Channels with Peter Kafka

Latest Episodes:

Jonah Peretti, Nick Denton and Ben Smith on digital news’ past and future May 02, 2023

Show notes

It’s our first four-way pod, featuring BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and Semafor founder (and former editor-in-chief of the recently shuttered BuzzFeed News) Ben Smith, who wrote a book about them both. Peter Kafka talks to all of them in conjunction with Smith’s new book “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral.” What lessons did Smith learn from Peretti and Denton’s mistakes? If Disney offers to buy you out for hundreds of millions of dollars, should you take it? And is TikTok our last, best hope?

Featuring: Jonah Peretti (@peretti), Founder of BuzzFeed

Nick Denton (@nicknotned), Founder of Gawker

Ben Smith, (@semaforben), Editor-In-Chief of Semafor

Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode

More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.

About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.

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Inside the AI Gold Rush Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

Silicon Valley needs a new thing and AI is that new thing: investors are supposed to pour 43 billion dollars into AI this year. But will individual startups cash in on the boom, or will the real winners of AI be the same handful of big, established companies?

Featuring: Renate Nyborg (@renate), a tech veteran who is launching an AI startup, and got a firsthand look at the AI funding frenzy. (00:00)

Then: Dror Berman (@drorberman), a venture capitalist at Innovation Endeavors, which he co-founded with the former CEO of Google. He’s one of the guys throwing a ton of money into AI. The reason he thinks he’ll get it right is because he’s done it before. (06:47)

And: Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin), founder and editor-in-chief of The Information. She knows Silicon Valley inside and out and translates this moment for us. (24:00)

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AI is the future! AI is a fraud. Let's debate. Apr 20, 2023

Show notes

AI has captured the imagination of Silicon Valley seemingly overnight. And in all this excitement, it's hard to tell what's really going on. What is this technology, how does Silicon Valley plan to change our world with it, and what exactly has a bunch of smart people very worried?

I'm doing a special series to figure that all out. Over the next three weeks, I'll talk to true AI believers and its sharpest detractors to get the real story about where this technology stands, and what it might mean for us.

First up: I meet Joshua Browder (@jbrowder1), a Stanford computer science dropout who tried to get an AI lawyer into court.

Then: Microsoft's CTO Kevin Scott (@kevin_scott) pitches me on a bright AI future. (5:10)

Plus: I talk to hype-deflator, cognitive scientist and author Gary Marcus (@GaryMarcus). He believes in AI, but he thinks the giants of Silicon Valley are scaling flawed technology now—with potentially dangerous consequences. (25:30)

Subscribe for free to Recode Media to make sure you get the whole series.

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Has Fox News learned a $787 million lesson? Apr 19, 2023

Show notes

Fox News, accused of repeatedly and knowingly spreading lies about Dominion Voting Systems, opted Tuesday to fork over $787 million rather than find out what its correspondents had to say under oath in a court of law. Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to NPR's David Folkenflik about what, if anything, this will change when it comes to Fox News and the wider media.

Featuring: David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik), NPR Media Correspondent & Author

Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode

About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.

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'Chef Reactions' blew up on TikTok. But will TikTok blow up? Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

It’s a TikTok double-header!

Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to ‘Chef Reactions,’ the semi-anonymous TikTok star whose hilarious culinary critiques skyrocketed him to viral fame in less than a year.

After that, The Washington Post’s Will Oremus catches us up on the controversy over TikTok - the debate over national security issues, and how likely it is the platform could actually get banned in the United States.

Featuring: Chef Reactions (@chefreactions), Chef & Content Creator

Will Oremus (@WillOremus), Tech reporter for The Washington Post

Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode

About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.

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Why is a talent agency buying pro wrestling? Plus a green media startup Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

Endeavor started out as a traditional Hollywood talent agency - CEO Ari Emanuel, famously, was the model for Jeremy Piven’s character on “Entourage.” But suddenly, it’s become a giant media company focused on real and fake fighting, by merging its UFC business - featuring people who are really fighting each other - with the WWE - the one where the fights are scripted. Journalist Ariel Helwani, who knows both worlds very well, joins Vox’s Peter Kafka to explain the deal and what it means for the TV and streaming landscape.

Then Dave Finocchio, who co-founded the sports site Bleacher Report and kept running it after it was acquired by Time Warner, joins to discuss his newest media company: The Cool Down. It’s aimed at consumers who want to be greener, save money or both. Finocchio started his last company by figuring out how to capitalize on search and social media, but those worlds changed dramatically in the last few years. So what’s his new game plan?

Featuring: Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani), Host of The MMA Hour

Dve Finocchio (@DaveFinocchio), Founder of The Cool Down

Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode

About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.

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Is Apple sure about Apple’s new Goggles? Plus Roger Bennett, Media Mogul Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

We’ve had questions about Apple’s new VR headset — supposedly set to debut in June — for some time. Starting with: Who’s going to pay $3,000 for these things, and what will they do with them? Turns out some Apple employees have the same questions — which is very unusual for a Big Deal Apple Debut, to say the very least. The NYT’s Tripp Mickle joins Vox’s Peter Kafka to explain. Then Peter checks in with Men In Blazers co-founder Roger Bennett, who is finally ready to talk about the business of running a soccer-mad digital media company, why niches are good, and his plans to scale up before the 2026 World Cup.

Featuring: Tripp Mickle (@trippmickle), Tech Reporter for the New York Times

Roger Bennett (@rogbennett), Co-Founder of Men In Blazers

Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode

About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.

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Podcast pioneer Jesse Thorn built his own business. Now his employees own it. Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

Jesse Thorn has been podcasting for so long it was called radio. Over time he turned his career into a business - Maximum Fun, a network of eclectic pop culture shows like Bullseye; My Brother, My Brother and Me; and Judge John Hodgman — and relied primarily on listener donations to fund it.

But, as Thorn tells Vox’s Peter Kafka, running a business was running him down, and he didn’t want to sell the company to a Spotify or Sirius.

So he found a unique solution: He turned Maximum Fun into a worker-owned co-op. That means Thorn still owns a piece of the company he built over two decades, but so do his former employees, who are now his co-workers. And he thinks other media companies can and should do this, too.

Featuring: Jesse Thorn (@JesseThorn), Founder of Maximum Fun

Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode

About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.

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An SVB (phew!) update + Benedict Evans on the future of (almost) everything Mar 16, 2023

Show notes

First: A Silicon Valley Bank check-in with Dan Primack of Axios. Why, exactly, did so many tech companies (and, um, media companies) bank with SVB, and what happens next?

Then, Peter Kafka has a great, wide-ranging conversation with tech analyst / thinkfluencer Benedict Evans. They talk about artificial intelligence, Amazon’s ad business (or whatever we should call it), YouTube’s place in the streaming wars, and what the metaverse and jetpacks have in common. Plus, cow hooves!

Featuring: Dan Primack (@danprimack), Business Editor at Axios

Benedict Evans (@benedictevans), Tech Analyst

Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode

About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.

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Science fiction pioneer Neal Stephenson on the metaverse, the movies and why he still believes in blockchain Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

Mark Zuckerberg wants to build the metaverse. Neal Stephenson created the meta verse three decades ago.

The author’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash popularized the use of the term “avatar” in a digital context, inspired the makers of Google Earth, and, of course, imagined (and named) the dystopian metaverse that Silicon Valley is racing to make a reality.

Stephenson has also tried his hand at actual science - helping Jeff Bezos build his private rocket ship business, and later working with Magic Leap at its fizzled AR goggles attempt. Now he’s trying his hand at the blockchain and says he’s not dissuaded by last year’s crypto crash. And if you act right now, you can bid on some of his real and digital goods at a Sotheby’s auction.

Stephenson talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about all of that, plus his failed (so far) attempts to turn his work into TV shows or movies, the future of VR, and why his vision of cautious optimism involves calamitous climate disasters.

Featuring: Neal Stephenson (@nealstephenson), Author

Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode

About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.

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