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Decoder

Decoder is a show from The Verge about big ideas – and other problems. Verge Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel talks to a diverse cast of innovators and policy makers at the frontiers of business and technology to reveal how they’re navigating an ever-changing landscape, what keeps them up at night, and what it all means for our shared future. Subscribe here!

Prediction markets are playing a dangerous game
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Kalshi and Polymarket are cosplaying as the news, even as gambling on Iran, Venezuela, and nuclear war runs rampant.

Nilay Patel
Zillow’s CEO on growing the company during a housing crisis
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Jeremy Wacksman on affordability, AI in listings, and the future of real estate.

Nilay Patel
Xbox is in danger. Will Microsoft fix it or kill it?
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Tom Warren joins Decoder to discuss what Phil Spencer’s departure means for the future of Xbox.

Nilay Patel
Hank Green will gladly take billionaire money for education videos
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The former Complexly owner lets loose on YouTube, AI, and why he turned his educational company into a nonprofit.

Nilay Patel
Money no longer matters to AI’s top talent
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The AI industry is rife with defections, FOMO, and radical mission statements. It’s about to get supercharged.

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
What is Ring’s Search Party feature really for?

A new report from 404 Media today featured a leaked email from Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, who leads the camera maker inside Amazon, saying back in October that he has grander ambitions for the company’s controversial Search Party feature beyond just finding lost dogs.

We had Siminoff on Decoder a few months ago, when I asked him explicitly about using facial recognition to identify people, something the company has since claimed it has no plans to do. Check out what he had to say in the clip below.

Let’s talk about Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state
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The security camera maker’s Search Party feature, advertised during the Super Bowl, has sparked a surveillance backlash.

Nilay Patel
The surprising case for AI judges
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Bridget McCormack of the American Arbitration Association on AI-powered courts and the future of law.

Nilay Patel
Siemens CEO Roland Busch’s mission to automate everything
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Roland Busch on AI-powered factories, tariffs in the Trump era, trade, and the future of NATO.

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Why does Docusign employ 7,000 people?

We interviewed Docusign CEO Allan Thygesen on Decoder this week, and one standout moment was when I asked Allan about his headcount. Docusign now employs around 7,000 people, which is a staggering number of employees for a company with a core product many think of as straightforward and simple.

But as you’ll hear Allan explain, the business of Docusign is actually quite a bit more complex than it appears, and he says the company needs a lot more people than you might think.

Reality is losing the deepfake war
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Why you can’t label your way into consensus reality amid the AI deepfake apocalypse.

Nilay Patel
Docusign’s CEO on the dangers of trusting AI to read, and write, your contracts
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Docusign’s Allan Thygesen says ‘not providing an AI service isn’t really an option.’

Nilay Patel
Netflix is eating Hollywood — because it has to
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What the bidding war over Warner Bros. Discovery says about the future of Hollywood, with Puck’s Julia Alexander.

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
“We’re not Palantir.”

Alex Lintner, Experian’s CEO of tech and software solutions, came on Decoder this week. When I asked Alex whether he thought the average person likes Experian as a company, he gave me one of the most memorable answers we’ve ever gotten. Check out the clip below, and catch the full interview here on The Verge.

Experian’s tech chief defends credit scores: ‘We’re not Palantir’
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Alex Lintner, head of tech for the global credit reporting company, on AI, privacy, and what data brokerages really do.

Nilay Patel
Why nobody’s stopping Grok
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How Elon Musk and xAI are putting a nail in the coffin of content moderation.

Nilay Patel
Gamers will learn to love AI, says Razer CEO
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Razer’s Min-Liang Tan says the backlash to AI slop is understandable, but that he sees a future where AI can “help game developers make better games.”

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Watch Hank Green interview Dropout CEO Sam Reich.

We’ve got something special for you today. It’s my friend Hank Green, longtime internet creator, science educator, and viral TikTok star, interviewing Dropout CEO Sam Reich, now in full video on our Decoder YouTube channel.

Hank did this episode as a guest host last summer while I was out with our new baby, and it’s a fan favorite, bringing together two internet personalities that’ve known each other for a very long time and who have a lot of inside knowledge about how the internet, Hollywood, and entertainment all intertwine. We think it’s one of the best episodes of Decoder we put out last year, and it’s honestly just a really fun conversation. Here’s the full transcript in case you want to read, rather than watch, the interview.

Kara Verlaney
Kara Verlaney
Hang with The Verge at CES!

If you’re in Vegas this week, you can still RSVP for free tickets to our live podcast recordings on Wednesday, January 7th, at Brooklyn Bowl. Decoder will begin at 12:30PM PT, and Vergecast starts at 3:30PM PT. Both events are first-come, first-seated, and sure to be a blast. We’ll also be hosting a special reception following The Vergecast for all seated guests.

You can RSVP for Decoder here, and RSVP for Vergecast here. See you there!

Nick Statt
Nick Statt
Decoder will be live at CES 2026 with Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan.

The event takes place starting at 12PM PT / 3PM ET at Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas on Wednesday, January 7th. Nilay will be taking the stage with Min at 12:30PM to talk AI, the state of gaming, and everything Razer is announcing at the show, followed by a live Vergecast taping at 3:30PM PT.

If you’ll be in Vegas for the show, you can RSVP at the link below for free tickets. Otherwise, stay tuned for the Decoder Live recording to hit our pod feed and YouTube channel later in the month.

‘All chaos and panic’: Nilay answers your burning Decoder questions
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The year AI exploded — and everybody has thoughts about it.

Kate Cox and Nick Statt
Stack Overflow users don’t trust AI. They’re using it anyway
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CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar on how ChatGPT became an “existential moment” for Stack Overflow.

Nilay Patel
Sen. Ed Markey wants media to fight for the First Amendment
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“Grow up, Mr. President. Grow up, Brendan Carr.”

Nilay Patel
Square’s product chief on the death of the penny and the future of money
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Square’s Willem Avé on AI automation, investing in crypto, and what it’s like working for Jack Dorsey.

Nilay Patel
Anthropic’s quest to study the negative effects of AI is under pressure
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The Verge’s Hayden Field joins Decoder to discuss the politically fraught climate around AI safety.

Nilay Patel
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says there is no AI bubble after all
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IBM was early, you might argue too early, to AI. Now, CEO Arvind Krishna thinks big bets like Watsonx and quantum computing will start to pay off.

Nilay Patel
The DoorDash Problem: How AI browsers are a huge threat to Amazon
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Amazon’s lawsuit against Perplexity has blown the doors open on the great AI browser fight.

Nilay Patel
Ring’s Jamie Siminoff thinks AI can reduce crime
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Ring’s ‘chief inventor’ on AI, lost dogs, and why cameras aren’t dystopian.

Nilay Patel
The company at the heart of the AI bubble
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The Nvidia-backed data center company is part of a growing ecosystem of so-called neoclouds propping up the AI industry and its insatiable hunger for compute.

Nilay Patel
Sir Tim Berners-Lee doesn’t think AI will destroy the web
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The inventor of the World Wide Web on why he’s still optimistic about the future of the internet.

Nilay Patel
How AI is fueling an existential crisis in education
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The system is broken. ChatGPT cheating is just a symptom.

Nilay Patel
Lyft CEO David Risher on paying drivers more and the shift to robotaxis
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Risher sees Lyft as a service company above all, but AI makes everything weird.

Nilay Patel
How Silicon Valley enshittified the internet
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Enshittification author Cory Doctorow on why things get worse, and how to fight back.

Sarah Jeong
LexisNexis CEO says the AI law era is already here
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Sean Fitzpatrick promises his AI won’t get you in trouble with a judge.

Nilay Patel
Why GM will give you Gemini — but not CarPlay

GM CEO Mary Barra and new Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson on the company’s plans for AI, autonomy, and EVs.

Nilay Patel
Nick Statt
Nick Statt
Decoder is now a video podcast.

We’re very excited to announce that Decoder is now officially on YouTube. So if you prefer to watch and not just listen to your podcasts, you can head over to youtube.com/@decoderpod and subscribe to our new channel, where we’ll post new full-length interviews every Monday.

Our first episode, featuring Zocdoc CEO Oliver Kharraz onstage at the TechFutures conference in New York City, is available now. Check it out, like and subscribe, and tell us what you think.

Zocdoc CEO: ‘Dr. Google is going to be replaced by Dr. AI’

Oliver Kharraz on competition, healthcare, and where AI really belongs in medicine.

Nilay Patel
The EV tax credit is gone — now the hard part begins

Guest host Jake Kastrenakes and transportation editor Andy Hawkins discuss the death of the federal EV tax credit and what it means for US automakers.

Jacob Kastrenakes
Nick Statt
Nick Statt
Decoder just won gold at the Signal Awards.

Hey folks, we want to say thank you to everyone who has listened to and supported Decoder, which won a gold award for best business podcast at the annual Signal Awards. And now, Verge subscribers can listen to Decoder totally ad free! Check out this guide on how to set that up. And remember, we really do read every email.