The Times Tech Podcast

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Sridhar Ramaswamy to talk about the problem with search engines (3:45), leaving Google (6:15), where Google went wrong (10:30), on whether people actually care about privacy (14:00), why the government's antitrust suit doesn’t help (19:00), how you build a search engine without the resources of Google (21:45), the importance of the cloud (25:45), the challenge of going from free to paid (28:30), how his former colleagues reacted (31:00), and what keeps him up at night (35:10). PLUS, Miami mayor Francis Suarez comes on to talk about Miami’s moment (35:45), that tweet (37:40), the Covid factor (39:00), why he thinks he’ll succeed his city can rival Austin as America's second tech hub (41:50), how low taxes help (44:30), and telling the story (50:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

15 Tammi 202153min

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Dmitri Mehlhorn, head of Investing in US, to talk about the business of unseating Trump (3:45), what he saw as an existential threat (8:25), linking up with Reid Hoffman (10:50), the problem he sought to solve (13:00), investing hundreds of millions to make Trump a one-term president (15:55), the importance of Big Data in politics (20:15), piloting a new approach in Virginia (22:30), upsetting the apple cart (25:40), being seen as “knife-fighters” (30:20), what happens now (33:40), good v evil (40:30), the key investments (43:20), the importance of the web (46:40), his biggest mistake (49:50), winning without becoming what you are trying to defeat (56:20), the death of truth (59:40), Silicon Valley’s conflict between backing Biden while battling against the impending antitrust crackdown (1:01:00), Zuckerberg’s major role in the election (1:04:30), and the future of media (1:07:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

8 Tammi 20211h 9min

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Chris Best, founder of Substack, to talk about how he got started (6:40), newsletters v newspapers (11:20), Silicon Valley’s disgust with the media (13:10), helping writers make money (16:20), Substack’s top earner (22:00), the danger of hardening silos (25:40), giving writers more resources (30:55), the value of editors (34:10), how Substack makes money (38:25), following in Patreon’s footsteps (40:05), free versus paid (43:10), and his worst day of work (47:10). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

18 Joulu 202051min

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on George Goldsmith to talk about how he started looking into psilocybin (3:45), its history of research (7:00), what he and his wife did before starting Compass (10:15), the 100 million people suffering treatment-resistant depression (14:15), launching the company (17:15), finding investors (18:45), being worth $800 million (23:00), what therapy looks like (26:20), patenting a natural substance (32:00), the legalisation movement (42:00), shooting for 2025 (44:30), his worst day of work (47:30), and building a business around an illegal drug (51:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

11 Joulu 202056min

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media and prominent tech commentator, to talk about algorithmic rent (0:00), the Facebook case (5:15), how tech companies quietly changed the terms of engagement (7:40), getting investment from Pierre Omidyar (12:40), how his work got started on algorithmic rent (13:20), monitoring Big Tech’s behaviour change (16:15), Facebook’s rents (23:35), the importance of framing a problem (26:00), how to protect our 'tenants’ rights' (29:40), building a case (36:00), getting inspiration from Microsoft (37:40), and the toxicity of the Big Tech debate (41:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 Joulu 202046min

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Brad Garlinghouse, to talk about remaking the global financial system (2:45), when it could happen (5:30), the cross-border payment challenge (7:10), replumbing the system (12:00), going through the first dotcom bubble (14:20), suing Youtube (16:20), getting impersonated (21:40), China’s control of bitcoin (22:20), the future of finance (24:20), considering moving to London (29:00), operating with a hand behind his back (30:45), and how chaos helps (33:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

27 Marras 202037min

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Renee DiResta of the Stanford INternet Observatory to talk about how Twitter handled 2020 (3:30), mainstream media getting a pass (40), Facebook groups (9:45), Sharpiegate (8:30), the election day war room (11:45), conspiracy “tickets” (15:00), how conspiracies spread (16:45), Trump’s centrality to the voter fraud posts (21:40), how these theories play out in the real world (26:40), the low cost to spreading misinformation (28:45), how 2020 compares to 2016 (33:30), Covid vaccines as the next target (36:20), whats changed between the first tech hearing and the most recent (39:00), and what Tiktok learned (41:30).Get The Times free for a month: thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

20 Marras 202045min

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Nate Storey, co-founder of indoor farming unicorn Plenty, to talk about tearing down and rebuilding farms (3:40), the problem he’s trying to solve (6:40), breeding food for transport (8:50), building a farm in Compton (10:45), leveraging Hollywood (13:40), how he got into agriculture (17:10), leaving his first startup (22:10), what an indoor farm looks like (24:00), the industry boom (31:10), luring infrastructure investors (33:45), falling costs (37:30), how traditional farmers have responded (40:45), and putting orchards inside (44:00). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

13 Marras 202049min