The Grill Room

Yahoo C.E.O. Jim Lanzone joins Dylan and Julia for a tour of the company’s Apollo era, four years after the private equity behemoth bought the business for just $5 billion—nearly $120 billion shy of its peak valuation. Lanzone breaks down Yahoo’s growth strategy: the metrics that actually matter, how the company monetizes at scale, and what the endgame looks like. They also dig into Yahoo’s A.I. ambitions, and what it takes to run a mass-market consumer business in a media landscape focused on niche and specialized content.

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It’s been 20 years since How I Met Your Mother premiered, and just over 10 years since the finale. Josh Radnor, who played “Ted” for nine seasons teams up with series co-creator Craig Thomas for this episode-by-episode rewatch podcast. For the superfans, HWMYM (listen to the trailer to learn how it’s pronounced) will get into all the secrets, theories, and pineapples, but we'll also use HIMYM – and our relationship to it two decades later – to talk about life and love and art and everything in between. How We Made Your Mother… a flashback podcast for a flashback show.  You can listen to all episodes of season 1 now, and join Josh and Craig as they dive into season 2! 

Julia and Dylan revisit the endlessly looping Nuzzi-Lizza saga, questioning whether we’re still covering journalism or merely documenting a public breakup. They dissect the collateral damage of the drama: Substack’s structural vulnerabilities, Vanity Fair’s brand calculus, and the reputational fallout for both combatants. Plus, they swap their Spotify Wrapped revelations and discuss how Spotify turned an annual recap into a global marketing juggernaut.

Learn more about Starbucks industry-leading benefits at ⁠starbucks.com/partners⁠⁠.⁠

Makena Kelly, senior writer at Wired, joins Julia to wade into the Venn diagram of politics, internet culture, and technology. They discuss Elon Musk’s curious cameo in the Trump administration, the rise of influencer gatherings over traditional press, and how online fandoms can turbocharge campaigns like Zohran Mamdani’s. They also explore how creators are reshaping political media and the tightrope reporters walk to stay objective through it all.

Learn more about Starbucks industry-leading benefits at starbucks.com/partners.

Julia and Dylan serve up the latest media dish: the blurred lines between journalists and influencers; how A.I. is transforming Apple and Google; the Substackification of legacy media; and, of course, the Nuzzi-Lizza-R.F.K. scandal that won’t die.

Brian Morrissey and Troy Young, hosts of People vs Algorithms, join Dylan to discuss the media culture war between “information entrepreneurs” like Olivia Nuzzi and Michael Wolff and old-school journalists such as Kara Swisher. Then they dig into the blurring lines between journalism and content creation writ large, the rise of performative reporting, and whether traditional media can keep up in the new attention economy.

Alison Roman, the internet’s favorite culinary truth-teller, rejoins Dylan to dish on her ongoing evolution as an independent creator in the chaotic attention economy. She discusses her new book, the existential importance of keeping it authentic, and why she broke up with Substack. She also previews her next acts—and, of course, what she’s cooking for Thanksgiving.

Julia and Dylan discuss Olivia Nuzzi’s Vanity Fair “American Canto” excerpt and New York Times profile, and the increasingly tangled relationship between celebrity culture and legacy media brands trying to retain and grow audiences. They also discuss the fate of The Telegraph, and why Jeff Zucker and Gerry Cardinale can’t seem to get their hands around the storied Tory broadsheet.

Julia and Dylan break down the week’s buzziest media flashpoints: prediction markets muscling their way into politics, punctuated by the $420 million frenzy over New York’s mayoral election; the BBC tiptoeing toward a legal cage match with Trump while clinging to its nonpartisan halo; Jim Bankoff’s plan to spin off the Vox Media Podcast Network; Bob Iger’s flirtation with A.I.-fueled user-generated content at Disney; and more.

Ian Krietzberg joins Dylan to size up A.I.’s takeover of the media business—how it’s rewiring audiences, destabilizing trust, and threatening to drown the news in algorithmic sludge—while arguing that exclusive content and credibility are the key to survival. And though A.I. might yet change the world, Ian warns that energy costs and bad data could short-circuit the revolution before it starts.