Decoder with Nilay Patel

The creators and most of the cast of HBO's 'Silicon Valley' talk with Recode's Kara Swisher in this live interview, recorded in San Francisco after the premiere of the first two episodes of Season Four. Executive Producer Mike Judge talks about the challenge of staying relevant and topical when the show is written and filmed so far ahead of when it airs; star Thomas Middleditch, who plays Pied Piper founder Richard Hendricks, says the past year has made him apprehensive about privacy, data collection and social media algorithms; and costar Amanda Crew, who plays venture capitalist Monica Hall, talks about investing in real tech companies with female founders. Also: Kumail Nanjiani, who plays Dinesh Chugtai, begs for free Apple products.

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

Actor Matt Ross talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about playing Hooli CEO Gavin Belson on HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” which just started its fourth season. Ross, who previously played Alby Grant on “Big Love,” says he tries to make the antagonists he plays sympathetic and sincere, even in a goofy comedy like “Silicon Valley.” He also talks about his first film, “Captain Fantastic,” which was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, and the balance between tech companies and Hollywood, as Amazon and Netflix bid for top film and TV talent. That competition has been great for outsiders getting their stories told, but Ross wonders: What happens if the new money goes away?

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

Crowdpac CEO Steve Hilton talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about how his website is making it easier for anyone to explore running for office and to collect donations for political causes and campaigns. Hilton, a former advisor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, says the need to raise money “underpins a huge proportion of what’s wrong with politics,” and wants more diverse voices in the fray. A supporter of both Brexit and candidate Trump, he says the U.S. president needs to stop listening to Republicans in Congress and focus on “positive populism” — meaning solutions to the anxiety over jobs and the economic growth that helped Trump beat Hillary Clinton.

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

Congressman Ro Khanna talks with Recode's Kara Swisher and Tony Romm about why the people who have benefitted most from technology have a civic duty to give back to their country. Rep. Khanna's district, CA-17, covers several major Silicon Valley companies, including Apple, Intel, Yahoo and eBay, and he calls on the people creating "wealth and success" to help others succeed, including their own workers. Khanna argues that net neutrality is a major issue in need of more attention, and calls FCC chairman Ajit Pai "one of the worst picks possible in government" and a mouthpiece for the telecom industry. He also discusses immigration reform, the transition to "21st century jobs" and why President Trump's tweets are so effective.

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

Code2040 CEO and co-founder Laura Weidman Powers talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the mistakes employees and managers make when they talk about diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Companies need to make fundamental changes to how they hire and operate to be welcoming destinations for underrepresented minorities, Weidman says. She discusses the inherent flaws in most "unconscious bias" training and what Code2040 has done differently when it partners with tech companies, finding jobs for hundreds of black and latino students over the past five years.

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

Spark Capital General Partner Bijan Sabet talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about being a venture capitalist based on the East Coast, and how he became an early investor in companies like Twitter, Tumblr and Cruise. Sabet also discusses why he has become more politically vocal under President Trump, and urges tech CEOs to follow the lead of their employees in speaking out; the answer on all sides, he says, is to let more voices be heard. Sabet also talks about the failure of the personal-drone company he backed, Lily; and the blunt truth about venture capital — even good VCs are wrong most of the time.

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

Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia talks with Recode's Kurt Wagner about how he and his team built a social network for neighborhoods, with a focus on trust and privacy that forced the company to grow slower than most tech startups. Tolia was previously the CEO of Epinions, which after a merger became Shopping.com and sold to eBay. After a sports startup called Fanbase fizzled, Tolia was challenged by Benchmark's Bill Gurley to try again, and today Nextdoor is worth more than $1 billion. Having faced adversity and a public image problem of his own, he also shares some leadership advice for Uber CEO Travis Kalanick: Deal with your issues quickly.

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

"Radical Candor" author and CEO coach Kim Malone Scott talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how to be a better manager and leader. Based on her personal experiences at Apple, Google and several tech startups, Scott argues that most management failings come from bosses who are too nice rather than too mean, especially when they're talking to someone who looks different than them. She also discusses the current management crisis at Uber, which she attributes to a culture of "unchecked unilateral authority" that would be more at home in a "baboon troupe or totalitarian regime."

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

Tipping Point Community CEO Daniel Lurie talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his organization's efforts to fight homelessness in San Francisco. He says it's all too easy to "not see" the incredible poverty and inequality in the Bay Area if you commute into Silicon Valley every day, which means people in tech must be educated about the problem if they're going to be part of the solution. Lurie calls on techies of means, the beneficiaries of "this incredible moment in time," to get involved in philanthropy. He argues that civic involvement won't last if it's mandated from the outside, and that companies must see it as a cultural priority, with the energy to help coming from the top of the org chart.

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

"Veep" actors Tim Simons and Matt Walsh and showrunner David Mandel talk with Recode's Kara Swisher about the upcoming sixth season of the HBO political satire. Speaking in front of a live audience at South by Southwest, they recount how they found out on set that Donald Trump had won the presidency, and why it's not their job to respond to the new administration directly. Instead, they say, "Veep" will continue mocking the hypocrisy at all levels of politics and on both sides of the aisle, showing what happens to Julia Louis-Dreyfus's character, Selina Meyer, after she loses the presidency and is a private citizen once again. The trio also talks about the addictiveness of Twitter, whether "Veep" would work in virtual reality, and why everyone in D.C. is oblivious when they get parodied.

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