Podcasts about Breakmaster Cylinder

Hey! Nilay here. It's conference season, so I'm traveling across the country and around the world a lot more than usual. Stay tuned for some very special Decoder episodes we have coming up soon, starting on Monday.  In the meantime, I wanted to share a conversation between my friend Peter Kafka and Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch on the excellent Channels podcast. Lynch says he's told his teams to assume that traffic will be zero from now on — that's what I've been calling Google Zero. Roger also shares his thoughts on AI, the growing influence of the creator economy, and more. Links:  Channels with Peter Kafka | Apple Podcasts Condé Nast CEO: Plan As If Search Traffic Will Be Zero | Search Engine Journal Sundar Pichai on AI, the future of search, and what's happening to the web | Decoder Google Zero is here — now what? | Decoder Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline' | The Verge Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today I'm talking with Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI. This is a real burner of an episode. We covered everything from his approach to training new models to his criticisms of Anthropic talking about Claude as though it is conscious.  Of course, we also talked about Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI, how Mustafa is thinking about all the negative polling and political pushback around AI right now, and whether any of the consumer products are good enough to overcome it. Like I said, it's a burner. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links:  Microsoft and OpenAI broke up — now they're ready to fight | The Verge Microsoft Build 2026: The 7 biggest announcements | The Verge Microsoft's first advanced reasoning AI is here | The Verge Microsoft's new ‘superintelligence' game plan is all about business | The Verge Here's how the new Microsoft and OpenAI deal breaks down | The Verge Microsoft AI chief says 18 months until white-collar tasks automated by AI | FT Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today is Ryan Mac, a technology reporter at The New York Times and co-author of the excellent book Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, which came out in 2024. I wanted to have Ryan on today because we're on the cusp of the SpaceX IPO, which promises to be one of the most consequential public offerings in history for a variety of reasons.  Its biggest-ever size, of course, at nearly $2 trillion dollars. But also because all kinds of rules that keep our markets fair are being bent, if not outright broken, along the way. And, also because buried somewhere inside SpaceX is X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, which Musk purchased in 2022. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links:  Welcome to hell, Elon | The Verge The SpaceX IPO is great for Elon Musk and terrible for you | The Verge In SpaceX's IPO, Elon Musk is the risk factor | The Verge For Wall Street, the only thing worse than SpaceX flopping is missing out | NYT How SpaceX Is structured to favor Elon Musk | NYT As the SpaceX hype machine steamrolls ahead, Wall Street jumps aboard | NYT The SpaceX IPO Reveals What Really Happened to Twitter | NY Mag Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Have you ever walked around a street, mall, or airport and noticed two or three of the same franchise restaurant within walking distance? Why might one Starbucks or McDonald's or Wetzel's Pretzels sometimes be built so close to another? Are they friends or competitors? And how can that possibly be profitable?Today's show is one such example. Our pals at Hyperfixed got a knotty question we just had to help them untangle: Why are there so many Wetzel's Pretzels so close to one another at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center Station?To find out, Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi followed the dough all the way to the top. His journey led him to a jolly pretzel executive, a franchisee with a deep-fried American dream, and a brush with mall security.Support:Planet Money+Read: Our book: Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life Our weekly longform Planet Money newsletterOur weekly Indicator round-up newsletterFollow: InstagramTikTokYouTubeFacebookThis episode was hosted by Alex Goldman and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. Hyperfixed is produced and edited by Emma Courtland, Amor Yates, Sari Soffer Sukenik and Tori Dominguez Peak.  The music is by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder and Alex Goldman. It was engineered by Tony Williams. Fact checking by Naomi Barr. The Planet Money version was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Today, I'm talking with Wassym Bensaid, the chief software officer at Rivian, and the co-ceo of Rivian's platform joint venture with Volkswagen. That joint venture, called RV Tech, is about a year and a half old, so I wanted to ask Wassym how it all works and Rivian's ongoing relationship with Volkswagen.  Because it's Rivian, I also had to ask Wassym about CarPlay. But the company also just launched an AI-powered voice assistant, which I got to try early. So I had a lot of fun digging into that with Wassym, too. This is a fun one – really in the weeds of a lot of my favorite things to talk about. Links:  Rivian's AI-powered voice assistant is ready to roll | The Verge The R2 is nearly here — can Rivian stick the landing? | The Verge Rivian's AI pivot is about more than chasing Tesla | The Verge Rivian / VW will start testing their first EVs next year | The Verge Rivian CEO: ‘We're really convicted' about skipping CarPlay | Decoder (2025) Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says too many carmakers are copying Tesla | Decoder (2024) Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe isn't scared of the Cybertruck | Decoder (2023) Rivian's chief software officer says in-car buttons are ‘an anomaly' | TechCrunch Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt,. This episode was edited by Xander Adams. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Connecting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai at I/O every year is one of my favorite Decoder traditions. This was our fifth year doing it, and there's always a whole slew of new things to talk about. This year, in addition to the news, we talked about Google Zero; picking fights with YouTube creators and publishers; and what being at “the foothills of the singularity" even means.  Links:  If Google can't make AI agents useful, maybe no one can | The Verge The future of Google is a search box that does everything | The Verge Large language mistake | The Verge You can now remix other people's YouTube Shorts with AI | The Verge Condé Nast calls Google Zero | The Verge Demis Hassabis said this may be the ‘foothills of the singularity' | The Verge Google I/O 2026: All the news and announcements | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Musk v Altman was nominally about OpenAI's conversion to a for-profit entity, and how it went about that change. But really, the suit seems mostly to have been about Elon Musk being mad at Sam Altman — or at OpenAI, for being successful without him — and wanting him punished in some way. Verge reporter Liz Lopatto spent the last month covering the trial, in all its chaos, and joins Decoder to ask: In a courtroom full of untrustworthy, unreliable people all fighting with each other, did anyone even have a reputation left to lose? Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links:  Elon Musk loses his case against Sam Altman | The Verge Musk v. Altman proved AI is led by the wrong people | The Verge Musk v. Altman accomplished nothing but airing dirty laundry | The Verge Elon Musk's worst enemy in court is Elon Musk | The Verge Behold, the Elon Musk jackass trophy | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

⚔️Sir Graelent is too beautiful for his scruplesAt least that's what the queen thinks. Good thing she doesn't have the power to wreck his whole life if he doesn't love her. Oh, wait...

Just days before we spoke, BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO Jonah Peretti agreed to sell the company, which was losing money and at risk of shutting down. Now there's a new lease on life — and new leadership. Jonah is taking on a new role as president of BuzzFeed AI, and Byron Allen will become CEO of BuzzFeed.  That's obviously a huge structural and organizational change, and a really big decision — prime Decoder bait if there ever was any. What are digital media companies doing to adapt and survive in an information landscape dominated by algorithmic social platforms? Links:  Byron Allen is buying BuzzFeed and becoming CEO | Variety BuzzFeed issues going concern warning, lacks liquidity | Wall Street Journal BuzzFeed News is shutting down | The Verge BuzzFeed sells Hot Ones studio in $82.5M deal | NBC News The unbearable lightness of BuzzFeed | The Verge I hate myself because I don't work for BuzzFeed (2015) | The Awl Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt; this episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brendan Ballou is founder of the Public Integrity Project and author of the new book,  When Companies Run the Courts, about the rise of forced arbitration. Forced arbitration is similarly everywhere in modern life, and there have been some very high-profile cases these past few years highlighting how deeply unfair these clauses are to consumers. Brendan's book delves into how and why we got here — spoiler: we can blame Antonin Scalia for some of it — but also, most importantly, how we may be able to fight back in the future. Links:  When Companies Run the Courts | Hachette Private equity bought out your doctor and bankrupted Toys ‘R Us | Decoder Press freedom groups demand access to Paramount records | The Wrap Disney gives up on trying to use Disney+ to settle wrongful death suit | The Verge Samsung, corruption, and you (2017) | The Verge The surprising case for AI judges | Decoder Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decode Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a world that often feels relentlessly exhausting, weariness can seem like something to fix, escape, or push through. But what if it's also a place where something deeper is happening? In this episode, Anglican priest and writer Tish Harrison Warren helps us explore the spiritual reality of “dry seasons”—times that aren't marked by crisis or tragedy, but by a quiet sense of fatigue, distance, or disorientation. Drawing on the wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers, Tish reflects on how Christians across history have understood these experiences not as failures of faith, but as essential parts of it. The conversation explores how ancient practices like stability, repetition, and embodied prayer can quietly shape a life over time, even when nothing seems to be happening. And it offers a different vision of growth—one that doesn't depend on constant energy or clarity, but unfolds slowly, often beneath the surface. Through the lens of her own experience, Tish reflects on how these dry seasons can become places of meaning, where growth isn't just possible, but necessary. If you've ever felt stuck in the “long middle,” weary of being weary, or unsure what God is doing in a dry season, this conversation offers a language—and a hope—for the journey. Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Vesper Tapes, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc. Additional Resources: Find Tish's new book here. Listen to Tish's previous conversation on the Language of God podcast.

My guest today is longtime friend of the show Joanna Stern. You all know Joanna: she is the former senior personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, a former Decoder guest host, one of my co-founders at The Verge, and also just one of my very closest friends. Joanna just left that lofty perch at the Journal to start her own media company called New Things, and she's starting with her new book about AI called I Am Not a Robot, which is out this week on May 12th. So we had Joanna on to talk about all of that, especially what she learned going all in on automation.  Links:  I Am Not a Robot | Harper Collins It's time. Meet my New Thing | Joanna Stern Why I left My prestigious job to make YouTube videos | Joanna Stern / YouTube Signing off from this column after 12 years. Here's what's changed in tech | WSJ I tried the robot that's coming to live with you. It's still par human | WSJ The people do not yearn for automation | Decoder Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, everyone, Nilay here. We're off today, while the team and I are cooking on a lot of really great stuff in the coming weeks. We'll be back with an all-new interview on Monday.  In the meantime, we really wanted to highlight this episode we first aired in the fall, because it's about a huge subject: AI in schools. The school year is starting to wrap up now around the country, and we're no closer to figuring out how to thread the needle about generative AI in education than we were in September. Links:  A majority of high school students use gen AI for schoolwork | College Board About a quarter of teens have used ChatGPT for schoolwork | Pew Research Your brain on ChatGPT | MIT Media Lab My students think it's fine to cheat with AI. Maybe they're on to something. | Vox How children understand and learn from conversational AI | McGill University ‘File not Found' | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright sits down with Jim Stump to explore how Christians should think about the past, the future, and the story that holds them together. What does it mean to say that something in the Bible “really happened”? And how do we distinguish between history, parable, and poetic imagination without missing the point of Scripture altogether? Wright reflects on how modern assumptions about “history” can distort the way we read the Bible, and why the early Christians insisted that certain events—especially the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—must be understood as real happenings in the world. At the same time, he shows how other parts of Scripture operate differently, inviting readers into a larger vision rather than offering straightforward historical reporting. From there, the conversation turns toward the future: the Christian hope of new creation. Drawing on themes from across the New Testament, Wright describes a vision not of escape from the world, but of its renewal. The resurrection of Jesus becomes the key—both a real event in the past and the pattern for what God intends for all creation. Along the way, Wright connects these ideas to everyday life. If God's future is one of restoration and renewal, what does that mean for how we live now? How do acts of justice, care, and faithfulness become “signposts” of the coming world? This episode offers a thoughtful and accessible guide to reading Scripture more wisely, understanding Christian hope more deeply, and imagining how the story of new creation is already beginning to take shape in the present. It also offers a special musical performance after the credits! Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Grayson DeSmet, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc. 

It's become an annual tradition to have Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi join us in the studio when he comes to New York for Uber's big Go-Get event every year. This year, the big news was that Uber's expanding into a much larger platform for travel, starting with hotel booking and services like personal shopping. Uber is going so far as to call this an everything app, so I wanted to see how far Dara thinks everything actually goes — and whether he's feeling pressure to own more of the user experience in a world where AI companies keep promising that their chatbots will book all the cars for you. Links:  Uber adds hotels to its app in big travel swing | The Verge Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is okay with reinventing the bus | Decoder I have to be honest, AI will replace jobs at Uber | Diary of a CEO The DoorDash problem | Decoder Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky wants to build the everything app | Decoder Booking and Priceline chief wants you to yell at bots, not humans | Decoder Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt; this episode was edited by Xander Adams. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Nick Statt, senior producer on Decoder. We last ran a mailbag episode during the holidays, and we decided it was a good idea to do that kind of thing more often. So we're back with Nilay as the guest, answering questions and responding to feedback, criticism, and suggestions. We talk through some recent controversial episodes like our interviews with the CEOs of Superhuman and Puck, and we also discuss how we're covering AI, thinking about the future of the show, and what it takes to win (and lose) Decoder.  Links:  Nilay answers your burning Decoder questions | Decoder Mailbag (2025) Answering your biggest Decoder questions | Decoder Mailbag (2024) Confronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated me | Decoder Can Puck reinvent the news business for the influencer age? | Decoder The people do not yearn for automation | Decoder Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jennifer Scanlon is CEO of UL Solutions, one of those hidden-in-plain-sight companies we like to poke at here on Decoder. UL's been around for more than 100 years; it started as a way for insurance companies to standardize fire and safety testing as electricity was the new technology spreading into homes. But now it's everywhere, and "safety" in tech doesn't just mean the hardware. UL is adapting quickly to the connected, AI-powered era... but do the companies making and distributing tech even care about standards anymore? Links:  How fake UL certifications led to Chinese ebike suit | Electrek FCC IoT program loses UL after China probe | Cybersecurity Dive FCC's Carr probes IoT program lab over “ties to China” | PC Mag The US router ban, explained | The Verge More than 500,000 hoverboards recalled (2016) | The Verge Brendan Carr is a dummy | The Vergecast Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on Decoder, I want to lay out an idea that's been banging around my head for weeks now as we've been reporting on AI and having conversations here on this show. I've been calling it software brain, and it's a particular way of seeing the world that fits everything into algorithms, databases and loops.  Software brain is powerful stuff. It's a way of thinking that basically created our modern world. But software thinking has also been turbocharged by AI in a way that I think helps explain the enormous gap between how excited the tech industry is about the technology and how regular people are growing to dislike it more and more over time. Links:  Why software Is eating the world | Marc Andreessen Gen Z's love-hate relationship with AI | The Verge The attacks on Sam Altman are a warning for the AI world | The Verge Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want | The Verge I saw something new in San Francisco | The New York Times Anthropic CEO issues dire warning about white-collar work | The Street Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What happens when one of the world's most prominent former atheists becomes a Christian—and claims that faith actually strengthens reason and science? In this episode, Jim Stump sits down with author and public intellectual Ayaan Hirsi Ali to explore her unexpected journey from Islam to atheism, and ultimately to Christianity. Once known for her sharp critiques of religion, Ayaan now describes her Christian faith as something that sharpens her reason and makes her more committed to science. Their conversation focuses on this personal transformation: what she found lacking in her years as an atheist, how she came to see herself as “spiritually bankrupt,” and why she ultimately turned to Christianity in search of meaning, hope, and peace. Along the way, they discuss the relationship between faith and reason, the role of science in a Christian worldview, and whether curiosity itself might be a form of worship. Whatever you make of her broader public voice, this episode offers a chance to hear Ayaan Hirsi Ali tell, in her own words, the story of a life shaped by big questions about truth, morality, and what it means to live well. Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Vesper Tapes, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.

The last time Canva CEO Melanie Perkins was on Decoder, the company was starting a big push into enterprise. Now, she's leading it through a total reinvention, going, in Canva's words, "from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design tools." But there's a lot of competition in that AI enterprise space. Not only is Canva competing with design software like the Adobe Creative Suite, but also it's competing with AI companies, like Anthropic and Meta, that are launching their own AI design platforms. So we talked a lot about whether Canva really is the right platform to bring the whole workspace together. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links:  Canva AI 2.0 goes all in on prompt-powered design tools | The Verge The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe | The Verge Anthropic launches Claude Design | TechCrunch Canva is now in the coding and spreadsheet business | The Verge Melanie Perkins thinks the world needs more alternatives to Adobe | Decoder (2024) ⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today I'm talking with Ronan Farrow, one of the biggest stars of investigative reporting working today. He broke the Harvey Weinstein story, among many, many others. Just last week, he and co-author Andrew Marantz published an incredible deep-dive feature in The New Yorker about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, his trustworthiness, and the rise of OpenAI itself. So Ronan came on the show to discuss the piece, his reporting process, and why he thinks this story and the revelations it contains really matter.  Links:  Sam Altman may control our future — can he be trusted? | The New Yorker Hey ChatGPT, which one of these is the real Sam Altman? | New York Times Suspect throws molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's home | Wired The attacks on Sam Altman are a warning for the AI world | The Verge The vibes are off at OpenAI | The Verge Why Sam Altman was booted from OpenAI | The Verge Sam Altman, unconstrained by the truth | Gary Marcus A brief history of Sam Altman's hype | MIT Tech Review Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, infectious disease epidemiologist and science communicator Jessica Malaty Rivera reflects on what it means to help people make sense of science in the midst of uncertainty. Drawing on her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, she explores the gap between data and decision-making, and why clear, empathetic communication is essential for public health. Jessica shares how her work has focused not just on understanding disease, but on translating complex information into something people can actually use. From social media to national data efforts, she considers what builds trust—and what breaks it—when the stakes are high and the science is still evolving. The conversation also turns to her faith, and how her background in the church shaped her understanding of community, responsibility, and care for others. Together, they explore the tension between individual choice and the common good, and what it might look like to approach both science and faith with humility in a world that resists nuance. Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Ricky Bombino, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.

Sarah Personette is the CEO of Puck, a media company that's been around for about five years. Puck hires big star reporters who write newsletters as part of a subscription bundle. Those newsletters are often must-reads in their industries, and those reporters get equity in Puck and a share of the company's revenue. It's a place where the financial incentives of the influencer economy crash right into the rigors of traditional journalism — and as regular Decoder listeners know, I have a lot of questions about how those two things work (or don't) in the modern media landscape.  Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links:  Puck buys Air Mail in deal valued at $16M | The Wrap The man yelling ‘iceberg' on the Hollywood Titanic | New York Times Sarah Personette joins news startup Puck as CEO | Variety Are we past peak newsletter? | New York Times Two new newsletters bet they've got Hollywood covered | LA Times Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, let's talk about the looming AI monetization cliff, and whether some of the biggest companies in space can become real, profitable businesses before they careen right off it. My guest today is Hayden Field, who's our senior AI reporter here at The Verge. She's been keeping close tabs on both Anthropic and OpenAI, and how these two companies, both slate to go public this year, tell us a whole lot about the AI industry in 2026. Links:  The vibes are off at OpenAI | The Verge Anthropic essentially bans OpenClaw from Claude | The Verge Why OpenAI killed Sora | The Verge OpenAI just bought TBPN | The Verge National poll shows voters like AI less than ICE | The Verge The spiraling cost of making AI | WSJ OpenAI's Fidji Simo taking leave amid exec shake-up | Wired OpenAI raises another $122B at $850B valuation | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today is Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. Cisco is one of those big companies that everyone has heard of but most of us don't have to interact with very much; they're not really a consumer brand. But without Cisco's actual routers and switches and silicon — and the software to make those things work —  there's no internet, no cloud, and no AI. But a data center is a really unpleasant neighbor to have, and there's robust opposition to new data center builds all over the country. So I had to start by asking what feels, strangely, like one of the most urgent questions of the moment: Should we build data centers in space? Links: Nvidia launches space computing, rocketing AI Into orbit | Nvidia Nvidia's AI dominance expands to networking | CRN Amid rising pushback, 2025 data center cancellations surge | Heatmap Billionaires want data centers everywhere, including space | The Verge How Ciena keeps the internet online | Decoder Okta's CEO is betting big on agent identity | Decoder Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, we're talking about the landmark social media addiction trials that just resulted in two major verdicts against Big Tech — one in California against Meta and Google, and another in New Mexico against just Meta. These are complicated cases with some huge repercussions for both how these platforms work and the very nature of speech in America. So we've brought on two heavy hitters: my friend Casey Newton, founder and editor of Platformer and co-host of Hard Fork, as well as Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner, who's been covering these trials since the beginning.  Links:  Meta & YouTube found negligent in social media addiction trial | The Verge Meta misled users about its products' safety, jury decides | The Verge Meta's legal defeat: a victory for kids, or a loss for everyone | The Verge Can you have child safety and Section 230, too? | Platformer The terrible cost of infinite scroll | The New York Times I watched grieving parents stare down Zuckerberg in court | The Verge Section 230 turns 30 as it faces its biggest tests yet | The Verge Congress considers blowing up internet law | The Verge Sen. Rob Wyden: “Why the internet still needs Section 230” | The Verge How America turned against the First Amendment | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if one of our closest relatives had taken a completely different evolutionary path? In this episode of Language of God, we continue our Cool Creatures series with a journey to Madagascar and also to the Duke Lemur Center, to explore the strange, beautiful, and deeply revealing world of lemurs. These primates split from our own lineage tens of millions of years ago, evolving in isolation into an astonishing diversity of forms.  Along the way, we meet scientists who study lemurs in the wild and in conservation settings, uncovering what makes them so unique: female-led societies, rich social bonds expressed through grooming, and a reliance on smell rather than sight to understand their world.  But this episode isn't just about lemurs—it's about what they reveal. Lemurs help us ask deeper questions about what it means to be human, how evolution unfolds in different directions, and what responsibility we carry for other species. With nearly all lemurs now threatened by habitat loss and human activity, their story is also one of urgency and conservation. From evolutionary history to field research to theology, this episode invites you to see lemurs not just as fascinating creatures, but as mirrors—reflecting both our past and our present. Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Pink Marble, Nick Petrov, Animated Music, Vesper Tapes, Rick Bombino, Zeonium & MS Elyascourtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.

My guest today is Okta CEO Todd McKinnon. Okta is a platform that big companies use to manage security and identity across all the many apps and platforms their employees use. Most of us run into it as login management at work. SaaS companies like Okta are under a lot of pressure in the age of AI, which Todd even said on an earnings call he's "paranoid" about. But you'll also hear Todd say that for Okta specifically, there's also a world of opportunity as the very concept of a digital "identity" has to expand into things that aren't really people. Links:  CEO ‘paranoid' as vibe coders stir SaaSpocalypse fears | The Register $300B evaporated. The SaaSpocalypse has begun | Forbes How AI assistants are moving the security goalposts | Krebs on Security What everyone's missing about AI and development | CRN Agents run amok: Identity lessons from Moltbook's experiment | Okta Breakup of IBM is Antitrust goal (1972) | New York Times Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, we're talking about the major antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, and what it might mean for antitrust and competition law in general now that the Trump DOJ has decided to settle its part of the case — even as several states including California, New York, and Texas carry on.  To break it all down, I'm joined by Verge senior policy reporter Lauren Feiner. Lauren's our resident court expert, and she's been chronicling this trial from the beginning. Links:  States' anti-monopoly case against Live Nation continues | The Verge The Live Nation trial restarts with a ‘velvet hammer' | The Verge Live Nation settles government antitrust suit | The Verge The Live Nation settlement has industry insiders baffled | The Verge Listen to Live Nation CEO's alleged threats to a concert venue | The Verge The threats and bare-knuckle tactics of MAGA's top antitrust fixer | WSJ The Trump admin just gave Live Nation the gift of a lifetime | NYT How Live Nation allegedly terrorized the concert industry | The Verge The US government is trying to break up Ticketmaster | The Verge (2024) Taylor Swift vs. Ronald Reagan: the Ticketmaster story | Decoder (2023) Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, I'm talking with Shishir Mehrotra, the CEO of Superhuman, the company formerly known as Grammarly, which is still its flagship product. Back in August, Grammarly shipped a feature called Expert Review, which allowed you to get writing suggestions from AI-cloned “experts,” and recently, reporters at The Verge and other outlets discovered that those experts included me, among many others.  No one ever asked permission to use our names this way, and a lot of reporters were outraged by this. To Shishir's credit, he did not cancel our interview and he came on and stuck it out. This conversation got tense at times, and it's clear we disagree about how extractive AI feels for people. There's a lot in this one, and I'm excited to hear what you think. Links: Why I'm suing Grammarly | New York Times Grammarly will stop using identities without permission | The Verge Grammarly to keep using writer identities unless they opt out | The Verge Grammarly turned me into an AI editor and I hate it | Platformer Grammarly is using our identities without permission | The Verge Grammarly is changing its name to Superhuman | The Verge Grammarly wants to become an ‘AI productivity platform' | The Verge Viacom v. YouTube, 2007 | Electronic Frontier Foundation Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Xander Adams. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, let's talk about the big Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Right now, Paramount head David Ellison is very much acting like he's over the finish line after outbidding Netflix, which walked away after what seemed like a done deal.  Back in January, I asked Puck's Julia Alexander to walk me through Netflix's reasoning, and today I'm digging into Paramount's with Rich Greenfield, a media and entertainment analyst and cofounder of research firm LightShed Partners. There's a lot going on here, including the biggest question I've had throughout this entire saga: why would anyone want to buy Warner, which has basically killed every acquirer it's had for the last quarter century? Links:  David Ellison's plan to compete with Netflix: Paramount+HBO | Rich Greenfield The worst acquisition in history, again | Prof G Media David Zaslav gets the last laugh | THR Warner Bros. Discovery agrees to Paramount merger | The Verge Tech, TV, Movies & News: Ellisons on brink of colossal empire | NYT Pete Hegseth says ‘the sooner David Ellison' buys CNN, ‘the better' | NYT Warner Bros CEO to pocket $887 million from Paramount deal | Reuters Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Genesis has long been a flashpoint in conversations about science and faith. Is it history? Poetry? Theology? Some combination of all three? For decades, BioLogos has returned to this ancient text as we wrestle with questions about creation, humanity, and God's action in the world. In this episode, Jim Stump sits down with Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson to talk about her recent book Reading Genesis. Robinson approaches Genesis not as a scientific puzzle to solve or a battleground to defend, but as a work of profound literary and theological depth.  Together, they explore the genre of Genesis, the meaning of the creation narratives, the flood story, divine restraint, human freedom, and what it means to be human in light of both Scripture and science. Robinson also shares insights from her broader work, including her reflections on consciousness, the inner life, and the limits—and wonders—of modern scientific thought. Rather than flattening Genesis into either literalism or metaphor, this conversation invites us to read it with patience, imagination, and intellectual humility. Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Kyle Booth, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc. 

Jim Lanzone is the CEO of Yahoo. It's basically impossible to sum up Yahoo's story over the last 25 years, but the short version is that once upon a time, Yahoo paid Google to run the search box on its website, and everything immediately went sideways. Jim calls it Yahoo's original sin. But after a long series of mergers, spinouts, and a hot, weird minute as part of Verizon Yahoo is once again an independent, privately held company — and it's growing. But can Yahoo really take market share from Google? Links:  Yahoo sells Engadget to Static Media | The Verge Yahoo sells TechCrunch to Regent | The Verge Yahoo Finance launches crypto partnership with Coinbase | Yahoo Yahoo Scout looks like more web-friendly AI search | The Verge Yahoo Finance launches crypto deal with Polymarket | Yahoo Finance Yahoo resurrects Artifact inside AI-powered news app | The Verge Yahoo Mail adds more AI to simplify desktop email | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today is Mike Masnick, the founder and CEO of Techdirt, the excellent and long-running tech policy blog. Mike has been writing about government overreach, privacy in the digital age, and other related topics for decades now, and he's an expert on how the internet and the surveillance state have grown in interconnected ways over the past two decades. I wanted to have Mike on the show to discuss the messy, fast-moving situation at Anthropic, the maker of Claude that now finds itself in a very ugly legal battle with the Pentagon. Instead of covering the daily drama, I wanted to dig in specifically on Anthropic's surveillance red line, and the important history and context around digital privacy in the U.S. that shapes how we should think about this going forward.  Links: AI bros wanted Trump — now they learn what happens when you tell him no | Techdirt OpenAI's ‘red lines' are written in the NSA's dictionary | Techdirt Anthropic is suing the Department of Defense | The Verge Anthropic launches new think tank amid Pentagon fight | The Verge How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance | The Verge Inside the backlash to the AI war machine | Platformer The Pentagon is violating Anthropic's First Amendment rights | FIRE Why the Pentagon wants to destroy Anthropic | Ezra Klein / NYT Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hasbro might be a toy company, but CEO Chris Cocks has spent the last several years pushing it more and more into the digital media, gaming, and collectibles space. That makes sense, since adults have money and kids don't. All those IP and licensing deals are working out for Hasbro so far. But Hasbro is also facing a lot of risk from instability: in trade and tariffs, in politics and culture, and in the video game market, which seems to be in a more or less permanent state of crisis.  Links:  Chris Cocks on Decoder (2023) | The Verge Hasbro just made a massive ‘Harry Potter' Announcement | Parade Businesses push for tariff refunds as Trump aides hint at fight | New York Times We're finally seeing more of Hasbro's forgotten space game | PC Gamer Xbox in is danger. Will Microsoft save it, or kill it? | The Verge OpenAI's billion-dollar deal puts Mickey Mouse in Sora | The Verge A comprehensive timeline of JK Rowling's descent into transphobia | Them Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today let's talk about prediction markets, which continue to insert themselves into the news cycle and the news in increasingly weird, unsettling, and potentially illegal ways.  My guest today is Liz Lopatto, a senior reporter at The Verge who owns what we cheerfully call the chaos beat. Liz has been writing a lot about prediction markets lately and especially why they all seem so intent on being perceived as sources of news — a position which directly incentivizes insider trading. That in turn creates a long list of very predictable problems. Links: Prediction markets want to eat the news | The Verge How anonymous bettors cashed In on the Iran strike | NYT With Iran, Kalshi & Polymarket Bet on the Depravity Economy | 404 Media Polymarket pulls bet on nuclear detonation in 2026 | 404 Media Polymarket defends betting on war as ‘invaluable' | The Verge Someone made a ton of money betting on Maduro's capture | The Verge Are prediction markets gambling? Robinhood CEO bets no | Decoder Prediction markets roll out war bets beyond Washington's reach | Bloomberg Polymarket partners with Substack for some reason  | The Verge It's MAGA v Broligarch in the battle over prediction markets | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elite ultra-runner Sabrina Little has logged national titles and set the American record for the greatest distance run in 24 hours. But for her, the real significance of running isn't found in podium finishes or record books. It's found in character. In this conversation, Sabrina reflects on how Christian faith deepens and reshapes the classical tradition of virtue and describes how faith, hope, and love transform the moral life from the inside out. Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Titan Sound, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.

Today, I'm talking with Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman. Zillow is one of those apps that really exemplifies what you might call the smartphone era of software: the company built a great mobile app for looking at real estate listings, and it turned into not just entertainment for so many of us, but what has become a vertically-integrated platform for buying, selling, and renting real estate. Jeremy's argument is that the future of Zillow looks a lot like an end-to-end business platform for real estate agents, and we spent a lot of time talking about whether a business as local and as relationship driven as real estate can benefit from platform-level scale in the way he's proposing. Links:  Zillow's new AI staging feature is impressively unimpressive | The Verge Zillow's upgraded AI search will show you more homes you can't afford | The Verge Zillow adds DMs so you can chat about homes you'll never buy | The Verge FTC accuses Zillow of paying $100 million to ‘dismantle' Redfin | The Verge Housing is frozen. Wacksman knows you're still scrolling | NYT Wacksman on the US housing market | Bloomberg Talks Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This was edited by Xander Adams. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, I'm talking with Hank Green, a longtime friend of Decoder and the co-founder and now former owner of Complexly, an online education company he started with his brother John in 2012. I say former owner because Hank and John have just converted Complexly into a nonprofit and given up their ownership of the company in the process. That's some of the purest Decoder bait that ever was, because it's all about how you structure a company and how you make decisions about changing that structure. So of course I had to bring Hank back on to talk all about it. Links:  Greens' studio becomes nonprofit as they aim to make ‘trustworthy content' | AP Hank Green makes Nilay Patel explain why websites have a future | Decoder (2024) Why Hank Green can't quit YouTube for TikTok | Decoder (2022) Hank Green and Sam Reich on running content companies | Decoder Hank Green and Sal Khan on AI in educational video | Decoder Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we're talking about the war for AI talent. Right now, the hottest job market on the planet is for AI researchers. And the vast majority of these people are concentrated into a small number of hugely valuable, extremely fast-growing companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, most of which are now paying some of the highest salaries in the history of tech to poach from one another. We've been dying to really dig in and try to unpack what's going on with all these talent moves in AI. So we brought on Verge senior AI reporter Hayden Field, who's been covering the revolving door of the AI industry really closely and also the broader culture that's motivating workers to jump ship.  Links: What's behind the mass exodus at xAI? | The Verge OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI | The Verge Two more xAI co-founders leave after the SpaceX merger | The Verge AI safety leader says 'world is in peril' and quits to study poetry | BBC OpenAI is making the mistakes Facebook made. I quit. | NYT Anthropic's chief on AI: ‘We don't know if the models are conscious' | NYT Meet the one woman Anthropic trusts to teach AI morals | WSJ OpenAI plans fourth-quarter IPO in race to beat Anthropic to market | WSJ Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The second episode turns toward resilience—without pretending that the climate crisis is solved. At COP30, amid formal speeches and stalled negotiations, the episode highlights moments of disruption, protest, and lived wisdom, especially from Indigenous and local communities. Through stories of resilience, faith, lament, and embodied practices like confession and repentance, the episode asks what it means to say “we are the answer.” Rather than placing hope in global negotiations alone, it points listeners back to their own communities, churches, and daily practices as places where faithful climate action can begin. About the Series: This two-part series follows a group of Christians from around the world as they gather in Brazil for COP30, the United Nations climate summit. Rather than focusing on policy outcomes or political winners and losers, the series explores what kind of problem climate change really is—and what kind of response it demands. Through science, lived experience, and faith practices, the series asks how Christians might move beyond information and outrage toward resilience, responsibility, and faithful action in a warming world. Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Big Score Audio, Babel, Northern Points, Pink Marble, & Sarah Chapman, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc.

Today, we're talking about the camera company Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state. Since it aired for a massive audience at the Super Bowl, Ring's Search Party commercial has become a lightning rod for controversy. It's easy to see how the same technology that can find lost dogs can be used to find people, and then used to invade our privacy in all kinds of uncomfortable ways, by cops and regular people alike. Although Ring has since canceled its partnership with controversial surveillance company Flock, the company is now facing hard questions about its plans to use AI to promote safer neighborhoods, and how that intersects with its ongoing relationship with law enforcement.  Links:  Ring cancels partnership with Flock after surveillance backlash | The Verge Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of surveillance | The Verge Ring says it's not giving ICE access to its cameras | The Verge How police recovered Nancy Guthrie's Nest Doorbell footage | The Verge Ring's Jamie Siminoff thinks AI can reduce crime | Decoder Ring CEO says cameras can almost ‘zero out crime' within 12 months | The Verge ICE taps into nationwide AI camera network, data shows | 404 Media ICE, Secret Service had access to Flock's camera network | 404 Media Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today is Bridget McCormack, former chief justice for the Michigan Supreme Court and now president and CEO of the American Arbitration Association. For the past several years, Bridget and her team have been developing an AI-assisted arbitration platform called the AI Arbitrator. So I sat down with her to talk about how the tool works, the pros and cons of automating parts of the arbitration process, and the bigger picture questions around institutional trust, justice, and the future of law.  Links:  All rise for JudgeGPT | The Verge Why do lawyers keep using ChatGPT? | The Verge Judge berates AI entrepreneur for using a generated ‘lawyer' | The Verge Judge slams lawyers for ‘bogus AI-generated research' | The Verge LexisNexis CEO says the AI law era is already here | Decoder ChatGPT can be a disaster for lawyers — Robin AI wants to fix that | Decoder Considerations In building guardrails for AI use In arbitration | Law360 The AI Arbitrator: What it is, what it isn't, and where it's going | Law360 Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Chris Jereza and Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The story begins in Brazil at COP30, the United Nations climate summit, where global leaders gather to address climate change. From there, it steps back to ask a deeper question: what kind of problem is climate change, really? Moving from climate science to lived experience, the episode explores why facts and data—while essential—are not enough to motivate belief or action. As stories from vulnerable communities come into focus, climate change emerges not just as a scientific challenge, but as a human one, leaving us unsettled and without easy resolution. About the Series: This two-part series follows a group of Christians from around the world as they gather in Brazil for COP30, the United Nations climate summit. Rather than focusing on policy outcomes or political winners and losers, the series explores what kind of problem climate change really is—and what kind of response it demands. Through science, lived experience, and faith practices, the series asks how Christians might move beyond information and outrage toward resilience, responsibility, and faithful action in a warming world. Theme song and credits music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Other music in this episode by Klimenko Music, Superlegal, Ricky Bombino, Diverse Music, Pink Marble, Cosmo Lawson, courtesy of Shutterstock, Inc. 

Siemens is one of those absolutely giant, extremely important, fairly opaque companies we love to dig into on Decoder. At a very basic, reductive level, Siemens makes the hardware and software that let other companies run and automate their stuff. We spent a lot of time talking about what happens to jobs when Siemens automates everything — and what happens to a company like Siemens when the free trade era we're used to gets turned on its head. Links:  Siemens Energy CEO attends Trump meeting at Davos | Reuters PepsiCo, Siemens, Nvidia announce digital twin collaboration | PepsiCo Siemens spins off Healthineers majority stake | Reuters Siemens USA to train 200,000 electricians by 2030 | Siemens Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, we're going to talk about reality, and whether we can label photos and videos to protect our shared understanding of the world around us. To do this, I sat down with Verge reporter Jess Weatherbed, who covers creative tools for us — a space that's been totally upended by generative AI. We've been talking about how the photos and videos taken by our phones are getting more and more processed for years on The Verge. Here in 2026, we're in the middle of a full-on reality crisis, as fake and manipulated ultra-believable images and videos flood onto social platforms at scale. So Jess and I discussed the limitations of AI labeling standards like C2PA, and why social media execs like Instagram boss Adam Mosseri are now sounding the alarm.  Links:  This system can sort real pictures from AI fakes — why aren't we using it? | The Verge You can't trust your eyes to tell you what's real, says Instagram | The Verge Instagram's boss is missing the point about AI on the platform | The Verge Sora is showing us how broken deepfake detection is | The Verge Reality still matters | The Verge No one's ready for this | The Verge What is a photo, @WhiteHouse edition | The Verge Google Gemini is getting better at identifying AI fakes | The Verge Let's compare Apple, Google & Samsung's definitions of 'photo' | The Verge The Pixel 8 and the what-is-a-photo apocalypse | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, I'm talking with Allan Thygesen, who is the CEO of Docusign. You know Docusign, it's the platform that lets you sign stuff online. It turns out 7,000 people work there, which is one of those facts floating around that's always felt like perfect Decoder bait. What are all those people doing? And what kind of product roadmap does a company like Docusign even need? Alan has only been CEO of Docusign for three years, so he has some interesting perspective on where the company was, the changes he wanted to make, and where he thinks this is all going. Hint: it involves AI.  Links:  Docusign's AI will help you understand what you're signing | Fast Company Docusign on ‘transformational journey,' CEO Says | Bloomberg How Docusign Is modernizing the age-old business contract | Barron's Docusign unveils next-gen eSignature with AI | Docusign Docusign brings its contract AI to ChatGPT | Docusign Interview with Docusign CEO Allan Thygesen | Motley Fool (Podcast) Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, we're talking about the bidding war over Warner Bros. Discovery, which is the biggest story in the entertainment industry right now, and for good reason. It has pretty much everything you could want in a buzzy Hollywood saga — big names, big money, and big drama. To help me make sense of it all, I wanted to talk with Julia Alexander, a Verge alum and now media correspondent at Puck News who's one of the best in the business at analyzing corporate strategy, Hollywood, and what's next in entertainment. Julia really helped me break down why Netflix is the clear front runner to acquire Warner Bros., why David Ellison of Paramount Skydance is so desperate to win, and, perhaps most importantly, how the tech industry fits into this puzzle. Links:  Netflix is buying Warner Bros. for $83 billion | The Verge Paramount launches hostile $108 billion bid to snatch Warner | The Verge Netflix revises Warner Bros. bid to an all-cash offer | The Verge Why Netflix needs Warner Bros. | Puck News The Warner Bros. bidding war Is over | Bloomberg The Son King of Hollywood | Vulture FCC Chair: ‘Legitimate competition concerns' with Netflix's Warner deal | Variety Netflix's Ted Sarandos to testify at antitrust hearing over Warner deal | Variety Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Experian is one of those giant multinationals convoluted enough to have multiple CEOs all over the world, so first I asked Alex Lintner, Experian's CEO of technology and software solutions, to dig into the classic Decoder questions and explain how all of that even works. He oversees big operations like security and privacy, and now, of course, AI. If you want to participate in the modern economy — rent an apartment, buy a car, get a job, etc  — you're part of Experian's ecosystem, whether you like it or not. At its heart, Experian's core service is data about people and the choices they make. And this extremely valuable data weirdly makes Experian a part of your life  — a life that becomes much smoother if the data the company collects about you tells a good story.  Links:  Roughly half of Americans are knowledgeable about personal finance | Pew Research How Americans view data privacy | Pew Research Consumer voices on credit reports and scores | CFPB Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius on Decoder | The Verge The Palantir app ICE uses to find neighborhoods to raid | 404 Media T-Mobile customers exposed in major Experian breach (2015) | The Verge All the news about the Equifax breach | The Verge Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grok, the chatbot made by Elon Musk's xAI, is able to make all manner of AI-generated images on demand, including non-consensual intimate images of women and minors. It's the kind of "controversy" that would have completely sunk a platform five or 10 years ago, but now it seems clear that Elon wants Grok to be able to do this. A lot of people feel like someone should be able to do something about a one-click harassment machine like this. But who has that power, and what they can do with it, is a deeply complicated question,tied up in the thorny mess of history that is content moderation and the legal precedents that underpin it. So I invited Riana Pfefferkorn, from the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, to come talk me through it. Links:  Grok's gross AI deepfakes problem | The Verge Grok is undressing children — can the law stop it? | The Verge Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards | The Verge Senate passes a bill to let nonconsensual deepfake victims sue | The Verge EU looks to ban nudification apps following Grok outrage | Politico Grok flooded X with millions of sexualized images | The New York Times The Supreme Court just upended internet law | The Verge Mother of Elon Musk's son sues xAI over sexual deepfake images | AP Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices