Decoder with Nilay Patel

Latest Episodes:

Black Software author on technology’s role in racial justice Feb 09, 2021

Show notes

In this episode of Decoder, Nilay sits down with Charlton McIlwain, a professor of media, culture, and communications at NYU and the author of Black Software, to talk about Black Lives Matter, Twitter, Online Communities, and Policing.

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Venture Capitalism isn’t just for Venture Capitalists, with Arlan Hamilton Feb 01, 2021

Show notes

Nilay Patel talks with venture capitalist Arlan Hamilton. Arlan founded VC fund Backstage Capital in 2015 and focuses on investing in “underestimated founders,” many of whom are people of color, women and LGBTQ. They discuss the importance of representation in tech and business, how the VC world works, and why Arlan is hopeful about the future at Backstage.

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The SolarWinds hack: cyber attacks and national security with Reuters reporter Joseph Menn Jan 26, 2021

Show notes

The Verge's Nilay Patel is joined by Joseph Menn, a cybersecurity reporter at Reuters and author of the new book Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World. Nilay and Joseph talk about a very big problem in US cybersecurity today: the SolarWinds hack.

In December, it was reported that a group of hackers, likely from the Russian government, had gotten into SolarWinds, a dominant player in network management software, and then used that access to breach everything from Microsoft to the US government.

The story is part of a back-and-forth game of hacking the United States and its rivals that have been escalating for years. Pay attention to how quickly this conversation with Joseph becomes about really big issues like how deeply our military and security agencies should be integrated with private company security. There aren’t a lot of easy answers here, but it’s clear that change is coming with the Biden administration.

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Marques Brownlee on how to scale MKBHD while being the face of the YouTube brand Jan 22, 2021

Show notes

Nilay Patel talks with Marques Brownlee (MKBHD on YouTube) about building a business as a YouTuber, how content creators make money, and how to scale when you are the brand.

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Instagram’s Adam Mosseri on the future of Reels, moderation, and the responsibility of social media platforms Jan 19, 2021

Show notes

The Verge's Nilay Patel talks with head of Instagram Adam Mosseri about how to run a creative platform like Instagram at scale while keeping users — and democracy — safe, how much responsibility the platforms have for what their algorithms promote, and, of course, Instagram's products like Reels, Stories, and IGTV.

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Trump, Twitter, and the First Amendment, with platform moderation expert Daphne Keller Jan 12, 2021

Show notes

In the aftermath of the pro-Trump attack on the Capitol, many online platforms, including both Twitter and Facebook, banned President Trump. In this week’s episode, Nilay Patel talks with regulation expert and law professor Daphne Keller, about a big problem: how to moderate what happens on the internet.

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The business of meatless meat with Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown Dec 22, 2020

Show notes

Today’s episode is with Beyond Meat founder and CEO Ethan Brown. Nilay and Ethan discuss how the company is doing since its IPO in 2019 and how they are fairing during the pandemic. The food supply chain has seen significant impact during COVID and there has been an increased demand for plant-based proteins during the pandemic, with meat shortages and more people cooking at home. They also talk about how Beyond Meat is structured, how they are different from other competitors in the market, and what’s next from the company.

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How the @!#$ does advertising work, with Cadillac CMO Melissa Grady Dec 15, 2020

Show notes

Advertising is a huge part of the economy and something we all experience everyday through various mediums. In this episode, Nilay Patel talks with Cadillac CMO Melissa Grady about how advertising has been reinvented by technology — from data-driven insights to new social media platforms to the role of influencers in marketing. They also unpack how modern advertising works and where it's headed in the future.

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Can Substack CEO Chris Best build a new model for journalism? Dec 08, 2020

Show notes

Nilay Patel talks to Chris Best, cofounder and CEO of Substack, the subscription newsletter startup that’s taken the media industry by storm over the past few months.

The conversation explores how Substack's business model could potentially impact the media industry, but also dives into the basic questions about running a media company -- how Substack makes money, how it’s going to scale while offering additional services to writers, like legal protection, and, of course, content moderation.

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Alamo Drafthouse CEO Shelli Taylor on going back to the movies Dec 01, 2020

Show notes

On this episode of Decoder, Nilay talks with Shelli Taylor, the CEO of Alamo Drafthouse. Shelli stepped into her new role as CEO during the pandemic.

In this conversation, Nilay and Shelli discuss the steps she had to take to get her company back on solid ground — including justifying high fixed costs of expensive lightbulbs — and how the government has failed to manage the pandemic effectively for business owners. They also talk about what it will take to safely reopen theaters and what the future looks like, especially in the streaming age.

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