We’ve had questions about Apple’s new VR headset — supposedly set to debut in June — for some time. Starting with: Who’s going to pay $3,000 for these things, and what will they do with them? Turns out some Apple employees have the same questions — which is very unusual for a Big Deal Apple Debut, to say the very least. The NYT’s Tripp Mickle joins Vox’s Peter Kafka to explain. Then Peter checks in with Men In Blazers co-founder Roger Bennett, who is finally ready to talk about the business of running a soccer-mad digital media company, why niches are good, and his plans to scale up before the 2026 World Cup.Featuring: Tripp Mickle (@trippmickle), Tech Reporter for the New York TimesRoger Bennett (@rogbennett), Co-Founder of Men In BlazersHost: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jesse Thorn has been podcasting for so long it was called radio. Over time he turned his career into a business - Maximum Fun, a network of eclectic pop culture shows like Bullseye; My Brother, My Brother and Me; and Judge John Hodgman — and relied primarily on listener donations to fund it.But, as Thorn tells Vox’s Peter Kafka, running a business was running him down, and he didn’t want to sell the company to a Spotify or Sirius.So he found a unique solution: He turned Maximum Fun into a worker-owned co-op. That means Thorn still owns a piece of the company he built over two decades, but so do his former employees, who are now his co-workers. And he thinks other media companies can and should do this, too.Featuring: Jesse Thorn (@JesseThorn), Founder of Maximum FunHost: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First: A Silicon Valley Bank check-in with Dan Primack of Axios. Why, exactly, did so many tech companies (and, um, media companies) bank with SVB, and what happens next?Then, Peter Kafka has a great, wide-ranging conversation with tech analyst / thinkfluencer Benedict Evans. They talk about artificial intelligence, Amazon’s ad business (or whatever we should call it), YouTube’s place in the streaming wars, and what the metaverse and jetpacks have in common. Plus, cow hooves!Featuring: Dan Primack (@danprimack), Business Editor at AxiosBenedict Evans (@benedictevans), Tech AnalystHost: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Zuckerberg wants to build the metaverse. Neal Stephenson created the meta verse three decades ago.The author’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash popularized the use of the term “avatar” in a digital context, inspired the makers of Google Earth, and, of course, imagined (and named) the dystopian metaverse that Silicon Valley is racing to make a reality.Stephenson has also tried his hand at actual science - helping Jeff Bezos build his private rocket ship business, and later working with Magic Leap at its fizzled AR goggles attempt. Now he’s trying his hand at the blockchain and says he’s not dissuaded by last year’s crypto crash. And if you act right now, you can bid on some of his real and digital goods at a Sotheby’s auction.Stephenson talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about all of that, plus his failed (so far) attempts to turn his work into TV shows or movies, the future of VR, and why his vision of cautious optimism involves calamitous climate disasters.Featuring: Neal Stephenson (@nealstephenson), AuthorHost: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

De La Soul was legendary for their trail-blazing approach to hip-hop. But in recent years the trio become notable for another reason: You couldn’t hear their music on any streaming platform. This means that generations of fans - including Recode’s Peter Kafka - couldn’t find them on the likes of Spotify, and potential new fans would never hear them at all.Today that’s changed, thanks to Reservoir Media's CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi, who purchased the company that owned the trio’s music, and then spent 18 months clearing the legal path to get them online. Khosrowshahi talks about the work and money that went into getting De La Soul streaming again and explains how her independent music company operates in a world dominated by giant players.Featuring: Golnar Khosrowshahi (@ReservoirMedia) CEO of Reservoir MediaHost: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Veteran business journalist James B. Stewart specializes in getting behind the scenes to tell the stories of rich, powerful, and complicated subjects. He has a doozy with “Unscripted”, the new book he co-wrote about the last days of media mogul Sumner Redstone, who at one point was one of the most powerful men in the industry, and whose decline fueled years of fighting between his family, his employees, and his mistresses. If you like tawdry tales of sex, avarice, and greed — or wanted to know some of the real-life backstories behind HBO’s “Succession” — this is for you. Stewart also talks about other massive media stories he’s covered, including Bob Iger’s rise at Disney, and the AT&T/Time Warner shotgun marriage and divorce. Stewart also offers reporting tips and explains why his background as a lawyer helps him as a journalist.Featuring: James B. Stewart (@jamesstewartnyt), Columnist for New York Times and AuthorHost: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It used to be that a human would have to write a BuzzFeed quiz about “Which Fictional Artificial Intelligence Are You?” But now, BuzzFeed writers are using real artificial intelligence tools — from Open AI, the company behind ChatGPT — to help craft the site’s famous quizzes. Investors love the idea. Not all of BuzzFeed's employees are quite sure about it, though. Recode’s Peter Kafka talks to BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti about the new technology, which one of this show’s producers used to go on a virtual Valentine’s Day date with Henry Cavill where they attended “a secret rave at his dad’s law firm.”Featuring: Jonah Peretti (@peretti), CEO of BuzzFeedHost: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech and media companies (including the one that brings you this podcast) are laying off workers left and right. Meanwhile, the latest national jobs report is shockingly strong. So… why? Do the excuses make any sense?First, Recode’s Peter Kafka talks to Vox’s Emily Stewart about the overall economy, the likelihood of a recession, and when we’d actually know if one is happening. Then, New York Times correspondent Mike Isaac is back to dive into the specifics of the tech sector.Featuring: Emily Stewart (@EmilyStewartM), Business reporter for Vox.comMike Isaac (@mikeisaac), New York Times tech reporterHost: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we bring you an episode of The Cut and The Verge’s latest season of Land of the Giants: Dating Games.This episode is all about Match Group, the company that went on an acquisition spree and now controls two-thirds of the dating apps market. To hear more stories about how dating apps became a billion-dollar industry and the algorithms that control your love life, subscribe to Land of the Giants wherever you subscribe to podcasts.Hosted by Sangeeta Singh Kurtz (@sangeetaskurtz) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (@Shmi_So_Far)Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investor Li Jin helped popularize the idea of the Creator Economy — the theory that many people who make stuff online could and should get paid for that work. Then she merged that pitch with an embrace of crypto/Web3 — and by 2021 the New York Times was calling her the “It Girl in venture capital.” Now many of the people who embraced both creator economy investments and crypto want nothing to do with that. But not Jin, who says she’s still all in. She talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about launching a fund in a pandemic, riding out a down cycle, and what it’s like to be the face of thesis.Featuring: Li Jin (@ljin18), Co-Founder & General Partner at Variant FundHost: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at RecodeMore to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape.About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices