Recode Media With Peter Kafka

David Chang, the chef and founder of culinary brand Momofuku, talks with Recode’s Peter Kafka and Eater’s Amanda Kludt at the 2018 Code Conference. Chang — who’s also the host of “Ugly Delicious” on Netflix — says “there was no strategy” for Momofuku’s first decade of growth, but now he’s thinking more strategically about scaling up. Food is now a blue-collar profession with “white-collar values,” Chang says; that means chefs and restaurateurs are afraid of losing “cool” status when they grapple with professional issues like HR, inclusion and payroll. He explains why those fears are misplaced. Plus: What does Chang think of food delivery startups, and how is the restaurant industry changing in the #MeToo era? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this special episode of Recode Media, you get two interviews for the price of one: First, Recode's Peter Kafka talks with Jessica Pressler, a New York Magazine staff writer whose longform story about a New York City high society grifter, Anna Sorokin, became a viral hit online. Pressler explains how she reported that story in a matter of months, and why Sorokin's con worked so well. Later in the show, Kafka is joined by New Yorker media critic Ken Auletta, who's the author of a new book called "Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)." Auletta says advertising is in peril as people have shifted to smaller screens and ad-free media viewing. He also expains why media companies like Fox and Time Warner are trying to sell, and recounts how he tried (and failed) to break the Harvey Weinstein story in the early 2000s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch talks with Recode’s Peter Kafka at the 2018 Code Conference. Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, says he’s focused on “land[ing] the plane” as Fox plans to merge with Disney in the coming months, but doesn’t expect to be a part of either the merged entity or the remaining Fox properties, such as Fox News, which won’t be sold. Murdoch also talks about the possibility of a competing bid for the company from Comcast, what the pending merger signifies for the larger business ecosystem and how the media and advertising industries can adapt to changing viewer habits. Plus: Should companies fire on-air talent the way ABC fired Roseanne Barr for her tweets? And is the reckoning over #MeToo ever going to end? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook executives Sheryl Sandberg and Mike Schroepfer talk with Recode’s Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka at the 2018 Code Conference. Sandberg, the company’s COO, and Schroepfer, the CTO, talk about the continuing fallout from Cambridge Analytica and other scandals, including “fake news” during the 2016 elections. They retrace the timeline of the Cambridge Analytica affair and talk about what they’ve learned from their mistakes during that time, pledging to take responsibility for the platform. The duo also talks about Apple CEO Tim Cook’s criticism of Facebook’s privacy policies, the potential of government regulation and why trust and safety is now an “arms race.” Plus: Sandberg says Facebook won’t stop offering a free version of its product and Schroepfer explains how it’s thinking about VR and AR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roman Mars, the founder of Radiotopia and host of the hit podcast 99 Percent Invisible, talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about the state of podcasting in 2018. Mars talks about why he started Radiotopia, how it works within the nonprofit PRX and how it thinks about translating its audio shows into live productions. He also explains why the podcasting industry isn't ready to be divvied up into paid subscription services, a la Hulu and Netflix, even though some of its biggest players are beginning to experiment along those lines. Plus: Why 99 Percent Invisible, a show about design, also tackles seemingly eccentric concepts, like how doctors give bad news to their patients. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vox.com editor-at-large Ezra Klein talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about Vox's new Netflix series "Explained." The first season of the show, which debuted May 23, will feature 20 mini-documentaries about topics such as monogamy, cryptocurrency or the racial wealth gap. Klein said these topics are too big to be tackled in a three-minute YouTube video, and that one of his team's metrics of success is whether the Netflix episodes are still useful and relevant to people a year or more from now. Klein also explains why he's skeptical about the supposedly dramatic changes in video consumers’ habits online, and how Vox.com's approach to journalism has changed since he founded the site four years ago. Plus: Why divisions over social justice, political correctness and "identity politics" are the new "fundamental driver of political conflict" in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube global head of music Lyor Cohen talks with Recode’s Peter Kafka about the launch of YouTube Music, a $10-a-month music subscription service that will replace YouTube Red. Cohen says giving the consumers the choice of paying with money or “paying with your eyeballs” by watching ads is the right direction for the music industry, and will liberate artists to make music on their terms. He also talks about a now-infamous photo tweeted by rapper Kanye West in which Cohen and fellow music exec Lucian Grainge are hugging with West, who is wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. Cohen says he’s “disappointed” in many of West’s political views and wants him to focus on music over politics; however, he also argues that consumers don’t understand the suffering artists like West go through, and that social media can exacerbate that pain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about his new book, "Robin: The Definitive Biography of Robin Williams." Itzkoff traces the history of the manic comedian and actor, whose stardom spanned more than four decades in roles in TV shows, such as "Mork and Mindy," and movies, like "Good Will Hunting." After Williams' death by suicide in 2014, Itzkoff says fans and the media were led astray by incorrect or incomplete explanations for what happened, and that Williams' reasons for taking his own life were more complicated than many assumed. Itzkoff also talks about whether another movie star like Williams could emerge in today's Hollywood, his interactions with the comedian as a journalist and how much time he spends crafting jokes for his popular Twitter account @ditzkoff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Josh Topolsky, CEO and editor in chief of The Outline, talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about the importance of good internet-native design for both advertising and editorial content. Topolsky dismisses the idea that everything publishers put out will move behind paywalls, arguing instead that when ads are done well, they can engage readers and support free content. Most of the time, though, online media companies have forced boring ads on their audiences, who have learned to ignore them. He also talks about his past life as a music producer, picking a fight with Mike Bloomberg and what it's like to raise money when you have a reputation as someone who can be difficult to work with. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York Times writer-at-large Amy Chozick talks with Recode’s Ed Lee about her new memoir, “Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling.” Chozick says the book is about more than Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful campaigns for president; it’s also about all the things reporters didn’t write in their stories about Hillary Clinton, and the “decline of campaign reporting.” In 2016, she explains, dramatic technological changes made Donald Trump’s victory possible and made it harder for political reporters like her to justify always being “on the bus” with Clinton. She also talks about the Clinton family’s contentious history with the New York Times, and how attending the annual media/finance conference Sun Valley led to one of the most humiliating experiences of her reporting career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York Times reporter Emily Steel talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about the stories she and her reporting partner Michael Schmidt wrote that brought down Fox News star Bill O'Reilly — part of a series of stories on sexual harassment that netted the Times and the New Yorker a Pulitzer Prize for public service. Steel says she and Schmidt strategized before every phone call and recalls how she got her first source to talk on the record, an act of dogged reporting that necessitated a cross-country flight to take a Pilates class. She also discusses her subsequent story about the toxic culture at Vice Media, a contentious interview with O'Reilly that was broadcast on the NYT's hit podcast The Daily and why she doesn't use Twitter as much as colleagues do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Writer Rex Sorgatz talks with Recode’s Peter Kafka about his new book, “The Encyclopedia of Misinformation: A Compendium of Imitations, Spoofs, Delusions, Simulations, Counterfeits, Impostors, Illusions, Confabulations, Skullduggery, Frauds, Pseudoscience, Propaganda, Hoaxes, Flimflam, Pranks, Hornswoggle, Conspiracies & Miscellaneous Fakery.” Sorgatz says he doesn’t want readers to move through the book in order; instead, they should open it to a random page, read an article and then see where the footnotes at the bottom of the page tell them to go next. He also talks about the T-word: How much should a book about falsehoods, released in 2018, acknowledge the mendacity of President Donald Trump? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Axie Navas, the executive editor of Outside Magazine, talks with Lauren Goode about how that magazine is adapting to the changing digital media industry. One of her key initiatives has been diversifying the editorial staff of the Santa Fe-based magazine and covering issues like sexual harassment, even though its readers are still largely male. Navas explains how Outside is trying to reach new audiences, including younger readers and city dwellers. Plus: Why it has consciously gotten more political since Donald Trump became president, providing a platform for articles like a critical profile of Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and, after an inflammatory Trump comment about immigration last year, "Top 5 'Shitholes' To Visit." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech reviewer Marques Brownlee talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about his YouTube channel, MKBHD, which has more than six million subscribers — a breakthrough success story on the site. Brownlee started making videos for fun in 2009, when he was 15, but today he's doing well enough to have three full-time employees working under him. He explains how he works with the tech companies who want to get their products in his videos and how he's still able to maintain a certain level of anonymity in public. Plus: Brownlee shares his advice for anyone who wants to make YouTube videos and be the next MKBHD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Financial Times CEO John Ridding talks with Recode’s Peter Kafka about the company’s decade-long head start in paid online subscriptions. Some of his peers in the tech and media world were initially “hostile” to the idea of a paywall, he says, but two-thirds of the FT’s current revenue is coming from subscriptions. Ridding also talks about how the London-headquartered newspaper has butted heads with some of the big tech platforms, how its global business-minded staff has grappled with the Brexit and Trump phenomena, and how the business has changed since Nikkei bought the FT in 2015. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about his new book, "The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies." Fritz says the economics of the movie business have been completely transformed by the rise of online streaming services and by brands like Marvel, which have supplanted name-brand stars and directors as the most reliable indicator of a film's success. He explains how Sony fumbled the "Spider-Man" franchise and missed a big opportunity to own the rest of the Marvel characters, and what the big studios are still doing that Netflix and Amazon can't. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TV writer and "Lean In" co-author Nell Scovell talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about her new book, "Just the Funny Parts ... And a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys’ Club." Scovell says TV is hierarchical, meaning bad behavior at the top — including sexual harassment — trickles down to other employees. She also talks about what has changed since "Lean In" and what happened when she publicly criticized her former boss, David Letterman. Plus: How writing an episode of "The Simpsons" is like chiseling a sculpture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ben Rubin, the CEO of Houseparty, talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about why his livestreaming company pivoted away from its original product, Meerkat, just three months after that app was the toast of South By Southwest. Although Meerkat was the first mobile livestreaming app to get a lot of buzz, the company quickly realized that most users can't make good, genuine live content for others every day. Rubin explains how Houseparty is doing things differently, making it possible for multiple friends to hang out together on their phones and — he hopes — have genuine, troll-free interactions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blumhouse Productions founder and CEO Jason Blum talks with Recode's Peter Kafka at South by Southwest 2018. Blum's company, which largely makes low-budget "genre" films such as "The Purge," "Happy Death Day" and "Paranormal Activity," scored a Best Picture nomination this year with Jordan Peele's hit thriller "Get Out." He talks about the experience of awaiting — and losing — that Oscar, as well as what makes Blumhouse so different from all the other companies more commonly represented at the big awards shows. Plus: Why the studio is often happy to sell its films directly to Netflix or Amazon, rather than sending them to theaters, and why Blum thinks the Hollywood establishment has already lost the in-theater vs. at-home battle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Veteran screenwriter Graham Yost talks with Recode’s Peter Kafka about the second season of the Amazon Prime Video series “Sneaky Pete.” Showrunner Yost previously wrote movies like “Speed” and TV series like the FX crime drama “Justified,” and he explains what makes writing for Amazon different — including how the online streaming service thinks about the all-important cliffhanger. He also discusses working with the late novelist Elmore Leonard on “Justified,” and how to stop binging shows like “Sneaky Pete” if you’re hooked but need to get some sleep. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices