Channels with Peter Kafka

Daring Fireball founder and sole employee John Gruber talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about running a one-man media company. Gruber has been writing about Apple since 2002 but he estimates that his podcast — which started in 2013 — now represents half of Daring Fireball's revenue. He explains how he got into writing in the early days of web blogging and why he has opted to monetize his site by having only one sponsor per week. Gruber also chats about Steve Jobs's legacy, why he doesn't love the Apple Watch and the alleged influence of Apple's corporate team on his writing.

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The Wirecutter founder Brian Lam talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about creating a modern update to Consumer Reports that makes best-in-class buying recommendations across a range of products. He also discusses his previous life as editor in chief of Gawker's technology blog Gizmodo, which famously obtained and wrote about the iPhone 4 before it was released. That led to a testy phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who "really didn’t like losing that mini chess game," Lam says.

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Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker columnist and author of "The Tipping Point," talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about his new podcast, "Revisionist History." Gladwell thinks his new foray into audio will have a more emotional effect on listeners than his columns and books, because "you feel with your ears and you think with your eyes." He also discusses how he wandered into a job at the Washington Post in the 1980s and the proliferation of mass shootings in America, from Columbine to this week's tragic attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

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Sean Fennessey, the editor in chief of Bill Simmons's new site The Ringer, talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about the decisions that go into launching a media business in 2016. Fennessey reflects on the slow death of Grantland, the site Simmons launched under ESPN in 2011, and what the staff is trying to do differently this time. Among the many challenges facing The Ringer: Balancing fun with legitimacy, figuring out an online video strategy and trying not to sound too drunk.

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Duncan Jones, director of the new movie "Warcraft," talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about pleasing both gamers and non-gamers while adapting a popular video game to the big screen. He describes "Warcraft" as a spectacle that should be seen in theaters, but is already working on "Mute," a smaller-scale follow-up to his low-budget debut picture "Moon." Jones also reflects on the death of his father, David Bowie, and the current state of the digitally shifted movie business.

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Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about the challenges and opportunities for live music and events in 2016. He says concerts have changed dramatically in the past 10 years, becoming spectacles rather than just vehicles to sell records. Rapino also delves into why consumers hate Live Nation subsidiary Ticketmaster and how the company has tried to fight overseas bots that buy and scalp most tickets sold online.

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Jason Hirschhorn talks with Peter Kafka about his past jobs at Viacom, Dish Network and MySpace and at his new startup Redef. Expanding on the Redef Media email newsletter, which Hirschhorn started in 2006, Redef now has more than 50,000 subscribers in several industries, including music, fashion and sports. He also talks (in great detail) about his quadruple bypass surgery and how Redef's fans saved his life when his doctors were confounded by complications.

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Samantha Bee talks with Peter Kafka about leaving "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," launching her own late-night comedy show "Full Frontal" and what she's doing to make the new show unique. One of the priorities from day one, Bee says, was making a concerted effort to hire women, which has led to some standout stories. She also talks about the 2016 election and why comedy can't be decided by committee.

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"The Nightly Show" host Larry Wilmore talks about his instantly controversial roast at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. He mocked Brian Williams, Wolf Blitzer and Barack Obama, among many others, and not everyone was laughing. Wilmore also discusses Donald Trump's rise in the Republican Party and why he closed his WHCD speech by referring to the president as "my n---a."

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New York Times Magazine staff writer Jenna Wortham talks with Peter Kafka about covering the intersection of culture and technology at Wired magazine and then at the Times. Wortham has also pursued several side projects, including the journalism-as-live-performance show Pop-Up Magazine. She argues that today's journalists must constantly reinvent themselves and that there's value in zigging where others zag.

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"Veep" executive producer and New York magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich talks with Peter Kafka about the 2016 election, why he underestimated Bernie Sanders and what future candidates can learn from Hillary Clinton's gaffes and Donald Trump's larger-than-life persona. Formerly a theater critic and political columnist for the New York Times, Rich explains why he left the Times in 2011 and how he got involved with HBO. Plus: Other than "Hamilton," how is Broadway doing?

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Venture capitalist Hunter Walk, the co-founder of Homebrew, talks with Peter Kafka about his pre-investing career at Second Life, YouTube and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." He also joined Google in 2003, when the 1,000-employee company was only known for search and before it went public. He discusses why venture capitalists like him need to be patient; how YouTube started making money and paying its users; and why Vine, Instagram and Snapchat should follow YouTube's example.

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Dan Lyons, author of the new book "Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble," tells Peter Kafka how he came to work at a "cult-y" unicorn where "grown-up" meant anyone experienced enough to have worked somewhere else. He traces his career from Forbes Magazine, where he secretly created the satirical Internet personality Fake Steve Jobs, to Newsweek, HubSpot, ReadWrite and Gawker's Valleywag. Most recently, he's been a writer on HBO's hit comedy "Silicon Valley" and shares some behind-the-scenes stories.

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Refinery29 co-founder and co-CEO Philippe von Borries talks with Peter Kafka about how his company morphed from a New York-focused fashion guide to a globally recognized powerhouse with 150 million readers and followers online. He explains how Refinery29 created some of the Web's first native ads and argues that native advertising is the antidote to modern cynicism about traditional ads. Plus: Von Borries wants an end to over-generalizations about millennials.

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FiveThirtyEight founder and Editor in Chief Nate Silver talks with Peter Kafka about the 2016 election, and why his site was one of many that didn't see Donald Trump coming. He calls Trump a "demagogue" who has succeeded under extraordinary circumstances and says he has a 25 percent to 30 percent chance of winning the general election if he becomes the Republican nominee. Plus: The end of Grantland and why Silver loves the Golden State Warriors.

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Hearst Magazines' Troy Young talks with Peter Kafka about his efforts to unify the legacy media company's magazines under one digital strategy. He calls himself "incredibly optimistic" about the future of the medium as it moves away from monthly timelines and toward global, minute-to-minute activity. Young also breaks down what it took to create a successful channel for Cosmopolitan on Snapchat.

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"Better Call Saul" co-creator and Executive Producer Peter Gould talks with Peter Kafka about getting his first big break after the age of 40 on the hit AMC television show "Breaking Bad." Gould says that show and "Saul," its currently-airing prequel, might owe their existence to DVRs and the Internet. He explains how today's media consumption habits are changing the way premium TV shows get made.

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Co-founders of theSkimm Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin talk with Peter Kafka about how they built up an email newsletter that gets opened by 1.5 million people, and why they want more. TheSkimm's mission is to make its readers (predominantly young, educated women) more informed and engaged with brand partners, and Weisberg and Zakin explain why email is just one tool to do that.

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Yahoo sports columnist Adrian "Woj" Wojnarowski talks with Peter Kafka about how he left print journalism and why he's staying at Yahoo, even as the media giant cuts down on its other journalism efforts. He also explains why the NBA is perfect for the Internet and how he approaches the competitive, fast-paced world of reporting sports news.

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In this first episode of "Re/code Media with Peter Kafka," Peter sits down with David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker. Remnick has presided over the magazine for the past 17 years and built out a variety of digital offerings as the media world has been upturned. He talks about what makes those efforts work and why it's so important to preserve what The New Yorker is famous for.

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, Andrew Jarecki joins Peter Kafka to talk about the success of true-crime documentary series such as "Making a Murderer," "Serial" and the show he directed, "The Jinx." He also discusses his history in tech as the founder of MovieFone and a new application called KnowMe.

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, Starry CEO Chet Kanojia sits down with Peter Kafka to talk about his latest disruptive startup, which aims to attack broadband monopolies and duopolies by delivering high-speed consumer Internet over the air. He also discusses what the Supreme Court didn't understand about his last startup, Aereo.

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, Gawker Media founder Nick Denton and new board member Jason Epstein sit down with Peter Kafka to discuss the online media company's rapidly changing outlook. How will Gawker react to the growing power of Facebook? And will it be set back by an incoming invasion of privacy lawsuit?

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, BuzzFeed’s Executive Editor of News Shani Hilton talks with Peter Kafka about running the "real" news division of the much-talked-about new media company. She also discusses whether millennials need special news.

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, Mic CEO Chris Altchek talks with Peter Kafka about building a news site for millennials and the differences among news reading generations. He also discusses what Mic has learned in the past five years and why there's no silver bullet for social media success.

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger talks with Peter Kafka about bubble anxiety, mission-driven "benefit corporations" and why tech companies should be willing to work with the government to stop crime and terrorism.

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, Heleo CEO Rufus Griscom talks with Peter Kafka about trying to build a "BuzzFeed for brains" that can distribute Big Ideas to the broader Internet. He also talks about how much things have changed since he launched his first media startup, Nerve.com, in 1997.

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, Medium CEO Ev Williams talks with Peter Kafka about why writing on the Internet today is all about the platform. Plus: Why did Williams and the rest of Twitter's board seemingly change their minds about Jack Dorsey's eligibility to be CEO again?

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, the NFL's media czar Brian Rolapp talks with Peter Kafka about why a soon-to-be-auctioned set of games might (or might not) go to the Internet. Plus: What separates live sports from the rest of the TV business?

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, the NFL's media czar Brian Rolapp talks with Peter Kafka about why a soon-to-be-auctioned set of games might (or might not) go to the Internet. Plus: What separates live sports from the rest of the TV business?

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In an episode that originally aired on Recode Decode, CollegeHumor co-founder Ricky Van Veen talks with Peter Kafka about monetizing content on the Internet and why a lot of that content is moving to "old" platforms like TV. Plus: Who's more powerful, Rupert Murdoch or Mark Zuckerberg?

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