Recode Media With Peter Kafka

SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor talks with Recode's Peter Kafka at the 2018 Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. Trainor replaced then-CEO Alex Ljung last summer at a time when the music-streaming company was struggling and couldn't find a buyer. He explains how he convinced the board not to sell the company and what changes he's making to reorient its business model toward audio creators instead of audio listeners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rony Abovitz, the founder, president and CEO of Magic Leap, and Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, talk with Recode's Peter Kafka at the 2018 Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. They talk about a new partnership to bring some NBA content to Magic Leap's augmented reality goggles, due out sometime this year, and Abovitz shares some new hints about the roadmap for his company. Plus: A cameo appearance by basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Journalist/activist Lauren Duca talks with Recode’s Peter Kafka about the column she wrote for Teen Vogue that catapulted her into fame, and the ensuing interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that made her even more of a star. Duca’s original mega-viral essay, “Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America,” is “still true” today, she says; it established her as a leading feminist critic of the Trump administration before he even took office. Since then, she has endured waves of backlash from the alt-right internet (and, occasionally, Carlson himself), and has had to think carefully about everything she posts and tweets — but Duca says the experience has made her “fireproof,” and her convictions are now “unshakeable.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Janice Min, part owner of the Hollywood Reporter, talks with Recode’s Peter Kafka at the Code Media Conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. She talks about how the Reporter is keeping an eye on the nexus of Hollywood, media and power and that one time when she got dinner with Steve Bannon, Michael Wolff and Roger Ailes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti talks with Recode's Peter Kafka at the 2018 Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. Peretti says Facebook should be willing to share in the revenue it makes from its News Feed, something it has already done on other parts of its platform that make a lot less money. He also addresses recent reports that BuzzFeed might spin off its news division and argues that Google and Facebook have distorted the media business by hoovering up most of the digital ad revenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Campbell Brown, Facebook’s head of news partnerships, and Adam Mosseri, the company's head of News Feed, talk with Recode’s Peter Kafka and Kurt Wagner at the 2018 Code Media conference. They defend the recent controversial changes to the types of stories that appear in users’ feeds, with Brown saying that Facebook is okay with having a point of view if it means “leaning into quality news.” However, Mosseri says Facebook will never make a judgment on any entity’s ideological or political point of view. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about how he's trying to make a profitable business out of charging $10/month for nearly unlimited visits to the movie theater. Lowe says MoviePass now has more than 1.5 million paying subscribers, who see twice as many films in the theater as non-subscribers. He also talks about the company's risky public feud with the large theater chain AMC, which he says is due to AMC's unwillingness to share the profits of all the new business it is getting. Plus: What Lowe learned as an early Netflix exec from CEO Reed Hastings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wired editor in chief Nick Thompson talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about the merits of running a print magazine in 2018 and why Wired.com is adding a $20/year paywall. Thompson, previously the editor of NewYorker.com, learned there that asking readers to pay for content changes not just their experience, but also how writers and editors do their jobs because now the pressure is on to make unique content that people will love. He also discusses why much of the conventional wisdom around Facebook's News Feed changes is wrong, the difference between writing for print versus the web and how he is reconciling Wired's original mission of techno-optimism with the realities of 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bleacher Report CEO Dave Finocchio talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about founding a sports media site, selling it to Turner and leaving — and why he came back to lead the company again. Finocchio discusses the recently announced changes to Facebook's News Feed that will deemphasize news from publishers like him, but says Bleacher Report started migrating to other platforms years ago, and now sees the highest enagement with its content on Facebook-owned Instagram. He also talks about how the company is using Snapchat to understand its teen readers, how it weaned itself off of having unpaid contributors and what he thinks of sports media rivals like ESPN, SB Nation and Barstool Sports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recode’s Peter Kafka brings three past podcast guests back into the studio on this special two-in-one episode about how the media has handled President Trump. First, he interviews NYU Professor Jay Rosen, who lambastes the political press for trying to treat Trump like a normal president; Rosen says interviewing Trump is “meaningless” because his answers aren’t tethered to actual policy ideas. Later in the show, CNN’s Oliver Darcy and BuzzFeed’s Charlie Warzel return to the studio to talk about what’s new in the right-wing media sphere. They say that digital-savvy right-wingers like Mike Cernovich and Milo Yiannapolous have been sidelined, and it’s becoming clear to the pro-Trump media that Trump mostly cares about conventional outlets like Fox News and the New York Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hearst Magazines President David Carey talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about how the 130-year-old media giant is striking a balance between its print legacy and the digital future. Carey says print still accounts for two-thirds of his division's profits, and it will be a "long time" before those lines cross. And he predicts that many digital media companies that are heavily reliant on advertising have a rough year ahead, with too much cash heading out the window and no moat to protect themselves. Carey also talks about the advantages of being a private company, why he readily partners with or invests in tech platforms like Snapchat and why everyone still wants to be on the cover of a magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Washington Post Media Reporter Sarah Ellison and New York Times Media Columnist Jim Rutenberg talk with Recode's Peter Kafka about what the media got right and got wrong in 2017. Ellison says readers' interest in all things Trump, known as the "Trump bump," may be waning, so now is the time for journalists to figure out what comes next. Rutenberg agrees that more focus is needed, but says last year was the best for the media in his 25-year career. They also talk about what stories are currently under-covered in the media world, the challenges of balancing writing with investigative reporting and why the Harvey Weinstein scandal seems to have contributed more to the #MeToo movement than the oustings of Bill O'Reilly and Roger Ailes earlier in the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recode's Kara Swisher returns to the podcast to talk with Peter Kafka about how the media and Silicon Valley have fared in the year-plus since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election. Swisher says tech companies are still abrogating their share of the responsibility over the content that appears on their platforms and says she's tired of a perpetual-victim mentality among "the richest and most powerful people in the world." She also talks about how Susan Fowler's blog post took down Uber, whether there's a Harvey Weinstein-style predator in tech and why she's reconsidering a run for mayor of San Francisco. Plus: A guest appearance by Recode Editor in Chief Dan Frommer, who explains why we made a list of the 100 most important people in tech this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Figure skating commentators Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir talk with Recode's Peter Kafka about the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Lipinski and Weir, both former professional skaters, got their start as commentators at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia, and explain why the official ban on Russian participation this year will not take away from the drama of their sport. Unlike in the 1990s, Lipinski says, there are no household-name figure skaters, meaning it's up to her and Weir to be the stars. Plus: How the commentators use social media and why Weir is not looking forward to the Tonya Harding movie "I, Tonya." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Steven Soderbergh and Scott Frank talk with Recode’s Peter Kafka about their new western miniseries, “Godless.” The duo brought Frank's 180-page movie script to Netflix and witnessed firsthand how the streaming service gets its shows noticed: Rather than aiming for a specific opening weekend like a traditional movie studio would, Netflix waited to spend much of the marketing budget for “Godless” until after the show was released. The filmmakers also share their perspectives on how consumers are watching more shows on smaller screens, and Soderbergh explains why it was a mistake to go all-in on social media when promoting his recent theatrically released movie, “Logan Lucky.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Young Turks CEO Cenk Uygur talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about running an online media company for young left-wingers. Uygur says the Washington establishment is just now waking up to the power of the internet, but he and his colleagues have been broadcasting live video over the internet since 2005. Cable news is overrated, he explains, because it's on in the background of stores and press rooms and congressional offices — but, he argues, it's also to blame for the rise of Donald Trump and the defeat of Bernie Sanders. Plus: Uygur bets Kafka $100 that, if Sanders runs again he will win the presidency in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Weir, the author of the hit science fiction novel "The Martian," talks with Recode's Edmund Lee about his new book, "Artemis." Set in a city on Earth's Moon in the late 2080s, "Artemis" is a crime caper that centers on a smuggler named Jazz, a young woman who moved to the Moon from Saudi Arabia. Weir explains how "The Martian" became an accidental hit thanks to Amazon's Kindle platform, but also why crowdfunding isn't the future of all media — he wrote "Artemis" with a traditional print publisher already on board. Plus: How Weir writes diverse characters, why he never visited the set of "The Martian" movie and when humans will live on the Moon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kim Masters, the editor-at-large of the Hollywood Reporter, talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about covering the entertainment industry at a time of daily tumult. Masters says the sexual harassment allegations against people like Miramax's Harvey Weinstein and comedian Louis C.K. are just the beginning; Many powerful men who have harassed and abused people in the workplace have yet to be exposed, she says. She discusses why it's important for reporters to be sympathetic to their sources' distress, why there's a big difference between men like Weinstein and Senator Al Franken, and how the Hollywood Reporter would react if threatened with a lawsuit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pando CEO Sarah Lacy talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about her new book "The Uterus Is a Feature, Not a Bug," which is part memoir and part feminist guide to "overthrowing the patriarchy." Lacy explains why she rejects the type of "careerism feminism" advanced by books like Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In." Amusingly, Facebook rejected ads for Lacy's new book because the title contains the word "uterus." She also talks about her relationship with Pando co-founder Paul Carr, why she hasn't spoken to her former friend and Pando investor Peter Thiel since last year and why she's spending most of her time now on a new company, Chairman Mom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comedian Dana Gould talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about his comedy-horror television series "Stan Against Evil," which just returned for a second season on IFC. Gould says the show never would have made it to the air when there were only three networks on TV and praises the fact that nearly "all programs are niche programs" in 2017. He also explains why it's important for content creators to be adaptable but not slaves to new modes of viewing TV, and reflects on the seven years he spent writing for "The Simpsons." Plus: Why he still does stand-up comedy and how he sneaks his politics into shows without turning them into lectures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices