Decoder with Nilay Patel

Journalist and author Michael Pollan talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about his new book, “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.” Pollan, perhaps best known for his books about food, like “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” says the new book traces his learning process as he tried to understand why almost every human society has experimented with mind-altering substances. Silicon Valley is certainly no exception: Pollan says that tech pioneer Ampex was ground zero of the tech scene’s experimentation with LSD, starting in the 1950s; engineers discovered that dropping acid helped them design the first computer chips, and shared this finding with Doug Engelbart, who would go to invent the mouse, the graphical user interface and key components of the internet. Pollan also talks about the broader medical, political and social implications of using psychedelics, and how they might one day become legal and more socially acceptable in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Doerr, the chairman of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher and Teddy Schleifer about his new book, "Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs." Doerr credits two mentors, Andy Grove and Bill Campbell, with turning him on to that leadership strategy, which is short for Objectives and Key Results — or, in other words, communicating what you want to accomplish and how. Setting clear objectives and making them transparent to your entire company can help tech leaders succeed, but CEOs who don't commit or who build a cult of personality around themselves can put their businesses in jeopardy. Doerr also talks about the state of diversity in Silicon Valley, what he learned from the Ellen Pao trial and whether tech companies are taking privacy more seriously in the aftermath of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former political strategist and pollster Mark Penn talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, "Microtrends Squared: The New Small Forces Driving the Big Disruptions Today." He describes it as a less optimistic sequel to his 2007 book "Microtrends," but it extends the idea that small changes in politics and the economy are having huge ripple effects around the world. Penn also talks about his past work, advising Microsoft during its antitrust law case and Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential run. And he offers some predictions for the 2018 midterm elections, explaining what Democrats could do now in order to reclaim the White House in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about why her company is suing President Donald Trump, and why she is publicly insulting Silicon Valley executives, calling them “weenies” and “pathetic.” Marcario suggests that it’s unpatriotic for execs like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to remain silent on Russian meddling on its platform for so long after the 2016 U.S. election. She also calls out Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for inaction on bots, and Google co-founder Larry Page for not putting his immense wealth toward fixing the web. Later in the podcast, Marcario explains why capitalism “needs to change and evolve”: Companies that obsess over quarterly results for Wall Street will “destroy the planet.” Plus: Should women try to change tech firms from within, or start their own companies? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Writer and comedian Nell Scovell talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new book, "Just the Funny Parts," in front of a live audience in San Francisco. Scovell, who has written on TV shows like "The Simpsons," "Murphy Brown" and "Coach," also co-wrote the hit book "Lean In" with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and tried to adapt it into a movie. She says producers tried to rework the story to fit what they considered to be successful films about women, like "Pretty Woman" and "Bridesmaids." Scovell also offers her theory for why the MeToo movement arose when it did — after Donald Trump was elected president, women had nothing left to lose — and talks about the experience of writing jokes for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Mark Zuckerberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Celebrity chef José Andrés talks with Recode's Kara Swisher in front of a live audience at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. Andrés explains how his food NGO, World Central Kitchen, deployed its chefs to disaster-struck areas like Houston and Puerto Rico after last year's hurricanes, opening dozens of kitchens and serving millions of meals. He criticizes President Trump and the members of Congress who neglected Puerto Rico, but praises one of World Central Kitchen's unlikely allies in distributing food after Hurricane Maria: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a.k.a. ICE. Andrés also talks about the failings of elected officials from both sides of the aisle to achieve immigration reform, the hypocrisy of people who believe food should only be "local and organic" and why he expects to one day be replaced by a robot chef. Plus: Why he loves artificial proteins like Impossible Foods' plant-based "beef" but hates the idea of "tofurky." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about his new book, “War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence.” The book explores how the Trump administration is “laying waste to the State Department,” but argues that it’s not the first administration to do so — cutting diplomats is politically safer than cutting military spending, and Trump is just doing it at an “unprecedented new extreme.” Farrow also talks about his reporting on Harvey Weinstein, and the culture of silence around powerful perpetrators of sexual abuse, for which he shared in a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Intent on keeping the spotlight on survivors rather than predators, Farrow nevertheless hints that there is more to tell about why he published his stories at The New Yorker, rather than his former employer NBC, where he started the Weinstein reporting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CNN political commentator Sally Kohn talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new book, "The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity." Kohn's publicity tour for the book has been tangled up in allegations that she misquoted and misrepresented two of her sources, Ijeoma Oluo and Aminatou Sow, and she discusses how she's working to make things right. She also talks about how she became a TV commentator, why she chooses to engage with Fox News hosts like Sean Hannity and how her past life working as a left-wing activist overlaps with changing minds on broadcast media. Plus: Why Kohn, a gay woman, supports MSNBC anchor Joy Reid, who has been accused of writing homophobic blog posts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Farhad Manjoo, a technology columnist for the New York Times, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher in front of a live audience at the University of California, Berkeley's journalism school. Manjoo explains why he refers to five of the world's largest tech companies as the "Frightful Five": Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet (which owns Google and YouTube). He diagnoses long-running issues at several of those companies, but argues that solving the problems they've created or at least enabled would necessitate giving them even more power. Plus: Why Twitter's toxicity problem may be beyond saving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alphabet chairman John Hennessy and Google distinguished engineer Dave Patterson talk with Recode’s Kara Swisher about winning the 2017 Turing Award, a prestigious achievement in computer science. In the 1980s, Hennessy and Patterson developed a revolutionary new type of computer processor called RISC, which allowed computers to run faster and more efficiently — a breakthrough that became especially important in the era of mobile devices and the internet of things. They talk about the intense pushback they received from the computing industry at the time and why we're now in a "new golden age of computer architecture," filled with difficult problems that businesses have thus far been unable to crack. The upshot: Another RISC-like revolution needs to happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joanna Coles, the chief content officer at Hearst, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new book, "Love Rules: How to Find a Real Relationship in a Digital World." Coles says dating apps can be a great tool for meeting new people, but they can encourage the wrong attitudes among their users: Seeing potential mates as interchangeable, wasting weeks to texting in the buildup to one conversation and fantasizing about whether a stranger is "the one." She also talks about the negative impact of online porn on women's satisfaction in heterosexual relationships and how to manage an ongoing relationship despite digital distractions. Plus: Why Coles joined the board of Snap, what she thinks of the future of magazines and what happens after #MeToo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Upfront Ventures Managing Partner Mark Suster talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about leading the oldest and largest venture capital firm in Los Angeles. He explains why he rejects the term “Silicon Beach,” preferring “LA Tech,” and what people miss when they think of Southern California as a less-techie place than Silicon Valley. Suster says the increasingly common overfunding of tech companies and overpaying of tech workers in the San Francisco area are discouraging innovation. He also discusses how the geography of entrepreneurship in SoCal is changing, why Upfront-backed smart doorbell maker Ring sold to Amazon, and what people get wrong about one of LA's sexiest tech companies, Snap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BlackBerry CEO John Chen talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about how the once-pioneering mobile phone company has happily pivoted into a new business model, focusing on enterprise security and embedded technology for connected cars. Chen says “somebody should make” a new version of the BlackBerry Bold 9900, explaining that there’s still a sizable audience of professionals and government workers who want their phones to be ultra secure. He also discusses why he took the CEO job in 2013, why he just committed to another five years and how governments should direct their regulation of self-driving cars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the phenomenon of techlash and why people are just now "waking up" to Silicon Valley's dark side. Stoppelman's company has feuded for years with its much larger rival Google, which Yelp says has unfairly weighted local search results to its own product. He says the Google of 2004 would laugh at how the company does business today, and praises the new regulations being brought against tech giants by the EU. However, Stoppelman suggests he's not optimistic about U.S. lawmakers taking similar action, even though scrutiny of the big companies seems to have united Democrats and Republicans for once. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential campaign, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new book, "Dear Madam President: An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World." Palmieri reflects on the obstacles — fair and unfair — that Clinton faced while running against now-President Trump and says part of the problem was that she held herself back, discounting the value of telling her own story to the American people. She also shares some advice for the woman who will one day be President of the United States and talks about how much has changed in the media and technology strategies of political campaigns in just two years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recode's Kara Swisher and MSNBC's Chris Hayes talk with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the second episode of "Revolution." The interview was held in front of a live audience the day after Apple's education-focused event in Chicago, but Cook also talks about privacy, Facebook, Amazon, DACA and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recode's Kara Swisher and MSNBC's Ari Melber interview Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki in this episode of 'Revolution,' which first aired on MSNBC in January. Make sure to tune in this Friday for a new episode of 'Revolution,' in which Swisher and Chris Hayes interview Apple CEO Tim Cook about education, privacy, DACA and more; that episode airs on MSNBC on Friday, April 6 at 5:00 p.m. PT, 8:00 p.m. ET. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Valerie Jarrett, a former senior advisor to President Obama, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher at South by Southwest 2018. Jarrett is now on the boards of two tech companies, but when she first got to the White House, she didn't know what Twitter was — an important reminder of how quickly tech is changing everything. Jarrett says Obama made the best decisions he could while in office based on what he knew about Russia's election meddling, and explains what the Democrats need to do to regain their footing in 2018 and 2020. She also discusses her recently announced book deal, which is based on a question her daughter had asked her: What advice would she give to a 30-year-old version of herself today? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maria Shriver, the former first lady of California, and her daughter Christina Schwarzenegger talk with Recode's Kara Swisher about "Take Your Pills," a new Netflix documentary they executive produced. Schwarzenegger says her experience at Georgetown University made her realize that no one had yet made a documentary about the prevalence of adderall among college students, as well as Wall Street traders and Silicon Valley engineers. The trio is also joined by NBC Television Medical Editor Corey Hébert, who talks about his contributions to the documentary and whether 23andMe can be a reliable indicator of ADHD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christopher Kirchhoff, a former partner at DIUx, the Pentagon’s Silicon Valley office, talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about how the Defense Department is trying to be smarter about technology. Kirchhoff says the U.S. military can benefit greatly from innovations in drones, robotics, satellites and more, and DIUx was developed to let the Pentagon proactively find that technology and quickly buy it at scale quickly before it becomes obsolete. He talks in detail about how electric flying cars are being developed to replace military helicopters, and why it’s vitally important that people working in Silicon Valley help the government modernize all departments, including commerce and education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Journalist and writer Joanne Lipman talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new book, "That's What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together." Lipman, previously the editor in chief of USA Today and deputy managing editor at the Wall Street Journal, spent three years researching discrimination, sexism and the failures of HR-led "diversity training" in the workplace. She argues that the push for greater equality must be owned by a company's top executives, rather than outsourced, and she shares several actions that people can take now to help their female colleagues succeed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sex and relationship therapist Esther Perel, the host of the podcast "Where Should We Begin?", talks with Recode's Kara Swisher at South by Southwest 2018 in Austin, Texas. Perel's new book "The State of Affairs" sets out to change the popular conversation about sexual infidelity, but she says many partners are cheating on each other with their phones. She says dating apps, such as Tinder, wind up discouraging their users from pursuing committed relationships, and also explains the psychology of the sexual harassers and abusers who have been exposed by the #MeToo movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his infamous 11-day stint in the Trump administration, his recently announced book deal and why he thinks the president will win re-election in 2020. 'The Mooch' unloads on Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon and the culture of backstabbing in Washington and predicts that President Trump won't be hurt by Robert Mueller's investigation. Plus: Scaramucci says Trump has many supporters in Silicon Valley, but that "leftist fascism" has scared them into silence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new series, "Sex and Love Around the World." Speaking in front of a live audience at South By Southwest 2018, Amanpour says the show convinced her that women won't be "totally satisfied," in all aspects of their lives, until men have shed obsolete attitudes about gender roles, power and sexuality. She also talks about the global implications of the #MeToo movement, the dangers of "false news" and why the unwillingness of YouTube and other platforms to call themselves media companies is "bullshit." Plus: Why she's concerned about the Trump administration's planned negotiations with North Korea's Kim Jong-un. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook and former owner of The New Republic, talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about his new book, “Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn.” In it, Hughes argues that working people should receive a guaranteed income, paid for by the top one percent of earners in the U.S. He cites an “immense amount of evidence” that cash improves health, education and more, and talks about how his Economic Security Project is working to advance a modernization of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which he calls “guaranteed income.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chuck Schumer, the senior U.S. Senator from New York, talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher and Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen about a range of tech-related issues, including immigration, net neutrality and Russian election meddling. He hopes to enlist tech companies like Netflix in the fight to bring net neutrality back after it was overturned by the FCC last year. Schumer also talks about his “sympathetic” attitude to the tech giants, saying the world would be a worse place overall if Amazon were not in it, even though “there’s lots of problems” with its impact on retail. Plus: Why the senior Democrat is optimistic about the midterm elections later this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher at the 2018 Lesbians Who Tech Summit in San Francisco, Calif. Sandberg talks about how Facebook is responding to reports of Russian election-meddling on its platform, why people are lashing out at tech companies this year, and how much responsibility Facebook has to help those people. She also discusses the good and the bad of the #MeToo movement, including the “unintended consequences,” such as men who are afraid to take meetings with their female colleagues, which endangers women’s ability to advance in the workplace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GLG President and CEO Alexander Saint-Amand talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about running a learning platform for investors and business professionals. Saint-Amand describes the company as "Uber meets Harvard" because it facilitates on-demand and one-on-one conversations between customers and experts from a wide range of subjects, including faculty of universities like Stanford, Harvard and Duke. He explains why other attempts to revolutionize learning online have fizzled out and how GLG is able to offer "millions of courses" without breaking the bank. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Journalist Katie Couric and Recode’s Kara Swisher talk about their careers in journalism, as well as social media, job automation, tech addiction and the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. Couric, who previously hosted the “Today Show” and “CBS Evening News,” opens up about why her tenure at Yahoo was short-lived, and her concerns about the ability of tech companies to advance high-quality journalism She also reflects on political polarization in America, the #MeToo movement that ousted her former “Today” colleague Matt Lauer, and her new show for NatGeo, “America Inside Out.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Entrepreneur and investor Mark Ein talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about his recent purchase of the Washington City Paper, an alternative weekly newspaper in Washington, D.C. Ein says he’s been inspired by the revitalization of The Washington Post under Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, but a local paper like his has to think differently in some aspects. He also talks about his investment firm, VentureHouse, and why D.C. and other cities outside of Silicon Valley have struggled to create a breakout tech hit in the post-AOL era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aspect Ventures co-founder Jennifer Fonstad talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about how venture capital works in 2018, when Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have access to more money from more sources than ever before. But that that money is not spread out evenly, Fonstad says: There’s a lot of very early “seed” dough, and a lot available to help succeeding companies grow bigger, but not enough to help them cross the “chasm” in which so many startups fail. She also talks about her 17 years as an investor at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, why Aspect is betting on the “picks and shovels” of the blockchain instead of currency, and why she’s excited about data-driven advances in health care. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Benchmark partner Sarah Tavel talks with Recode's Kara Swisher and Teddy Schleifer about her career in tech companies and venture capital. Her resume includes stints at Pinterest, Bessemer Venture Partners and Greylock Partners, but last year she became the first woman partner hired at Benchmark, where one of her focuses is cryptocurrencies. She explains why the field is interesting even though it has been flooded with scammy ICOs since late 2017. Tavel also talks about what she and other female VCs are doing to help women succeed in tech and how she views the influx of money into the ecosystem from SoftBank. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lydia Polgreen, the editor in chief of HuffPost — the website formerly known as The Huffington Post — talks with Recode's Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka at the 2018 Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. Polgreen explains what she has been changing since taking over the top editor role in December 2016, how she's trying to reach a broader audience that includes Donald Trump supporters and why HuffPost is investing less in Facebook than it used to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki talks with Recode's Kara Swisher at the 2018 Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. She explains why YouTube opted not to ban one of its stars, Logan Paul, despite a recent string of controviersies including a video he filmed of a dead body in Japan. She also talks about how the site has dealt with revelations of Russian political meddling, why it still doesn't see itself as a media company and what she thinks of rivals like Facebook that are pushing more and more into video: "They should get back to baby pictures." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeremy Bailenson, the director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, "Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do." Bailenson came to Stanford to study how people can communicate with each other in a virtual world, but now his focus is on how VR can motivate us to eat less, help the homeless or have empathy with a person of another race, gender or age. He discusses why the technology has not yet taken off among consumers and why tech and media companies are wrong to think we should be spending hours at a time in a VR headset. Plus: Why telling a story in virtual reality is so much harder than telling one on a 2-D screen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about her new book, “Forged In Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times.” In it, Koehn chronicles the lives of five leaders who had to overcome a crisis: President Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, explorer Ernest Shackleton, clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer and author Rachel Carson. People in Silicon Valley, Washington and beyond can learn a lot from history, she says — for example, how Lincoln used his writing and speeches to unite people around a broader purpose, and why not acting was often the right decision when tempers were flaring. Plus: How “real leaders” can unlock the potential of the people around them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bloomberg Technology executive producer Emily Chang talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about her new book, “Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley.” Chang says the idea for the book originated when venture capitalist Michael Moritz suggested that bringing more women to Sequoia Capital might mean “lowering our standards.” However, in between then and now, Donald Trump was elected president and the #MeToo movement arose, which “changed dramatically” how many women would speak on the record. Plus: Chang discusses the impact of Ellen Pao and Susan Fowler, and her much-discussed Vanity Fair story about sex parties and “cuddle puddles” in Silicon Valley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New America fellow Dipayan Ghosh and senior advisor Ben Scott talk with Recode’s Kara Swisher about their new policy paper, “Digital Deceit: The Technologies Behind Precision Propaganda on the Internet.” Both alumni of the Obama administration, Ghosh and Scott say we need to fundamentally reevaluate how digital platforms collect data on their users, and how advertisers can use that information. Although they acknowledge that figuring out how Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election is important, they argue that there are much deeper questions that need to be answered, and possibly problems that need to be regulated. They also discuss what responsibility they and others who worked for the Obama White House have for the rise of tech companies to their current level of power over the past decade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how he's evolving what it means to be the host of the longest-running series in TV history, "Meet the Press." Todd discusses how a childhood interest in politics led him to Washington, D.C., and how a lucky break at the pioneering digital service Hotline led him to NBC. He also talks about how technology accelerated trends of political polarization that began during Watergate and why social media has "peaked" in politics. Plus: Why the "best and the brightest" don't come to Washington anymore, and should anyone in Silicon Valley run for office? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alexandra Petri, who writes the Compost blog for The Washington Post, talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher and Chorus CEO Dick Costolo about making fun of politics. Petri says some politicans have a sense of humor about her columns, but others don’t like it or don’t get the joke — the Trump White House once distributed one of her satirical pieces to journalists, mistaking it for earnest praise. She explains how she became a humor columnist, how she comes up with ideas and where she finds the funny in the Trump family and the Trump White House. Plus: Petri’s pitch for a romantic comedy about a Supreme Court justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"How to Fix the Future" author Andrew Keen talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, which examines reasonable solutions to the social and political disruptions created by the digital revolution. Keen says tech is neither the solution nor the scapegoat for all problems, urging Silicon Valley to look to history for answers. In the book, he examines four categories of things that need fixing: Economic inequality; the "imminent crisis" of jobs; the rise of surveillance capitalism, in which consumers pay for free products by trading away their personal data; and a cultural crisis of incivility, divisiveness and "fake news." Plus: Why Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is best positioned to set an example for the rest of the industry and why Keen believes Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is "re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

JibJab CEO Gregg Spiridellis talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher and Chorus CEO Dick Costolo about how the company has adapted to the ever-changing internet over the past two decades. JibJab was on the verge of shutting down when it released “This Land,” an animated viral video sensation that parodied the 2004 U.S. Presidential race between George W. Bush and John Kerry. JibJab later moved into personalized greeting cards and apps for messaging platforms, which Spiridellis says is a low-risk way to make comedy scale. He says it’s harder than ever to justify the production costs of “mass funny” digital videos, because creators are now competing against the entire history of comedy, available for free on YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Friend, Vanity Fair’s editor of creative development, talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about his new book, “The Naughty Nineties: The Triumph of the American Libido.” Much of today’s social and political unrest can be traced back to the sea change in who Americans voted for and how they consumed entertainment in the 1990s — and it’s no accident that the world wide web was born in that decade. He explains why today’s #MeToo movement owes a debt to Anita Hill, who unsuccessfully tried to stop Clarence Thomas’s nomination the Supreme Court in 1991, and how everyone from Bill Clinton to Lance Armstrong ushered in an “age of lies” that paved the way for Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comedian Sarah Cooper talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher and Chorus CEO Dick Costolo about why she left a career in the tech industry to become a stand-up comic. Cooper has made tech a central part of her comedy and has written a book based in part on her time at Yahoo and Google called “100 Tricks To Appear Smart in Meetings.” The group debates whether people who work in tech are funny (on purpose) and whether depictions of them in popular culture, on shows like HBO’s “Silicon Valley” or CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory,” are really hitting their mark. Plus: Cooper previews her next book, “How to Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings,” which will include tips such as “be authentic by hiding yourself." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Patty McCord, the former chief talent officer at Netflix and author of that company's famous "culture deck," talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her new book, "Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility." McCord recalls how CEO Reed Hastings convinced her to work at Netflix and how they developed the principles of the company's culture over many years — which Hastings unilaterally published online, generating millions of downloads. She also talks about the common mistakes companies make when hiring and firing, why coddling employees with Google-style perks is overrated and how businesses can make lasting change in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chorus CEO Dick Costolo, the former CEO of Twitter, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about why he loves comedy and why his peers in the tech community are so infrequently "in on the joke." Before he was a tech entrepreneur, Costolo wanted to be a comedian, taking improv classes at Second City in Chicago in the hopes of one day making it to "Saturday Night Live." Today, he explains, more people than ever have the ability to succeed in comedy because they can make and distribute their comedy online, rather than needing to go to Second City or be a touring stand-up comic. Costolo also talks about what happened when he left Twitter and how he became an advisor to the writers of HBO's "Silicon Valley" during that show's third season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The host of the Longform Podcast, Evan Ratliff, interviews Recode’s Kara Swisher in front of a live audience in San Francisco about how she got started in journalism and how she does her job today. Downloading a book for the first time convinced Swisher of the power of the internet, which led her to cover AOL and countless other early digital pioneers. Plus: How she convinces sources to keep talking to her even after she has grilled them onstage at Code or written critically about them online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recode's Kara Swisher and The Verge's Casey Newton talk with Zach Stafford and Trish Bendix, the editor in chief and managing editor of Into — a queer lifestyle magazine published by the dating app Grindr. They talk about why LGBT people have historically been early adopters of tech, why Grindr was more readily adopted by men than women and how the company is trying to change that as it branches out into media. Stafford says Into has been able to tap into Grindr's killer feature, knowing the location of its users, to push out regionally-specific stories to the people who will be most affected by them. Bendix, who recently joined Into after ten years at After Ellen, says she is working to make sure the magazine is more inclusive to women, nonbinary people and trans people; Into needs to reach them as well, she says, to tell stories about everything "through a queer lens." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recode's Kara Swisher talks with former attorney general Eric Holder, who led an investigation into Uber's management earlier this year, and the company's new Chief Legal Officer, Tony West. They discuss how Uber is evolving in the wake of the Holder Report and what it can do to empower lawyers, as well as employees and riders. Holder explains why non-disclosure agreements are common, arguing that there are broader cultural problems limiting women's ability to share stories of sexual assault. West also talks what happened when the company disclosed a major data breach on his first day on the job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christine Brennan, the sports columnist for USA Today, talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about the February 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, which will be Brenann’s 18th consecutive Olympics. She previews what events she's most interested in seeing — and what will be happening on the sidelines. She talks about the fallout from Russia's sophisticated doping system, why that's different from Americans like Lance Armstrong who have used performance-enhancing drugs and other scandals like the serial sexual abuses of U.S. gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Plus: How Brennan's father stoked her childhood love of sports and why Title IX is so important for young female athletes everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices