
Exponent
A podcast about tech and society, hosted by Ben Thompson and James Allworth
Latest episodes

Apr 5, 2019 • 57min
Episode 167 — YouTube and the End of Friction
Ben and James discuss the question of YouTube, why it’s similar and different from Facebook, and why engagement is both alluring and a potential problem.
Links
YouTube Executives Ignored Warnings, Letting Toxic Videos Run Rampant — Bloomberg
Ben Thompson: Apple’s Services Event — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Mark Zuckerberg’s Proposal, The Copyright Directive and Sunk Costs — Stratechery Daily Update
Ben Thompson: YouTube and Toxic Videos, YouTube’s Problematic Incentives, Sins of Omission and Commission — Stratechery Daily Update
Ben Thompson: Friction — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: The Pollyannish Assumption — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: The Wall Street Journal and Apple News, The Problem with Regulating Content](https://stratechery.com/2019/the-wall-street-journal-and-apple-news-the-problem-with-regulating-content-australias-terrible-new-law/)
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
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Mar 15, 2019 • 1h 3min
Episode 166 — Fence-building vs. Axe-wielding
Ben and James discuss Senator Warren’s proposal to break up Big Tech, including why its history is wrong, why details matter, and what needs to be done instead. Plus, Spotify’s antitrust complaint against Apple.
Links
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Here’s how we can break up Big Tech — Medium
Ben Thompson: Where Warren’s Wrong — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Amazon’s Price Parity Provision, The Amazon Marketplace Question — Stratechery Daily Update
Five Fast Facts About Apple’s Anti-competitive Behavior — Time To Play Fair (Spotify Website)
Ben Thompson: Spotify Files Antitrust Complaint Against Apple, Spotify and Warren, More Amazon Marketplace Changes — Stratechery Daily Update
James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
Ben Thompson: Why Facebook Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Buy tbh — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: The Value Chain Constraint — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: The State of Technology at the End of 2018 — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Ends, Means, and Antitrust — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: The European Commission Versus Android — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Antitrust, the App Store, and Apple — Stratechery
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
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Mar 8, 2019 • 57min
Episode 165 — Mark Zuckerberg’s Projected Self
Ben and James discuss Mark Zuckerberg’s latest missive, whether Facebook is actually changing anything, and wonder if the company will ever tell the unvarnished truth.
Links
Mark Zuckerberg: A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking — Facebook
Ben Thompson: Facebook’s Privacy Cake — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Facebook, Phones, and Phonebooks — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: The Social/Communications Map — Stratechery
After an “identity crisis,” Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya says he’s taught himself how to be happy again — Recode
Ben Thompson: The Audacity of Copying Well — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Messaging: Mobile’s Killer App — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Open, Closed, and Privacy — Stratechery
Facebook and Telegram Are Hoping to Succeed Where Bitcoin Failed — New York Times
Zeynep Tufekci: Why Zuckerberg’s 14-Year Apology Tour Hasn’t Fixed Facebook — Wired
Ben Thompson: Strategy Credit — Stratechery
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
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Mar 1, 2019 • 1h 6min
Episode 164 — Valuing Value Chains
Ben and James discuss Amazon, Walmart, and groceries, Google Cloud versus AWS, and why understanding value chains helps evaluate business opportunities.
Links
Ben Thompson: The Value Chain Constraint — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Walmart’s Earnings, Walmart’s Grocery Business, Amazon’s Grocery Stumbles — Stratechery Daily Update
Ben Thompson: Amazon the Black Swan — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Amazon’s New Customer — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Walmart and the Multichannel Trap — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Google Cloud Changes CEOs, Layers of Surprise (or Not), The VMWare Analogy — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: The Amazon Tax — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Venture Capital and the Internet’s Impact — Stratechery
Facebook Mulled Multi-billion-dollar Acquisition of Gaming Giant Unity, Book Claims — Stratechery
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
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Feb 15, 2019 • 55min
Exponent 163 — Publishers vs Apple News
Ben and James discuss Apple News as it is today, where Apple wants to take it in the future, and why publishers should push back.
Links
Ben Thompson: The Cost of Apple News — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: What Direct-to-Consumer Publishers are Selling — Stratechery Daily Update
Apple News’s Radical Approach: Humans Over Machines — New York Times
Publishers Chafe at Apple’s Terms for Subscription News Service — Wall Street Journal
Ben Thompson: Apple Should Buy Netflix — Stratechery
The Report of the 2020 Group — New York Times
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
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Feb 8, 2019 • 53min
Exponent 162 — Why Exponent Isn’t on Spotify
Ben and James discuss Spotify’s move into podcasts and integration and modularity in value chains.
Links
Ben Thompson: Spotify’s Podcast Aggregation Play — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Lessons From Spotify — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Podcasts, Analytics, and Centralization — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: The Future of Podcasting — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: The BuzzFeed Lesson — Stratechery
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
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Feb 1, 2019 • 1h 3min
Episode 161 — Vigilante Justice
Ben and James discuss Apple vs Facebook (and Google!).
Links
Josh Constine: Facebook Pays Teens to Install VPN That Spies on Them — TechCrunch
Facebook’s Onavo Gives Social-Media Firm Inside Peek at Rivals’ Users — Wall Street Journal
Ben Thompson: Facebook Versus Apple — Stratechery Daily Update
Ben Thompson: Manifestos and Monopolies — Stratechery
Andrew Bosworth Memo — BuzzFeed
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
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Jan 25, 2019 • 47min
Episode 160 — Zeros All the Way Down
Ben and James discuss Netflix, why it is an Aggregator, and why Disney isn’t actually a competitor
Links
Ben Thompson: Netflix Flexes — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Apple Should Buy Netflix — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Why TV Has Resisted Disruption — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Why Disney and ESPN Will Be OK — Stratechery
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
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Jan 19, 2019 • 45min
Episode 159 — Inverted Pyramids
Ben and James discuss open source in a cloud world, how enterprise value chains have changed, and AWS versus Microsoft.
Links
Ben Thompson: AWS, MongoDB, and the Economic Realities of Open Source — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: How Google is Challenging AWS — Stratechery
Satya Nadella on Microsoft — Stratechery Daily Update
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
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Jan 11, 2019 • 49min
Episode 158 — A Significant Shift
Ben and James discuss Apple’s revenue warning and the company’s shift to services.
Links
Ben Thompson: Apple’s Errors — Stratechery
Letter from Tim Cook to Apple Investors — Apple
Ben Thompson: Two Bears — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Apple’s China Problem — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: CES and the Unification of Computing and Consumer Electronics, Google Assistant and Integration, The Modular Competition — Stratechery Daily Update
Ben Thompson: The Android Detour — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Apple Should Buy Netflix — Stratechery
Hosts
Ben Thompson, @benthompson, Stratechery
James Allworth, @jamesallworth, Harvard Business Review
Podcast Information
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