After Groupon founder Andrew Mason was fired from the role of company CEO in 2013, he released a motivational rock album for middle managers. It was an unusual move, for sure, but for Mason, it seemed a natural segue after spending most of his early life studying music. That’s why his latest startup is focused on audio as well: After selling Detour, his audio-guided walking tour app, to Bose, he spun out a new company called Descript, which is focused on audio and video transcription.

Descript is mostly a service for professionals right now, but Mason envisions a future in which his transcription technology becomes the Microsoft Word of all multimedia. He also has strong opinions on why building an app for Apple’s App Store is no longer sustainable, and says entrepreneurs need to be able to determine whether to partner with tech giants like Google and Amazon, or compete directly against them.

Also, he talks about his plans for a follow-up album. We’re still not sure if he’s serious.

Show notes: Here are the WIRED stories we mention on Google’s Project Fi and the ethical complications of the first human babies with CRISPR-edited DNA. Also, here’s a story on YouTube’s expansion of its Stories feature, courtesy of Engadget. That’s a lot of stories.

Recommendations: Mike recommends Raw Material, a podcast from SFMOMA, particularly season four, which is called “Luuvers.” Arielle recommends Emoji Builder, an independent art project that lets you create exactly the emoji face you want, like a Mr. Potato Head. Lauren recommends you watch season 1 of Amazon Prime Video’s original series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, in preparation for season 2, which comes out next week. (She also mistakenly says that the characters of Midge and Joel are divorced, and would like to correct the record: They are separated. Perhaps that was foreshadowing?)

Andrew Mason recommends the iPhone. But really, he recommends Upwork, a platform for hiring freelancers, and apologizes if that sounds like an ad, because he really does like Upwork.

Send the Gadget Lab hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. Arielle Pardes can be found at @pardesoteric. Lauren Goode is @laurengoode. Michael Calore can be found at @snackfight. Andrew Mason does not want to be followed on Twitter.

Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. Our theme song is by Solar Keys.

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