Joichi "Joi" Ito, the director of the MIT Media Lab, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about engineers who over-simplify the world's problems, the Media Lab's role in "surveillance capitalism," and why the values of the tech world will shift from within.

In this episode: Ito's background and what the Media Lab does; techno-utopianism and the early days of the internet; how Ito got to MIT; computers implanted in the human body; Shoshana Zuboff and "surveillance capitalism"; the gap between technology and the law; why we're not living in a simulation; what’s missing from the AI discourse; the problem with how tech solves problems; the dangers of bad policy; and the subordination of liberal arts at schools like MIT.

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In these live interviews from the 2019 Code Conference, Casey Newton first talks to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri and Facebook's head of AR and VR, Andrew "Boz" Bosworth; then; later in the show, he interviews three former tech insiders: former Googler Jessica Powell, ex-Facebooker Antonio García-Martínez, and Twitter/Google veteran Nicole Wong.

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Georgia politician Stacey Abrams and her former campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo, now the co-founders of Fair Fight Action, talk with Recode's Kara Swisher and Vox.com's Ezra Klein at the 2019 Code Conference.

In this episode: Abrams’ campaign for governor and what Fair Fight does; how Abrams defines the importance of voting rights; is America a democracy? “Yes, but…”; why Abrams doesn’t use the term “stolen election”; the Republican Party’s voter suppression habits; the problem with companies boycotting Georgia over anti-abortion laws; why “Georgia is the future” of America; the future of elections and how politicians should approach them; will Abrams run for anything in 2020?; identity politics and diversity in the Democratic Party; how has tech impacted politics?; why regulation is not a punishment; and the fallacy of Democrats abandoning the “center”.

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Jonathan Ryan and Erika Andiola, the CEO and chief advocacy officer at RAICES, talk with Vox.com's Ezra Klein at the 2019 Code Conference.

In this episode: The current situation at the US-Mexico border; the increasing power of the executive branch of the US government as you approach the border; how tech companies like Palantir, Amazon, Microsoft, and Dell are working with ICE; the history of corporations enabling unconstitutional behavior; alternatives for the government; what would be a non-tyrannical way of handling immigration?; the “political football” of immigration reform; and the role of sanctuary cities.

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Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon's cloud computing service AWS, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher at the 2019 Code Conference.

In this episode: How Jassy came to work at Amazon 22 years ago; how Jeff Bezos has changed in that time; how AWS differentiates itself from the competition; could it be disrupted by a small business?; facial recognition, sensor creep, and trust; alleged misuse of Amazon’s facial recognition tech by law enforcement; its work with the government, and employee objections to that; should tech companies work with ICE and border patrol?; potential antitrust regulation and whether AWS should be spun off; Donald Trump’s Amazon-bashing obsession; the HQ2 contest; the challenges of running AWS, including diversity; does Jassy want to be CEO of Amazon?; and how does AWS's culture compare to Amazon’s? 

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Vijaya Gadde, who leads the legal and trust and safety teams at Twitter, and Periscope co-founder Kayvon Beykpour, who's now the company's head of product, talk with Recode's Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka at the 2019 Code Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz.

In this episode: Twitter’s meeting with President Trump; CEO Jack Dorsey's level of contact with the policy team; cleaning the Twitter “cesspool”; could it operate without letting everyone speak?; its new policies around elections and anti-vaxxers; how its responses to abuse compare to Facebook’s and Google’s; does de-platforming people like Alex Jones reduce their influence?; does Twitter radicalize people?; how Twitter is trying to get rid of white supremacists; and false equivalency in content moderation.

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Mehdi Hasan, a columnist at the Intercept and host of its weekly podcast Deconstructed, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher.

In this episode: How Hasan got into journalism; the timidity of the American press; cold comforts in the “horrible, horrible moment” of the Trump presidency; the Intercept and Hasan’s podcast, Deconstructed; his viral interview with Blackwater founder Erik Prince; Swisher’s interview with Sam Harris; liberals who only see racism on the right; the controversial speeches in Hasan's history; the impact of Twitter on politics — and Donald Trump on Twitter; the 2020 presidential race and impeachment; and Trump's legacy.

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CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, The Shadow War: Inside Russia’s and China's Secret Operations to Defeat America.

In this episode: Sciutto’s background and the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests; being a foreign correspondent; working for the Chinese ambassador and returning to journalism; being a journalist at CNN in the Trump era; Americans’ post-Cold War delusions about Russia; why failures to recognize Russia and China as threats have been bipartisan; how both countries have made themselves adversaries of the US; what Russia has done beyond election hacking, including "kamikaze satellites"; China’s theft of state secrets; should we be making phones in China?; why AI is now a battlefield; what do Russia and China actually want, and what does defeat look like?; America's deeply partisan politics; the policy steps to end the shadow war; and the impact of Trump's trade war with China.

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Media market research consultant Michele Madansky talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about The Elephant in the Valley, her study into the prevalence of harassment in tech that was first conducted in 2016 and recently updated with new statistics.

In this episode: Madansky's background; the first edition of Elephant in the Valley and its aftermath; how does harassment in tech compare to other industries?; is harassment still the elephant in the room?; what's worse since 2016, what's the same, and what's better?; why Madansky is optimistic; Gen Z and growing acceptance of women as breadwinners; how to change the numbers; is Madansky worried about #MeToo fatigue?; and her advice for the tech companies she advises.

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Girls Who Code CEO Reshma Saujani talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the challenges facing women in the tech industry and what everyone can do to make progress happen faster.

In this episode: The 60 Minutes problem; what Girls Who Code does; how it compares to other diversity-in-coding groups; how much progress have we made so far?; the link between perfectionism and "fitting in"; the lousy excuses for homogeneous hiring; how Google and Microsoft could become the new Goldman Sachs; sexual harassment and the impact of #MeToo; bringing new investors into the ecosystem; what parents should tell their daughters; and where are the role models?

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