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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!

How Ciena keeps the internet online, with CEO Gary Smith

One of the biggest tech companies you’ve never heard of is helping you listen to this podcast.

Nilay Patel
How Meta’s MAGA heel turn is a play for global power

Law professor Kate Klonick explains what Big Tech’s Trump appeasement is really about.

Nilay Patel
Why CEO Matt Garman is willing to bet AWS on AI

AWS chief Matt Garman says Amazon is already seeing the benefits of its massive AI investments.

Nilay Patel
Answering your biggest Decoder questions

Our end-of-year special, featuring guest Nilay Patel.

Nick Statt and Kate Cox
Tech antitrust is about to get really weird

President-elect Donald Trump’s second term is a regulatory wild card hanging over Big Tech.

Nilay Patel
Arm CEO Rene Haas on the AI chip race, Intel, and what Trump means for tech

The head of the ubiquitous chip design firm on the ‘breathtaking’ pace of AI.

Alex Heath
Platforms need the news — but they’re killing it

Media critic Matt Pearce on ‘Lessons on media policy at the slaughter-bench of history’

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Reverse acquihires in... the grilling industry?

It’s not just big tech companies finding confusing new ways to merge — Weber just announced that it’s “combining” with the Blackstone griddle company, and that Blackstone founder and CEO Rager Dahle will become the new CEO of the combined company when all is said and done.

Roger was on Decoder in 2021 talking about how he’d started the company in 2015 and what it was like as his griddles — and the smashburgers you can make on them — started going viral on TikTok during the pandemic. We’ve been interviewing grill company CEOs nearly every summer since — they are some of the most interesting episodes we do.

Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman says conversational AI is the next web browser

The company’s new AI chief on working for Microsoft, the OpenAI relationship, and when superintelligence might actually arrive.

Nilay Patel
Why investors don’t mind that AI is a money pit

AI investment is massive even though AI profits are not. How are investors justifying this pricey gamble on the future?

Alex Heath
GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani on the enduring power of the website

Despite everything, websites are still a pretty neat idea — but what if AI builds them?

Nilay Patel
How Trump’s second term could be bad for EVs — but great for Tesla

What Elon Musk really wants from a Trump presidency.

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Here’s our Decoder episode with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber.

The federated Twitter competitor is heating up this week as people flee X — it just crossed 15m users and is currently the top app in the US iOS App Store. CEO Jay Graber was on Decoder earlier this year, talking about Bluesky’s approach to federation, “composable moderation,” and ultimately monetization. It’s a good one!

Why the Grammys need to change, with CEO Harvey Mason Jr.

Rebooting the member list, taking the show streaming — is it enough in the age of AI?

Nilay Patel
GM software boss: we have ‘high conviction’ ditching CarPlay is the right path

GM’s Baris Cetinok is committed to building a custom experience to rival that of Apple and Google.

Nilay Patel
‘It’s the First Amendment, stupid’: the bizarre fight between Trump and broadcast TV

Don’t worry — Elon Musk is somehow also involved.

Nilay Patel
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on the gospel of Steve Jobs and what founder mode really means

The Airbnb cofounder discusses being ‘in the details’ and why traditional management is doing it wrong.

Nilay Patel
Why AI companies are dropping the doomerism

The latest AI manifesto, from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, says a lot about the industry’s current moment.

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Egregious!

Here’s a video clip of my Decoder exchange on tax lobbying with Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi that the company called “egregious” and “disappointing” and asked us to delete. Fair warning: it’s a TikTok so it’s edited, but you can listen to the entire unedited clip on the pod this week.

How influencers are changing advertising, with Digitas CEO Amy Lanzi

The future of marketing — and, in a way, everything else — is getting a shakeup.

Nilay Patel
Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn wants you addicted to learning

The cofounder of the world’s largest education app thinks AI and gamification can supercharge language learning.

Nilay Patel
The impossible dream of good workplace software

Can AI actually change our love-hate relationship with our tools?

Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel
Correction: Only 5,000 people are using the Rabbit R1 at any given time, not in a day.

That’s straight from Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu, who took great exception to our story from September 25th, which was sourced to a Fast Company article about his comments at one of their events. Jesse told me the actual daily user number was around 20,000, spiking up to 34,000 the day the company’s new LAM Playgrounds were launched, and that his actual comment was that 5,000 of those people were using the Rabbit at any given time. For context, Jesse also told me Rabbit has sold 100,000 R1s so far.

Fast Company has corrected its story, and we’ve updated our story as well. You can hear the whole conversation on Decoder.

Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu isn’t thinking too far ahead

Rabbit’s large action model is here, sort of — but everyone else is coming fast.

Nilay Patel
The toxic transformation of Warcraft maker Blizzard

Journalist Jason Schreier discusses his new book, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment.

Nilay Patel
NBCU’s streaming chief isn’t worried about you canceling cable

Matt Strauss, head of Peacock and global streaming, has plans to keep you watching.

Nilay Patel
Why Mark Zuckerberg thinks AR glasses will replace your phone
Play

Meta’s CEO on his first pair of AR glasses, partnering with Ray-Ban, why he’s done with politics, and more.

Nilay Patel and Alex Heath
Arc creator Josh Miller on why you need a better browser than Chrome

The Browser Company cofounder thinks it’s time to modernize the browser and reinvent the web.

Nilay Patel
How Philips CEO Roy Jakobs is turning the company around after a major recall

Lightbulbs and electronics defined a century of Royal Philips. Can AI and healthcare define its next era?

Nilay Patel
Anthropic’s Mike Krieger wants to build AI products that are worth the hype

Anthropic’s new chief product officer on the promise and limits of chatbots like Claude and what’s next for generative AI.

Nilay Patel
How The Onion is saving itself from the digital media death spiral

The new owners of the satire site rescued it from content farm hell. Now, they’re relaunching its newspaper.

Nilay Patel
GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke says the AI industry needs competition to thrive

Dohmke says navigating Microsoft-OpenAI isn’t as complicated as it seems, and open source is still king.

Nilay Patel
Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda says it’s okay if we end up marrying AI chatbots

The head of chatbot maker Replika discusses the role AI will play in the future of human relationships.

Nilay Patel