Podcasts about code silicon valley

You know what they say — Silicon Valley wasn't built in a day, nor was it built by just a small group of tech gurus. In fact, the origin story of the Valley is a complex story involving government, industry, and academia.Margaret O'Mara is a history professor at the University of Washington. Her latest book, The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America gives an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the making of the tech empire, and how it's grown into an economic engine. Margaret and Greg discuss the significant role the government played in the early days of Silicon Valley, key historical figures in the region's rise to prominence and factors that set it apart from other tech hubs like Boston, and how the ecosystem has evolved alongside politics, technology, and cultural shifts. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How storytelling built Silicon Valley's legacy31:59: I think there's the story of the products, and then there's the story of the place, the story of the guys in garages. The story of this entrepreneurial genius, and that's a great, great story. It's part of the story. It leaves out this bigger landscape of government and society and people who are non-technical people, the Regis McKenna's of the world, who are so instrumental in making all this happen. But it's—I mean, I know as a historian—storytelling is powerful. That's how you help people understand and relate. And so Silicon Valley has been such a good storyteller.Why everyone should understand tech history04:27: It's really important for all of us as users of this technology to have a way to understand it and understand its history. Even if we don't know, even if we aren't programmers ourselves.Meritocracy alone hasn't changed the face of power53:16: We're seeing the people at the very, very top of power and influence are more homogenous than ever, which is showing that this meritocracy, this idea, just doesn't—only goes so far. So understanding the history kind of helps, I think, is really important in kind of getting why. Okay, why has this not changed? Why is this so baked into the model? But it also doesn't mean that we should just throw up our hands and say, well, this is the way it is.Federal research grants built founders not just labs11:57: Research money for universities is not only seeding basic research in labs and then seeding spinoff companies and commercializing technologies from those labs, but it's also educating people. When you look, kind of dollar for dollar, about, you know—when you look at Stanford, for example, if you just look at the tech space—I think biotech is different. Medical sciences are different because you have more of that kind of pipeline from lab to startup in that space. But when you're looking at computer hardware and software, it's more about the people that went to Stanford that went on to found companies, right? Everyone from Hewlett and Packard to Brin and Page and everyone in between. That is, it's kind of a people factory, so that's part of it. And that federal money is paying for people for science and engineering programs. So that's a really important component.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Frederick TermanVannevar BushRegional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by AnnaLee SaxenianRobert NoyceBurt McMurtryTerry WinogradBill DraperPitch JohnsonRegis McKennaWilson Sonsini Goodrich & RosatiGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at University of WashingtonProfessional WebsiteGuest Work:The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America 

There’s a concept in business called the first-mover advantage. Basically, it means that if you’re the first company with a successful product in a new market, you have the opportunity to dominate the market and fend off rivals. But that advantage can be short-lived. Take Netscape Navigator, the first popular commercial web browser. Microsoft entered the field with Internet Explorer, and it wasn’t long before Navigator crashed. In AI chatbots, two of the first movers are OpenAI and Anthropic. But recently the Chinese company DeepSeek made a splash with an AI chatbot that it reportedly developed for a fraction of what its competitors have spent. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with historian Margaret O’Mara, author of the book “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” about whether America’s artificial intelligence industry should be worried about newcomers like DeepSeek.

There’s a concept in business called the first-mover advantage. Basically, it means that if you’re the first company with a successful product in a new market, you have the opportunity to dominate the market and fend off rivals. But that advantage can be short-lived. Take Netscape Navigator, the first popular commercial web browser. Microsoft entered the field with Internet Explorer, and it wasn’t long before Navigator crashed. In AI chatbots, two of the first movers are OpenAI and Anthropic. But recently the Chinese company DeepSeek made a splash with an AI chatbot that it reportedly developed for a fraction of what its competitors have spent. Marketplace’s Stephanie Hughes spoke with historian Margaret O’Mara, author of the book “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” about whether America’s artificial intelligence industry should be worried about newcomers like DeepSeek.

Part 2 of 4: My guest today is Cyriac Roeding, founder, investor, and CEO of Earli, a company on a mission to transform cancer into a manageable condition. Using innovative gene therapy approaches, Earli's technology forces cancer cells to produce a synthetic, non-human biomarker—overcoming the limitations of relying on naturally occurring biomarkers that cancer may or may not provide. Cyriac is a serial entrepreneur and investor who has created ventures at the intersection of physical and digital worlds. He has invested in startups like OpenAI and served as CEO of Shopkick, which was acquired for $250 million. His current focus, Earli, has raised nearly $60 million from top investors. Cyriac's journey from launching his first startup at 15 to being named a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer showcases his valuable insights into building successful startups.

This special edition of the GeekWire Podcast is the first in a four-episode series that we'll be publishing in the months ahead as part of our year-long Microsoft @ 50 project, recognizing the company's 50th anniversary in April 2025.  On this episode, we'll take a fresh look at Microsoft's startup story with tech historian and author Margaret O'Mara of the University of Washington, author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America; plus highlights from a recent conversation with David Marquardt, Microsoft's first outside investor and a longtime board member. Register here for our Microsoft @ 50 event, March 20, 2025, in Seattle. Microsoft @ 50 is an independent GeekWire editorial project supported by Accenture. With GeekWire Co-Founder Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, the tech industry is  the second-biggest lobbying power in Washington, DC, but that wasn't true as recently as ten years ago. How did we get to this moment? And where could we be going next? On this episode of Your Undivided Attention, Tristan and Daniel sit down with historian Margaret O'Mara and journalist Brody Mullins to discuss how Silicon Valley has changed the nature of American lobbying. Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on Twitter: @HumaneTech_RECOMMENDED MEDIAThe Wolves of K Street: The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government - Brody's book on the history of lobbying.The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America - Margaret's book on the historical relationship between Silicon Valley and Capitol HillMore information on the Google antitrust rulingMore Information on KOSPAMore information on the SOPA/PIPA internet blackoutDetailed breakdown of Internet lobbying from Open Secrets RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODESU.S. Senators Grilled Social Media CEOs. Will Anything Change?Can We Govern AI? with Marietje SchaakeThe Race to Cooperation with David Sloan Wilson CORRECTION: Brody Mullins refers to AT&T as having a “hundred million dollar” lobbying budget in 2006 and 2007. While we couldn't verify the size of their budget for lobbying, their actual lobbying spend was much less than this: $27.4m in 2006 and $16.5m in 2007, according to OpenSecrets. The views expressed by guests appearing on Center for Humane Technology's podcast, Your Undivided Attention, are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CHT. CHT does not support or oppose any candidate or party for election to public office 

You'd be hard-pressed to find a person whose life went unchanged in 2020, arguably one of the most consequential years in human history. It marked an unprecedented time, left indelible memories in our minds, and set off ripple effects we still feel even today. Disruption of normal life was nearly universal; however, the ways in which we experienced disruption were varied. Acclaimed sociologist and bestselling author Eric Klinenberg's latest work 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed offers an account of a single year in modern history told through the stories of seven New Yorkers. From an elementary school principal to a bar manager, a subway custodian to a political aide, the book sheds light on the human experience of that fateful time four years ago, illuminating both individual and collective uncertainty, fear, loss, and hope. Although the book is centered on New York City, 2020 also explores the political spheres of the nation's capital and beyond, as well as epidemiological battles, policies, and movements worldwide. Set against the backdrop of a tense presidential election and social unrest, Klinenberg offers a window into a recent time of reckoning and an invitation to examine ourselves and our experiences. Eric Klinenberg is the Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is the co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Modern Romance and author of Palaces for the People, Going Solo, Heat Wave, and Fighting for Air. He has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Wired, and This American Life. He lives in New York City. Margaret O'Mara is the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the University of Washington. Margaret is a leading historian of Silicon Valley and the author of two acclaimed books about the modern American technology industry: The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America (Penguin Press, 2019) and Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search For The Next Silicon Valley (Princeton, 2005). She also is a historian of the American presidency and author of Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century (Penn Press, 2015). She is a coauthor, with David Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen, of the widely used United States history college textbook, The American Pageant (Cengage).   Buy the Companion Book 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed The Elliott Bay Book Company

In March, the Justice Department filed a major antitrust complaint against Apple accusing the tech giant of maintaining a monopoly over the smartphone market. This is just the latest action the government has taken against Big Tech in recent years, marking a clear shift from the cozy relationship the industry long had with Washington. What's behind the love/hate relationship between Big Tech and our government? And what can Silicon Valley's past reveal about the way this might all play out going forward? In this archive episode, originally recorded in September 2021, Professor Margaret O'mara digs into the history of Silicon Valley – from its early beginnings to the days of the internet boom – to explain the Valley's ever-present intersection with US politics and make sense of the recent shift. For more of Margaret O'Mara's work: Read her most recent book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. Check out her prior book, Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley Find her prior opinion pieces about the tech industry in The New York Times  

The Department of Justice, along with 16 states including California, filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple last week. The government alleges that the trillion-dollar company's practices around its iPhone have quashed competition by limiting access to its app store, constraining the ability to send messages across different platforms and blocking alternative wallet payment systems. The suit is part of a suite of antitrust legal actions aimed at breaking alleged monopolies by tech behemoths including Google, Meta, and Amazon. We'll talk about what these suits mean for Apple's devoted user base and the tech industry. Guests: Aaron Tilley, reporter, Wall Street Journal Tim Wu, professor of law, science and technology, Columbia Law School; author, "The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age" Margaret O'Mara, Scott and Dorothy Bullitt professor of American History, University of Washington; author, "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America"

For this episode Kate Carpenter interviews Dr. Margaret O'Mara. Margaret is a professor of modern American history at the University of Washington, and the author of multiple books, including Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley and Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century. Her most recent book is The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. I was a huge fan of this book and have recommended it to so many people, so I was thrilled to get to ask about what went into writing it. Margaret has also co-authored a history textbook, written many pieces for places including The New York Times, WIRED, and many more, and is an active public speaker. We talked about how she keeps track of so many different projects, the way her past work in the Clinton administration affects her writing, and much more.

Danny and Derek welcome back to the pod Margaret O'Mara, historian and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, to conclude the story tracing Silicon Valley's rise until the the 21st century. The discussion starts in the late 70s/early 80s and covers the rise of biotech and the personal computer, competition from Japan, government interventions like SEMATECH and the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (HPCA), the dot-com boom (and bust), and more.Check out the rest of the series here.Be sure to grab a copy of the book! You can find Margaret's other work at her website. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

Danny welcomes back to the pod Margaret O'Mara, historian and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, to continue the story of how Silicon Valley came to be. They pick up in the midst of the Space Race, touching on the sources of tech capital the 1950s and 1960s, how the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) reshapes Stanford, figures like Stewart Brand and Steve Jobs, the transition from 60s counterculture to 70s “founder culture”, and more. Check out the first episode here.Be sure to grab a copy of the book! You can find Margaret's other work at her website. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

Danny and Derek speak with Margaret O'Mara, historian and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, about how Silicon Valley came to be the behemoth we know today. In this first part of the conversation, they get into the origins of Silicon Valley from the days when it was most known for apricot orchards. Topics discussed include the transformation of research at Stanford and MIT in the postwar era, figures such as Vannevar Bush and Frederick Terman, the 1960s rejection of the military-intellectual complex, and more. Be sure to grab a copy of the book!You can find Margaret's other work at her website. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

For most of its history, Santa Clara based company Nvidia has been known primarily as a designer of computer parts meant for video games. But in recent years, those parts have become a crucial part of artificial intelligence programs. Now, Nvidia dominates the market of graphics processing units, or GPUs, meant for AI at a time when interest in AI is exploding. Skyrocketing demand for these GPUs have raised stock prices for Nvidia, giving the company a rare market valuation of more than$1 trillion, a distinction shared by only four other U.S. companies: Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet. We'll talk about Nvidia's history in Silicon Valley, its recent climb to elite status, and what the rise of AI might mean for the Bay Area. Guests: Cade Metz, technology reporter, the New York Times; author, “Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought A.I. to Google, Facebook, and The World” Margaret O'Mara, Scott and Dorothy Bullitt professor of American History, the University of Washington; author, "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America" Max A. Cherney, senior tech reporter, the Silicon Valley Business Journal

Part 2The second part of Cole and Bill's conversation with Author Margaret O'Mara on her book, The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, covers early software, manufacturers of AI and computers, and communications between technologies and people, as well as different technologies themselves. They take a deep dive into what really made Silicon Valley as we know it today.

Part 1“Gilded age money is actually the money that fuels the growth of Silicon Valley.”Author Margaret O'Mara joins Cole and Bill to discuss her book, The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. O'Mara's work tracks the history of the people who built Silicon Valley and the explosion of big tech in America. The conversation covers the institutions that provided the framework for innovation, the background of the pioneers, and the investors that supported this district.

In this episode, Niki, Natalia, and Neil discuss the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast Here are some links and references mentioned during this week's show:   ·         Fueled by social media panic, depositors ran to withdraw from Silicon Valley Bank this month. Neil drew on this institutional history of the bank at Medium. Niki recommended historian Margaret O'Mara's book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, and Natalia referenced this POLITICO piece in which she is quoted. Natalia drew on this Derek Thompson Atlantic article and referenced this Wall Street Journal opinion piece.     In our regular closing feature, What's Making History: ·         Natalia recommended Chavie Lieber's Wall Street Journal article, “How Young Women Fight Loneliness –Walking Together in the Park by the Hundreds.” ·         Neil shared about Maria Clara Cabo's New York Times article, “'Phantom' Ends. For Musicians, So Does the Gig of a Lifetime.” ·         Niki discussed Susan Salai's Washington Times piece, “War on Government: ‘Sovereign Citizens' Bring Surge of Violence.”

January 27, 2023 Hoover Institution | Stanford University A Hoover History Working Group Seminar with Margaret O'Mara. The Hoover History Working Group hosted a seminar on The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America on Friday, January 27, 2023 from 12:00 pm - 1:20 pm PT. ABOUT THE SPEAKER Margaret O'Mara is the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the University of Washington. She writes and teaches about the growth of the high-tech economy, the history of American politics, and the connections between the two. Margaret is the author of two acclaimed books on the history of the modern technology industry: The Code (2019) and Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search For The Next Silicon Valley (2005). She also is a historian of the American presidency and author of Pivotal Tuesdays: Four Elections that Shaped the Twentieth Century (2015), as well as a coauthor of the widely used United States history textbook, The American Pageant. From 1993 to 1997, she served in the Clinton Administration as an economic and social policy aide in the White House and in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ABOUT THE TALK Margaret O'Mara chronicles how entrepreneurship, venture capital, and state and federal funding transformed Silicon Valley into a crucible of American economic dynamism. She explores the rise of each era's key companies and their products, as well as their changing relationship with government, including the slow evolution of computing capabilities as an issue of national security and economic competitiveness.

Today on the flagship podcast of zombie kisses: 02:02 - The Verge's managing editor Alex Cranz chats with film & TV reporter Charles Pulliam-Moore about HBO's The Last of Us and how it handles the video game adaptation. [Spoilers for episode 1 + 2] 22:40 - Historian and author of the book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America Margaret O'Mara talks about how the lack of non-compete clauses shaped Silicon Valley. 38:30 - We answer your questions left on our Vergecast Hotline! Thunderbolt docks, end-to-end encryption, and smart assistants. Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we'd love to hear from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The US economy may not be in a recession, but Silicon Valley, which had a mega-boom throughout the 2010s, is in a downturn. Tech stocks have tanked and almost every day there are new reports about industry layoffs. So what happens next? What happens to its unique corporate culture? What happens to management and employees? On this episode, we speak with Margaret O'Mara, a professor at the University of Washington and the author of the book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. We talk about the history of Silicon Valley's upside-down moments and how the industries that have dominated the region have changed over time, particularly as government money comes in and out of the picture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How true are the myths and legends of Silicon Valley? To help us answer that question, starting with this episode, in a special two-part podcast series we'll work our way through the book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America written by Margaret O'Mara.Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/kendallgilesJoin to support the show and for exclusive content, including episode notes, scripts, and other writings: patreon.com/kendallgiles

Dr. Margaret O'Mara is the Howard & Frances Keller Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington. She writes and teaches about the growth of the high-tech economy, the history of U.S. politics, and the connections between the two. She is also Distinguished Lecturer of the Organization of American Historians and a past fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Forum on the Future of Liberal Education. She received her MA/PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and her BA from Northwestern University. Prior to her academic career, she worked in the Clinton White House and served as a contributing researcher at the Brookings Institution. Margaret is the author of Cities of Knowledge (Princeton, 2005), Pivotal Tuesdays (Penn Press, 2015), and The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America (Penguin Press, 2019). She is a coauthor, with David Kennedy and Lizabeth Cohen, of forthcoming editions of a widely used United States history college textbook, The American Pageant (Cengage). She is a frequent contributor to the Opinion page of The New York Times, and her writing also has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Bloomberg Businessweek, Foreign Policy, the American Prospect, and Pacific Standard.

How true are the myths and legends of Silicon Valley? To help us answer that question, starting with this episode, in a special two-part podcast series we'll work our way through the book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America written by Margaret O'Mara.Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/kendallgilesJoin to support the show and for exclusive content, including episode notes, scripts, and other writings: patreon.com/kendallgiles

#30 2022年は日本のスタートアップ創出元年？日本でシリコンバレーのような起業文化を根付かせるために必要なこと 今回は、スタートアップ起業育成政策の司令塔機能として、「スタートアップ担当相」を新設することを正式に決定したというニュースをもとにトークしていきたいと思います。岸田総理が「スタートアップ創出元年」と表明している通り、2022年は官民を挙げてのスタートアップ支援強化が期待されています。「新しい資本主義」の柱の1つで、スタートアップ支援については積極的な取り組みが続いていくとされています。そこでスタートアップの聖地として知られているシリコンバレーと日本比較して、日本がシリコンバレーに近づくために何が必要かというテーマで議論しました。 ーーーーー 【無料ニュースレター登録はこちら】 アメリカの最新AI＆DXにまつわる情報や、AI人材を目指すヒントになる情報をお届けしています。毎週水曜日配信中！ ーーーーー ▽トーク概要 スタートアップ担当相の新設は政府のメッセージとして期待／良いスタートアップの特徴である人材発掘ができるか／プロフェッショナル人材のスタートアップ起業・転職は増加している／VCの世界ではデカコーンを生み出すことが目標に／起業をする母集団をいかに増やしていくのか／ユニコーン、デカコーンの創出にはエンジニアの存在が重要／スタートアップが成功するためには多様な人材が重要／ハーバードでのアントレプレナーシップの授業がきっかけで起業を意識／教育の現場で、起業経験者の存在が重要／シリコンバレーでは起業のロールモデルが多い／失敗が昇華される環境が必要／40代50代からの起業というのも増えている／ポールグレアムのエッセイ「シリコンバレーが出来るには」／シリコンバレーを作るにはお金持ちと、肉食系のオタクがいればできる／中年層の起業文化が広がると日本ならではの成功モデルになる ※本エピソードを記事化したものはこちらから※ ＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝ Level 5 by Palo Alto Insight Opinion Box ご意見、ご感想はこちらの意見箱へお寄せください ＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝ 【出演者】 石角友愛 / 長谷川貴久 / 山崎壯【今週のホットニュース】 スタートアップ企業の支援強化へ 担当大臣新設へ調整 スタートアップ担当相、山際経財相兼務　岸田首相が発令 ポール・グレアムのエッセイ「How to Be Silicon Valley」 【今週のおすすめコンテンツ】 「The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America」 GoogleやFacebookが生まれる前の初期のシリコンバレーが生まれた時代からの流れや、街を作るために政府の関与の重要性がわかる書籍。 【無料ニュースレター登録はこちら】 アメリカの最新AI＆DXにまつわる情報や、AI人材を目指すヒントになる情報をお届けしています。毎週水曜日配信中！ 石角友愛のTwitter：@tomoechama　 DM解放中！リプライやDMまで気軽にご連絡ください。 パロアルトインサイトHP : www.paloaltoinsight.com 楽曲提供： Atsu (beatmaker and rapper from Zenarchy) https://twitter.com/atsu_izm 「Transform」Level5テーマソング https://m.soundcloud.com/atsuizm/transform --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/level5/message

Margaret O'Mara is an expert on high-tech history and a Howard & Frances Keller Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington. She received her BA in English and History from Northwestern University, and her MA and PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to her academic career, she was a staff member to President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, where she was a policy analyst – working on urban economic development, health care, and welfare reform. Margaret is the author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, which was a Financial Times and Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019. She is also the author of Cities of Knowledge, Pivotal Tuesdays, and the co-author to the college history textbook, The American Pageant. She is a frequent contributor to the Opinion page of The New York Times, and she has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC World News, and PBS Frontline.

When did everyone become a storyteller? Decades after George Lucas and Steve Jobs made storytelling a big business, every company now wants to tell “Our Story.” Instagram and TikTok let everyone else tell their “stories,” and the number of people calling themselves storytellers on LinkedIn is now more than half a million. Something we have done for the entirety of our existence as a species has become just another fad.  In this episode of Decoder Ring, we're going to look at where this trend came from and where it's going. What Willa discovered changed the way she now thinks about stories—and it might do the same for you.  Some of the voices you'll hear in this episode include Margaret O'Mara, historian and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America; Michael Simon, director and producer; Francesca Polletta, sociologist at University of California, Irvine; Steve Clayton, Chief Storyteller at Microsoft; Seth Godin, entrepreneur and author of All Marketers Tell Stories; Everett Cook, Associate Editor at Axios Local; and David Paskin, Willa's father.  Decoder Ring is written and produced by Willa Paskin. This episode was edited by Dan Kois and produced by Elizabeth Nakano. Derek John is Sr. Supervising Producer of Narrative Podcasts. Merritt Jacob is our Technical Director. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com. If you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you get ad-free podcasts, bonus episodes, and total access to all of Slate's journalism. Thanks Avast.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When did everyone become a storyteller? Decades after George Lucas and Steve Jobs made storytelling a big business, every company now wants to tell “Our Story.” Instagram and TikTok let everyone else tell their “stories,” and the number of people calling themselves storytellers on LinkedIn is now more than half a million. Something we have done for the entirety of our existence as a species has become just another fad.  In this episode of Decoder Ring, we're going to look at where this trend came from and where it's going. What Willa discovered changed the way she now thinks about stories—and it might do the same for you.  Some of the voices you'll hear in this episode include Margaret O'Mara, historian and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America; Michael Simon, director and producer; Francesca Polletta, sociologist at University of California, Irvine; Steve Clayton, Chief Storyteller at Microsoft; Seth Godin, entrepreneur and author of All Marketers Tell Stories; Everett Cook, Associate Editor at Axios Local; and David Paskin, Willa's father.  Decoder Ring is written and produced by Willa Paskin. This episode was edited by Dan Kois and produced by Elizabeth Nakano. Derek John is Sr. Supervising Producer of Narrative Podcasts. Merritt Jacob is our Technical Director. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com. If you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you get ad-free podcasts, bonus episodes, and total access to all of Slate's journalism. Thanks Avast.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When did everyone become a storyteller? Decades after George Lucas and Steve Jobs made storytelling a big business, every company now wants to tell “Our Story.” Instagram and TikTok let everyone else tell their “stories,” and the number of people calling themselves storytellers on LinkedIn is now more than half a million. Something we have done for the entirety of our existence as a species has become just another fad.  In this episode of Decoder Ring, we're going to look at where this trend came from and where it's going. What Willa discovered changed the way she now thinks about stories—and it might do the same for you.  Some of the voices you'll hear in this episode include Margaret O'Mara, historian and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America; Michael Simon, director and producer; Francesca Polletta, sociologist at University of California, Irvine; Steve Clayton, Chief Storyteller at Microsoft; Seth Godin, entrepreneur and author of All Marketers Tell Stories; Everett Cook, Associate Editor at Axios Local; and David Paskin, Willa's father.  Decoder Ring is written and produced by Willa Paskin. This episode was edited by Dan Kois and produced by Elizabeth Nakano. Derek John is Sr. Supervising Producer of Narrative Podcasts. Merritt Jacob is our Technical Director. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com. If you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you get ad-free podcasts, bonus episodes, and total access to all of Slate's journalism. Thanks Avast.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Prof. Margaret O'Mara of the University of Washington discusses the origins and workings of the US Tech industry - in reference to her 2019 book: The Code - Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.

In this episode of Big Tech, host Taylor Owen speaks with Margaret O'Mara, a historian of modern America and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. Silicon Valley and the massive wealth it has generated have long symbolized the wonders of free market capitalism, viewed as proof of how innovation can thrive when it is not burdened by government oversight. Silicon Valley is infused with this libertarian ethos, centred on the idea that it was guys in their garages, setting out to create something new and make the world a better place, who built the Valley. But O'Mara looks back into history and says that's all just a myth. During the Cold War, the United States was looking for ways to bolster its technological advantage over the Soviets. Knowing that state-led projects would appear “Communist” to the American people, the government funnelled federal funding for research and development through universities, research institutions and defence companies. This influx of funds enabled private companies to expand and innovate and universities to subsidize tuition. The Apollo space program offers one such example, where federal funds supported tech companies working in electronic miniaturization and semiconductors. The upshot is that the entire Silicon Valley tech sector was built on government intervention and support, and even the guys in their garages benefited from the access to affordable university education. “To pull yourself up by your bootstraps is an American myth that's very corrosive — there are very, very few truly self-made people,” explains O'Mara. By demystifying Silicon Valley's origins we can better approach regulation and oversight of the tech industry. 

Intro.(1:40) - Start of interview.(2:17) - Margaret's "origin story". She grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. She graduated from college (history major) the year that Bill Clinton ran for President. She took a job in the Bill/Gore '92 campaign. That led to her work in the Clinton White House. It shaped her understanding of how politics and power works. She later went to graduate school to study presidential politics. Her path to studying technology came from President Dwight Eisenhower (involving the domestic economic effects of the cold war). She later worked in VP Gore's office, but not on the technology policy side, rather in empowerment zones, community and regional economic development. "It's very strange to have lived through the history that you're writing about." "The politics of the 1990s is critically important in understanding how we get to the now of the business landscape, globally and in the tech sector in particular."(8:54) - On why she decided to write her book “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.” "This is the book I wish existed in 1999 when I was in graduate school to explain [Silicon Valley], [it's an] explanatory handbook."(12:53) - On the role of the government in supporting the development of Silicon Valley, the "military-industrial-complex", the collective vs the individual, reality v. myth. "[Silicon Valley] is a truly distinctive American story." "What the U.S. has done, particularly since the 1940s when the technology flywheel began, is to enlarge the government in a stealthy way." "The government helped to build the computer, hardware and software industries but giving space for entrepreneurs to be entrepreneurial." "The government threw a lot of money in Silicon Valley's direction, and then got out of the way." "Government contracts were a huge and critical piece of the book of business of technology companies [in the early days], that's the launchpad that threw them into the stratosphere."(18:59) - On the origin story of the "Traitorous Eight", Fairchild Semiconductor, the birth of the semiconductor industry, "Defection Capital" (term coined by Tom Wolfe), Arthur Rock, and venture capital.(28:01) - On Silicon Valley's rise vis-a-vis other regions such as Massachusetts, ("geography was destiny" as told by Anna Lee Saxenian, in her book Regional Advantage, highlighting the organizational/management contrasts between the two regions). "The Bay Area is full of transplants, from the U.S. and around the world." "Immigration policy is part of the secret of Silicon Valley." The  roles of Lockheed Martin and HP in Silicon Valley ("HP did so much to set the tone of Silicon Valley's business culture, in a very deliberate contrast to places like Boston." "Management by walking around, or by wandering around" - rather than sitting around in an office.") "The idea of meritocracy in Silicon Valley comes from that era - it was the place where smart boys who didn't have family wealth or connections came, and they were able to build amazing careers, and in some cases significant fortunes." "Now that openness is not quite as easy."(33:56) - Margaret's take on the use of dual-class share structures by Silicon Valley founders on an historical perspective. "The return of Steve Jobs to Apple [after being fired] cemented the founder narrative, the belief that the "brilliant guys" get displaced [by investors or others] result in companies loosing their innovation." "When hardware got displaced by software, engineering became the product and having extraordinary talent at the top became the priority and a market advantage." The political environment and abundant capital has also played a critical role in setting these terms.(44:05) - Her article "The Secret of Building the Next Silicon Valley" (Wired, Jan 2022). "The next generation of high-tech places will come from investments in people, as well as in technology." "Silicon Valley is no longer merely a place in northern California, it is a global network, a business sensibility, a cultural shorthand, a political hack." "One commonality is that it is not about technology, it's about the people seizing opportunities [such as Fred Terman]." "It's also about an investment in higher education. In the case of UC Berkeley, Californian students were paying $50 per semester in the 60s to study elite level engineering (it was accessible and cheap). It was an escalator of upper mobility [although at the time it was mostly white men.]" "Steve Jobs went to a public school in Silicon Valley in the late 60s that had a computer lab [Steve Jobs' dad did not graduate high school]."(49:00) - On the rise of U.S. regional hubs ("the geography of tech"), and the geopolitical tensions with China.(55:37) - Margaret's favorite books:In the Shadow of the Poorhouse, by Michael B. Katz (1986)The Power Broker, by Robert Caro (1974)(57:44) - Who were your mentors, and what did you learn from them?Michael B. Katz (her graduate advisor).Bosses in the Clinton Administration.(59:22) - Quotes that she thinks of often, or lives her life by: "The days are long, the years are short."(59:33) - An unusual habit or an absurd thing that she loves: watching TikToks with her daughters.(1:00:36) - The living person she most admires? Her students at UW. Having their college careers upended by the pandemic is no treat. She admires their resiliency. She's bullish on GenZ.Margaret O'Mara is the Howard & Frances Keller Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington. She writes and teaches about the growth of the high-tech economy, the history of U.S. politics, and the connections between the two.You can follow Margaret at the following links:Twitter @margaretomaraLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaretomara/Instagram @margaretomaraWebsite https://www.margaretomara.com__ You can follow Evan on social media at:Twitter @evanepsteinLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack https://evanepstein.substack.com/Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

In order to understand what's happening in Silicon Valley today, we look back at the history of the world's most famous innovation hub. On this week's episode of Confluence, host Rana Sarkar speaks with Margaret O'Mara, Professor in the Department of History at the University of Washington and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. Her book traces the region's lineage back to its humble beginnings as the agricultural, “prune capital” of the world. It describes the unique set of circumstances and environmental factors which made Silicon Valley a global research hub before today's leading tech companies had even been conceived. Rana then connects with Jennifer Stojkovic, Executive Director of sf.citi, an organization that represents and advocates for tech with the City of San Francisco. Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, sf.citi has been researching and reporting on demographic changes in the city—mapping the so-called “techxodus.” Growing costs of living in the city have led to a real housing crisis, which leaves the road ahead for Silicon Valley somewhat uncertain. As global communications technologies make remote work easier than ever before, will Silicon Valley remain in the San Francisco Bay area? Could there be a “Silicon Valley” somewhere else in the world, or in other words, is Silicon Valley a place, or an idea? Tune in this week for sharp discussion on the past and future of Silicon Valley. LINKS:Margaret O'Mara WebsiteMargaret O'Mara TwitterMargaret O'Mara LinkedInMargaret O'Mara Wikipedia Margaret O'Mara New York TimesThe Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America at Penguin Random HouseJen Stojkovic TwitterJen Stojkovic LinkedInJen Stojkovic WikipediaSf.citi WebsiteVegan Women's Summit Rolling Stone Culture Council

Join us for the official relaunch of the No Jargon Podcast! For our first episode since our eleven-month hiatus, we take on Big Tech and government. Tech giants like Amazon and Facebook have been in the news a lot lately, especially after the House Judiciary Committee approved several antitrust bills this past summer that aim to curb the power of the tech industry. We decided to have a conversation with Margaret O'Mara, a renowned historian who has spent most of her career examining the love/hate relationship between Big Tech and government. Dr. O'Mara shares colorful stories about Silicon Valley – from its early beginnings to the days of the internet boom – all while explaining the Valley's ever-present intersection with US politics. She takes us on a journey through the ups and downs of the intensely eventful relationship between the two.   For more of Margaret O'Mara's work: Read her most recent book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. Check out her opinion pieces about the tech industry in The New York Times.

Semiconductors are an essential part of computer chips and, therefore, power much of the technology our modern world increasingly relies upon. This is especially the case during the COVID-19 pandemic, as demand for personal electronics and internet connectivity has skyrocketed. Along with toilet paper and lumber, though, semiconductors are in short supply, due to erratic, pandemic-related bottlenecks in the global supply chain. But simply making more semiconductors isn't so easy.    On today's Brainstorm, Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O'Keefe dive into the reasons for the semiconductor shortage, and explore what solutions exist in the near and long term.   Margaret O'Mara, a professor of history at the University of Washington and author of “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” describes how Silicon Valley is what it is because of the semiconductor industry and the U.S. government.  Ondrej Burkacky leads McKinsey's global Semiconductors and Business Technology practices; he explains why semiconductor manufacturing is so time and capital-intensive, and how the industry can avoid future shortages.   Also in this episode, Tyson Tuttle, CEO of Silicon Labs in Austin, Texas, describes the importance of geographic diversity in semiconductor manufacturing, and what role the government should play in preventing future shortages.  

Paris Marx is joined by Margaret O’Mara to discuss how the state and military have been at the center of the US tech industry since the very beginning, but how it was written out of the popular narrative during the neoliberal turn in the 1980s.Margaret O’Mara is the author of “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America” and a professor at the University of Washington. Follow Margaret on Twitter as @margaretomara.Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.Also mentioned in this episode:“Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128, with a New Preface by the Author” by AnnaLee SaxenianAnother relevant book: “From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism” by Fred TurnerSupport the show (https://patreon.com/techwontsaveus)

In 1937, the famed writer and activist Upton Sinclair published a novel bearing the subtitle A Story of Ford-America. He blasted the callousness of a company worth “a billion dollars” that underpaid its workers while forcing them to engage in repetitive and sometimes dangerous assembly line labor. Eighty-three years later, the market capitalization of Amazon. com has exceeded one trillion dollars, while the value of the Ford Motor Company hovers around thirty billion. We have, Alec MacGillis contends, entered the age of one-click America—and as the coronavirus makes Americans more dependent on online shopping, its sway will only intensify. Award-winning journalist MacGillis has embarked upon a literary investigation of the America that he believes falls within the shadow of Amazon. His book, Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America, MacGillis told the stories of those who’ve thrived and struggled to thrive in this rapidly changing environment, and he joined us in conversation with UW history professor Margaret O’Mara to share what he’s gleaned. From our own Seattle to suburban Virginia to Baltimore and beyond, he ranged across the country gathering insight into the impact that Amazon has had. The reach has stretched to Congress as well, MacGillis explored, with lobbyists and government contractors. With empathy and breadth, he demonstrated the hidden human costs of the other inequality between the country’s “winning” and “losing” regions, inviting us to an intimate account of contemporary capitalism. Alec MacGillis is a senior reporter for ProPublica. He worked previously at The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and The New Republic, and his journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and other publications. He is the author of The Cynic, a 2014 biography of Mitch McConnell. Margaret O’Mara is a professor of history at the University of Washington and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. She is the author of several books, including The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. Buy the Book: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781250829276  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.