HBO has brought us nearly 50 years of riveting movies and TV shows; the behind-the-scenes stories are equally compelling. Journalist James Andrew Miller, who has written definitive oral histories of media institutions like Saturday Night Live and ESPN, tells Recode’s Peter Kafka about his newest work: Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers. Included in their chat: How HBO ascended to power; why attempts to combine the company with Apple and other suitors never happened; what really h...
Nov 18, 2021•58 min•Ep. 367
Twitter is free. But Twitter Blue — a new service for Twitter super-users — costs $3 a month. So what is Twitter Blue and why should you pay for it? Twitter product executive Tony Haile, who joined the company last spring after it acquired his Scroll startup, joins Recode’s Peter Kafka to make the pitch. Featuring: Tony Haile (@arctictony), Senior Director of Product at Twitter Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, ...
Nov 11, 2021•31 min•Ep. 366
Before Mark Zuckerberg told the world he was turning Facebook into a Metaverse company, he called Matthew Ball, one of the Metaverse’s chief evangelists. Now Ball tells Recode’s Peter Kafka what Facebook’s move means. Then Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin Smith talks about building a $100 million subscriptions business that’s separate - but related to - Bloomberg’s much larger terminal business. And why he loves video - but not podcasts. Featuring: Matthew Ball (@ballmatthew), writer and Venture...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 365
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is handing over thousands of documents to reporters like The Verge’s Alex Heath. The next step: Sorting through all of those files, and figuring out how and when to write about them. Heath talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about the weeks of stories we’ll be reading in the future, and his first one - about Facebook’s rapidly aging user base. And then for something completely different: Saturday Night Live cast member Heidi Gardner joins to talk about her unlikel...
Oct 28, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 364
Neil Vogel had no publishing experience before he took over About.com, the how-to website he turned into Dotdash for owner Barry Diller. Now Vogel is about to become one of the most powerful people in media if he completes a deal to acquire magazine heavyweight Meredith - the people behind People, InStyle, and Better Homes & Gardens. He talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about merging an online-only operation with a print publisher. Featuring: Neil Vogel (@neilvogel), CEO of Dotdash Host: Peter Kafka...
Oct 21, 2021•32 min•Ep. 363
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple and infused it with his love of product design and attention to detail. His successor, Tim Cook, is widely perceived as lacking Jobs’ vision and innovation. But he managed to do something Jobs never could: make Apple the most valuable company on the planet. So who are these two men, and how have their leadership styles shaped the company that shapes our lives? Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Pet...
Oct 14, 2021•37 min•Ep. 362
Five days after the New York Times’ Ben Smith wrote an astonishing piece about the fakery supporting Ozy Media, the digital publisher announced it was shutting down. What, if anything, does the fiasco tell us about media startups and investors? Smith teases it out with Recode’s Peter Kafka. Then Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch drops by for a progress report on his attempt to turn the magazine giant into a modern entertainment company - and an update on Apple’s News+ service. Featuring: Ben Smith (@be...
Oct 07, 2021•52 min•Ep. 361
More consolidation in Hollywood - but this time it’s talent agency CAA buying rival ICM. Puck’s Dylan Byers sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to explain why the streaming boom has created another merger. Then, podcaster and game streaming expert Bijan Stephen joins for an update on Twitch and its new “hate raid” problem - and what the platform and the community are doing to fight back against trolls. Featuring: Dylan Byers (@DylanByers), Senior Correspondent at Puck News Bijan Stephen (@bijans...
Sep 30, 2021•32 min•Ep. 360
Peter Thiel used to be a Silicon Valley investor best-known for early investment in Facebook. But in recent years he seems to have shifted into something different: A Trump-supporting billionaire who wants to remake American politics - and someone who nursed a years-long grudge against Gawker and ultimately bankrupted the publisher and its owner. Bloomberg’s Max Chafkin details Thiel’s story in his new book The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power; he talks about what an...
Sep 23, 2021•56 min•Ep. 359
Instagram is no longer going to be a photo-sharing app, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri announced earlier this summer. So what is Instagram going to be instead? Mosseri talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about his plans to emphasize video and commerce for the service, competing with Tik-Tok, and looming regulation. Mosseri also talks about recent revelations in the Wall Street Journal about Instagram’s own research, which suggests the app could be harmful to a segment of its users, particularly teenagers...
Sep 16, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 358
Mark Gurman has been one of the best-sourced Apple reporters since he was in high school. Literally. Now he’s at Bloomberg, with deep insight into Apple’s new product line - new iPhones this year, new “mixed reality” headsets next year - and its political and philosophical ideology - why it's fighting regulation in courtrooms and capitols around the world. He talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about the future of the world’s most valuable tech company. Featuring: Mark Gurman (@markgurman) Tech Report...
Sep 09, 2021•43 min•Ep. 357
Defector Media launched a year ago as a digital publishing experiment: What if the former staff of Deadspin built and owned their own site, fueled entirely by subscriptions? Now it looks like we have an answer: It’s working, really well. Editor in chief Tom Ley walks Recode’s Peter Kafka through Defector’s financials and argues that a site that runs on readers’ dollars instead of advertisers is more fun to work at and to read. Featuring: Tom Ley (@ToLey88) Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Defec...
Sep 02, 2021•38 min•Ep. 356
What is OnlyFans, and why did OnlyFans abandon and then come back to its primary business model in the span of a week? MEL Magazine’s Magdalene Taylor joins Recode’s Peter Kafka to explain the rise of the NSFW platform, and why some banks are reluctant to work with a company that consumers seem to love. Then BuzzFeed News’ Joe Bernstein talks about his recent story on the disinformation/misinformation industry, which isn’t exactly what we think it is. Featuring: Magdalene Taylor(@magdajtaylor), ...
Aug 26, 2021•40 min•Ep. 355
Nick Khan used to be a CAA agent who represented the WWE. Now he’s president of the pro wrestling company and is pivoting it from a direct-to-consumer strategy into a content studio for the likes of Peacock and Fox. Khan tells Recode’s Peter Kafka why the WWE has abandoned its pioneering streaming model, how he’s managing the company through covid, and what got him into the TV business. Featuring: Nick Khan, WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Reco...
Aug 19, 2021•35 min•Ep. 354
The New York Times’ Shira Ovide, writes the popular and incisive “On Tech” newsletter, which means she gets to write about… everything. She sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss some her latest stories in her column like why “Tech Can’t Fix Everything”, how society rather than social media itself is more to blame for the spread of misinformation, and the pros and cons of writing a popular newsletter. Featuring: Shira Ovide (@ShiraOvide), tech writer for The New York Times Host: Peter Ka...
Aug 12, 2021•36 min•Ep. 353
Puck News Hollywood expert Matthew Belloni sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss the biggest stories in the past week: Reese Witherspoon’s new $900M deal and the lawsuit between Scarlett Johansson and Disney. Then, The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson joins the show to discuss how the media has been reporting on COVID-19 recently, especially now that the concerns of the Delta variant begin to increase. Featuring: Matthew Belloni (@MattBelloni) Hollywood editor at Puck News Derek Thompson (@DKT...
Aug 05, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 352
Stillwater was supposed to debut in theaters last fall, but the pandemic changed those plans along with everything else. Academy Award-winning director and writer Tom McCarthy explain how he used the extra time to improve the Matt Damon movie, why the film isn’t on a streaming service — and what it was like to play one of TV’s best villains in the final season of The Wire. Then, creator Kyla Scanlon joins the show to discuss her quick rise on social media from making short-form videos on finance...
Jul 29, 2021•39 min•Ep. 351
Anthony Bourdain is dead. So how does a new documentary have audio of him reading his emails? It’s not him: It’s a deep fake. The New Yorker’s Helen Rosner explains. Then journalist Richard Rushfield takes us behind Hollywood’s closed doors to talk about the return of movies, the dominance of Netflix — and why he can more candid than ever because he’s writing about all of it on The Ankler, his subscription-only newsletter. Featuring: Helen Rosner (@hels) staff writer for The New Yorker Richard R...
Jul 22, 2021•47 min•Ep. 350
Wall Street Journal’s Eliot Brown first became interested in WeWork back in 2014 after an encounter with founder co-founder Adam Neumann, who quickly told the reporter that he should not “think about his company as a real estate business, but as a community-building startup”. Fast forward seven years, Brown, along with his colleague Maureen Farrell, plan to release their new book The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion, which chronicles the infamous journey of one of...
Jul 15, 2021•43 min•Ep. 349
When are we going back to the office? How often are we going back to the office? And what’s work going to be like when we get there? Kevin Delaney is trying to answer all of those questions — and really, every question we have about the future of work — with Charter, the new media company he launched by starting a newsletter. Plus we check in with NPR’s David Gura, who is hollering — from a distance — at the tech and media moguls gathered at the annual Sun Valley conference. Featuring: David Gur...
Jul 08, 2021•58 min•Ep. 348
Roger Bennett is half of Men In Blazers, the entertaining podcast/broadcast duo dedicated to Americans who love soccer. So he’s an excellent person to talk to Recode’s Peter Kafka about the state of the world’s most popular sport, and why an attempt to create a “Super League” failed dramatically. Bennett, born and raised in Liverpool, is also a huge fan of America and Americans, which he describes in his new memoir: "(Re)Born In The USA: An Englishman’s Love Letter to His Chosen Home”. Featuring...
Jul 01, 2021•54 min•Ep. 347
Twitch, the Amazon-owned streaming platform best known as a haven for gamers, wouldn’t be the first place you’d look for a left-leaning political commentator. But Hasan Piker, also known as “HasanAbi” is thriving there: He has more than 1.5 million followers, where he comments on the news of the day during marathon sessions. Piker talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about becoming a new kind of Internet famous. Featuring: Hasan "Abi" Piker (@hasanthehun) Twitch Streamer and Political Commentator Host:...
Jun 24, 2021•36 min•Ep. 346
The newest publication covering tech is Future — a site owned and operated by Andreessen Horowitz, the powerful Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Partner Margit Wennmachers, who used to court press coverage for her company and its portfolio companies, now wants to go directly to readers, without relying on journalists to carry her message. She explains her strategy to Recode’s Peter Kafka. Featuring: Margit Wennmachers (@wennmachers) Partner at Andreessen Horowitz Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka),...
Jun 15, 2021•31 min•Ep. 345
Jake Hurwitz & Amir Blumenfeld got their start on the internet when making content for sites like YouTube and Facebook was considered the Wild West. Then, after an iconic run on College Humor, starring in thousands of videos over the course of 10 years, they took another leap of faith: starting the podcast network HeadGum. The duo sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss their unorthodox career as entertainers and entrepreneurs, as well as their newly launched dating app, Orion. Featuring:...
Jun 10, 2021•31 min•Ep. 344
Journalist Rob Walker sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss why he decided to go the independent route instead of writing for another publication after his buyout from Medium, his thoughts on the creator economy, and details behind his newsletter The Art of Noticing, based on his 2019 book of the same name. Featuring: Rob Walker (@notrobwalker), Journalist and Author Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, on...
Jun 03, 2021•35 min•Ep. 343
The Information’s Jessica Toonkel joins Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss Amazon’s (planned) $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM. It’s the first time a big tech company has ever bought a big media asset. But why Amazon, why MGM, and what does this mean for the rest of the media world? Then podcaster pioneer Dan Taberski, comes on to discuss The Line — an Apple-commissioned series, as well as his journey into audio after a career in TV. Featuring: Jessica Toonkel (@jtoonkel), reporter for The Informati...
May 27, 2021•44 min•Ep. 342
Jim Miller was finishing up a book about HBO and then… the story changed. He talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about what may change now that AT&T is handing the service - along with the rest of WarnerMedia — to Discovery. Then writer, producer, and director Alan Yang join to discuss his career, the upcoming season of the Netflix hit Master of None which he co-created with comedian Aziz Ansari, and what he thinks of the current state of the movie and TV industry. Featuring: Jim Miller (@jimmiller), ...
May 20, 2021•43 min•Ep. 341
AT&T bought WarnerMedia three years ago for more than $100 billion, so it could chase after Netflix. Now it’s getting out of streaming, and every other part of the media business. What happened? And what happens next? NYT media reporter Edmund Lee has a reunion with Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss. Featuring: Edmund Lee (@edmundlee), media reporter for The New York Times Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of ...
May 17, 2021•30 min•Ep. 340
Antonio García Martínez used to work at Facebook, and wrote a book about it. In April, he started working at Apple, and weeks later he was gone, after Apple employees revolted. Martinez talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about why he went to work for Apple, why he left, and what he thinks of the criticism of him and his writing. Featuring: Antonio Garcia Martinez (@antoniogm) Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of ...
May 15, 2021•24 min•Ep. 339
The concert business has been shut down for a year, which means that Live Nation, the world’s dominant concert promoter and ticket seller, has been shut down, too. CEO Michael Rapino sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to talk about the industry’s comeback, how his company survived without revenue, and how he’s figured out new tricks, like a subscription model. Featuring: Michael Rapino (@Michael_Rapino), President & CEO of Live Nation Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to...
May 13, 2021•44 min•Ep. 338
