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The Times Tech Podcast

Latest episodes

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Dec 4, 2020 • 47min

Tim O'Reilly: "The landlords of the Internet"

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.
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Nov 27, 2020 • 37min

Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse: “Replumbing the financial system”

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.
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Nov 20, 2020 • 45min

Stanford Internet Observatory’s Renee Diresta: “Sharpies, CIA supercomputers and human antennas”

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.
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Nov 13, 2020 • 50min

Plenty's Nate Storey: "Kale outta Compton"

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.
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Nov 6, 2020 • 39min

Ruben Harris: "A backwards version of the Wu-Tang clan”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ruben Harris, co-founder of Career Karma, to talk about starting out as a cellist (3:10), why music convinced him to get into business (6:50), buying a one-way ticket (8:55), his first tech job (11:00), working in political technology (17:30), how starting a podcast led to his startup (18:50), quitting his job (20:30), creating Career Karma (22:00), on whether coding boot camps work (23:50), income-sharing agreements (26:15), how work is changing (28:20), being black in Silicon Valley (30:15), his worst day (34:30), and addressing the laptop shortage (36:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Oct 30, 2020 • 53min

Mmhmm's Phil Libin: "Hospital clowns to investment bankers”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Phil Libin, founder of Mmhmm, to talk about fasting (3:35), starting the company (5:00), what it does (9:15), the end of the social media ice age (13:20), a trillion dollar shift (17:00), why he’s not worried about rivals copying him (24:30), who uses it (27:00), how he came up with the name (30:45), what goes wrong at startups (34:20), what skydiving taught him (39:35), the new hybrid world (43:30), and why he plans to leave San Francisco (46:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Oct 23, 2020 • 42min

Avalanche Insights' Michiah Prull: “Measuring oomph”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Michiah Prull, founder of Avalanche Insights, to talk about setting up a company after the 2016 election (3:00), starting as a community organiser (5:00), the problem with messaging (6:30), using AI to understand emotions (8:35), finding the right people (11:00), how an algorithm intuits human motivations (13:15), crafting a message (15:45), why the left is bad at it (19:45), fighting polarisation (22:30), levelling the misinformation/information playing field (26:00), whether he will go corporate (27:30), what went wrong in 2016 (31:30), the future of elections (33:00), the outlook for November 3 (35:45), and the evolution of the public’s view of climate change (37:35). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Oct 16, 2020 • 48min

Parler's John Matze: "Hate speech is free speech"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on John Matze, founder of Parler, to talk about starting a social network (4:10), its first viral moment (7:05), reacting to the banning of people online (8:10), echo chambers (11:10), Parler’s hyper-partisan power users (13:25), the site’s rules (15:50), why he doesn’t regulate hate speech (19:50), how the app helps people find others (24:10), why he welcomes the rush of Q Anon users (28:50), why he doesn’t think Parler is pushing people apart (33:25), his investors (36:50), trying to build Parler into a business (39:00), why misinformation is fair game (42:15), and how Katie Hopkins’ arrival attracted users (45:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Oct 9, 2020 • 52min

Standard Cognition's Jordan Fisher: "Cashierless stores are coming"

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Jordan Fisher, founder of Standard Cognition, to talk about creating a video game (5:00), being rejected from venture capitalists (7:20), helping the financial regulator catch fraudsters (9:30), jumping into cashierless checkouts 12:10), the future of retail (16:30), launching in three stores (21:00), not using check-in gates (23:30), the very analogue backend of cashierless checkout (28:00), raising $86m - thanks to Amazon (32:15), what this means for retail (36:30), the effect of “Bodega-gate” (39:10), getting people used to not paying for stuff (41:10), the facial recognition issue (43:00), selling the system as a DIY kit (46:20), and the moments he thought it wouldn’t work (48:30).thetimes.co.uk/dannyinthevalley Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Oct 2, 2020 • 40min

Higher Ground Labs' Shomik Dutta: "Nothing clarifies the mind like losing”

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Shomik Dutta, founder of Higher Ground Labs, to talk about funding democracy tech (3:30), what happened after 2016 (5:30), losing the technology edge every four years (9:10), transforming the Democrats’ technology stack (11:15), creating a master voter database (15:15), Reid Hoffmann’s role (18:30), how to avoid funding the next Cambridge Analytica (22:00), making political investments that are good business (27:15), why social media is the battleground (29:45), his lack of confidence in Facebook (32:20), greasing the wheels of mail-in voting (35:50), the importance of cyber security (37:00), and the run-up to November 3 (38:15). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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