In this live interview, Recode's Kara Swisher talks with former Cambridge Analytica COO Julian Wheatland, early Facebook investor Roger McNamee, and the director and writer of the new Netflix documentary The Great Hack — Karim Amer and Pedro Kos. Then, later in the show, Recode’s Jason Del Rey explores the origins of Amazon Prime, why it’s so effective at keeping us locked into their ecosystem, and how it became the source of the company’s power. In this episode: How Wheatland looks back on the ...
Jul 31, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep 401•Transcript available on Metacast On the 400th episode of Recode Decode, Megan Rapinoe, the co-captain of the US Women's National Soccer Team, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher. This live conversation was recorded at the Mobile Marketing Association CEO & CMO Summit in Sonoma, CA. In this episode: Where Rapinoe's confidence comes from; her famous “victory” pose; the marginalization of women’s soccer; her favorite moments from the 2019 Women’s World Cup; how she focuses on the game; did Trump actually help her?; the fight for equa...
Jul 29, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep 400•Transcript available on Metacast Reddit CEO Steve Huffman talks with Recode's Kara Swisher in this live interview recorded at Manny's in San Francisco. Huffman co-founded the company in 2005, left it in 2009, and returned in 2015 after the resignation of Reddit's previous CEO, Ellen Pao. In this episode: How Huffman thinks about Reddit today; how the site almost died; how it started and its early experience with backlash; tech leaders that don’t want to make content moderation decisions; why /r/The_Donald was quarantined and ho...
Jul 26, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep 399•Transcript available on Metacast Stitch Fix founder and CEO Katrina Lake talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the future of fashion, how the company has changed in the past nine years, and the rarity of female tech CEOs. In this episode: Lake’s background and taking Stitch Fix public; the difficulties of raising venture capital for a fashion startup; the "myth" of staying private forever; is Stitch Fix a “tech company?”; its expansion into new verticals, including men’s fashion; the broader online fashion landscape; how Stitc...
Jul 24, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep 398•Transcript available on Metacast Congressman Adam Schiff, who represents California’s 28th district and chairs the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the 2020 election, the Russia investigation, and more. In this episode: Schiff’s letters putting Facebook, Google and Twitter “on notice” for deepfakes in the 2020 campaign; the lack of tech regulation to date; Edward Snowden and the encryption fight; how things have changed since the Democrats gained a majority in the House of Representatives; pa...
Jul 22, 2019•57 min•Ep 397•Transcript available on Metacast Entrepreneur and Venture for America founder Andrew Yang talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his campaign to be the Democratic nominee in the 2020 presidential race. In this episode: Being "the tech candidate" during the techlash; the the #YangGang; his version of universal basic income, the Freedom Dividend; the challenges of UBI and how to convince people that it's a good idea; job automation and the “robot apocalypse”; why the unemployment rate isn't as low as you think; what will future j...
Jul 19, 2019•1 hr 9 min•Ep 396•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Bennet, the senior U.S. Senator from Colorado, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the intersection of social media and politics, and running for president in 2020. In this episode: Denver schools and the racial education gap; Bennet’s assessment of his past 10 years in the Senate; why people voted for Trump; the changes in Washington; why Frederick Douglass (and you) are founders of America; why Bennet believes he can win; politicians who over-index on Twitter and the "downward spira...
Jul 17, 2019•52 min•Ep 395•Transcript available on Metacast Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his campaign for president of the United States. In this episode: Systemic racism and Buttigieg's "Douglass Plan"; mobilizing black women voters; how to appeal to Trump supporters who wanted to "burn the house down"; reforming the Supreme Court; the “mystical fascination” with the Rust Belt; climate change and rural America; why Buttigieg hasn’t attacked tech as much as some of his opponents; should Americans h...
Jul 15, 2019•50 min•Ep 394•Transcript available on Metacast Harley-Davidson president and CEO Matthew Levatich talks with Recode's Kara Swisher live onstage at the 2019 Code Conference. In this episode: The impact of tariffs on Harley-Davidson’s global business; Trump's tweets attacking the company; managing a well-known brand during a trade war; is it possible to manufacture everything in the US?; the expertise required to make things domestically; Harley Davidson’s new electric bikes; the merits of a silent bike; the scooter market; omni-channel sales;...
Jul 12, 2019•41 min•Ep 393•Transcript available on Metacast Writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her popular profiles of celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and her new novel, "Fleishman Is in Trouble." In this episode: Why Brodesser-Akner started writing profiles; how she got to the New York Times; working with editors and fact-checkers; Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop; Paltrow’s “radical” personality; her story about the transformation of Weight Watchers and contemporary fatness; how Brodesser-Akner chooses the topics of her sto...
Jul 10, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep 392•Transcript available on Metacast Carole Cadwalladr, a reporter for the Guardian and Observer, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her investigations into the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the links between tech and political disinformation campaigns. In this episode: Cadwalladr's background; tech's impact on democracy; the "cancer" of the far-right internet; Google's lack of accountability; Cambridge Analytica and its co-founder Robert Mercer; talking to whistleblower Christopher Wylie; the links among Brexit, Donald Trump...
Jul 08, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep 391•Transcript available on Metacast Eric Ries, the founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange and author of The Lean Startup, talks with Vox.com's Ezra Klein at the 2019 Code Conference. In this episode: The LTSE’s recent SEC approval; what’s the point of a stock exchange and why do we need a new one?; the problem with short-term public markets; how would going public on the LTSE be different for CEOs?; how things would change for employees?; the culture of short-term vs. long-term leadership ownership; the values of “Lean Startups”;...
Jul 05, 2019•39 min•Ep 390•Transcript available on Metacast Actor and producer Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Orange Is the New Black) and Netflix's vice president of original content Cindy Holland talk with Recode's Kara Swisher at the 2019 Code Conference. In this episode: How Lyonne got connected with Netflix; Holland’s background at Kozmo.com; Orange is the New Black; the Netflix way of doing things; developing Russian Doll; Netflix’s cancelation of One Day at a Time; how it evaluates creators like Lyonne; the production process of Russian Doll; how N...
Jul 03, 2019•46 min•Ep 388•Transcript available on Metacast In these interviews from the 2019 Code Conference, Rockfeller Foundation president Raj Shah and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon talk with Recode's Teddy Schleifer. In the Shah interview: Rising inequality and the limits of private philanthropy; the growing scrutiny of wealthy endowments like Rockefeller; are "opportunity zones” just a tax giveaway?; what do Silicon Valley’s ultra-rich owe to people in need?; and the low percentage of billionaires who have committed to the Bill Gates and Warren B...
Jul 01, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep 387•Transcript available on Metacast Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian talks with Recode's Kara Swisher and Jason Del Rey at the 2019 Code Conference. In this episode: How the Boeing 737 Max crashes affect the aviation industry; innovations in airplanes in that Delta would like to see; using facial recognition to replace paper tickets; RFID bag tracking and changing the layout of airports and gates; Delta’s investments in alternative fuels and its impact on climate change; Georgia's new abortion law and corporate activism; Delta's con...
Jun 28, 2019•45 min•Ep 386•Transcript available on Metacast Joichi "Joi" Ito, the director of the MIT Media Lab, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about engineers who over-simplify the world's problems, the Media Lab's role in "surveillance capitalism," and why the values of the tech world will shift from within. In this episode: Ito's background and what the Media Lab does; techno-utopianism and the early days of the internet; how Ito got to MIT; computers implanted in the human body; Shoshana Zuboff and "surveillance capitalism"; the gap between technol...
Jun 26, 2019•56 min•Ep 385•Transcript available on Metacast In these live interviews from the 2019 Code Conference, Casey Newton first talks to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri and Facebook's head of AR and VR, Andrew "Boz" Bosworth; then; later in the show, he interviews three former tech insiders: former Googler Jessica Powell, ex-Facebooker Antonio García-Martínez, and Twitter/Google veteran Nicole Wong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 24, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep 384•Transcript available on Metacast Georgia politician Stacey Abrams and her former campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo, now the co-founders of Fair Fight Action, talk with Recode's Kara Swisher and Vox.com's Ezra Klein at the 2019 Code Conference. In this episode: Abrams’ campaign for governor and what Fair Fight does; how Abrams defines the importance of voting rights; is America a democracy? “Yes, but…”; why Abrams doesn’t use the term “stolen election”; the Republican Party’s voter suppression habits; the problem with companies...
Jun 21, 2019•59 min•Ep 383•Transcript available on Metacast Jonathan Ryan and Erika Andiola, the CEO and chief advocacy officer at RAICES, talk with Vox.com's Ezra Klein at the 2019 Code Conference. In this episode: The current situation at the US-Mexico border; the increasing power of the executive branch of the US government as you approach the border; how tech companies like Palantir, Amazon, Microsoft, and Dell are working with ICE; the history of corporations enabling unconstitutional behavior; alternatives for the government; what would be a non-ty...
Jun 19, 2019•39 min•Ep 382•Transcript available on Metacast Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon's cloud computing service AWS, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher at the 2019 Code Conference. In this episode: How Jassy came to work at Amazon 22 years ago; how Jeff Bezos has changed in that time; how AWS differentiates itself from the competition; could it be disrupted by a small business?; facial recognition, sensor creep, and trust; alleged misuse of Amazon’s facial recognition tech by law enforcement; its work with the government, and employee objections to tha...
Jun 17, 2019•52 min•Ep 381•Transcript available on Metacast Vijaya Gadde, who leads the legal and trust and safety teams at Twitter, and Periscope co-founder Kayvon Beykpour, who's now the company's head of product, talk with Recode's Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka at the 2019 Code Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. In this episode: Twitter’s meeting with President Trump; CEO Jack Dorsey's level of contact with the policy team; cleaning the Twitter “cesspool”; could it operate without letting everyone speak?; its new policies around elections and anti-vaxxers...
Jun 14, 2019•52 min•Ep 380•Transcript available on Metacast Mehdi Hasan, a columnist at the Intercept and host of its weekly podcast Deconstructed, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher. In this episode: How Hasan got into journalism; the timidity of the American press; cold comforts in the “horrible, horrible moment” of the Trump presidency; the Intercept and Hasan’s podcast, Deconstructed; his viral interview with Blackwater founder Erik Prince; Swisher’s interview with Sam Harris; liberals who only see racism on the right; the controversial speeches in Has...
Jun 12, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep 379•Transcript available on Metacast CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, The Shadow War: Inside Russia’s and China's Secret Operations to Defeat America. In this episode: Sciutto’s background and the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests; being a foreign correspondent; working for the Chinese ambassador and returning to journalism; being a journalist at CNN in the Trump era; Americans’ post-Cold War delusions about Russia; why failures to recognize...
Jun 10, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep 378•Transcript available on Metacast Media market research consultant Michele Madansky talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about The Elephant in the Valley, her study into the prevalence of harassment in tech that was first conducted in 2016 and recently updated with new statistics. In this episode: Madansky's background; the first edition of Elephant in the Valley and its aftermath; how does harassment in tech compare to other industries?; is harassment still the elephant in the room?; what's worse since 2016, what's the same, and wh...
Jun 05, 2019•49 min•Ep 377•Transcript available on Metacast Girls Who Code CEO Reshma Saujani talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the challenges facing women in the tech industry and what everyone can do to make progress happen faster. In this episode: The 60 Minutes problem; what Girls Who Code does; how it compares to other diversity-in-coding groups; how much progress have we made so far?; the link between perfectionism and "fitting in"; the lousy excuses for homogeneous hiring; how Google and Microsoft could become the new Goldman Sachs; sexual ha...
Jun 03, 2019•46 min•Ep 376•Transcript available on Metacast Former MIT president Susan Hockfield talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new book, The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution. In this episode: How Hockfield got to MIT; how the school creates innovation; how Route 128 lost the digital revolution to the west coast; Boston's new "regional advantage," sustainable energy; the convergence of biology and engineering; why Hockfield wrote "The Age of Living Machines"; "living machines" that can help us prev...
May 31, 2019•59 min•Ep 375•Transcript available on Metacast In these live interviews recorded at the 2019 SALT Conference in Las Vegas, Recode's Kara Swisher talks to investors Mark Cuban and Steve Case about the future of entrepreneurship and talent agent Scooter Braun about how tech is changing the entertainment business. In the Cuban/Case interview: The "third wave" of the internet and Case's "rise of the rest" theory; the state of entrepreneurship outside Silicon Valley; are startups really in decline?; how to properly train the next generation of st...
May 29, 2019•1 hr 9 min•Ep 374•Transcript available on Metacast DuckDuckGo CEO Gabe Weinberg talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher in this live conversation recorded at Made By We in New York City. In this episode: What DuckDuckGo does; why Weinberg started the company; contextual advertising; Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act; are people actually mad about privacy violations?; Weinberg’s proposal for national privacy legislation; competing against Google and the “filter bubble”; data interoperability and what good policies would look like; what can c...
May 27, 2019•59 min•Ep 373•Transcript available on Metacast Alex Stamos, the former Chief Security Officer at Facebook, and Ev Williams, the co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Medium, talk with Recode's Kara Swisher in these live interviews from the 2019 Collision conference in Toronto, Canada. In the Stamos interview: Is Facebook misunderstood?; Stamos’ proposed solutions; legitimate candidates vs. the Russians; how to protect ourselves from all election attackers; the weaponization of Facebook’s products; America’s reluctance to regulate; breaking up Fac...
May 24, 2019•50 min•Ep 372•Transcript available on Metacast Winners Take All author Anand Giridharadas talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher in this live conversation recorded at Made By We in New York City. In this episode: Why Giridharadas wrote the book; the Sackler family; why “giving back is a wingman of taking ruthlessly”; Mark Zuckerberg’s false image and outsized influence; Andrew Carnegie and the history of billionaire philanthropy; what should the ultra-rich do instead?; what should the government do?; the backlash to Jeff Bezos; Marc Benioff and Sa...
May 22, 2019•57 min•Ep 371•Transcript available on Metacast