Back when I first started covering the internet, the idea of broadcasting yourself for hours on end seemed like a... more

We had to stop recording this one for a minute, because Matt Belloni got a text. More on that below. Big... more

The most useful class I ever took in college was a media law class, where I learned two things: 1)... more

Everyone knows that video games are giant, fast-growing business that's going to swamp traditional media. Except that's not true: The games... more

A decade ago BuzzFeed was the bleeding edge of digital media, and Serious People thought it was going to be... more

It’s hard to remember now. But just a few years ago, sports betting was illegal in almost all of United... more

I haven’t checked in with Jessica Lessin in some time — and I have to say I picked a pretty... more

TikTok banned itself for less than a day. Now it’s back in the U.S. - despite a law that says... more

Why didn’t Meta’s stock move when Mark Zuckerberg announced his pro-MAGA pivot? Why do big media companies want to dump... more

I’m a lucky man. Whenever I’m baffled by the internet, and social media, I turn to my co-worker Katie Notopoulos,... more

I don’t love a lot of year-end #content . But I do love talking to Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw every year,... more

Newsletters are not a new idea. Yet every few years the media business rediscovers them, anyway — either as a... more

You probably shouldn't know Renee DiResta's name: She's a researcher who studies online bad behavior, not a celebrity. But the... more

Lots of people start media companies using money from rich people. Jason Koebler and his colleagues did it themselves, using... more

Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Bari Weiss all used to work for big mainstream media companies. Now they’re on the... more

One take you may have heard after the election: Democrats need their own Joe Rogan. Taylor Lorenz disagrees. And Lorenz is... more

You want up-to-the minute election analysis? Sorry, not on this episode. But: If you want smart thoughts about politics and media... more

Jon Lovett and his cofounders at Crooked Media are a good story - former Obama aides who started their own... more

Emma Tucker became the Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief in 2023, and she’s been moving fast ever since. For starters, there are... more

What if you could watch shows and movies on a screen, for free, in exchange for watching some ads? In olden... more

What do Donald Trump and the video game industry have to do with each other? Nothing! Yet we’re combining them into... more

The last time I talked to Matt Yglesias, we were co-workers at Vox.com, and Joe Biden had just been elected... more

Mark Zuckerberg, along with most of the men running big tech companies, has spent many years and tons of money... more

YouTube turns 20 next year, which makes it positively ancient by internet standards. Yet the world’s biggest video site is... more

When David Remnick got to the New Yorker in 1998, it was very much a capital M Magazine — it... more

What happens when you mash up media, tech and business? You get a million things to talk about, and that’s... more

Peter Kafka, soon to be formerly of Vox, reviews the year in media with Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw. What did we... more

After a wild series of events, Sam Altman is back as CEO of OpenAI… with more power than ever before.... more

The board of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, ousted CEO Sam Altman on Friday. Since then, the board has appointed... more

SiriusXM makes money by beaming music and talk radio - especially Howard Stern - to your car using satellites and... more

It’s a double shot of media business takes, with conversations about the Walt Disney Corporation and Fox News, with references... more

This week, an episode of the latest season of Land of the Giants: The Twitter Fantasy, hosted by our own... more

When Sam Reich bought CollegeHumor from Barry Diller’s IAC for pennies in January 2020, the comedy site was long past... more

The New York Times issued a rare editors’ note Monday: a mea culpa for a headline repeating unverified claims from... more

The war in Israel and Gaza is hugely complicated - dangerous, horrifying, and moving fast. Which means it’s a huge... more

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an interconnected series of movies and TV shows that produced four of the top-grossing movies... more

Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) is the person who told you what “cheugy” means, what a “content house” is, and basically anything... more

When Robert Kyncl (@rkyncl) worked at YouTube, he made deals with companies like Warner Music Group. Now, he’s the CEO... more

The Hollywood writers’ strike is over and there’s hope the actors guild and studios will also settle their differences soon.... more

After a historic strike that went on for almost 150 days, the studios and the Writers Guild of America have... more

One of the most powerful people of the 21st century says he’s retiring. Rupert Murdoch, 92, will hand over control... more

Once the domain of the nerdiest of sports fans, these days fantasy football analysis is on primetime TV. Matthew Berry... more

Wait a minute. For a couple of years there - 2020 through 2022 - everyone acted like bitcoin and even... more

Taylor Swift is on one of the most successful concert tours of all time, but what's her secret? Switched on... more

The US and China are in a sort of cold war, and the tech industry is caught in the middle.... more

David Zaslav sent up the white smoke, marking the selection of a new CNN CEO. Mark Thompson comes from The... more

Born at BuzzFeed in 2014, The Try Guys make online videos where they try all sorts of things: earwax extractions,... more

A movie made for peanuts and distributed by a studio far outside the Hollywood system has done better box office... more

This week, a quick update on Disney’s deal to get into sports betting. Then, we’re bringing you an episode of... more

Black Mirror isn’t just a hit TV show: It’s a window into the not-too-distant future. Creator Charlie Brooker (@charltonbrooker) has... more

Joe Biden wants to stop big companies - especially big tech companies - from buying or merging with other companies.... more

This is a very good week to make a Recode Media episode: Hollywood is reeling from two different strikes. Disney... more

We’re one week into the Threads era. How long is that going to last? What does it mean for Twitter,... more

Former head of ESPN John Skipper has produced an ambitious new project. Now he has to figure out how to... more

Comedian Nimesh Patel was grinding it out in the stand-up mines for years with middling success. And then the stage... more

Mosheh Oinounou worked his way up through the TV news ranks and ended up running CBS Evening News. Now he’s... more

For some people that’s a dystopian vision. But for Cristóbal Valenzuela, it’s a mission statement: Valenzuela is the co-founder and... more

After just over a year of questionable leadership and on the heels of an unflattering Atlantic profile, Chris Licht is... more

It’s not just Ron DeSantis: All kinds of candidates are piling into the 2024 presidential race. New York Times national... more

Succession — the HBO drama about a Murdoch-ish family of media moguls — feels authentic thanks, in part, to consultant... more

Live from New York, it’s Upfronts week, where TV networks sell billions of dollars of advertising with glitzy presentations. It’s... more

Ken Jennings won 74 straight episodes of Jeopardy back in 2004. Somehow he’s turned that winning streak into a career,... more

AI is amazing… or terrifying, depending on who you ask. This is a technology that elicits strong, almost existential reactions.... more

It’s our first four-way pod, featuring BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and Semafor founder (and former editor-in-chief... more

Silicon Valley needs a new thing and AI is that new thing: investors are supposed to pour 43 billion dollars... more

AI has captured the imagination of Silicon Valley seemingly overnight. And in all this excitement, it's hard to tell what's... more

Fox News, accused of repeatedly and knowingly spreading lies about Dominion Voting Systems, opted Tuesday to fork over $787 million... more

It’s a TikTok double-header! Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to ‘Chef Reactions,’ the semi-anonymous TikTok star whose hilarious culinary critiques skyrocketed him... more

Endeavor started out as a traditional Hollywood talent agency - CEO Ari Emanuel, famously, was the model for Jeremy Piven’s... more

We’ve had questions about Apple’s new VR headset — supposedly set to debut in June — for some time. Starting... more

Jesse Thorn has been podcasting for so long it was called radio. Over time he turned his career into a... more

First: A Silicon Valley Bank check-in with Dan Primack of Axios. Why, exactly, did so many tech companies (and, um,... more

Mark Zuckerberg wants to build the metaverse. Neal Stephenson created the meta verse three decades ago. The author’s 1992 science fiction... more

De La Soul was legendary for their trail-blazing approach to hip-hop. But in recent years the trio become notable for... more

Veteran business journalist James B. Stewart specializes in getting behind the scenes to tell the stories of rich, powerful, and... more

It used to be that a human would have to write a BuzzFeed quiz about “Which Fictional Artificial Intelligence Are... more

Tech and media companies (including the one that brings you this podcast) are laying off workers left and right. Meanwhile,... more

This week, we bring you an episode of The Cut and The Verge’s latest season of Land of the Giants:... more

Investor Li Jin helped popularize the idea of the Creator Economy — the theory that many people who make stuff... more

The critically-lauded video game The Last of Us is now a critically-lauded HBO series. It's about a global pandemic that... more

A new study in the journal Nature Communications finds "no evidence of a meaningful relationship" between Russian disinformation and voting... more

For the first time in 3 decades, NFL’s Sunday Ticket - a subscription service that lets viewers watch many but... more

Before we face the reality of 2023, we discuss the state of virtual reality — specifically, the still-unannounced VR/AR headset... more

Recode’s Peter Kafka answers listener questions about Twitter, niche content streaming, print media microtransactions, regional sports networks and more. Peter’s... more

The Earth has just about completed its latest orbit around the sun, which means it’s time to take a look... more

The FTC wants to (candy) crush Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Inc., the makers of games like Call of Duty,... more

Layoffs, Disney CEO take-backsies, and the Netflix of it all — this week, Recode’s Peter Kafka catches up on the... more

Selling tickets for live events can be… tricky, as Ticketmaster has proven yet again. But Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz runs... more

HBO’s 50-year-old history tells you a lot about culture, business, and TV’s past and future. This perhaps explains why we’ve... more

Qatar is hosting the 2022 World Cup, casting a pall over one of the globe’s most-watched sporting events. Men With... more

Ryan Broderick is very online so you don’t have to be. His internet culture Substack ‘Garbage Day’ is a mix... more

This is not an emergency podcast, but, you know, maybe it will be? As questions swirl around what exactly Elon... more

Mass layoffs and cutbacks at companies like Meta and Twitter point to a slowdown (and chaos) in tech. Bloomberg tech... more

Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman joins us from the U.S. Capitol building just in time for the 2022 midterm elections.... more

We’re taking a short break from the Twitter shitshow to give you an interview with Jason Gay, sports and humor... more

When Bloomberg’s Matt Levine sent an enticing email about “a big thing coming out about crypto in Businessweek,” Recode’s Peter... more

One week after the launch of Semafor, Recode’s Peter Kafka flags down the news startup’s co-founder Ben Smith. Who is Semafor... more

Netflix added 2.4 million subscribers! Ads are coming! Wall Street’s excited again! But is Netflix back for real? Recode’s Peter... more

Since 2005, Randall Munroe has used his webcomic XKCD to comment on the world around him and express his love... more

He’s back! Elon Musk, who agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion last spring and then tried to back out... more

Writer and actor Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Succession) has been in the business for a... more

YouTube wants a piece of that sweet TikTok action, so it’s getting out the checkbook. The most popular creators on... more

Chef José Andrés may very well be The Best Person. His nonprofit, World Central Kitchen, activates local restaurants to provide... more

Despite YouTube’s massive influence, it's been chronically underreported on. But finally, Bloomberg’s Mark Bergen wrote the comprehensive, soup-to-nuts history of... more

Like other big deal TV creators, Robert and Michelle King are thriving in the streaming era. The duo behind the... more

Kyle Chayka writes about tech and internet culture for the New Yorker; he’s also the co-founder of Dirt, a newsletter... more

In 2011, HBO changed the prestige television landscape with its expensive, ultra-violent, sex-filled fantasy epic Game of Thrones. Three years... more

Democrats have a complicated relationship with social media - sometimes they think it’s a huge help; other times, not so... more

This week, we bring you an episode of Recode and The Verge’s latest season of Land of the Giants: The... more

B.J. Novak has starred on TV, written a best-selling kids’ book, and tried his hand at app-making. Now he’s written,... more

People have been talking about the metaverse for years. But they’re talking about it much more these days, spurred by... more

20 years ago the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta wrote a seminal profile of famed and feared producer Harvey Weinstein -... more

Caryn Mandabach produced some of the biggest hits in TV history — like The Cosby Show, Roseanne, 3rd Rock from... more

Three interviews! One pod: First entrepreneur and investor Zach Weinberg tells Recode’s Peter Kafka why he’s accidentally become Twitter Famous... more

Today, CNBC’s Alex Sherman joins Recode’s Peter Kafka to ponder several media mysteries: Why did Netflix lose 2 million subscribers? Why was... more

The Bill Simmons Podcast is, by its own description, "the most downloaded sports podcast of all time." This week, it... more

TikTok isn’t just funny dances and glow-ups anymore… it’s also for venture capital!!! Logan Bartlett, managing director at the VC... more

Software engineer Molly White has emerged as one of Web3’s most high-profile skeptics. Her website “Web3 is going just great”... more

Lots of people will tell you that misinformation is a big problem online. But exactly what the problem is, and... more

The markets are crashing - and that includes both Netflix and the media companies that wanted to be Netflix. What’s... more

Ronan Farrow’s latest investigative work for The New Yorker looks into the surveillance technology Pegasus — spyware that gives remote... more

Design genius Jony Ive was Steve Jobs’ chief collaborator at Apple. But Ive didn’t run Apple after Jobs’ death: That... more

Wesley Morris wrote his first review when he was 15 years old, about the movie “Cape Fear.” Since then, he’s... more

It’s been a big week for media events involving tens of billions of dollars: Elon Musk is buying Twitter for... more

Elon Musk loves Twitter and also thinks it’s broken. So he wants to buy it. Can he, really? And who would... more

Within the past few months, Disney CEO Bob Chapek managed to piss off his shareholders, the LGBT community, and right-wing... more

It’s time to check back in on the state of the streaming wars, with two binge-worthy conversations. First, Recode’s Peter... more

Legendary comedy director/writer/producer Judd Apatow was busy during lockdown: He wrote a book and made two movies. One of them... more

The Oscars used to be one of the biggest things on TV. Now they’re… not. Does that matter to the... more

March Madness has started, but this isn’t a podcast about that: Today, it’s a podcast about sports media, about leaving... more

Silicon Valley goes out of its way not to upset countries around the world - even when that means making... more

Recode's Peter Kafka talks to three reporters about the realities of covering the war in Ukraine and sorting truth from... more

When Recode’s Peter Kafka advises you not to write your book, WRITE THAT BOOK. That’s the lesson Mike Isaac learned:... more

Make sure no one’s on your home phone while you use your dial-up modem to listen to this week’s show... more

This is (an update about what’s going on at) CNN. Dylan Byers of Puck News joins Recode’s Peter Kafka: They... more

First: Neil Young quit Spotify over Joe Rogan, but just a handful of musicians have followed him. Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw... more

Just in time for the NFL playoffs, sports betting is legal in New York. $600 million in bets were placed... more

It’s the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s history: $68.7 billion to buy the video game company, Activision Blizzard.  First, Axios’ Chief Technology... more

What the hell is Web3, why did everyone start talking about it all at once, and are we going to... more

CNN’s Oliver Darcy joins Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss the way conservative media covers - and, importantly, doesn’t cover -... more

2021 was the year everyone who wasn’t already in podcasting jumped in the pool - and everyone who was already... more

How do you describe what happened to the media world in 2021? What happened to the movie business, streaming, music,... more

Jason Kilar does not have opinions about the finale of HBO’s Succession, because he hasn’t seen it yet. The CEO... more

BuzzFeed used to be an internet experiment. Now it’s a publicly-traded company that expects more than $500 million in revenue... more

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is no longer the CEO of Twitter. Why did he leave? And what does the choice... more

Rhys Thomas used to make short films for Saturday Night Live. Now he’s making Hawkeye, the newest installment of Disney’s... more

HBO has brought us nearly 50 years of riveting movies and TV shows; the behind-the-scenes stories are equally compelling. Journalist... more

Twitter is free. But Twitter Blue — a new service for Twitter super-users — costs $3 a month. So what... more

Before Mark Zuckerberg told the world he was turning Facebook into a Metaverse company, he called Matthew Ball, one of... more

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is handing over thousands of documents to reporters like The Verge’s Alex Heath. The next step:... more

Neil Vogel had no publishing experience before he took over About.com, the how-to website he turned into Dotdash for owner... more

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple and infused it with his love of product design and attention to detail. His successor, Tim... more

Five days after the New York Times’ Ben Smith wrote an astonishing piece about the fakery supporting Ozy Media, the... more

More consolidation in Hollywood - but this time it’s talent agency CAA buying rival ICM. Puck’s Dylan Byers sits down... more

Peter Thiel used to be a Silicon Valley investor best-known for early investment in Facebook. But in recent years he... more

Instagram is no longer going to be a photo-sharing app, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri announced earlier this summer. So what... more

Mark Gurman has been one of the best-sourced Apple reporters since he was in high school. Literally. Now he’s at... more

Defector Media launched a year ago as a digital publishing experiment: What if the former staff of Deadspin built and... more

What is OnlyFans, and why did OnlyFans abandon and then come back to its primary business model in the span... more

Nick Khan used to be a CAA agent who represented the WWE. Now he’s president of the pro wrestling company... more

The New York Times’ Shira Ovide, writes the popular and incisive “On Tech” newsletter, which means she gets to write... more

Puck News Hollywood expert Matthew Belloni sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss the biggest stories in the past... more

Stillwater was supposed to debut in theaters last fall, but the pandemic changed those plans along with everything else. Academy... more

Anthony Bourdain is dead. So how does a new documentary have audio of him reading his emails? It’s not him:... more

Wall Street Journal’s Eliot Brown first became interested in WeWork back in 2014 after an encounter with founder co-founder Adam... more

When are we going back to the office? How often are we going back to the office? And what’s work... more

Roger Bennett is half of Men In Blazers, the entertaining podcast/broadcast duo dedicated to Americans who love soccer. So he’s... more

Twitch, the Amazon-owned streaming platform best known as a haven for gamers, wouldn’t be the first place you’d look for... more

The newest publication covering tech is Future — a site owned and operated by Andreessen Horowitz, the powerful Silicon Valley... more

Jake Hurwitz & Amir Blumenfeld got their start on the internet when making content for sites like YouTube and Facebook... more

Journalist Rob Walker sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss why he decided to go the independent route instead... more

The Information’s Jessica Toonkel joins Recode’s Peter Kafka to discuss Amazon’s (planned) $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM. It’s the first... more

Jim Miller was finishing up a book about HBO and then… the story changed. He talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka... more

AT&T bought WarnerMedia three years ago for more than $100 billion, so it could chase after Netflix. Now it’s getting... more

Antonio García Martínez used to work at Facebook, and wrote a book about it. In April, he started working at... more

The concert business has been shut down for a year, which means that Live Nation, the world’s dominant concert promoter... more

Bloomberg's Brad Stone and Recode's Jason Del Rey report on all things Amazon and Jeff Bezos. They discuss how Bezos built... more

The antitrust trial between Apple and Fortnite’s parent company Epic Games is underway, so Apple observer John Gruber talks about... more

AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan checks in with Recode’s Peter Kafka to talk about his company’s pivot from TV to... more

The Oscars are supposed to be a celebration for Hollywood, but this year it feels like a collapse: The pandemic... more

Apple’s selling podcasts. Facebook wants to distribute podcasts - and take on Clubhouse, too. It’s been a busy couple days... more

Substack is known for recruiting high profile writers to leave the big name publications and start their own newsletter businesses.... more

NFT’s have been rising in popularity in recent months with franchises like the NBA partnering with Roham Gharegozlou’s Dapper Labs... more

Warner Media CEO Jason Kilar started his job in the middle of a global pandemic. Things got even weirder after... more

Why is every digital media company talking about a SPAC? Why now? And what, exactly is a SPAC? Axios’ Dan... more

David Dobrik was one of YouTube’s biggest stars. Now his career is in peril after an expose by Business Insider’s... more

Like many of us last year, Christina “Tinx” Najjar decided to download TikTok on a whim. Unlike many of us,... more

The pandemic changed everything - including the media landscape. What happens when things get back to mostly normal? ESPN’s Brian... more

Fubo TV wants to take on the giants in streaming and in sports betting. Investors have sky-high expectations and skeptics... more

Paramount Plus and Discovery Plus are the latest, and perhaps the last big streaming services to launch in a very... more

Facebook and Google faced off against Australia and Rupert Murdoch. Who won? Recode’s Peter Kafka asks his colleague Sara Morrison... more

Pandora founder and former CEO Tim Westergren is back in the music business with Sessions, a live-streaming service well-timed for... more

Can you make someone famous on the internet by buying their fame? Journalist Nick Bilton tries to do just that... more

CNBC host and New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin sits down with Recode’s Peter Kafka to recap a wild... more

In 2013, Jessica Lessin left her job as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal to start The Information, a... more

The mainstream press spent the last four years trying to figure out how to report in the Trump era? NYU... more

It’s going to take a long time to come to grips with the January 6 Capitol Riot and what happened... more

Director Bryan Fogel’s first documentary, Icarus, won an Oscar. His next effort, The Dissident, details the brutal murder of Washington... more

Zach Seward co-founded Quartz, the brainy business news site, in 2012. Six years later, it had a new owner, and... more