Channels with Peter Kafka
by Vox Media Podcast Network
Latest episode
Encore: Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won’t…
Encore: Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won’t…
About this podcast
Media and tech aren’t just intersecting — they’re fully intertwined. And to understand how those worlds work, and what they mean for you, veteran journalist Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers - and gets them to spell it out in plain, BS-free English.
Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 608 episodes
- Encore: Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won’t Forever) · 56 min(Originally Aired 1/21/26) Football isn’t just the biggest show on TV — at this point, it’s basically the only reason some TV networks exist. So it’s a very worthy subject for…
- Barry Diller on Big Bets, AI, and Knowing When to Walk Away · 44 minBarry Diller is 84, still running the company formerly known as IAC , and still making big bets. This summer, he tried to buy MGM Resorts in an $18 billion deal — then walked…
- You Can't Escape AI. Here's How to Live With It. · 40 minAI is already doing much more than most of us realize. So what happens when it starts doing more of your work—and when it starts deciding what work you should hand over? I talk…
- Netflix in Turmoil + Derek Thompson on AI & The Antisocial Century · 53 minIt feels like 2022 all over again: Netflix has hit a wall, and is scrambling to respond. That means layoffs, a purge of its top content people and… what else? Then Derek…
- How to Run a Political Campaign in the TikTok Era (And How Not To) · 49 minMost of us stopped watching traditional TV a long time ago. Political campaigns, meanwhile, still spend most of their ad money there.Rob Flaherty has been trying to change that…
- Larry Ellison’s Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI’s Biggest Gamble · 1 h 1 minLarry Ellison bought his son a media empire. What does he want from it? Vanity Fair’s Tom Dotan joins me to talk about the billionaire behind Paramount and Warner Bros., his…
- David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next · 44 minDavid Ellison has won Warner Bros. Discovery. Now he has to figure out what, exactly, to do with it. LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield joins me to talk through the next version…
- Meta's New $1300 Glasses and the Fight to Control AI · 40 minI went to Meta’s Silicon Valley headquarters to try Mark Zuckerberg’s newest face computer: a $1,300 pair of virtual-reality glasses that are much lighter and cheaper than…
- AI Wants to Shop for You. What Could Go Wrong? · 41 minAI companies have spent years telling us that we’ll be able to use them to go shopping for us, or book us airplane tickets, or get us awesome restaurant reservations. None of…
- The Atlantic’s CEO on AI, Billionaire Owners, and Moonlighting as a Creator · 54 minNicholas Thompson runs one of the few media companies that can say things are going pretty well: The Atlantic is profitable, growing, and boasts 1.6 million subscribers.But…
- Data Centers, Elon Musk, and the New Politics of Tech, with David Weigel · 53 minNot long ago, most Americans had never heard of data centers. Now most Americans are actively opposed to them.It’s a head-snapping change — one that is befuddling tech bosses…
- The Weird, Big Business of Microdramas · 49 minMicrodramas are the new phone-first soap operas: stories chopped into dozens of one-minute episodes: Low-budget productions filled with romance, werewolves, secret babies, and…
- The $12.5 Billion Lakers, the NFL’s TV Fight, and Sports Media’s Big Split · 43 minSports teams keep selling for more money because, in theory, their media rights keep becoming more valuable. But the companies that actually pay for sports TV are starting to…
- Joanna Stern on the New Siri, OpenAI’s Weird Gadget, and Life After the Wall Street Journal · 49 minJoanna Stern spent more than a decade explaining technology to Wall Street Journal readers. Now she’s doing it on her own — with a new media company, New Things, and a new book…
- Oliver Darcy on Status, Bari Weiss, and Why Media Reporters Are Too Soft · 52 minTwo years ago, Oliver Darcy left CNN and launched Status, a paid newsletter focused on the media business. The basic bet was that readers would pay for the scoops and insider…
- Lucas Shaw on Warner Bros' Limbo, Netflix's Anxiety, and Hollywood’s Sort-of Comeback · 44 minWhen I last talked to Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, Netflix was buying Warner Bros. Discovery. Six months later, Paramount has the deal — but, surprisingly, it’s on hold while a group…
- Substack Wants To Become A Social Network; Beehiiv Wants To Stay Invisible · 42 minYou are a normal person, so if you think about “people writing their own newsletters” you probably think: “Substack”. But just as Xerox isn’t the only way to make photocopies…
- Inside Podcasting’s Fight Over Netflix, YouTube, and Creator Control · 45 minChris Balfe is the CEO of Red Seat Ventures, the company behind some of the biggest names in podcasting, including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Bill O’Reilly, and, more recently…
- "We’re in a Race Against Time," Joe Kahn on Running the New York Times in the Age of AI Slop · 1 h 4 minJoe Kahn runs the New York Times newsroom, which means he runs the most powerful news operation in the world. He joins me to talk about what that power is for — and why he thinks…
- Encore: Inside Joe Weisenthal's brain · 58 minWe originally published this interview with Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal on Feb. 11, 2026, and it's one of my favorite chats of the year. We'll be back with a new conversation on…
- The Ad Industry's Weirdest Tradition · 29 minThe Rebooting's Brian Morrissey joins me from Cannes, where OpenAI is pitching advertisers, creators are becoming media brands, and thousands of people are still flying across…
- A Hollywood Manager Explains the New Rules of Show Biz · 53 minToday’s show is about money, and how to make it in entertainment. The streaming boom made Hollywood feel like it had solved its money problem: Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney and…
- Brian Stelter on the 60 Minutes Mess; Nilay Patel on Apple’s AI Problem · 1 h 6 minBrian Stelter and Nilay Patel are both covering big, powerful institutions that are undergoing real change, whether they like it or not. Stelter, CNN’s chief media analyst…
- How Dhar Mann Turned After-School Specials Into A Billion-View Business · 38 minDhar Mann’s videos look simple, because they are simple: Someone acts badly, someone learns a lesson, everyone gets a moral by the end. You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy these…
- Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour Explains Why Boring Data Is a Great Media Business · 47 minI think of Dow Jones as The Wall Street Journal, because that’s the part I know — and the part I used to work near/around/inside. But Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour has built a much…
- Vox Media's Jim Bankoff Explains Why He's Selling to James Murdoch · 29 minJim Bankoff has spent nearly 20 years building Vox Media. Now he’s selling a big chunk of it to James Murdoch, who is acquiring Vox Media's Podcast Network - the same one that…
- Versant CEO Mark Lazarus is Running a Post-Cable Cable Company · 40 minVersant is the new company Comcast created when it spun off CNBC, MS NOW, USA and other cable networks it no longer wanted inside the mothership. That makes Mark Lazarus’ job…
- Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch on AI, the Met Gala and His Secret Succession Plan · 54 minRoger Lynch has spent the last seven years trying to turn Condé Nast from a magazine company into a profitable portfolio of global brands. Now he has a new set of problems…
- The Internet’s Let-It-Rip Era, With The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel · 1 h 4 minThe internet is in its let-it-rip era: more AI slop, more video, more clips — and very little in the way of guardrails or rules. Charlie Warzel, who writes and hosts Galaxy…
- AI Can Make Software Now. That Changes Everything, with Paul Ford · 53 minLearn to code, they told us. Then the computers went and learned to code. Now anyone can do it, in theory, courtesy of Claude Code and other vibe coding apps. Tech people I talk…
- Jason Blum Built a Hit-Making Movie Machine. Does It Still Work? · 27 minJason Blum built one of Hollywood’s smartest businesses: make low-budget horror movies, give filmmakers room, pay talent on the back end, and let the hits carry the misses. It…
- Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz on Sam Altman’s Trust Problem · 47 minSam Altman has spent years presenting himself as the face of AI: The guy warning that the technology could change everything, and the guy insisting that he should be the one to…
- What Happens When a “Succession” Writer Takes on Silicon Valley · 42 minJonathan Glatzer has written for shows like Succession and Better Call Saul. Now he’s got his own: The Audacity, a new AMC drama set in Silicon Valley.So why make a Silicon…
- Why We Need to Pay Attention to Elon Musk Again · 50 minElon Musk has spent the last year being quieter than usual — by Elon Musk standards.That may be about to change in a very big way, as his SpaceX moves toward what could be one of…
- Why Prediction Markets Are Turning Everything Into a Bet · 46 minPrediction markets are suddenly everywhere: in sports, in politics, in the media business — and, depending on who you ask, they’re either a useful forecasting tool or just…
- How to Survive without Google: People Inc's Playbook · 48 minLots of publishers are freaked out about “Google Zero” — the notion that one day, Google will stop sending them any traffic at all. That’s more or less already happened at…
- Matt Belloni on the Oscars, the Ellisons, and Hollywood’s Next Chapter · 41 minOscar season is supposed to be Hollywood’s lap. It is also, increasingly, a reminder of how shaky things are in Hollywood right now. And this one comes as one of the town’s most…
- The World’s Cup Is Coming to Trump’s America, with Roger Bennett · 40 minThe World Cup is coming to the U.S (and Canada, and Mexico) in less than 100 days. Perhaps you’re an American who doesn’t care about soccer, and has given this news zero…
- Netflix Walks, Paramount Wins, and the Ellisons Take Hollywood · 34 minNetflix shocked the world last year by winning a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. This week it shocked us by walking away.In this emergency bonus episode, CNBC’s Alex Sherman…
- Brian Stelter on the Trump Media Shakedown Era · 50 minBrian Stelter puts its clearly: "All M&A runs through the Oval Office right now.” So how much does Trump matter in the Netflix/Paramount battle for Warner Bros. Discovery — and…
- Janice Min on Hollywood’s Crisis; Reed Duchscher on the Creator Boom · 1 h 7 minJanice Min and Reed Duchscher are both building new media companies in LA. But their perspectives are quite different: Min runs The Ankler, the trade pub that mostly focuses on…
- How Odd Lots' Joe Weisenthal Turned Curiosity Into a Career, and a Hit Podcast · 1 h 10 minIf Joe Weisenthal didn’t exist, the internet would have to invent him. Because Joe Weisenthal is built for the internet — more specifically, an internet personality: Knows a lot…
- Jeff Bezos Used To Be In Love with The Washington Post. What Happened? · 35 minJeff Bezos used to be the savior of The Washington Post. He bought it for $250 million in 2013, and then invested money and energy into turning it around — and it worked.Now the…
- Who is Josh D'Amaro and Why is He Disney's New CEO? · 39 minIn February 2020, Disney CEO Bob Iger finally announced his successor: Bob Chapek, who ran the company’s parks business. That didn’t work out.Now Iger is running it back: This…
- Running a Newsroom in Minneapolis + How to Make a Game of Thrones For Less · 39 minIn an ideal world, I wouldn’t be bringing you an interview with the editor of the Minnesota Star Tribune about her paper’s coverage of the killing of Alex Pretti in the same…
- Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won’t Forever) · 56 minFootball isn’t just the biggest show on TV — at this point, it’s basically the only reason some TV networks exist. So it’s a very worthy subject for Chuck Klosterman, the…
- How to Build a Profitable Media Company in 3 years, with Semafor’s Justin Smith · 40 minNews is a tough business. So how did Semafor, the news startup founded by Ben Smith and Justin Smith, figure out how to turn a profit in their third year of business? Excellent…
- Inside Bari Weiss’s Rise: LA, Sun Valley, and the Mogul Network · 40 minHow, exactly, did Bari Weiss become the head of CBS News? We know that David Ellison, who bought Paramount last year, hired her — and bought The Free Press, the publication she…
- Craig Finn on Friendship, Fans and The Hold Steady’s Second Life · 49 minCraig Finn makes music — as the head of the Hold Steady, and on his solo records — about grown-up lives and bad decisions. Back in 2017, we talked about his life as a working…
- Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt’s Second Act: Less Budget, More Control · 55 minPJ Vogt helped invent modern narrative podcasting with “Reply All.” Now he’s running “Search Engine” with a much smaller team and a lot more control. We talk through what he gave…
