Decoder with Nilay Patel

Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank Group, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how big data can prevent famines around the world and how to engage tech leaders in solving huge problems. In this episode: (01:46) Kim's background at WHO, at Dartmouth and as an enemy of the World Bank; (09:01) Job automation and the future of work; (13:19) Why African leaders can't copy their way to pros...

In this bonus episode of Recode Decode, you get two interviews for the price of one, both conducted by Recode's Kara Swisher at the Lesbians Who Tech Summit in New York City. First, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and HuffPost editor in chief Lydia Polgreen talk about "Trump, technology and the future of news." In the second half of the show (28:02), actor Jane Lynch ("Glee," "Party Down")...

Journalist and author Nancy Jo Sales talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new HBO documentary, "Swiped: Hooking Up in the Digital Age." In this episode:03:41 - How Sales started writing about teenage culture08:20 - The psychological impact of the internet10:38 - "What's Tinder?"12:31 - Cheerleading tech and platforms' responsibility19:25 - Why Sales made "Swiped"25:07 - The gamification of d...

Kai-Fu Lee, the CEO of Sinovation Ventures and former president of Google China, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order." In this episode:00:55 - Lee's background & Google China03:32 - Why he left Google05:41 - Why American companies struggled to compete in China09:46 - It's not all because of the government12:23 - Inves...

Former deputy CTO of the United States Nicole Wong talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about the future of tech policy and why content moderation is more complicated than many people think. In this episode:01:29 - How Wong became a First Amendment lawyer04:12 - Why she took a job at Google07:05 - "You can’t be the lawyer that says no all the time.”08:30 - Why she left Google09:34 - The White House ph...

Mark Leibovich, the chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, "Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times." In this episode:02:07 - Leibovich’s short stint as a tech reporter04:06 - “This Town” and burning bridges in Washington06:00 - How he got into writing about the NFL 07:58 - The goal of reporting and writing “Big Game”10:12 -...

April Underwood, the chief product officer at workplace collaboration platform Slack, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her career, diversity in Silicon Valley and the future of work. In this episode:02:06 - How Underwood got from Texas to tech05:36 - Moving to Oregon to work for Intel, and back to Texas07:09 - What does a product manager actually do?09:32 - Organizing content at Google11:01...

Matt Rivitz, the formerly anonymous founder of the popular Twitter account Sleeping Giants, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how he accidentally started an international campaign against advertising-supported bigotry online. In this episode:01:54 - “My white-hot hated for Steve Bannon”05:01 - The advertising angle and making @slpng_giants11:39 - Teaming up with Nandini Jammi14:58 - The "mome...

Makan Delrahim, the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the government's attempt to stop the merger of AT&T and Time Warner and how he evaluates tech giants like Google and Facebook. In this episode:01:52 - Delrahim’s background in biotech and law06:28 - The importance of tech transfer09:17 - How he got into tech and antitrust...

Louis Hyman, an economic historian and professor at Cornell University, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher and Rani Molla about his new book, "Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary." In this episode:02:00 - Why Hyman wrote “Temp” and the history of work05:11 - The first temporary jobs07:44 - Silicon Valley has treated workers “miserably” for decades16:48...

Two of the godfathers of the maker movement — Maker Faire founder Dale Dougherty and Make Magazine editor in chief Mike Senese — talk with Recode's Kara Swisher about how the movement has gone mainstream over the past decade. In this episode:01:39 - How the maker movement started11:06 - Why make things when you don’t have to?12:42 - Why Make Magazine is a magazine17:57 - What’s trending among make...

Haystack founder and Lightspeed Ventures venture partner Semil Shah talks with Recode's Teddy Schleifer about breaking into the VC world and how the industry is changing. In this episode:03:45 - How Shah got involved with tech07:57 - How hard should it be to get a VC job?16:10 - Misconceptions about venture capital21:33 - What exactly is a “venture partner?”26:08 - How important is luck to being a...

Ron Wyden, the senior U.S. Senator from Oregon, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about regulating the internet and protecting America's elections from both hackers and disinformation peddlers. In this episode:01:12 - The early days of the internet05:42 - Cambridge Analytica and election security10:34 - Social media during elections14:45 - Alex Jones and policing the internet19:34 - Regulating tech...

Startup advisor and Color Genomics co-founder Elad Gil talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, "High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People." In this episode:00:03:30 - Why Gil stepped down as CEO of Color00:06:00 - Why he wrote "High Growth Handbook"00:09:52 - Is there too much reinvention in tech businesses?00:11:25 - Startup myths and Rachleff's Law00:17:20 - Co...

Andrew Moore, the dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the future of tech education as fields like artificial intelligence and machine learning take center stage. Moore says he's "concerned" that anti-immigrant fervor will deter the next generation of great computer scientists from coming to America, although CMU has not yet s...

Robert Hohman, the co-founder and CEO of company-reviewing site Glassdoor, talks about how the company has evolved since its early days, when Hohman wanted to merge employer transparency with the gaming sensibilities of World of Warcraft. He explains why letting employees and ex-employees rate a company's CEO was so successful, and why Glassdoor nixed a planned feature to let them rate their direc...

Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN and pain medicine physician, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how celebrity wellness brands have been overtaken by "medical conspiracy theories" and dangerous recommendations — for example, that bras cause breast cancer. After Gunter disputed that claim, made by a writer for Gwyneth Paltrow's company, Goop, it accused her of "being in the pocket of big lingerie." She al...

If you enjoy Recode Decode, we think you'd also like the Eater Upsell. Here's a recent episode of the show: Jason Droege, the man in charge of Uber Eats, talks with Eater's Dan Geneen about how the service started, how it interfaces with restaurants, and what he sees as the future of the brand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sidecar co-founder Sunil Paul talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his popular guest column for Recode, “The scooter wars will be a bloodbath, and Uber will win.” He elaborates on why that is and shares his thoughts about the broader transportation industry, including self-driving cars, bike-sharing and vertical lift and take-off vehicles like Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk “flying car.” Now primarily...

Hooi Ling Tan, the co-founder of southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher at the 2018 Rise conference in Hong Kong. Tan says Grab is opening up a platform for more services beyond ride-hailing because it wants to address not just transportation needs, but every worry its customers may have, including groceries and payments. She also talks about how the company is...

Sarah Kerruish and Matt Maude talk with Recode's Kara Swisher about their new documentary, "General Magic," which tells the story of a pioneering tech startup that tried and failed to invent a smartphone in the 1990s. Swisher appears in the documentary, which posits that although few people know the name General Magic today, the company’s failure paved the way for the Silicon Valley we know today....

Journalist James Crabtree talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, "The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age." Crabtree says India's development of a super-rich billionaire class has heightened the country's already-intense problem with inequality. He also talks about why its "fantastic entrepreneurial culture" has not been able to foster a Silicon Valley-esque tec...

Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how the blogging platform has evolved in the 13 years since it launched, powering a huge number of websites that included AllThingsD and an earlier version of Recode.net. Mullenweg also talks about WordPress' recent acquisition of a mobile journalism startup, the Atavist; how he manages 750 employees without an off...

Writer Adam Fisher talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new oral history, 'Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley.' Fisher interviewed some of tech's biggest names for the book, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, but he discovered that "the most interesting, unfiltered, real stories" often came from people who were never in the spotlight. Learn more about your ad c...

Joe Tsai, the executive vice chairman of Chinese commerce giant Alibaba, talks with Recode’s Jason Del Rey at the 2018 Code Conference. He says that Alibaba has not tried to do a big acquisition deal in the U.S., but is definitely looking to create strategic partnerships. Specifically, Tsai wants to encourage American companies to tap into the Chinese market, where there are hundreds of millions o...