Source Code

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Crypto scams, paid vacations, and China exits Nov 07, 2021

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Ben Pimentel joins the show to talk about two cryptocurrencies that kind of seemed like scams — shiba inu coin and squid coin — and why one failed while the other became a $37 billion industry. Then, Michelle Ma explains why “flexible” vacation policies are actually making employees take less time off, and what companies are doing to change that. Finally, Shen Lu digs into why Big Tech companies are leaving China, and what it means for the global tech industry.

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For all the links and stories, head to Source Code’s homepage.

From the Facebook Papers to the metaverse Oct 31, 2021

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All Facebook, all the time! Issie Lapowsky joins the show to talk about what’s in the Facebook Papers, and what it’s like trying to report on them and understand how Facebook works. Then, Janko Roettgers discusses the company’s big rebranding — Facebook out, Meta in — and Mark Zuckerberg’s big-picture plans for the metaverse.

For more on the topics in this episode:

For all the links and stories, head to Source Code’s homepage.

The case for flying cars — and why they’re coming sooner than you think Oct 27, 2021

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Sebastian Thrun was one of the early pioneers of the self-driving car, and spent years working at Google and elsewhere to make autonomous vehicles a reality. Then he ditched the industry entirely and went for something even bigger: flying cars.

Except, wait, don’t call them flying cars. Thrun, now the CEO of Kitty Hawk, calls them “electric vertical takeoff and landing aircrafts,” or eVTOLs for short. (It’s not quite as catchy.) But whatever the name, Thrun is betting that they’ll be transformative. No more dealing with existing infrastructure and outdated systems, no more worrying about the human driver next to you. He imagines a fully autonomous, fully safe, much more environmentally friendly skyway system that doesn’t have to worry about terrestrial matters at all. And he’s convinced that’s all coming much faster than you might think.

Thrun joined the Source Code podcast to talk about the state of flying cars — sorry, eVTOLs — along with his vision for the future, what it’ll take to get there, why batteries are the bane of everyone’s existence, and whether he’s nervous to be the first human passenger inside Kitty Hawk’s latest vehicle, Heaviside.

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Facebook Files, PayPal and Pinterest, Netflix's rocky month, and productivity influencers Oct 24, 2021

Show notes

First, a brief update on the Facebook Files, as more stories start to come out. Then, Owen Thomas joins the show to discuss PayPal’s reported interest in acquiring Pinterest, and why that deal might actually make sense for both sides. Janko Roettgers then discusses the good, bad and complicated of Netflix’s last few weeks, before Lizzy Lawrence joins the show to talk about the world of productivity influencers.

For more on the topics in this episode:

For all the links and stories, head to Source Code’s homepage.

Why Coda thinks documents are the internet’s next big platform Oct 20, 2021

Show notes

The way Shishir Mehrotra sees it, digital documents haven’t really changed in 50 years. Since the days of WordStar, Harvard Graphics and VisiCalc, the basic idea of what makes up a document, presentation and spreadsheet haven’t really changed. Until now.

Now, thanks to companies like Coda — where Mehrotra is founder and CEO — along with Notion, Quip and others, that’s starting to change. These companies are building tools that can do multiple things in a single space, that are designed both for creating and for sharing, and that turn documents from “a piece of paper on a screen” into something much more powerful. And to hear Mehrotra tell it, documents are headed toward a future that looks more like an operating system than a Word file.

Mehrotra joined the Source Code podcast to talk about Coda’s recent announcements, the two-year project to rebuild its core technology, Coda’s future as a platform, and why he thinks documents can be much more than just documents going forward.

For more on the topics covered in this episode:

For all the links and stories, head to Source Code’s homepage.

Live: What's the future for smartphones? Oct 17, 2021

Show notes

A recording of a Protocol Live event, “Is there any innovation left in smartphones?” featuring Samsung’s Drew Blackard, The Cyrcle Phone’s Christina Cyr, and Purism’s Nicole Faerber. We talk about sustainability, cameras, batteries, right-to-repair, foldable screens, and much more.

To see the video of this event, or register for upcoming Protocol Lives, check out our events page.

How IPFS is building a new internet from the ground up Oct 13, 2021

Show notes

Molly Mackinlay loves the music app Audius, a decentralized tool that is trying to rethink the way artists own their music and interact with fans. She’s a big believer in NFTs, and is looking forward to a world where everything from houses to cars are sold and tracked through the tokens. And she’s definitely excited about the metaverse, as long as it’s “crazy and open and enables all sorts of creation, which doesn’t come from one single company running the metaverse.”

In her day job at Protocol Labs (no relation), Mackinlay spends her time building the infrastructure that will enable all of that. She oversees IPFS, the underlying protocol that could be the future of how data moves between devices, networks and even planets. It’s a job that requires wrangling thousands of developers and projects, prioritizing many different ideas about how the future of the internet should work, and trying to convince everyone to jump on board with the decentralization movement.

Mackinlay joined the Source Code podcast to discuss her vision for the future of the internet, what it takes to build an internet that never breaks or crashes, and the opportunities web3 holds for companies new and old, big and small.

For more on the topics discussed in this episode:

For all the links and stories, head to Source Code’s homepage.

Another bad week for Facebook Oct 10, 2021

Show notes

Issie Lapowsky and Ben Brody join the show to talk about the latest in a string of rough weeks for Facebook, including Frances Haugen’s Congressional testimony and Facebook’s surprisingly aggressive pushback.

For more on the topics discussed in this episode:

For all the links and stories, head to Source Code’s homepage.

Why Microsoft is convinced PCs aren’t dead yet Oct 06, 2021

Show notes

PCs are back. After years of what looked like a slow decline into nothingness, the pandemic — and the remote work, school and life it created — turned laptops and desktops into must-have devices. From MacBooks to Chromebooks, virtually everything in the PC category has seen huge growth during the pandemic even with a chip shortage making it hard for companies to keep up. Even computer monitors have never sold so fast.

Panos Panay has seen the spike more closely than most. As chief product officer at Microsoft, Panay oversees both the teams that make Microsoft’s Surface hardware and the teams that make Windows. For the last 18 months or so, Panay and his teams have been dogfooding those products like never before: “We design these products on these products,” he said, “which is very interesting.” For months, Panay has been going to his office on Microsoft’s Redmond campus only occasionally, to work in the hardware lab or do the occasional team catch-up. But for the most part, like everyone else, he’s been on video calls and in group chats all day like everyone else.

Suffice to say, that has changed how Panay thinks about Microsoft’s products, and how his teams built the latest versions. The plans for what would become Windows 11, which launched to the public on Monday, and for new products like the Surface Pro 8 and the Surface Laptop Studio had begun long before the pandemic started. But they changed, because the world changed. And Panay doesn’t think it’s going back. The big(ger) screen is here to stay.

For more on the topics discussed in this episode:

For all the links and stories, head to Source Code’s homepage.

Finsta hearings, EA games and Epic’s metaverse Oct 03, 2021

Show notes

Ben Brody and Issie Lapowsky join to talk about the most recent revelations from the Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files investigation, plus what we learned — or didn’t learn — from the most recent Congressional hearing with Facebook executives. Then, Nick Statt joins to talk about EA’s huge investment in a mobile future for the gaming industry, and how Epic sees the metaverse evolving.

For more on the topics discussed in this episode:

For all the links and stories, head to Source Code’s homepage.

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