Inside the Hive

As America tears itself apart over social issues, like Roe vs Wade and whether to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, technology could soon make things even worse in this country. Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box, joins Nick to discuss potential massive job loss, gross inequality and A.I. being used against America with the power of digital nuclear bombs. As Levie and Nick discuss, Silicon Valley has shown that it is incapable of seeing how the future can be used against us, and yet Donald Trump and his administration are oblivious (or don't care) about what's coming next. Stick around after the show, when Jon Kelly joins Nick to voice their dismay over the GOP, and discuss the Vanity Fair New Establishment list. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It's been decades since there has been a Supreme Court hearing like Brett Kavanaugh's, and yet, the outcome could end up being exactly the same as Anita Hill's testimony. Vanity Fair's Emily Jane Fox joins Nick to discuss why Kavanaugh will likely still be a Supreme Court Justice, and why Christine Blasey Ford's testimony was so important to the #MeToo movement. After the show, Nick and Jon Kelly talk about the abrupt exodus of Instagram co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mikey Krieger, and what Facebook will do with its photo platform when Mark Zuckerberg gains complete control. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As Americans await the news of whether Dr. Christine Blasey Ford will appear before the Judiciary Committee, the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh could go down in flames, bringing Republicans and evangelicals along for the ride. Tina Nguyen, who covers the right wing for The Hive, joins Nick to explain how the G.O.P. and alt-right media is dealing the accusations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted Ford three decades ago. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A decade ago this week, America officially entered the worst financial collapse since The Great Depression. Now, as Donald Trump rolls back regulations meant to protect consumers, some fear that we are about to see another housing collapse? Spencer Rascoff, the CEO of Zillow, joins Nick to discuss this and everything housing-related, from the future of the industry to how most poor and middle class Americans have been priced out of buying a home. Then Nick and Jon Kelly discuss this week in Trumpland, and how the White House is in a feverish state of tumult after the release of the Bob Woodward book, "Fear." Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Who was it? Who wrote the New York Times OpEd from deep inside the White House? Nick and Jon discuss this, who will be fired next as a result, Bob Woodward’s new bombshell book, “Fear,” and if Congress is finally going to regulate social media after the hearings this week. Also on the show, Nancy Jo Sales, director of, “Swiped: Hooking Up in the Digital Age,” a new documentary for HBO, explains how the swipe and hook-up culture around Tinder and other dating apps is harming society in unimaginable ways, and how video streaming is going to make things so much worse. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Will Donny Jr. be indicted for lying to Congress? Does Michael Cohen sleep with one eye open? Will Paul Manafort spend the rest of his life in jail, or be pardoned by his old buddy, POTUS? Will Trump's downfall come from his infidelities? And speaking of, how does Melania feel about all of this? Emily Jane Fox, a senior reporter for Vanity Fair, and author of the book Born Trump, joins Nick to explain what is going to happen to The Trump inner circle over the next 18 months, and also why Mr. Magoo, also known as Jeff Sessions, has finally started to fight back against the President of the United States. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Could a Trump impeachment destroy the economy, or save it? Is Trump's trade war with China going to usher in a new recession? Will Trump's deregulation end up screwing over consumers, who could lose their jobs, homes, and retirement? Mary Childs, a senior reporter for Barron's magazine, joins Nick to answer all the questions about the economy that keep us up at night. Childs also discusses how Elon Musk's erratic behavior is perceived on Wall Street, and that if he was a woman, he would have been fired long ago. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It’s been a few weeks since Donald Trump signed an executive order reversing his diabolical decision to separate children and parents at the border, but the story is far from over. Jacob Soboroff, correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, who helped break the child separation story open, joins Nick to explain what will happen to the hundred of children who have still not been reunited with their parents, why Trump officials regret giving in to pressures from the left and the right to stop their policy, and what the administration is planning next that could be much, much worse. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Do this week’s voter numbers in Ohio, and elsewhere, foreshadow a blue wave? Is Donald Trump actually the Republican party’s most powerful weapon, or its Achilles’ heel? Could Trump finally be impeached? Jefrey Pollock, a Democratic pollster and political consultant, joins Nick to answer all those questions, and how it could all go drastically wrong. Stay tuned after the show for Nick and Jon Kelly, who discuss Elon Musk’s bid to take Tesla private, if Snap will be bought, and why Jack Dorsey wants to protect Alex Jones more than the parent’s of slain kids. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The rise of celebrity culture, and now influencer culture, has it's good sides, and it's bad. But does one outweigh the other? Nick Adler, who manages investments and social media for The King of Rap, Snoop Dogg, joins Nick (Bilton) to offer his insight about the rise of the celebrity culture and what it means for the world, from Kim Kardashian to Logan Paul, all the way up to that guy currently in the White House. Adler also discusses why the tech platforms that disrupted the taxi industry and hotels, have become as bad as the things they once tried to change. Finally, there's a story about Snoop Dogg and Elon Musk that you won't want to miss. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Its been the craziest week in recent Silicon Valley memory--Facebook's stock fell of a cliff; Elon Musk went after one of his critics; and Robert Mueller started looking into Trump's Twitter feed. Nick explains what all of this means in the here and now, and answers a very serious question down the line: what would it take for Zuck to move on from Facebook? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Technology has a history of starting out with good intentions, and eventually being leveraged for quite the opposite. On this week’s episode, Adam Fisher, author of Valley of Genius, joins Nick to explain how Silicon Valley--an industry created to advance war research and governmental capacities--was co-opted for commercial, and often sinister, purposes, from election-meddling operatives to racist trolls. Fisher also explains what Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Elon Musk can learn from their predecessors, before they destroy the world. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On the face of it, it seems like America is currently more divided than anytime since the Civil War. But back in 1968, America was embroiled in chaos, torn over the war in Vietnam, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and later, the murder of Robert Kennedy, the brother of JFK. Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier, the team behind Crimetown and The Jinx, join Nick to explain how the murder of RFK, in 1968, might have been a government conspiracy, and why it changed the shape of America forever. Also: Vanity Fair’s Abby Tracy explains what’s going to happen with Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court pick, and what the Democrats can do to stop the court from overturn Roe vs Wade. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Are Tom Arnold and Michael Cohen, as one recent tweet could have been construed to suggest, teaming up to take down Donald Trump? The famous comedian and Trumpworld scold joins Nick to explain how he plans to take down the president, what it was like being married to Rosanne, and how he recently tried to fight Cohen outside the Regency hotel. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A few years ago, a chance encounter between Christopher Steele, of the now-famous Steele Dossier, and an FBI agent who was working on a gambling case at Trump Tower, opened the door to a multi-year investigation into the massive corruption taking place at FIFA, the soccer federation. Ken Bensinger, author of the new book, “Red Card: How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal,” joins us to tell a wild and crazy story that involves the mob, British spies, a 450-pound informant who gets around on a mobility scooter with a parrot on his shoulder, Vladimir Putin, Robert Mueller, a soccer-obsessed IRS agent in Orange County, and tangentially, none other than Donald Trump. We also discuss if Putin might have already fixed who will win this year’s World Cup. Hint: Russia. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

While Americans watched in horror as innocent children, as young as 9-months-old, were torn from their parents arms, Ivanka Trump was posting photos of her and her children, as happy as could be. Is she oblivious? A mean girl? Or is she unable to speak publicly about how she really feels out of fear of her father? Emily Jane Fox, author of the new book, Born Trump: Inside America’s First Family, joins Nick to talk about what Ivanka and her brothers, Donny Jr. and Eric, are really like in person. She offers salacious and wild stories about how these children grew up, about whether they liked each other, and if they really care about how their dad is ruining the country. Also: Nick and Jon Kelly talk about how Russia is planning to disrupt the 2018 and 2020 elections, and why Bob Iger is happy spending tens of billions of dollars on Fox. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Robby Mook, former campaign manager for Hillary Clinton, joins Nick this week to discuss how Russian is planning to drive more discourse in our democracy, and the 2018 election. Mook also discusses how the Republican party is simply a rubber stamp for Trump, afraid of what he might do or say to them; and who the Democratics will elect in 2020. Finally, Mook talks about the best and worst times during the 2016 campaign, and what he and his old boss, Hillary, still text each about. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Silicon Valley is notoriously full of founders who exaggerate, intentionally lie to the media, and dupe investors, and even Congress. But there are few stories that rival the fraud behind Theranos, the blood-testing company once worth $10 billion, and now worth nothing. John Carreyrou, author of a new book, "Bad Blood," joins us to explain how the company's CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, defrauded everyone who came into her orbit, how she might still end up behind bars, and he answers the question on everyone's mind: Is Holmes a sociopath? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Should it be legal to sell mild drugs, like weed and magic mushrooms, on the Internet? What about heroin? Handguns? AR-15s? Even murder-for-hire? Nick Bilton sits down with Tom Conrad, former product director of Snap and co-founder of Pandora, to discuss Nick's book, “American Kingpin;” if Silicon Valley CEOs are moral at heart, or more concerned with their profits and their legacy; and if Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road website, is any different from other CEOs in tech. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Why are we here? Is there a God? A reason to it all? How, and why, did the universe begin, and how, and why, will it end? Sean M. Carroll, a cosmologist and physicist specializing in dark energy and general relativity, joins Nick to answer the questions that plague us all, including, if there's a chance that somewhere out there in the cosmos, there is another extraterrestrial Donald Trump ruling over a planet of little green aliens. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Donald Trump has always been a blatant liar, making up stories about his worth to how many people were at his inauguration, but do people actually like it when Trump lies to them? Amanda Carpenter, author of a new book, "Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies To Us," joins Nick to talk about why Republicans, and evangelicals, still love Trump, even after all these lies, how Trump actually pulls off these outright deceptions, and why they are only going to get worse in 2020 as Trump does everything possible to try and maintain control of the White House. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Comedian and commentator, formally of The Onion and The Daily Show, Baratunde Thurston, joins this week to talk about whether Kanye West poses a bigger threat to civilization than Trump, how white men in Silicon Valley could destroy the future for everyone, especially African Americans, and why the future probably isn't as bad as Nick thinks it is. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As of late, tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Google, are being perceived as evil for taking advantage of our deepest, darkest secrets and fears with one goal: to make us click on more invasive ads. Tristan Harris, who has been described as "the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience," is trying to change that. But can an industry worth trillions of dollars, with some of the biggest egos in business, ever change to do the right thing? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The only reason that magic tricks actually work, according to the world famous magician and puzzle-maker David Kwong, is that “people want to believe.” The same theory applies to politics, fake news, and the entire tricks that Trump used to win the White House. Kwong joins us this week to share fascinating stories about magicians playing an integral role in war efforts, clandestine government operations, and yes, politics. In part two of this week’s show, Nick talks about his latest feature in Vanity Fair, about Russian, Chinese and domestic spies working in Silicon Valley. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Is Trump making it more difficult to be African American in the U.S.? Does Ben Carson secretly dislike people of color? Is Donald Trump a true racist? Jamil Smith, a writer for The New Republic, Time, and now, Rolling Stone, joins us to explain why, 155 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, black men are arrested for just sitting in Starbucks coffee shop, why President Obama could have done more to speak out against these issues, and why we’re all so sick and tired of hearing about James Comey. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Since the Cambridge Analyitca scandal broke just a few weeks ago, Facebook has seen its stock fall by $100 billion, and Mark Zuckerberg was forced to go before Congress. But what happens next to the 2.25-billion user social network? Will it be regulated? Or will it be broken up? Kevin Roose, NYT Tech columnist, joins us to explain what happened on the hill this week, and what will happen next in Silicon Valley. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Will America finally vote a women into the White House in 2020? Will she be a Democrat or a Republican? Does it even matter? Could Stormy Daniels be the scandal that topples Trump? Jennifer Palmieri, former Director of Communications for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign, and author of the new book, “Dear Madam President,” joins us this week to talk about all these topics, and what life in the Obama White House was like, how it felt to lose to Trump in the 2016 election (“surreal”), and the fear of knowing that Russia was trying to break our democracy, and change the outcome of the 2016 election. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Stormy's in, Hope is out. Bolton's hired as Shulkin is fired. How does FLOTUS feel POTUS? Emily Jane Fox joins us to explain what's going on inside the Trump's chaotic White House. Then, Nick Bilton and Jon Kelly talk about all the problems at Facebook, and if a company that just lost $100 billion in value because of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, can survive in the longterm. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Ryan Holiday, author of the new book "Conspiracy," tells the inside story of how Peter Thiel took down Gawker Media and Nick Denton, how the tech billionaire's relationship with Donald Trump isn't what it used to be, and why we should kind of — just a little bit — feel sorry for Thiel, even though he is one of the most disliked people in Silicon Valley. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Will robots kill us all? Will a rogue A.I. shut off the power grids? Could we lose track of what is real, and what is not, in a permanently augmented reality? My guest today, Kevin Kelly, has spent his entire career (accurately) predicting what tomorrow will look like, and quelling the fears that come with each new technology. He offers a prediction of what culture, society and politics will look like over the next thirty years, and if humanity will survive a technological apocalypse. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

One minute, Dennis Crowley, the co-founder of Foursquare, was building a little app in a New York City coffee shop, and the next he was being wined and dined by every VC in Silicon Valley, being offered hundreds of millions of dollars for his young startup, and seeing the valuation of his company head towards a billion dollars. Crowley takes us through the tumultuous, breakneck, insane ride of running a startup. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Gabe Sherman, who has known Hope, Lewandowski and Trump since the nascent days of the campaign trail, joins us to explain what the latest round of chaos inside the White House means, how Jared Kushner might be the next to get booted, and why Hope Hicks has left the building. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The students behind the #neverAgain movement are more eloquent than any politician, and are totally unphased by Trump and his online trolls. Abigail Tracy, who covers Washington for The Hive, joins us to explain how a group of high schoolers could take down Trump, how they could turn Florida blue, and why the NRA might have finally met it’s match. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Sam Harris, a world renowned author, neuroscientist and atheist, joins us to explain why there is no such thing as God, how consciousness is the most incredible invention in the universe, why politicians like Mike Pence and Donald Trump pretend they're religious because it helps gets votes, and how artificial intelligence could end up destroying humanity and replacing us with sentient robots that are nicer and smarter than us -- if we're lucky. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Description: For the last year, Trump has bragged about the rise of the stock market, taking credit for every upswing since Obama left office. Yet this week, when the bottom fell out of the market, Trump blamed — yep — the media. Bess Levin, The Hive’s Wall Street corespondent, explains why this could be the beginning of the recession we’ve all been expecting, how Trump will try to blame everyone else for the declines, and she helps rank the Trump administration’s finance appointees in order of worst, dumb, and the devil himself. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It really is even worse than you thought, notes David Cay Johnston, author of a new book with a slightly more elegant title. Johnston explains how Trump is systematically, and intentionally, dismantling the way the U.S. government works to help boost his own ego. From Scott Pruitt rolling back regulations that will destory the environment, to Betsy DeVos disemboweling the country's education system, the actions of the Trump administration are going to have devastating impacts on the next generation. But Johnston does have one glimmer of hope... Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Donald Trump has turned back more climate-related safety measures in the past year than any president in history. Jeff Orlowski, the Oscar short-listed filmmaker behind "Chasing Coral" and "Chasing Ice," joins us to lay out the implications of our warming planet, how most of the coral reefs on earth are dying, and why that is even more terrifying than you think. Orlowski explains that we could be at the beginning of the sixth mass extinction. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Hive’s tech reporter and millennial expert, Maya Kosoff, joins us to explain why the government may soon start regulating social media companies, why you should delete Facebook from your phone ASAP, whether Snap will survive the assault of Mark Zuckerberg, and why the White House should build a “fake” alternate Twitter that only Trump sees, replete with fake likes and fake retweets, and maybe even a fake Oval Office. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

At this year's CES in Las Vegas, robots of all shapes and sizes were on display. There were robots that can fold your clothes, others that can clean your windows, walk your dog or make you an omelet. There were social robots and butler robots. Big robots and little bitty robots. On this week's show, we went to Vegas and talked to two experts about the world of tomorrow, hearing how robotics, driverless cars, and artificial intelligence are going to change everything we touch and do in the not-too-distant future. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Terrified by Trump's latest nuclear tweet? Worried that Kim Jung-Un might fall asleep on his little button and blow us all up? This podcast will probably terrify you even more. Kal Raustiala, Director of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, and an expert on foreign affairs and international law, joins me this week to explain how close we are to global annihilation, why artificial intelligence could prove to be more dangerous than a global thermonuclear war, and why California should just call it quits and secede from the union. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

If you think 2017 was tough to get through, just wait until next year. In the year’s final podcast, Nick Bilton and Jon Kelly offer predictions for 2018. Among them: Will the Dems actually win back the House? Will Bitcoin still be around 12 months from now? Could the #meToo movement finally reach the shores of Silicon Valley? And will Trump finally begin his inevitable passage into oblivion? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Here's a fact for you: If you bought $1 — yes, one single dollar — of Bitcoin in March, 2013, it would be worth $6 million today. Joyce Kim, who has been in the cryptocurrency game since the very beginning, joins us this week to explain what is really going on with all these digital currencies, why they are rising so rapidly, if you should own them (or if you already do, if you should sell them), if there's a Bitcoin Bubble, and why all the nerds in Silicon Valley can't stop talking about this digital gold. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Tim Wu might be the most prescient person in tech: he invented the term “net neutrality,” and predicted the global dominance the Internet would have on society. He joins us this week to explain why Facebook is the most likely tech company to be regulated by the government, how Donald Trump used technology to hijack our attention (and how we’ll all reclaim it back), what happens now that net neutrality has been rolled back, and why everyone should spend at least one week alone in the desert. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Each week, the stock market reaches all-time highs, and Donald Trump takes all the credit. But is his insanity and destruction going to lead to a crash of biblical proportions, or possibly to a recession akin to 2008? My guest this week, William D. Cohan, a former banker-turned journalist, seems to think so. Hear him explain why Wall Street should be worried by the actions of the man they hate, and how everyday Americans are going to be affected. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For the past two decades, Reza Aslan has been studying religions from all over the globe, and talking to people who believe in one God, many Gods, or no God at all. He joins us this week to explain the origins of belief, why faith is ultimately a good thing for society, and how he got fired from CNN for calling Donald Trump a “piece of s**t.” (A spokesperson for CNN declined to comment on Aslan’s depiction of his dismissal.) Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Do Donald Trump's provocations of Kim Jong-Un have you scared? You might not be scared enough. Right now, U.S. generals are performing war games exploring how to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack on American soil. Other government employees are evaluating what would happen if Russian hackers knocked out our power grids; others still are trying to stop ISIS from recruiting a new generation of suicide fighters on Twitter; meanwhile, the Navy Seals are slowly becoming obsolete in a virtual world of ubiquitous and disruptive terror. Haroon Ullah, who spent nearly a decade at The State Department, and recently authored the book Digital World War, joins us to explain how close we really are to World War III, how modern day warfare is unlike anything we've seen before, and why America is losing its standing on the world stage. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Gwyneth Paltrow joins us to explain what acting has in common with running a company; why she doesn’t miss the movie business and won’t ever go back; how Goop (if all goes well) could go public one day; and how relieving (and shocking) it’s been to finally see some of the worst men in Hollywood finally fall. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After the Democratic wins in New Jersey and Virginia, this week, could Texas become increasingly blue in 2018? Jay Hulings, who is running to repressent the state’s 23rd congressional district, joins us to explain how The Lone Star state could become a blue state (or at least purple) next year, how people along the Rio Grande really feel about “The Wall,” and why, as a gun-loving Democrat, people like him could re-write the future of the left. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Kyle Pope spent 18 months running the New York Observer under Jared Kusher. In that time, he was forced to contend with more problems than he had ever anticipated when he took the job. Jared's father (who Jared calls "daddy") allegedly wanted his son to order "hit pieces" on bankers he didn't like; Jared's mother complained about the decor in people's offices and tried to have a rug removed; and on one occasion, Kyle was forced to have a sit down with The Donald himself. Pope joins us today to tell these stories and more, and explain what the future might look like for Jared and Ivanka when this all comes crashing down. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The past decade has seen the biggest disruption in American business in a hundred years — and its only just the beginning. Scott Galloway, author of the new book “The Four,” joins me to explain how Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon, grew into such massive companies. He lays out which of them is the least likely to survive (ahem, Facebook), and why those that do (ahem, Amazon) may end up in a war with the U.S. governments over regulation. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices