Decoder with Nilay Patel
by The Verge
Latest episode
Jensen Huang is out. What did China want from him?
Jensen Huang is out. What did China want from him?
About this podcast
Decoder is a show from The Verge about big ideas — and other problems. Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks to a diverse cast of innovators and policymakers at the frontiers of business and technology to reveal how they’re navigating an ever-changing landscape, what keeps them up at night, and what it all means for our shared future.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 991 episodes
- Jensen Huang is out. What did China want from him? · 42 minToday, we’re talking about the Jensen Huang scandal at Nvidia, which is developing so quickly that we had to do an emergency update of this intro minutes before publishing this…
- The man who fought napster is now fighting AI · 1 h 13 minI was in college when Napster hit, and the RIAA instantly became the big villain because it was suing kids for downloading music. That was when I decided to go be a copyright…
- AI broke the cybersecurity world. Now what? · 1 h 3 minI’ve always enjoyed talking to security expert Alex Stamos because he’s so direct — and he doesn't mince words about how the multibillion dollar cybersecurity industry as we’ve…
- The hidden supply chain costs of the AI boom · 49 minMy guest today is Willy Shih, an economist, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, and the author of the upcoming book, Where Does My Stuff Come From? The…
- Why Peacock is making a huge bet on YouTube · 1 h 9 minThere’s been a whole lot of organizational and structural change at NBCUniversal since the last time Matt Strauss joined Decoder. First, Comcast spun most of the cable channels…
- Inside Anthropic’s trillion-dollar AI gamble · 45 minToday, I’m joined by Joey Brookhart, an analyst at the chip and AI research firm SemiAnalysis, to help me dig into the story inside the massive Anthropic IPO filing. This isn’t…
- Kevin Roose is AGI-pilled. Why aren't you? · 1 h 8 minMy guest today is Kevin Roose, a journalist and author of the new book The AGI Chronicles. Kevin was a longtime New York Times reporter and host of the popular podcast Hard Fork…
- Bill Gates says to prepare for 20 years of ‘tumultuous’ AI disruption · 1 h 16 minMy guest today is Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft and chairman of the Gates Foundation. You may have noticed Bill in the news more lately — he’s been on…
- JB Pritzker thinks AI could help us live to 100 — or threaten us like nukes · 59 minIllinois Gov. JB Pritzker, has a lot of thoughts about AI, tech, and privacy. Those issues are driving a big and maybe kind of unexpected political realignment — and with the…
- Why Elon Musk wants to sell you cell service · 54 minMy guest today is Walter Piecyk, a telecom analyst at LightShed Partners, and we’re discussing SpaceX’s plan to become a major wireless carrier. Last week, the company agreed to…
- Benn Jordan thinks the surveillance problem is much bigger than Flock · 1 h 2 minToday, I’m talking with Benn Jordan, musician, YouTuber, researcher, and investigative journalist. In the last couple of years, Benn has become a high-profile face in the creator…
- Rewind: Ronan Farrow on Sam Altman’s ‘unconstrained’ relationship with the truth · 1 h 0 minHey everybody, it’s Nilay. We’re off today for the holiday, and we’ll be back this Thursday with new episodes. In the meantime, we wanted to revisit a conversation from earlier…
- Another billionaire thinks he can fix Warner Bros. · 46 minAcquiring Warner Bros. never goes well for anyone. AOL failed, AT&T failed, and Discovery failed — although it did succeed in flipping the assets to David Ellison’s Skydance. So…
- OpenAI has a Muse problem · 45 minMy guest today is Hayden Field, The Verge’s senior AI reporter, and we're discussing the new wave of consumer friendly AI agents. AI enthusiasts have been using agents for a…
- Adam Schiff on AI regulation, free speech, and impeaching Trump one more time · 58 minCalifornia Sen. Adam Schiff sits on a bunch of the committees that do tech and AI oversight, so I really wanted to ask him about how we might regulate anything related to the…
- The AI warnings are getting louder · 36 minHey everybody, it’s Nilay. We’ve got a little bonus drop for you today — I was recently interviewed about AI safety by Shumita Basu for Apple News In Conversation, and I enjoyed…
- How Utah locals fought Kevin O'Leary's AI data center · 45 minToday I’m talking with Josh Dzieza, a longtime features writer here at The Verge, about a massive data center in Utah that does not exist, might never exist, and yet has already…
- The SaaSpocalypse that wasn't, with Atlassian's CEO · 1 h 16 minMy guest today is Mike Cannon-Brookes, who is co-founder and CEO of Atlassian. Atlassian is one of those companies that every other company runs on — it makes important platform…
- Can Cloudflare save the web from AI? · 1 h 18 minCloudflare discovered in June that bots already make up more than half of internet traffic — and CEO Matthew Prince says that bots could outnumber humans a thousand to one within…
- I have some questions for Mark Zuckerberg · 23 minIt’s a big week for Meta. The company has its big Connect conference, and the new Muse AI agent appears to be an early hit. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been doing a lot of interviews…
- Can John Ternus find Apple's next big thing? · 58 minToday, I’m talking with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who is the world’s best-sourced Apple reporter. Earlier this month, Apple hosted its annual iPhone hardware event, and this event…
- Does AI need an antitrust exemption so it doesn't kill everyone???? · 46 minThe biggest story in tech right now is the spiraling debate about AI safety and regulation. The CEOs of all these companies have issued various calls to slow down development and…
- Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse · 53 minToday, I’m talking with Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI. As you’re no doubt aware, the biggest story in tech right now is the spiraling debate about AI safety and…
- Adam Conover explains how YouTube ruined everything · 1 h 5 minAdam Conover is a familiar face to anyone who’s spent time on the internet. He got his start at CollegeHumor back in the day, before transitioning into cable TV with Adam Ruins…
- Why the current tech backlash feels different · 55 minWe’re back with another Decoder mailbag special. This time, we focused on feedback to Nilay’s “software brain” video essay, our ongoing coverage of AI and Big Tech backlash…
- How Sonos rebooted itself · 1 h 13 minMy guest today is Sonos CEO Tom Conrad. Tom was on the board at Sonos during the disastrous 2024 app redesign that threatened to crash the entire brand, and he took over as…
- New York Governor Kathy Hochul thinks AI should be ‘less evil’ · 51 minIt’s an election year, with a shocking amount of tech policy at stake, and Gov.Hochul has taken strong positions on almost every major tech issue there is. You'll hear us talk…
- OpenAI's executive exodus has one big winner · 41 minToday, I’m talking with Hayden Field, The Verge’s senior AI reporter, about some pure Decoder bait: the seemingly-endless org chart changes at OpenAI, and how all of them seem to…
- How GoFundMe became America's backup plan · 1 h 17 minTim Cadogan is CEO of GoFundMe, the for-profit platform where you can donate to help people with everything from medical expenses to little league uniforms to starting a new…
- Welcome to the AI crisis in math · 41 minMy guest today is Robert Hart, The Verge’s London-based AI reporter. Robert recently wrote a fantastic story for us about the debate raging inside the world of mathematics — and…
- It's about ethics in journalism, with Ben Smith · 1 h 11 minToday I’m talking to Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of Semafor. Ben ran BuzzFeed News at the height of the Facebook traffic boom, and even wrote a book about it, called Traffic…
- Does Google even want to win in AI? · 39 minMy guest today is The Verge’s Hayden Field, and we’re discussing a question that’s been rocketing around the tech industry for the past week: Is Google losing the AI race?…
- Bose CEO Lila Snyder on the fight for high-quality audio · 1 h 6 minMy guest today is Lila Snyder, the CEO of Bose. Lila was last on the show about four years ago, and since then she’s dramatically rearchitected the company — she sold off Bose…
- The left and right agree on one thing: no data centers · 38 minOur guest today is Gaby Del Valle, a policy reporter here at The Verge, and we’re discussing the growing backlash against AI data centers. Gaby recently reported a fantastic…
- Bluesky’s new CEO wants a big tent, not a bubble · 1 h 15 minToday, I’m talking with Toni Schneider, the new head of social platform Bluesky who formally took over after a short stint as interim CEO. This is one of my favorite kinds of…
- The end of the human internet · 43 minHey everyone, this is Nick Statt, senior producer on Decoder. We’re taking a brief publishing break while Nilay is out on vacation. We’ll resume regular programming next week…
- Tariffs didn’t bring manufacturing jobs back to the US · 1 h 11 minEvan Smith, cofounder and CEO of Altana, was last on the show in early 2025 to talk about how Trump’s first few waves of tariffs were starting to affect global trade. It was a…
- What Apple’s OpenAI lawsuit is really about · 44 minToday, I’m talking with Hayden Field, The Verge’s senior AI reporter, about the major trade secrets lawsuit between Apple and OpenAI, and what this tells us about OpenAI’s…
- Dr. Jill Lepore on why the AI backlash is vital for the future · 60 minDr. Jill Lepore is one of the best writers there is at identifying institutional patterns in history, and Decoder is a show about systems and organization — so her new book, The…
- Proton’s CTO: No company is going to jail for you · 1 h 24 minWe’ve got the first of a two-part series on the systems that run the world: I’m talking today with Bart Butler, the CTO of Proton, the company that makes private and secure…
- Yes, even Nvidia's head of automotive is fighting for compute · 1 h 11 minNvidia is obviously in the news constantly because of the AI boom — but it's also a major supplier to the entire auto industry As head of Nvidia's automotive division, Xinzhou Wu…
- Why did Comcast ever buy NBC? · 1 h 2 minMy guest today is Peter Kafka, chief correspondent at Business Insider and host of Channels, a podcast about the media industry. And it’s a big week for the media industry —…
- Inside the big business of the creator economy, with Ali Berman and Raina Penchansky · 1 h 8 minToday I’m talking with Ali Berman and Raina Penchansky, who run the Creators Division at United Talent Agency. UTA is an enormous talent agency, and Ali and Raina's creators…
- The CMO is a dying role, says Digitas' Amy Lanzi · 56 minWe’ve got a special Decoder today. I had the chance to talk with Amy Lanzi, the CEO of Digitas North America, in front of a live audience at the Uber villa at the Cannes Lions…
- He changed outdoor cooking forever — then took over Weber · 1 h 11 minIt’s time for our annual Fourth of July grill episode here at Decoder, which is when we invite the CEOs of outdoor cooking companies onto the show to explain just how their…
- Rewind: CEO Jim Farley on Ford's EV gamble · 1 h 3 minHey everyone, Nilay here. You might remember I took a break from Decoder last year — we had a baby, so I took some leave. In my place, we had an excellent slate of guest hosts…
- Can Patreon fight fire with social media fire? · 1 h 13 minA lot has changed on the internet, in the creator landscape, and at Patreon itself since CEO Jack Conte was last on the show in 2021. AI and platform shifts have stolen creator…
- Who decides when AI is too dangerous? · 41 minMy guest today is Hayden Field, senior AI reporter for The Verge. Often when Hayden comes on the show, it’s because something has gone wrong in the world of AI. Last weekend…
- Skydio CEO argues more drones will make us safer · 1 h 13 minToday, I’m talking with Slydio CEO Adam Bry, who runs the leading US maker of autonomous drones. We covered a lot in this conversation, including Skydio’s police and government…
- Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch on AI, the Met Gala & his secret succession plan · 55 minHey! Nilay here. It’s conference season, so I’m traveling across the country and around the world a lot more than usual. Stay tuned for some very special Decoder episodes we have…
