The company at the heart of the AI bubble

Author Corey Pein talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about his new book, “Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley.” Pein moved to San Francisco to report the book, assuming the role of an entrepreneur looking to get rich quick; he learned the hard way that success doesn’t come easy, even for white men with Ivy League degrees. He criticizes the way consumers have become unpaid workers for the big tech platforms and explains why the government needs to step in and limit companies that have become more powerful than many countries. Pein also talks about highly-paid engineers in San Francisco who are deeply unhappy, and why U.S. lawmakers are only now starting to look at Silicon Valley through a critical lens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

23 Touko 201852min

Wall Street Journal investigative reporter John Carreyrou talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup." Carreyrou explains how Stanford dropout Elizabeth Holmes' company raised nearly $1 billion for blood-testing products that sounded too good to be true — and they were. Holmes idolized former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and sought to make Theranos out to be the next great Silicon Valley success story, but most of her larger investors were not experienced in either technology or medicine, and people who did raise red flags were pushed aside. Carreyrou says "Bad Blood," which will be adapted into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes, is a "cautionary tale" about entrepreneurship, ambition and hubris, and predicts that the company's top executives will be indicted for the cover-up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

21 Touko 20181h 6min

If you like Recode Decode, we think you'd also like Recode Media with Peter Kafka. Here's the latest episode of the show: 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

19 Touko 201850min

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

16 Touko 20181h 3min

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

14 Touko 201859min

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

12 Touko 20181h 5min

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

9 Touko 201848min

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

7 Touko 20181h 7min