The AI Election + Bitcoin’s Wall Street Debut + TikTok’s Doodad Era
OpenAI has released its plan to fight disinformation in elections in 2024, but will its policies be consequential compared to those of other generative A.I. companies? Then, a watershed moment had crypto fans celebrating for the first time in maybe more than a year. And finally, what one writer’s attempt to sell a used mechanical pencil on TikTok says about how the platform is changing.
Today’s guests:
David Yaffe-Bellany covers the crypto industry for The New York Times
John Herrman covers technology for New York Magazine
Additional Reading:
How OpenAI is approaching 2024 worldwide elections
$4 Billion of New Bitcoin Funds Change Hands in First Trading Day
What I Learned Selling a Used Pencil on TikTok Shop
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RIP DVDs
Today on the flagship podcast of the laserdisc resurgence:
While Netflix’s DVD.com service shuts down later this week, The Verge's David Pierce chats with Bill Rouhana, the CEO of Chicken Soup for The Soul Entertainment, about the potential of Redbox and physical media in 2023.
Netflix’s DVD service shuts down: here’s the complex tech behind it
Later, David and Alex Cranz talk with New York Magazine’s John Herrman about his recent story on social media metrics and what they actually mean.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Social-Media Metrics
Keep listening for this week’s Vergecast hotline question.
Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you.
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Why we can't just blame capitalism for everything
We’re sharing an episode of The Gray Area from our friends at Vox.
The Gray Area is a philosophical take on culture, politics, and your daily life. In the episode we’re sharing with you today, host Sean Illing speaks with New York Magazine writer Eric Levitz about the viability of capitalism, and the “reform versus revolution” debate on the left. It’s a nuanced, thoughtful conversation that we think you’ll really enjoy.
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NVIDIA Takes Off, Temu + Shein Deep Dive
John Herrman is a contributing editor at New York Magazine. He joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz to break down the week’s news. We cover 1) NVIDIA’s Blowout quarter 2) The emergence of Temu and Shein — in great depth.
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Elon’s Texts, TikTok’s Wins and Fails in Europe, and Guest Gabriel Debenedetti
So many Elon texts. Kara and Scott discuss A-listers’ conversations with Musk, and TikTok’s wins and losses in Europe. Also, Liz Truss’s reversal on tax cuts for the wealthy, and Kim Kardashian’s crypto trouble with the SEC. Then, we’re joined by Friend of Pivot, Gabriel Debenedetti about his new book on the relationship between Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
You can find Gabriel on Twitter at @gdebenedetti, and you can buy The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama here.
You can listen to Kara’s new show, On with Kara Swisher, here.
Send us your questions! Call 855-51-PIVOT or go to nymag.com/pivot.
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(TWTR SPC) The TWTR Whistleblower And The REAL AI Revolution
First up, we have @KevinTDugan to give us deeper insight into the whole Twitter whistleblower situation. And then, @KylanGibbs of @inworld_ai convinces me we are maybe closer to the Metaverse than I ever thought possible. TLDR: AI might really be at a tipping point.
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Post-Roe America: Politics, Privacy, and the Court
Kara talks to three experts about the fallout from Dobbs v Jackson. First, Irin Carmon, Senior Correspondent at New York Magazine, joins to discuss the immediate impact on the front lines, Then, Amy Kapczynski, Professor of Law at Yale Law School, walks us through what may be next for SCOTUS. Finally, Evan Greer, Director of Fight for the Future, joins to discuss the fallout for tech and privacy.
You can find Irin at @irin on Twitter, Amy at @akapczynski, and Evan at @evan_greer.
Amy’s blog can be found here, and New York Magazine’s Abortion Guide can be found here.
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#255 – The Drive to Make Money, Defining Life Principles, and Courtland Wins $10k from Vincent Woo of Coderpad
Vincent Woo (@fulligin) sold his company for tens of millions of dollars. He joins the pod to talk to Courtland (@csallen) and Channing (@ChanningAllen) about advice for fledgling indie hackers trying to make money, the purpose of business, defining principles for one's life, and why he shouldn't have to pay Courtland for a $10,000 bet he lost.
Billionaires Shouldn't Tweet, Netflix Layoffs, and Guest Rebecca Traister
Primary results are in! Aggrieved billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk can't stop tweeting at the government and Netflix laid off 150 full-time staffers. Also, ICE is watching you. Kara and Scott are joined by Friend of Pivot Rebecca Traister to discuss the impending end of Roe v. Wade.
You can find Rebecca on Twitter at @rtraister.
Send us your Listener Mail questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or via Yappa, at nymag.com/pivot.
CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this episode, we stated that Netflix cancelled its animated Matilda series, which was incorrect. In fact, Matilda is going back into development, but has not been cancelled. The streamer will also release a film version of Matilda the Musical later this year.
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The inherent tensions within Venture capital
This is our Wednesday show, the time of the week when we niche down to a single topic. Today? The issue of venture capital expectations in certain sectors where startups may not be the best fit. And what happens when they raise a mountain of capital.
Natasha and Alex had former founder and present-day indie journalist Vincent Woo to come on the show with us. Why? Because he's written extensively about Lambda School, one of our subjects of the day.
We started with Ro, and Natasha's excellent piece on the matter: Employees detail rising tensions at Ro as healthcare unicorn struggles to grow beyond first win.
Next we chatted Lambda School, which has a well-documented history of raising venture capital and attracting controversy. Most recently, Woo published a piece about the coding bootcamp's misleading claims on job placement. The company is perhaps a cautionary tale of how venture-level growth can struggle in certain sectors. Education is hard and may not scale like software.
At the heart of conversation was a question: In this time of high valuations and easy access to large amounts of capital, how can VC incentives lead some startups into a cycle of pain? We didn't land on a single conclusion, and that was kind of the point of the episode. Venture capital isn't inherently bad or good, but the money can come with a list of demands (and pressures) that cause risk-taking founders to make mistakes. A recalibration is necessary, but, as we talk about every week, the "up and to the right" market will take its time getting there.
It was good fun to focus on a single topic, but we're back with our news roundup Friday morning! Chat soon!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
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E1130: “Billion Dollar Loser” Author Reeves Wiedeman on WeWork’s epic rise & crazy collapse, Adam Neumann’s unique behavior, hypocrisy, red flags & more
Buy Billion Dollar Loser: https://rb.gy/3clbht
FOLLOW Reeves: https://twitter.com/reeveswiedeman
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
#170 – "I sold my SaaS business for millions… what now?" with Vincent Woo of CoderPad
When Vincent Woo (@fulligin) first started CoderPad, he was certain his idea was a good one. But he still needed to put in the work to prove it. Seven years later, after growing CoderPad and selling it for tens of millions of dollars, it's clear he was right. In this episode, Vincent and I sit down to discuss why bootstrapping is easier than taking the VC path, how it feels to grow and sell such a successful SaaS business, and what exactly he's doing with all that money and free time.
E1039: Independent Journalist Vincent Woo reflects on his piece, “Lambda School’s Misleading Promises”, shares insights on what drew him to the story, where Lambda School went wrong, how they can be better & more
0:45 Jason intros Vincent Woo, who wrote "Lambda School's Misleading Promises" for New York Magazine
2:21 What drew Vincent to this story? What wrongdoings did he discover?
6:02 Vincent describes Lambda's ISAs and how they were sold
14:24 How Vincent approached Austen Allred as an investigative reporter & clip from Vincent's interview with Austen
16:19 What is Lambda's school actual placement rate? How does it compare with other coding bootcamps?
20:06 Getting Lambda's former Director of Student Placement on record to speak about the placement rates
23:43 Why ISA coding schools should exist
29:18 How Lambda's remote-only approach differentiates them & how opportunity cost plays into their issues
35:06 Where did Lambda School go wrong?
45:51 Does the business model work in broad strokes if opened up to everyone?
53:54 What does Lambda School need to do now?
58:21 Where is the blindspot in most entrepreneurs?
1:00:57 Vincent also writes about local political corruption in the Bay Area
Recode Decode: "The Uninhabitable Earth" author David Wallace-Wells
Journalist David Wallace-Wells talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming.
In this episode: How Wallace-Wells got to writing about climate change; common misconceptions about it; “we’ve made no progress at all” on clean energy use; his first story about global warming; the ripple effects and “all-encompassing threat” of warming around the world; today’s storms are literally unprecedented; why Silicon Valley has invested little into solutions; apocalypse bunkers and escaping to space; theoretical solutions on Earth that we could undertake right now; Bill Gates and Elon Musk; “we need a million solutions,” not one; the immediate political implications; how the US and China are contributing to the problem; “we’re not in this situation because of the Republican Party”; the problem with the Paris accords; and why technology won’t magically save us.
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#041 – An Optimistic Nihilist's Take on Building a $2M Business with Vincent Woo
Even as a programmer, Vincent Woo never loved school or working at big companies. But he was enthusiastic in growing his side project, CoderPad, into a $2M business. Get his take on startups, luck, and why advice is bullshit.
Transcript, speaker information, and more: https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/041-vincent-woo-of-coderpad
Episode 37: Ann Friedman
Ann Friedman is a journalist who writes about gender, tech, politics, and social issues in her weekly column for New York magazine. She also co-hosts the podcast Call Your Girlfriend with her friend Aminatou Sow. In this episode we talk about how to be a journalist in 2015, how anne’s podcast with her best friend has effected their relationship, and what it means to be an ethical tech consumer. Edited by Alex Kontis For constructive criticism on the episode, message me @eriktorenberg For lavish praise, message @annfriedman