This week, Brian, Troy, and Alex break down how tech is quietly building its own media empire—slick, founder-led, and fully aligned with industry interests. From TBPN to Turpentine, it’s not journalism—it just looks like it. They also explore the “Chaos Economy” through Foxconn’s EV pivot and unpack why analogies beat logic in shaping how we process tech shifts. Plus, Pete Buttigieg’s appearance on Flagrant shows that even politics is adapting to the influencer era. Watch us on YouTube Troy Youn...
Apr 25, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 131
This week we dig into the spread of hyperpunditry and why the Information Space rewards those who confidently switch lanes with abandon. Plus: AI’s bottoms-up adoption curve, Anonymous Banker on golf media’s strength and the crazy life of sea turtles. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Apr 18, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 130
The tariff wars kicked off and confirmed that we are in a post-expertise era where your bona fides matter less than your confidence. Plus: celebrating GDPR’s impending demise. what to do with Vanity Fair, and Shopify’s AI manifesto. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Apr 11, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 129
Gawker Media founder Nick Denton joins the show to discuss how narratives and memes run the world, and why it’s better to trade on them than run the old media playbook of the attention economy. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Apr 04, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 3Ep. 128
We dig into the idea of taste—how it’s formed, how it signals identity, and where it fits in media and business today. We also unpack how taste once defined media gatekeepers, how it’s now being democratized (or commodified), and why developing taste is less about money and more about intentionality. We are then joined by sociologist and brand strategist Ana Andjelic to debate the merits of European taste vs American taste. Plus: Anonymous Banker has a cameo on how to get a “taste premium” in M&...
Mar 28, 2025•58 min•Season 3Ep. 127
The media industry, like politics, has been stuck in a scarcity mindset—managing decline instead of building for the future. In this episode, we dig into The Abundance Agenda, the new book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, and explore what a pro-growth strategy could look like for media. Plus, TheSkimm exits to Ziff Davis, the rise of AI-driven advertising, and Anonymous Banker joins to explain why second-tier comedians might be the next big media arbitrage opportunity. Why Can't AI Make Its Own...
Mar 21, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 126
AI is giving rise to vibe coding while old conventions fall away. Thinking on your feet is now more important than rehearsed, polished presentation, which soon can be done with the push of a button. It’s time to find your inner Rick Rubin. Plus: How to build an enterprise brand. Show Notes: PvA Weekend Fan Mail Vibe Coding Creative AI Superpowers You're Not Using Yet A love letter to LA ---------------------------------------- Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's PvA Weekend newsletter Brian Morriss...
Mar 14, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 125
Online education company Chegg is suing Google for AI Overviews and might become the first major company felled by AI. We go over the hitlist of others at risk of getting Chegged, including SEO-dependent publishers, SaaS companies and even the email newsletter industrial complex. Plus: Why Lenny Rachitsky has succeeded, the case against all-inclusive resorts and a debate on whether reading is dying or just in a format transition. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter B...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 124
Troy’s at “advanced” tennis camp, so Brian and Alex discuss the shifting dynamics of the newsletter and video game markets. Newsletters are entering into bubble territory, while parts of the video game market are losing ground after a long run of robust growth. Plus: an urban redevelopment good product. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Feb 28, 2025•44 min•Season 3Ep. 123
Media has never been neat, but it’s getting messier. This week, Brian and Troy explore how AI is reshaping the creative process, how different personality-driven brands thrive on particular platforms, and the developing messy aesthetic of modern media that’s spreading to earnings calls and product launches. Troy shares how OpenAI’s Projects feature changed his workflow, turning AI into a true research assistant. Anonymous Banker joins to break down AI’s irrational valuations and why X’s debt sel...
Feb 21, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Season 3Ep. 122
This week, we examine the great realignment as tech and government unite to assert US tech dominance over ideas of digital sovereignty. Meanwhile, BuzzFeed plans its own social platform, despite toothpaste rarely going back into the tube. Plus: assessing OpenAI’s grandiose Super Bowl ad. SOLSTICE - 5: Forgotten archives Garys Economics Merlin Bird ID Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow ...
Feb 14, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 3Ep. 121
This week, on the heels of OpenAI releasing Deep Research, we assess whether AI has caught on with regular people beyond kicking the tires on ChatGPT. Maybe the AI Super Bowl ads will make it more appealing. Plus: the memeification and financialization of everything, volatility as the norm, X shows signs of a financial turnaround and alarm clocks with apps and a subscription program. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex ...
Feb 07, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 120
The nature of work and careers is undergoing profound changes that are often obscured by debates over return-to-work mandates. This week we consider the rise of decentralized work that’s networked and elevates autonomy over outdated command and control approaches developed in a different century. Plus: a celebration of Data Privacy Day and Deepseek’s cannonball into the Big Tech AI pool party. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsle...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 119
Our tech overlords reported for duty to Washington while Troy perused the powder at Davos. This week, we go beyond first principles to consider the second-order impact of a politicized tech elite. Plus: The Washington Post gets a BHAG and CNN plots a post-TV future. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 118
Economic growth requires labor productivity. We all aspire, in our own ways, to be productive, if only because our productivity is directly tied to our rewards. Yet American labor productivity has stagnated since the first decade of the internet coming to business. AI is now held out as the latest savior to productivity. Modern productivity culture is an outgrowth of optimization obsession. We can measure more than ever, so we gravitate to squeezing out incremental gains and sometimes lose sight...
Jan 17, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 117
This week, we discuss Mark Zuckerberg’s craven capitulation on content moderation, even if it was an inevitable decision; the upside of algorithmic rabbit holes vs the downside of the commodification of attention; and how creator culture is reshaping trust in media institutions. Plus: why the Ninja Creami and IVs are good products. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Tr...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 116
This week, we discuss the outlook in 2025 for legacy media (not great), alternative media (much better), chat as a new media mode, X emerging as a critical power center, and culture wars morphing into class wars. The Information Space in 2025 newsletter Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Jan 03, 2025•56 min•Season 3Ep. 115
Podcasting challenges late nite, lying in media, shopping as content, super consumers and Alex rediscovers America at Disney. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 114
Tech has swallowed media, and is increasingly swallowing other industries and accruing power along the way. Plus: why adding a chatbot won’t save the article page, the real message of the big ad holding company merger, and an introduction to the new PvA companion product. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Dec 13, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 113
Prediction market + news; media’s bifurcating star system; media’s management-labor divide; AI + browsers; car talk; LinkedIn cringe Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 112
This week: The internet comes to life as spectacle, Elon proclaims you are the media, why publishers need to get to the transactional level, and an assessment of a new MAGA cultural aesthetic. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Nov 29, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 111
This week on People vs. Algorithms, we unpacked London’s charm, the shifting dynamics of media and search, and why Google’s dominance feels both indispensable and fragile. Troy and I contrasted American and British publishing cultures—bigger isn’t always better, as UK publishers adapt to constraints with scrappy innovation. Search’s transformation, fueled by AI and shifts in Google’s strategy, dominated our discussion. While it offers consumers better tools, publishers are left scrambling, quest...
Nov 22, 2024•51 min•Season 3Ep. 110
The election in many ways confirmed what many had suspected: the information space has superceded and subsumed the traditional media world. Traditional media is now just one node, and perhaps more alarmingly its influence – and ability to persuade – has drastically declined. We talk in this episode about the implications of this shift, particularly with the spotlight now on what’s being called the manosphere, a chaotic loose confederation of podcasters and YouTubers who have seemingly broken thr...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 109
We run through the implications of the return of Donald Trump to the presidency after an election that saw the mainstream news media making way for new power brokers in unusual guises. The podcast election proved to be real – and a harbinger of changes to come as the Information Space subsumes the Fourth Estate. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 108
Complex is a digital media survivor. It has lived many lives, including as a magazine, a dot-com, an ad network, Go90 (RIP) provider, YouTube showrunner, events organizer, hot sauce merchant, neglected BuzzFeed brand, and now in its latest iteration as a commerce engine. Complex President Moksha Fitzgibbons joins the show to discuss his return to Complex, where he was an integral part of the founding team going back to its Marc Ecko days, and how the youth culture brand is betting on combining i...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 3Ep. 107
There’s a new consensus about the media business that is emerging. The past is not coming back, that much is for certain. The challenges are well known, and the bright spots — and they exist — tend to be smaller and harder to scale. Watch us on YouTube Troy Young's People vs Algorithms newsletter Brian Morrissey's The Rebooting newsletter Alex Schleifer's Human Computer Follow Alex , Brian and Troy on Twitter...
Oct 25, 2024•54 min•Season 3Ep. 106
Mass media’s extinction event has come first for text content. Text is increasingly being "pushed down the stack" and commoditized due to AI's ability to generate, manipulate, and reformat text content. This shift is forcing media companies that primarily deal in text to adapt or risk becoming obsolete. While text isn't disappearing entirely, its role is changing. It's becoming more of an input for other forms of media rather than the primary output. Meanwhile, other parts of media are gaining i...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 105
This week, we take a look at making bets that go wrong, and how it’s often difficult to tell if a bet is a bad one in the short term. Was Meta’s bet on VR a bad bet? Maybe in the short term, but perhaps not in the long term. Media companies have made their fair share of bad bets over the years, although there weren’t many options available. Will the parade of AI deals join the pile of bad bets? Plus… Good Product with a VERY special guest Steve Katelman. Donald Trump says he’s ‘basically a truth...
Oct 11, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 104
This week, we discuss a new framework for the media industry that separates content into two distinct categories: "above the line" and "below the line" media. The line in question represents the threshold of human uniqueness in content creation. Above it lies the territory where human creativity, insight, and expertise still reign supreme. Below it, we find the realm increasingly dominated by AI-driven processes and automation. Plus: Taylor Lorenz and the question of whether packaged media can r...
Oct 04, 2024•51 min•Season 3Ep. 103
The heart of organizations is tension, which when productive can lead to great outcomes. If it goes to extremes, disaster. This week, we discuss tension at OpenAI between its non-profit mission and massive ambitions, the tensions of hacking attention to sell products, the Trump tension between the truth and making a valid a point, and the tension between tech changing consumer expectations and media business models. Episode links: NotebookLM from Google. Seb Young's music project, Chronically Of...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 102
