Decoder with Nilay Patel

Regular listeners of Decoder know car CEOs love coming on the show. There is a lot of change in the car industry, a lot of big ideas about how to manage that change, and a lot of big problems to solve: the transition to electric vehicles, the fact that cars are basically turning into rolling smartphones, how to make self-driving work safely, and more. And, of course, we always end up talking about Tesla — because how can you not?

Links:

Listen to the full interviews here

Luminar CEO Austin Russell

Ford CEO Jim Farley

Argo AI CEO Brian Saleski

Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath

Waymo CEO Tekedra Mawakana

Jeep CEO Christian Meunier

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg

Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess

Transcript of this episode

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, and Jackie McDermott with and it was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andrew Marino and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Links

Dieselgate coverage on The Verge

VW vows to build massive electric car charging network across US

Electrify America announces doubling of charging network with 1,800 stations and 10,000 chargers

Transcript

https://www.theverge.com/e/22652357

Credits

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, and Jackie McDermott with and it was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andrew Marino and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cristiano Amon is the president and CEO of Qualcomm, and he’s always been a relentless cheerleader for what mobile computing can do for people — especially if that mobile computing is powered by Qualcomm’s chips.

Links:

Apple supplier TSMC confirms it’s building an Arizona chip plant

Intel will make Qualcomm chips in new foundry deal

The Verge 5G landing page

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip is here to power the Android flagships of 2022

Qualcomm’s next-gen CPU for PCs will take on Apple’s M-series chips in 2023

Transcript:

https://www.theverge.com/e/22640552

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, and Jackie McDermott with and it was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andrew Marino and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this special, Thursday episode of Decoder, Andrew Hawkins spoke with secretary of transportation Pete Butigieg ahead of his speech at CES 2022.

2021 was an eventful year for Buttigieg, the youngest and arguably the most notable person to take on the role of transportation secretary in many years. Congress passed President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which will provide billions of new funding for the creation of a national network of electric vehicle charging stations. The secretary and Andrew talked about that, about self driving vehicles, and of course, Tesla.

Links:

Secretary Pete Buttigieg on the future of transportation

The Verge CES hub

Biden signs $1 trillion infrastructure package into law

The investigation into Tesla Autopilot’s emergency vehicle problem is getting bigger

Transcript:

https://www.theverge.com/e/22633231

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andru Marino and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Logitech is one of those ubiquitous companies — it’s been around since 1981, selling all kinds of important things that connect to computers of all shapes and sizes: mice, keyboards, cases, cameras, you name it. Nilay Patel spoke with Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell about how the company met increased demand during the pandemic, whether that changed his plans to shift to a services company, and how the supply chain issues around the world affect his business. They also talked about how he manages Logitech’s relationships with other tech giants like Apple and Amazon.

And we had to talk about the decision to kill the Harmony remote line.

Links:

Nilay's interview with Bracken Darrell from 2019

Everything you need to know about the global chip shortage

Why charging phones is such a complex business with Anker CEO Steven Yang

Logitech officially discontinues its Harmony remotes

How an excel TikToker manifested her way to making six figures a day

Logitech is buying Streamlabs for $89 million

Logitech announces cheaper Magic Keyboard alternative for new iPad Pro

Transcript:

https://www.theverge.com/e/22610722

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andrew Marino and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So today I’m talking to Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, about one of the hardest problems at the intersection of tech and policy right now: the question of how to regulate social media platforms. Everyone seems to think we should do it – Democrats, Republicans – even Facebook is running ads saying it welcomes regulation. It’s weird. But while everyone might agree on the idea, no one agrees on the execution, and the biggest hurdle is the First Amendment..

Links:

Florida governor signs law to block ‘deplatforming’ of Florida politicians

Judge blocks Florida’s social media law

Texas passes law that bans kicking people off social media based on ‘viewpoint’

Federal court blocks Texas law banning ‘viewpoint discrimination’ on social media

Social media companies want to co-opt the First Amendment. Courts shouldn’t let them.

Miami Herald Publishing Company vs. Tornillo

Pacific Gas & Electric Company v. Public Utilities Commission of California

Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian Bisexual Group

Transcript:

https://www.theverge.com/e/22602514

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andru Marino and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Hanke is the CEO of Niantic, a company that makes the wildly popular Pokemon Go mobile game in partnership with Nintendo and the Pokémon company. Pokemon Go, and its predecessor Ingress, are now the largest and most successful augmented reality games in the industry, which means John has long been at the forefront of what we’ve all started calling the metaverse—digital worlds that interact with the real world. Lots of companies are chasing metaverse hype but John’s been at it for a while, and I wanted to talk about the reality instead of the hype. We also coin the phrase “marketplace of realities.” It’s a ride.

Links:

What’s left of Magic Leap?

Microsoft is supplying 120,000 HoloLens-based headsets to the US Army

Snap’s first AR Spectacles are an ambitious, impractical start

Facebook just revealed its new name: Meta

There will never be another Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is still incredibly relevant

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is shutting down next year

Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone is out now

The best thing to do in VR is work out

NFT's, explained

Pokémon Go creator Niantic is working on AR glasses with Qualcomm

Transcript:

https://www.theverge.com/e/22596531

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, and Jackie McDermott with research by Liz Lian and it was edited by Callie Wright.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andru Marino and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jonah Erlich is one of the core members of a group called ConstitutionDAO, a group that raised $47 Million to try to buy one of the original copies of the United States Constitution at an auction held by the high-end auction house Sotheby’s.

Links:

ConstitutionDAO

Endaoment

Crypto collective raises $27 million to bid for rare copy of US Constitution

ConstitutionDAO loses $43 million auction of rare US Constitution copy

ConstitutionDAO will shut down after losing bid for Constitution

Almost buying a copy of the Constitution is easy, but giving the money back is hard

Code is Law

Ice Bucket Challenge dramatically accelerated the fight against ALS

Iwata Asks: Just Being President Was A Waste!

Succession

Could ConstitutionDAO's PEOPLE token be the next meme coin?

Transcript:

https://www.theverge.com/e/22584604

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott. We are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kat Norton is a Microsoft Excel influencer. She has over a million followers on TikTok and Instagram, where she goes by the name Miss Excel, and she’s leveraged that into a software training business that is now generating up to six figures of revenue a day. That’s six figures a day. And she’s only been doing this since June 2020. Nilay Patel talks to her about how she built the business, how she uses energetics to go viral, and why her relationship with social media is so different than other creators and influencers,

Links:

Excelerator Course

A Microsoft Excel influencer quit her day job and is making 6 figures from her unconventional way of teaching spreadsheet hacks, tips, and tricks

Transcript:

https://www.theverge.com/e/22571899

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, and Andrew Marino. And we are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky prides himself on thinking very differently than other CEOs, and his answers to the Decoder questions about how he structures and manages his company were almost always the opposite of what I’m used to hearing on the show. Airbnb is pretty much a single team, focused on a single product, and it all rolls up to Brian. That’s very different from most other big companies, which have lots of divisions and overlapping lines of authority.

And Airbnb’s relationship to cities is changing as tourism changes. Airbnb used to be the poster child for a tech company that showed up without permission and fought with regulators, but as the company has grown and the pandemic has changed things, it’s entered what is hopefully a more mature phase — it just came to a deal with New York City after ten years of argument. I asked Brian about that and about what it’s like to run a public company now — the transition from scrappy startup to public company engaged with regulators is a big one.

Of course, I also had to ask about cryptocurrency and the metaverse — does Brian think we’re all going to be visiting virtual NFT museums on vacations in the future? You have to listen and find out.

Okay, Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, here we go.

Links:

Can Brian Chesky Save Airbnb?

Jony Ive is bringing his design talents to... Airbnb

Zillow reportedly needs to sell 7,000 houses after it bought too many

City of New York and Airbnb Reach Settlement Agreement

Airbnb hosts discriminate against black guests based on names, study suggests

Transcript:

https://www.theverge.com/e/22547463

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone, and Andrew Marino, our research was done by Liz Lian. And we are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices