This week on the GeekWire Podcast , our guest is Hanson Hosein — an Emmy Award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and communication strategist who has spent his career making sense of the world in times of change. His latest project is American Dignity , a short documentary that follows the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement from Seattle to Selma to Washington D.C., and considers what those lessons mean for America today. He started out as an NBC News correspondent, reporting from conflict zones in...
Jun 28, 2025•41 min
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we discuss how AI is transforming our local tech giants, changing the fundamental nature of work, and blurring the lines between human and machine. We dive into the memo that has Amazon employees either signing up for AI training or updating their resumes; unpack why you're answering emails at 10 p.m.; and explain how one of us ended up quizzing his dentist's office assistant (or was it an AI chatbot?) about whether he or she (or it?) was human. Then we ask the...
Jun 21, 2025•29 min
A message from GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop: This episode of the GeekWire Podcast is unlike any we’ve done before. It touches on some of the most contentious and disputed issues in the tech industry, and in the world more broadly. It started with my curiosity and desire to understand something that happened in March, at GeekWire’s independent Microsoft @ 50 event . I was on stage interviewing Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith when the conversation was interrupted by a protester. T...
Jun 14, 2025•1 hr
Fifteen years ago, Steve Jobs and Apple had just introduced the first iPad, Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft had been left for dead, and nerdy online bookseller Jeff Bezos was still getting Amazon settled into its South Lake Union HQ. That’s when we started this podcast. This week, we’re going back to 2010, revisiting clips from the earliest days of the show. We remember what was happening with Amazon, Microsoft, and Seattle’s startup scene, and try to wrap our heads around all the things that have cha...
Jun 07, 2025•32 min
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we discuss Amazon's new licensing deal with The New York Times for AI content training, and go behind the scenes at two different office spaces: Microsoft's redeveloped Redmond campus and Remitly's new Seattle HQ. Amazon inks deal with New York Times to license newspaper’s content for AI platforms Rebooting Redmond: Microsoft’s new campus reflects ongoing transformation, uncertain future A world away in the heart of Seattle: Remitly’s new HQ provides more room ...
May 31, 2025•26 min
Satya Nadella’s offhand remark at Build, about Elon Musk once interning at Microsoft, sparked a mystery that sent us digging through biographies and transcripts in search of confirmation. We also break down Microsoft’s new AI moves, announced this week at the company's Build developer conference, and consider what its agentic ambitions mean for tech jobs and the economy. Plus, a sharp warning from Microsoft President Brad Smith on Washington state’s fading focus on innovation. RELATED STORIES El...
May 24, 2025•36 min
Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie joins the GeekWire Podcast to talk about the company’s latest AI initiatives, including a new integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot and a suite of Box AI agents designed to help businesses analyze content, extract data, and generate insights. Levie shares how AI is changing the way he and his team work, explains why he believes 2025 is still “day one” for enterprise AI agents, and offers a realistic take on what AI can — and can’t — do today. He also reflects ...
May 17, 2025•25 min
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: The rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence takes center stage in business technology spending, in Washington D.C., and in the global tech power struggle. We break down a headline-grabbing U.S. Senate hearing on AI and U.S.–China competitiveness, featuring testimony from Microsoft’s Brad Smith and OpenAI’s Sam Altman. There was also a fun Seattle tech callback in the form of a hot-mic moment from Sen. Maria Cantwell during Sen. Ted Cruz's opening statemen...
May 10, 2025•30 min
Recorded live at the 2025 GeekWire Awards in Seattle, this episode features industry leaders navigating a shifting tech and political landscape. Amid celebrations of AI breakthroughs, startup milestones, and community-building, guests discuss deeper concerns: capital flight, regulatory headwinds, and what the region needs to retain its innovation edge. Featured on the show: Ambika Singh , founder and CEO of Armoire (Workplace of the Year winner) Joseph Williams , Washington State Department of C...
May 03, 2025•34 min
On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we break down a public clash between Amazon and the White House over tariffs, transparency, and politics. After a report from Punchbowl News suggested Amazon would start displaying the cost of President Trump’s tariffs on product prices, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it a “hostile and political act” during a press briefing — saying she had just spoken to the president about it. Amazon responded by clarifying that the idea had...
Apr 29, 2025•12 min
On this week’s GeekWire Podcast: Microsoft sees a future where humans manage fleets of AI agents — promising to fundamentally change the way companies are run and work gets done. Plus, we dive into the story of Chainguard, the $3.5 billion cybersecurity startup proving that a fully remote company can scale fast without a physical office. And we explore how AI is reshaping everyday life, from travel planning to home repairs. Related stories Meet your new AI teammate: Microsoft sees humans as ‘age...
Apr 26, 2025•27 min
In this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we’re joined by Marcus Fontoura, technical fellow at Microsoft and CTO for Azure Core. Fontoura is the author of A Platform Mindset , a new book that explores how to build scalable systems, support high-performing teams, and foster a culture of collaboration. We talk about the evolving role of platforms in tech, the impact of AI on engineering productivity, and why creativity and autonomy are more important than ever. Fontoura draws on decades of experien...
Apr 19, 2025•31 min
On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, Melinda French Gates joins us to discuss her new book, The Next Day , a personal and philosophical reflection on life’s transitions. French Gates opens up about her emotional and spiritual journey of the past few years, the lessons she’s learned from therapy and motherhood, and how she’s now using her full voice through her company, Pivotal Ventures. We talk about her billion-dollar commitment to women’s advancement, the promise and pitfalls of AI, and wh...
Apr 15, 2025•26 min
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we're featuring highlights from a live interview with Nathan Myhrvold , CEO of Intellectual Ventures and former chief technology officer at Microsoft. Myhrvold worked at Microsoft from 1986 to 2000, where he laid the groundwork for Microsoft Research, recruited top computer scientists, and played a key role in shaping the company’s technology strategy. Since leaving Microsoft, he has worked across fields including energy, science, physics, paleontology, photogr...
Apr 12, 2025•23 min
On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we talk with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the company's 50th anniversary, and where it's headed from here. Plus, highlights from Microsoft’s 50th anniversary event in Redmond, which featured a rare joint appearance by Nadella with former leaders Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. The day also reflected Microsoft's role in an increasingly complex global landscape, with a CNBC interview focusing in part on the impact of tariffs on the company and the global...
Apr 05, 2025•15 min
This week on the GeekWire Podcast : A conversation with Daniel Rausch , Amazon’s vice president of Alexa and Echo, recorded at the company’s Seattle headquarters. Rausch explained the company’s vision for Alexa+ , Amazon's next-generation voice assistant, in advance of its upcoming rollout through an early access program. Alexa+ promises more fluid conversations with users, integrating with more services and devices for new capabilities, including the ability act autonomously on behalf of a user...
Mar 29, 2025•31 min
On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast , as part of our Microsoft@50 special series, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reflects on his remarkable tenure at the company he helped shape for more than three decades. We talk about his early days working alongside Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the biggest mistake during his tenure, and his take on the company these days as its largest shareholder. He also opens up about his post-Microsoft pursuits — from his data-driven mission with USAFacts t...
Mar 26, 2025•34 min
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: A conversation with Microsoft President Brad Smith, on stage at GeekWire’s Microsoft@50 event this week at Town Hall Seattle, discussing the company’s anniversary and what’s next for the industry and the world. Related Links Microsoft@50 recap: Company faithful mark first 50 years and look to future at GeekWire event Microsoft president: Proposed Washington state business taxes would weaken tech sector Links discussed in the podcast intro : Using AI to uncover ...
Mar 22, 2025•35 min
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we discuss the big real estate technology news of the week: Rocket Companies, the mortgage, real estate and personal finance giant, is buying Redfin , the Seattle-based tech-powered real estate company that has been a longtime disrupter in the world of buying and selling homes. Joining us to assess the implications are Stephanie Reid-Simons , who oversees the news team at RealEstateNews.com as a senior vice president with the news site; and Tim Ellis , a former...
Mar 15, 2025•34 min
This week: Michael Levin and Josh Lowitz of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) discuss the state of Amazon's Alexa and Echo business, and what the recently announced Alexa+ service means for the company and users. CIRP studies consumer behavior to provide insights for investors and industry leaders. Related links and coverage CIRP : Amazon Report on Substack . (Check out CIRP's Apple Report , as well.) CIRP's Amazon Report: Alexa, Should I Pay for Alexa+? Or Get a New Echo? GeekWire:...
Mar 08, 2025•37 min
This week on the Geekwire Podcast: Google prepares to say goodbye to Seattle's Fremont neighborhood , we get ready to say farewell to Skype ; and we take a quantum leap with one of Microsoft's top technical leaders in the field: Chetan Nayak , technical fellow and corporate vice of quantum hardware for the company. Related stories and links: End of an era: Microsoft to shut down Skype, shifting users to Teams, 14 years after $8.5B deal Microsoft quantum breakthrough promises to usher in the next...
Mar 01, 2025•38 min
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we discuss Microsoft's quantum computing breakthrough; a Washington state bill that targets Uber and Lyft surge pricing; the latest update to the GeekWire 200 ranking of Pacific Northwest startups; and Amazon's move to take creative control of the James Bond movie franchise. Related Links Microsoft quantum breakthrough promises to usher in the next era of computing in ‘years, not decades’ GeekWire 200 update: Here are the hot tech startups moving up our list fo...
Feb 22, 2025•28 min
A new book, The Insider's Guide to Innovation at Microsoft , finds universal business lessons in the company's successes and also its failures, through case studies about different products and teams in various scenarios and stages of evolution. The book was written by two Microsoft business strategists and innovation leaders: Dean Carignan , who now focuses on AI in the company's office of the chief scientist; and JoAnn Garbin , who created and led Microsoft's Regenerative Datacenter of the Fut...
Feb 18, 2025•45 min
It has been a wild few weeks and eventful few months in AI: DeepSeek, OpenAI, Stargate, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce, Google, Elon Musk, and more. In all of this, there's a heightened focus on what it takes to train AI models and the importance of open-source AI. This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we get insights from Ali Farhadi , CEO of the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) , the Seattle-based nonprofit that has been innovating in open-source AI since long before it was popular. "If the U.S....
Feb 15, 2025•35 min
For this latest installment in our Microsoft @ 50 series, we talk with Bill Gates about the company's 50th anniversary, parallels between AI and the early days of the PC, and where he sees the next big opportunities for innovation. This is part of a wide-ranging interview coinciding with the release of his new book, Source Code: My Beginnings . We published Part 1 of the interview last week, focusing on his upbringing in Seattle, the influential people in his life, the early days of the company,...
Feb 12, 2025•25 min
Our guest this week is Corey Quinn , the chief cloud economist at The Duckbill Group , the host of the AWS Morning Brief and Screaming in the Cloud podcasts, and the curator of Last Week in AWS , a weekly newsletter. Apart from his newsletter and podcasts, Quinn's day job involves helping AWS customers understand and manage their bills. Amid all the AI hype and billions in capex spending, he uses those insights to provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse and a reality check on the state of the cloud ...
Feb 08, 2025•33 min
In advance of the release of his new memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings , Bill Gates sat down with GeekWire for a wide-ranging conversion on topics including his extraordinary upbringing in Seattle, the key people and influences in his life, the remarkable circumstances and luck that led to his work in software, and his outlook on the world today. RELATED: Bill Gates’ book ‘Source Code’ is a surprisingly candid memoir of the Microsoft mogul’s early years We're presenting this interview in two pa...
Feb 04, 2025•36 min
This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we dive deep into DeepSeek, the AI project that shaking up the tech world, to better understand the underlying technical advances and the long-term implications for the industry. Joining us is Bill Howe , an associate professor at the University of Washington's Information School and the co-founding director of the UW Center for Responsible AI Systems and Experiences , among other UW roles. Related stories: DeepSeek’s new model shows that AI expertise might mat...
Feb 01, 2025•41 min
This week, we delve into the Project Stargate announcement by OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank, in conjunction with President Trump, and assess the implications for OpenAi's relationship with Microsoft. We explain what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella really meant with his CNBC zinger about the Stargate investment, and consider how Elon Musk's involvement in the new administration could play out in the tech industry. PLUS, we discuss Madrona's big new funds and the potential impact on startup activity in ...
Jan 25, 2025•31 min
For this installment in our Microsoft @ 50 series , GeekWire revisited Bill Gates’ classic book from the mid-1990s, The Road Ahead, with the benefit of three decades of hindsight. We found in its pages a vision for technology that was essentially on the mark — foreseeing pervasive access to information, the rise of smart devices, and the central role of the internet in business, education, and the home. We also discovered striking parallels and insights relevant to the AI revolution we're experi...
Jan 24, 2025•22 min
