Recode Replay

Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how she manages spending on search and "other bets" inside of the Google parent company. Porat says clear data should inform leadership decisions and that investing too little in some areas can be as harmful as investing too much. She explains how and why Alphabet is investing in the smart home, life sciences, cloud computing and self-driving cars. The biggest risk to Google as advertising continues to drive the vast majority of Alphabet's revenue, Porat notes, is "complacency" about what's next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ringer CEO Bill Simmons talks with CNBC's Julia Boorstin about his company's new partnership with Vox Media. He says the move will help him focus on creating content across a variety of formats, including podcasts. Simmons also says he's not giving up on Twitter and shares his advice for his former boss, ESPN President John Skipper. (Disclosure: Vox Media owns Recode). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about the video-streaming platform's continuing push into making original TV and movies. He says current windowing practices, in which movies are exclusively in theaters for a time before they're available in the home, will inevitably go away. Hastings also explains why Netflix has backed off of working in China, why it has no plans to carry sports or ad-supported content and why Netflix is in favor of net neutrality even though the company is so big that it doesn't need it anymore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker delivers her annual report on global trends in tech usage, media consumption, advertising, investing, M&A and more. Consumers are increasingly going to be taking pictures of — or using their voice to search for — things they used to look for by typing, Meeker says, and she argues that the rise of interactive games has important lessons for the design of all products online. She also discusses how consumers are using mobile devices, on-demand transportation services and payments apps in China and India. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Android co-founder Andy Rubin talks with The Verge's Walt Mossberg about Playground Ventures, the investment firm he founded after leaving Google, which aims to anticipate how machine learning and artificial intelligence would shape a post-mobile world. Rubin discusses his new mobile company, Essential Products, which was developed in Playground's internal design studio and is developing a mobile phone, a home device and a new operating system called Ambient OS. The Essential Phone is designed to talk wirelessly to accessories that will work with other hardware down the line, including a miniature 360-degree camera for capturing VR-ready videos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman talk with Recode's Kara Swisher about where innovation, corporate responsibility and politics in Silicon Valley are heading. Andreessen pushes back on the idea that mainstream news outlets have more share of the truth than Breitbart News, and Hoffman discusses his progressive political tech initiative Win the Future, which so far has raised "millions" of dollars. Andreessen says his firm is actively investing in bringing tech into three highly regulated and slowly growing segments of the economy — health care, education and construction — while Hoffman is interested in businesses with network effects. They also discuss the impact of new technologies like robots and autonomous vehicles on the world's jobs, and why completely new industries might be created as a result of this technological change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Time Well Spent Executive Director Tristan Harris talks about how the tech industry manipulates the thoughts, feelings and beliefs of consumers. Harris says the built-in biases of the algorithms that deliver our news and direct our leisure time are being "hijacked" by attention-grabbing tricks and he calls for an ethical re-examination of how this "dangerous future" might be avoided. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ballmer Group co-founder Steve Ballmer talks with Recode's Kara Swisher and Kurt Wagner about USAFacts, his effort to open up data about how federal, state and local governments in the U.S. spend their money. He says he wants the site to be a nonpartisan resource for people looking for a better understanding of how the nation's finances work. He also talks about why, as a large Twitter shareholder, he still believes in the company's ability to turn its strong cultural currency into a real business. As the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Ballmer says he's also excited by a new partnership between the Clippers and a firm called Second Spectrum that will augment the game-watching experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet talks with Recode's Peter Kafka about how the newspaper's journalists are covering President Donald Trump and why there are so many leaks coming out of Washington at the moment. Baquet acknowledges that many journalists, including him, misunderstood the "anger and anti-elitism" that elevated Trump, and defends the hiring of climate skeptic Bret Stephens as an opinion columnist, saying people on the left should be willing to hear him out. He also warns that local news is "verging on a crisis" and smaller outlets around the country may have to be rescued by technologists and philanthropists. Baquet says one of his other goals is figuring out how to update the "voice" of the Times to match the way people talk online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walmart eCommerce President and CEO Marc Lore talks with Recode's Jason Del Rey about how Walmart's digital strategy has changed since it purchased Lore's company, Jet.com, for $3 billion last year. He announces that Walmart shoppers will see their in-store purchases reflected in their online account and mobile app shopping list. Under Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Lore says, Jet is moving faster than ever. It’s resonating with higher-income millennials and attracting higher-end brands to cater to those customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices