web Services. He joins Big Technology Podcast live at the AWS Summit in New York City for a conversation about Amazon's plan to compete — and thrive — in the AI race. In this conversation, Wood describes Amazon's plan to support all AI models, not just one, and support builders via its computing infrastructure. Tune in for the most extensive comments from Amazon on its AI strategy to date. Stay tuned for the second half were we discuss ethics, company cul...
Aug 02, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 203
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back in New York for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) Snapchat's disappointing earnings 2) The Advertising market's rebound 3) Threads' declining user count 5) Twitter's wonky rebrand to "X" 6) TikTok selling Made in China goods to U.S. users 7) Adobe's AI strategy threatening their core business model 8) The room temperature superconductor 9) Aliens walking among us. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in you...
Jul 28, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 202
Ethan Mollick is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school and writes One Useful Thing on Substack. He is one of the world’s foremost researchers on practical applications of generative AI and is an immensely engaging speaker. Professor Mollick joins Big Technology Podcast for a vibrant discussion of how AI changes schoolwork and office work, covering his decision to make his students use ChatGPT in class. Tune in for a insight-packed interview that will illuminate ...
Jul 26, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 201
Aaron Levie is the CEO of Box. He joins us for a special Friday episode to break down a major week of AI news. We cover: 1) Meta's incentives to open source its Llama 2 AI model. 2) Whether people actually want to interact with chatbots, no matter how well they perform. 3) Why enterprise might be the clearest use case for Ai. 4) Why Apple is developing LLMs and where the project might go. 5) Whether AI companies can actually build moats around their products. 6) Is ChatGPT getting dumber? 7) Lev...
Jul 21, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 200
Eugene Wei is a tech analyst and product veteran, with time spent inside Meta, Amazon, and Hulu. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion of social media's longevity, considering how the decay of mainstay platforms changes the incentives to participate. Tune in for a in-depth discussion of social media's longterm trajectory, examining the TikTok algorithm, Threads, Twitter under Musk, and the puzzling persistence of Facebook. In the second half, listen to an engaging lightening round, wh...
Jul 19, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 199
Ranjan Roy of Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the week's tech news. We cover: 1) The revitalization of Zuck’s image 2) Twitter’s payments to creators 3) Whether Threads has staying power 4) Microsoft, Activision & the FTC’s failure to reign in Big Tech 5) Elon’s new AI company, xAI 6) OpenAI’s Code Interpreter plugin 7) SAG-AFTRA actors joining the writer’s strike, fearing AI's impact. -- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of cho...
Jul 14, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 198
Zach Coelius is the managing partner at Coelius Capital. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a conversation about Threads' real potential, asking whether it's a redux of Clubhouse — destined to fizzle — or a real threat to replace Twitter. In this conversation, we cover Threads' potential, Elon's effort at Twitter, and whether we can really make assessments from the outside. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss the venture capital environment and how Coelius' investments are performin...
Jul 12, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 197
