Decoder with Nilay Patel

Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the current startup and venture capital landscape, the Trump administration and more. In this episode: (01:18) Rabois's background; (04:28) Becoming a venture capitalist and how Khosla Ventures invests; (09:37) The startup and venture capital landscape; (15:06) Why startup fundraising was unusually hectic in December; (19:15) Investing in healthcare, aerospace and autonomous driving; (26:56) Artificial intelligence; (29:02) Ethical issues in advertising and at Facebook; (36:40) Political advertising and Russian media manipulation; (40:40) The prospect of regulation; (46:32) Saudi Arabia and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi; (50:04) Contrarianism and book recommendations; (53:45) Being conservative and Rabois' friend Peter Thiel; (58:07) What happens to the Trump administration next?; (1:02:16) Who could run against Trump and win?; (1:04:47) Rabois's real estate company Opendoor

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WW International CEO Mindy Grossman talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how her company, formerly known as Weight Watchers, has transitioned into modern "wellness" culture.

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Inc. magazine senior writer Christine Lagorio-Chafkin talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new book, "We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of Reddit, the Internet's Culture Laboratory."

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Imgur CEO Alan Schaaf talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about starting the image-sharing site and moderating its content. In this episode: (00:59) Schaaf's background; (03:18) Launching Imgur; (07:56) Imgur's early business plan; (15:34) Where online images are going (and how to pronounce "gif"); (21:37) Famous memes and how entertainment is changing; (30:19) The ugliness of social media; (38:09) Why other social platforms don't moderate their content like Imgur does

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Bret Kinsella, the editor of the voice technology blog Voicebot.ai, talks with Recode’s Rani Molla about the future of virtual assistants like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant. In this episode: (01:02) Kinsella’s background; (05:07) The history of voice tech; (11:19) How many people have smart speakers and what do they do with them?; (14:51) Music and podcasts on smart speakers; (16:51) Smart homes and voice; (20:51) Voice shopping; (24:40) Why brands are all in on voice; (28:04) Positioning products for voice searches; (31:33) Pay to play in search results; (34:11) Amazon’s microwave; (38:30) Other recently announced voice hardware; (43:18) Is this a privacy nightmare waiting to happen?; (45:48) Where will voice tech be in five years?

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Scott Belsky, a venture partner at Benchmark and the chief product officer at Adobe, talks with Recode's Teddy Schleifer about his book, "The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture." In this episode: (02:32) Why Belsky came to California and started Behance; (07:14) Bootstrapping, taking investment and selling the company; (10:44) Leaving Adobe to join Benchmark; (14:53) Returning to Adobe; (18:36) Belsky's new book; (21:20) The difference between starting a company and keeping it going; (26:05) Belsky's favorite lessons from the book; (30:37) How he became an early investor in Uber; (33:54) Pinterest and other investments; (38:56) What would Belsky change about the startup world?

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Jonathan Neman, the co-founder of fast food salad chain Sweetgreen, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the company's techie side and the future of restaurants. In this episode: (01:26) How Sweetgreen got started; (04:14) Starting up in Washington, D.C.; (07:28) Why Sweetgreen sees itself as a "food platform"; (10:58) The challenges of food; (18:01) Sweetgreen's competitors and how it sources ingredients; (23:05) Online ordering; (27:21) Delivery and why other restaurants are giving up too much control; (30:12) Customer service vs. logistics; (34:05) "We wanted to make vegetables sexy"; (37:25) Tech companies getting into food; (40:17) Going international and to new cities in the U.S.; (41:29) Challenges and mistakes; (46:08) How Sweetgreen is using the blockchain; (49:07) The future of food and of Sweetgreen Notes from our sponsors:LEGO: In today's show you heard advertising content from The LEGO Store. With LEGO, every gift has a story. Start your story today at https://LEGO.build/Recode-Ship

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Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson talks about his new film, a World War I documentary with sound and color called "They Shall Not Grow Old." In this episode: (00:37) Why he made the documentary; (06:21) The technology of WWI filmmaking; (08:33) Jackson's studios in New Zealand; (11:30) Does Jackson consider himself to be a technical person?; (14:39) The colorization of the old footage and addition of audio; (19:22) How the colors of the film were picked; (26:30) Machines, blood and feet; (32:09) The sound design; (37:28) What Jackson wants to achieve with "They Shall Not Grow Old"; (40:01) Where storytelling and filmmaking technology is going

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Vox.com founder and editor-at-large Ezra Klein talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the press, social media and President Trump in this live interview recorded in San Francisco. In this episode: (03:22) Why Ezra moved to DC; (07:22) Klein’s background and the “incestuous” Twitter culture of political journalists; (11:38) Media culture in the Trump era; (13:15) How DC has changed and “docile” journalists; (21:55) Ezra’s thesis about tech, media and Trump; (27:06) Media manipulation and the speed of journalism; (36:47) Ezra and Kara’s podcasts and how they report stories; (43:20) Social media and the decline of scoops; (49:22) Hot takes and the overabundance of political opinions; (58:57) The process of the news vs. the product and the future of local news; (1:05:06) Young journalists “training up” from the statehouse; (1:08:43) Bias in media, false equivalency and letting Trump control the story; (1:12:22) How journalists decide newsworthiness; (1:16:33) The pressure to cover trashy stories; (1:19:21) What is the purpose of political journalists now?; (1:22:39) Why Kara doesn’t care what people think of her; (1:24:12) Donald Trump’s tweets and the future of politics; (1:29:54) Ezra’s favorite journalism business model Notes from our sponsors:LEGO: In today's show you heard advertising content from The LEGO Store. With LEGO, every gift has a story. Start your story today at https://LEGO.build/Recode-Pop

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Framebridge CEO Susan Tynan talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about starting and running the online framing startup. In this episode: (00:56) Tynan's background at the White House and LivingSocial; (03:53) What happened to LivingSocial; (06:53) Why Tynan started Framebridge; (10:19) The fundraising process; (15:27) Running Framebridge; (21:49) The challenges of being a leader; (25:58) Being a startup now in the era of Big Tech; (27:28) Amazon; (31:18) The move towards analog; (34:10) The weirdest things Framebridge has framed; (36:32) Digital frames and Instagram; (39:10) Finding talent outside Silicon Valley; (42:08) How Framebridge uses robots; (43:40) Meet your new neighbors, Amazon; (46:08) Mistakes and triumphs

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