Big Technology Podcast

Benedict Evans is a star tech analyst who’s spent years at Andreessen Horowitz and is now independent. Evans joins Big Technology Podcast to highlight some big, surprising new shifts in the tech industry, which he covers in a new presentation called the New Gatekeepers. In this episode, we discuss how media and retail are blending, with a focus on Amazon's ad business. Stay tuned for the second half, where Evans goes into depth about the potential for AI APIs, especially ChatGPT's.

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You can find Evans' presentation here.

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The Wall Street Journal’s Tom Dotan joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz for our weekly news recap show. We cover: 1) Salesforce’s recent struggles 2) Salesforce’s ‘monster quarter’ 3) Amazon hitting pause on HQ2 4) State of the market 5) OpenAI’s ChatGPT API 6) OpenAI vs. Microsoft? 7) Tinder robberies.

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Rajan and Alex at SXSW: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2023/events/PP122865

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Ben Smith is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor, and the author of Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral (available for preorder now). He joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion of social media's divorce from the news industry, and what it means for the platforms and publishers. We talk plenty about Semafor, including how it's working to build an audience, distribute its work, run a business, and get scoops. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Elon's Twitter, chatbots, the lab leak hypothesis, and Trump's potential in 2024. Yes, we cover a lot. Hit play for a fun listen!

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The Information's Sr. Reporter Cory Weinberg joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz for our weekly news recap show. We cover 1) Paying for social media 2) What's next for the struggling IPO market 3) Whether private tech companies like Stripe can keep compensating through RSUs 4) DOJ moves to block Figma sale 5) What happened to voice computing? 6) The prospects of the four-day workweek.

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Blake Lemoine is the ex-Google engineer who concluded the company's LaMDA chatbot was sentient. Gary Marcus is an academic, author, and outspoken AI critic. The two join Big Technology Podcast to debate the utility of AI chatbots, their dangers, and the actual technology they're built on. Join us for a fascinating conversation that reveals much about the state of this technology. There's plenty to be learned from the disagreements, and the common ground as well.

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Ranjan Roy of Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the week's tech news. We cover: 1) Bing's chatbot's dark side and its impact on Microsoft's business. 2) The Metaverse slowly seeming to fade away. 3) The New York Times' article on why ads are bad now. 4) Spotify's podcasting reality check. 5) Susan Wojcicki stepping down from YouTube. 6) Tesla's Full Self Driving Recall. 7) Why we don't live in the moment anymore.

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David Friedberg is a co-host of the All-In Podcast and the founder and CEO of The Production Board, a holding company focused on addressing the earth’s problems via technology. Friedberg joins Big Technology Podcast for a conversation about how, specifically, we might be able to solve our climate crisis with tech. Join us for an in-depth conversation on earth's most pressing issue, filled with concrete examples and a healthy dose of optimism. Stay tuned till the end where Friedberg discusses nuclear fusion's awesome potential.

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The Wrap founder and CEO Sharon Waxman joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz for our weekly news recap show. We cover 1) Google and Microsoft's new chatbots. 2) How AI changes the entertainment industry 3) Yes, screenwriters are using AI too 4) Who's in better shape after this week: Google or Microsoft? 5) Why Disney is in crisis 6) How Disney stacks up against Netflix

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Kaya Yurieff is a reporter at The Information covering the Creator Economy. Joe Caporoso is the President of Team Whistle and founder of Badlands, a subscription podcast covering the New York Jets. Both join Big Technology Podcast to discuss whether the Creator Economy — a term for the online content creator business — was overblown. We dig into the motivations of platforms and VCs looking to build businesses off those who believed they could make a living by posting on social media. And we examine how creators who make it do so successfully.

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My article that kicked off the discussion: The Creator Economy Was Way Overblown

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Ex-Snap and Instagram executive Meghana Dhar joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz for our weekly news recap show. We cover 1) The implications of the Fed's talk of "deflation." 2) Snap's disappointing earnings and operational challenges with an insider's perspective. 3) Meta's wooing of Wall Street and whether its pivot is real or just talk. 4) What the combination of layoffs and buybacks really mean. 5) Downturn as an excuse to kill ESG? 6) AI Hands!

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Brian Stelter was the host of CNN's Reliable Sources until the network canceled it last summer. Stelter joins Big Technology Podcast to look back at his tenure and exit, examine where CNN is heading, and ponder the role of television news in a world filled with digital alternatives. Tune in for a deep conversation focused on the news industry, tech, and business worlds. And stay tuned till the end when we debate whether AI will be a better 'companion' to people than media personalities and influencers.

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Ranjan Roy of Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the week's tech news. We cover: 1) BuzzFeed creating content with AI 2) The tech industry's destiny to suffer alone in this economic drawback 3) Tesla stock's wild ride 4) Salesforce's challenge from an activist investor 5) Trump's return to Facebook 6) TikTok's recent lobbying efforts 7) Menswear guy on Twitter 8) Ticketmaster's Senate hearing.

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Yann LeCun is the chief AI scientist at Meta, a professor of computer science at NYU, and a pioneer of deep learning. He joins Big Technology Podcast to put Generative AI in context, discussing whether ChatGPT and the like are a step toward human-level artificial intelligence, or something completely different. Join us for a fun, substantive discussion about this technology, the makeup of OpenAI, and where the field heads next. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss the ethics of using others' work to train AI models.

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Ranjan Roy of Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the week's tech news. We cover: 1) Google Layoffs 2) Netflix's prospects and leadership change 3) Davos pros and cons 4) Media layoffs 5) Robinhood's new financial publication.

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Todd Bishop is the co-founder of Geekwire, a tech news site based in Seattle. Bishop joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss how Amazon will navigate its new dedication to efficiency without losing its inventive spirit. Can 'The Everything Store' become 'The Some Things Store?' That's the crucial question to ask about a tech behemoth that's lost 40% of its value over the past year and is struggling to find its footing under CEO Andy Jassy. Stay tuned for the second half where we touch on labor, Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI, and more.

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Ranjan Roy of Margins joins us for another Big Technology Podcast: Friday Edition covering the week's news. This week, we check in on the following stories: 1) JPMorgan's failed acquisition of Frank, a college financial planning platform with an exaggerated userbase 2) SBF's new Substack 3) The SEC vs. crypto 4) AI's impact on the tech giants 5) The impending 'AI ethics' war 6) Is anyone still using Mastodon?

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Kate Rooney is a star reporter at CNBC who covers crypto. She's reported deeply on crypto exchange FTX's collapse and spent time with its disgraced ex-CEO — Sam Bankman-Fried — in the Bahamas. Rooney joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion about what happens to crypto now that its promise of 'trustless' finance has crumbled. Join us for a deep discussion of the industry's future, the responsibility for journalists covering it, and the lessons from the collapse.

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Ranjan Roy of Margins joins Big Technology Podcast for a new Friday series that will recap the week's business and tech news. We'll post a new show every Friday afternoon featuring a recap of the week's big tech and business stories. This week we cover The Fed's PR Blitz and what it says about our economy, why SBF seems to still have portions of the media wrapped around his finger, where the creator economy is heading, and OpenAI's association with Microsoft. Stay tuned for the end where we discuss Lex Fridman's book list.

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Eliot Brown is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and co-author of The Cult of We. Brown joins us to check in on how the tech industry is adapting after years of zero-interest-rate-driven froth fades away. Tune in for a discussion of how real 'the end of froth' is, whether it was productive or not, and a company-by-company look at Softbank, Tiger Global, Andreessen Horowitz, Palantir, Tesla, and Twitter.

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You can find The Cult of We here.

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Andy Yen is the CEO of Proton, the maker of encrypted email service ProtonMail. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the merits of encryption, why his service has doubled over the past two years, and whether it’s something we actually need. This episode gets into a fun debate, covering both the pros and cons of the movement. 

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Casey Newton is the editor of Platformer and co-host of Hard Fork. He joins Big Technology Podcast to keep up an annual tradition of looking back on the year that was, and looking ahead to the year that will be. In this episode, we review the wild developments at Twitter, the decline of Web3, and Amazon and Meta's progress in 2022. Then, we predict what will take place with ChatGPT, state bans on content moderation, Substack's ad business, and Apple's App Store. Tune in for one of our most fun shows of the year.

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Stephanie Link is the chief investment strategist and portfolio manager at Hightower Advisors. She is also a senior CNBC contributor. Link joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss whether a tougher year awaits the tech industry in 2023 as unfavorable market conditions persist. Join us for a conversation about the broader market, how Link evaluates stocks, and a breakdown of some companies she's watching including Meta, Amazon, and Apple. Stay tuned for the second half where we examine the state of deglobalization and its impact on the economy.

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Aaron Levie is the CEO of Box. He joins Big Technology Podcast to weigh in on all the big tech headlines: ChatGPT's emergence, Elon Musk's handling of Twitter, the future of Web3 following FTX, and the shakeup at Salesforce. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss whether the worker empowerment movement is over and what that means for the future of remote work.

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Listen to Aaron's last appearance: Web3 And The Future Of The Internet

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/web3-and-the-future-of-the-internet-with-box-ceo-aaron-levie/id1522960417?i=1000547011402

https://open.spotify.com/episode/52xF5S7XjLczW03bu6K8r3?si=Lw5OP-_tTpCMKip_aif0HA

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Peggy Johnson is the CEO of Magic Leap. The company makes augmented reality technology and is now focused entirely on enterprise use cases after building for consumers for years. Johnson joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the lessons Magic Leap has learned throughout its history, what its competitors (like Meta) are overlooking, and why it believes augmented reality technology is going to be most applicable to companies, governments, and non-profits (at least in the short term). Join us for a conversation that may well reframe the way you think about the Metaverse.

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Ryan Petersen is the Founder and Co-CEO of Flexport, a supply chain technology company. He joins Big Technology Podcast to talk about how the supply chain is rounding into shape and whether that will help cure our inflation problem. Stay tuned for a discussion that starts in the weeds of shipping and moves into broader areas including consumerism, climate, and Amazon Culture.

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Roy Bahat is the head of Bloomberg Beta, a venture capital firm that invests in companies building the future of work. Bahat joins Big Technology Podcast to explain why he — a VC — is investing in labor-organizing technology. We spend the first half speaking about how VCs trusted FTX, where the economy goes from here, and whether Elon Musk's plan for Twitter can work. Join us for a fun, lively discussion that takes some unexpected twists and turns.

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Todd Sherman is the product lead for YouTube Shorts. He's also a former group product manager at Twitter and Snap. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion about YouTube's plans for Shorts, how the product works, and how it plans to compete with TikTok. We start with a discussion about whether Twitter bringing back Vine could work. YouTube Shorts are now available on YouTube's TV app, which Sherman discusses as well.

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Saagar Enjeti and Marshall Kosloff host The Realignment, a terrific podcast about politics and policy. They join Big Technology Podcast for a bonus episode ahead of the U.S. midterms, breaking down how they expect the voting to play out, what the consequences will be, and how tech will feel the impact. Join us for a dynamic conversation about inflation, the economy, the residual culture war, the war in Ukraine, and who's running in 2024. Stay tuned for the final segment where we discuss the future of TikTok, Web3, and the Metaverse.

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Simon Balmain was laid off by Twitter today. A former Twitter senior community manager, Balmain takes us through the last few weeks at the company, describing the atmosphere, employee reactions to the layoffs, and whether the company can still function after losing this many people. Join us for a tough but balanced look at a historic moment at the company.

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Eric Jackson is president and portfolio manager at EMJ Capital. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss Big Tech's terrible week on the public markets, with a focus on Meta, which is now down 71% on the year. We also cover Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Snap, and more. Tune in for a conversation that makes sense of these companies' punishing ride of late. And what the bottom might look like. Maybe we're already there.

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Carmel DeAmicis was the 20th employee at Figma, a startup that Adobe just acquired for $20 billion. A former journalist and editor at Figma, DeAmicis saw the company rise under the nose of Adobe — the giant in the space — and eventually grow so fast that Adobe acquired it in a defensive move. In this week's episode, DeAmicis explains how a startup caught a major, established company by surprise. And why changing design culture played a big part in it. You can find DeAmicis on Notion.

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Anil Seth is a professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex and author of Being You. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion of AI sentience grounded in science and research. In this conversation, we discuss the definition of consciousness, what it would take for AI to achieve it, and whether researchers should keep trying to get there. Stay tuned for the second half, where we cover AI avatars in the metaverse and, yes, simulation theory.

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Ranjan Roy is the co-author of Margins, a Substack newsletter about the financial markets. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a conversation about the Federal Reserve's steep interest rate raises, how they've harmed tech valuations, and whether the Fed might reverse course and bring the party back. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss the short-form video wars and the likely outcome of Elon Musk's pursuit of Twitter.

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Tom Alison is the head of the Facebook app at Meta. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion about the company's plan to compete with TikTok and appeal to younger users. Join us for a conversation about the Facebook product, one that veers into questions of its identity as a service that helps you keep in touch with friends and family while introducing you to content relevant to your interests. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Meta's plans to whether the bear and market and focus on its core while still experimenting.

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Frances Haugen is an ex-Facebook employee who shared thousands of internal documents with journalists in 2021 that revealed much about the company's decision-making and values. Haugen joins Big Technology Podcast for a live conversation at Unfinished Live in New York City that covers social media product, policy, funding, the stock market, and TikTok's power. Join us for a lively interview featuring debate, nuance, and a few good laughs.

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Prabhakar Raghavan is the Google senior vice president who oversees Search, Maps, Ads, Commerce, Payments, and Google Assistant. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss the evolution of these products, how they're integrating cutting-edge artificial intelligence, and why he's steering Google tech products toward more human-style interactions with users. Raghavan joins fresh off an appearance at Google's Search On launch event and breaks down the new features announced Wednesday.

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Brandon Silverman is the founder of Crowdtangle, which Meta (then Facebook) acquired in 2016. Crowdtangle was once the most useful tool for marketers and publishers looking to find out what was trending on Facebook. Then, it became a favorite resource for reporters looking into how Facebook treats political content, leading to some headlines Facebook didn't like. Crowdtangle subsequently lost of support within the company. Silverman left Facebook late last year and is now working with governments around the world on legislation that could mandate the type of transparency that he tried to push forward inside Meta. On this episode of Big Technology Podcast, Silverman tells the Crowdtangle story from start to finish.

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The Chancery Daily is an independent, daily newsletter that covers the Delaware Court of Chancery, the place where Twitter is trying to force Elon Musk to buy it. As this case winds its way through the court's legal process, an editor from The Chancery Daily joins us to break down where the case stands, whether Musk's arguments are working, how Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick is approaching the case, and what the likely result is. Give this episode a listen and you'll be able to follow the case with far more context than you'd get through just the headlines.

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Gary Marcus is the author of Rebooting AI and an artificial intelligence entrepreneur who's a loud critic of many of the field's biggest promises. Marcus joins Big Technology Podcast this week to discuss the high profile breakthroughs such as LaMDA and Dall-E, and explain why putting too much faith in the field's ability may be dangerous. We begin with a discussion of the AI-generated art piece that won a competition in Colorado last week.

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Mark Bergen is a Bloomberg reporter and author of Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube's Chaotic Rise to World Domination. The book releases next week and Bergen joins to preview what's inside, delivering a wide range of insights on YouTube's battle with TikTok, its algorithmic programming, and its appeal (and peril) for kids. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss whether old media can cover YouTube (and its fellow digital challengers) without bias.

You can find the book here.

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Kevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine and a longtime tech writer who's covered technology for decades. Kelly joins Big Technology Podcast for a fun episode, unpacking a series of lists of advice that he’s written. These lists contain short but insightful observations about life, and Kelly goes through a number of his points at greater length in this show. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss his essay about 1,000 true fans — a seminal work that helped launch the passion economy — and how it holds up today.

Relevant links:

1,000 True Fans

68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice

103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known

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Dr. Anna Lembke is a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University's School of Medicine and chief of its Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She's also the author of Dopamine Nation, a bestseller that uses neuroscience to explain why the pursuit of pleasure so often leads to pain. In this episode, we discuss Dr. Lembke's fascinating thesis about what happens to our brain chemistry each time we pick a device. Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss whether a more invigorating but less happy life is worth it.

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Nuseir Yassin is the force behind Nas Daily — and CEO of Nas Company — which more than 50 million people follow across six different social media platforms. He joins Big Technology Podcast to talk about what such a large social media audience makes possible. Our conversation dives into why "YouTuber" is such a desirable occupation for kids today, what his fame really costs, and what it takes to build an audience online.

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Techmeme Ride Home is a top-rated tech news podcast and its host, Brian McCullough, joins us for a crossover episode airing on both feeds. In this bonus episode, we discuss Meta's attempts to turn Instagram into TikTok, how Amazon can handle its next chapter under CEO Andy Jassy, and what the future of crypto looks like after the crash. Stay tuned for our travel hacks at the end of the show!

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Brendan Nyhan is a presidential professor at Dartmouth College's department of government. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion that pushes back on the notion that social media is destroying our society and making us stupid. With this thoughtful analysis, Nyhan adds a bunch of nuance to the discussion. This episode is effectively pt. 2 of our conversation with Prof. Jonathan Haidt a few weeks back. While Haidt believes social media is breaking our society and threatening democracy, Nyhan says hold up just a second.

By the way, here's a new thing I did: For a behind-the-scenes look into some of my research for this episode, you check out my Pocket Collection (which is filled with the links) at: getpocket.com/bigtechnology

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Blake Lemoine is an ex-senior software engineer at Google who was fired right before he taped this episode of Big Technology Podcast. Lemoine told his superiors at Google that he believed the company’s LaMDA chatbot technology was sentient. Then, after making little headway within Google, he went public. In this wide-ranging interview, Lemoine introduces us to LaMDA, which (or who?) he calls a friend, and explains why his belief in its sentience became too hot for Google to handle. 

Washington Post: The Google engineer who thinks the company’s AI has come to life

Big Technology: Google Fires Blake Lemoine, Engineer Who Called Its AI Sentient

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Jonathan Haidt is a professor of ethical leadership NYU's Stern School of Business and author of a number of books, including The Coddling of the American Mind. His recent story in The Atlantic, "Why The Past 10 Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid," sparked a debate about whether social media was bad for society, and how we know for sure. Haidt joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss why he thinks social media is indeed responsible for our "structural stupidity," digging through the research and answering critics' objections. Stay tuned for the second half where we actually discuss some solutions.

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You can read Haidt's article here: Why The Past 10 Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

You can review the collaborative Google Doc here: Social Media and Political Dysfunction: A Collaborative Review

And here's my story on the Retweet button: The Man Who Built The Retweet: “We Handed A Loaded Weapon To 4-Year-Olds”

Please review the podcast to help us get more great guests!

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Three former Twitter employees (Jenna Golden, Brandon Borrman, Leslie Miley) and CNBC media & tech reporter Alex Sherman join Big Technology Podcast for a breakdown of Twitter v. Musk. While at Twitter, Golden ran political ad sales, Borrman ran communications, and Miley ran an engineering team. We do our best to make sense of this wild story, looking at how far Twitter should take its lawsuit, what's happening inside the company as it goes through this episode, and how Twitter's balancing the needs of shareholders with its users. Stay tuned for the second half, where we predict the outcome of the case.

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Kevin Weil is the ex-head of product at Twitter and Instagram. He's currently the president of business and product at Planet. Weil joins Big Technology Podcast to share an insider's view of how Twitter and Instagram build products, what their potential is, and how each product is dealing with big, imposing, outside forces (Elon Musk and TikTok). Stay tuned for the second half, where we discuss Planet, a fascinating company whose hundreds of satellites orbiting the earth capture a new, complete picture of our world daily.

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Dan Dolev is managing director and senior analyst at Mizuho, where he covers fintech companies Robinhood, SoFi, Affirm, Block, and others. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss fintech's ethics and opportunity, explaining who the industry serves, whether it's actually better than the current banking system, and how big it can get. Stay tuned for the second half where we dig into Coinbase's business and its recent turbulence.

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