Tom Freston was a co-founder of MTV who later led MTV Networks’ global expansion and served as CEO of Viacom. His great new memoir, Unplugged, is out next week. We chat with him from his home in New York about travelling overland to the Middle East in the 70s, his early ad man days, how to manage a business that's heading downhill, he has no time for audiobooks, his favorite podcasts, Trump calling up for VMA tickets back in the day, how brands took over entertainment media, our favorite Unplugged episodes, how MTV spread from middle America to LA and New York, getting fined by the American government for having lunch with Fidel Castro, when Vice was Vice, and his favorite restaurants in NY.

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