Ben Hubbard, the Beirut bureau chief for the New York Times, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed Bin Salman. Hubbard explains how he started writing about Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, MBS's unexpected rise to power, and the recent international incidents that have made him more notorious in the west: The murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the hacking of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos's phone. He also discusses the Saudi government's relationship with the Trump administration, how bin Salman has resisted political liberalization, and how he has used armies of bots on Twitter to distract critics online. Plus: Is there any meaningful dissent within Saudi Arabia that could unseat MBS?

Featuring:

Ben Hubbard (@nytben), author, MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed Bin Salman

Host:

Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large

More to explore:

On Reset, Arielle Duhaime-Ross explores why — and how — tech is changing everything.

On Recode Media, Peter Kafka interviews business titans, journalists, comedians and podcasters about the collision of tech and media.

On Pivot, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway talk about the big tech news stories of the week, who's winning, who's failing, and what comes next.

And on Land of the Giants, Jason Del Rey chronicled the rise of Amazon. Season 2 will focus on Netflix and is coming soon!

About Recode by Vox:

Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us.

Follow Us:

Newsletter: Recode Daily

Twitter: @Recode and @voxdotcom

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices