Decoder is a show from The Verge about big ideas â and other problems. Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel talks to a diverse cast of innovators and policymakers at the frontiers of business and technology to reveal how theyâre navigating an ever-changing landscape, what keeps them up at night, and what it all means for our shared future.
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Hey everybody, itâs Nilay. Weâve got a little bonus drop for you today â I was recently interviewed about AI safety by Shumita Basu for Apple News In Conversation, and I enjoyed the conversation so much I asked if we could share it with you all.Â
Weâve actually got a few bonus drops coming up this month; weâve been having a lot of great conversations lately, and we want to get them out to you on the news cycle. And of course, nothing is moving as fast as the AI safety news cycle. So enjoy this one, and weâll see you next time.
Links:Â
Apple News In Conversation | Apple Podcasts
Inside the suddenly explosive world of AI safety | The Verge
Hereâs what AI leaders are saying about Trumpâs new safety plan | The Verge
One company is at the center of a wave of rogue AI attacks | The Verge
Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse | Decoder
Does AI need an antitrust exemption so it doesnât kill everyone? | Decoder
Subscribe to The Vergeâ to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoder is produced by Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. The show is edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.Â
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How Utah locals fought Kevin O'Leary's AI data center
Thursday, October 1, 2026 ⢠Duration 44:44
Today Iâm talking with Josh Dzieza, a longtime features writer here at The Verge, about a massive data center in Utah that does not exist, might never exist, and yet has already completely reshaped the politics of the entire state.Â
Josh just published a major feature this week on the struggling Stratos data center project in Utah backed by Shark Tank star Kevin OâLeary. So I invited Josh on the show to discuss whatâs happening inside the AI industryâs infrastructure boom, inside the bipartisan backlash to data centers, and how the tech industry is running into the one obstacle it canât seem to spend its way out of: local democracy.Â
Read the â full interview transcript on The Vergeâ .
Links:Â
The People of Utah vs. Kevin O'Leary | The Verge
Adams â burdened by data center fallout â ousted by voters | Salt Lake Tribune
âShark Tankâ star sued by opponents he claimed were foreign agents| NYT
Fox News apologizes for airing OâLeary claims about data centers | The Hill
Kevin OâLeary agrees to downsize massive Utah data center | The Verge
The biggest data center ever is becoming a huge problem in Utah | The Verge
America's data center future is Loudoun County's past | The Verge
The left and right agree on one thing: no data centers | Decoder
Decoder is a Signal Awards finalist in the Business category! You can vote to help us win â hereâ .
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoderâs producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The SaaSpocalypse that wasn't, with Atlassian's CEO
Monday, September 28, 2026 ⢠Duration 01:16:26
My guest today is Mike Cannon-Brookes, who is co-founder and CEO of Atlassian. Atlassian is one of those companies that every other company runs on â it makes important platform tools like Jira and Trello. This means Atlassian is also right in the middle of the way AI is changing how all these companies work.Â
Or, if you buy the idea of the so-called SaaSpocalypse, AI might just build all of these tools for you, destroying this entire category of businesses. Obviously, Mike had a lot of thoughts pushing back on this narrative, so we spent time really digging in and talking through what AI is doing to enterprise software.Â
Links:Â
How Australia became the test bed for tech regulation | Decoder (2021)
Building a $45B company far from Silicon Valleyâs âfroth and bubblesâ | Semafor
Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes on Atlassian and AI | Stratechery
How Atlassian shook off the 'SaaSpocalypse' for a big rally | IBD
Atlassian acquires The Browser Company, maker of the Arc browser | The Verge
Atlassian Co-CEO resigns, leaving Cannon-Brookes as sole chief | Bloomberg
Atlassian cuts 1,600 jobs amid AI push | Forbes
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoderâs producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.Â
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinde
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Can Cloudflare save the web from AI?
Saturday, September 26, 2026 ⢠Duration 01:18:12
Cloudflare discovered in June that bots already make up more than half of internet traffic â and CEO Matthew Prince says that bots could outnumber humans a thousand to one within five years.
That's a huge change to the internet, and if the web is going to keep existing, it needs a huge change to its business model. Can Cloudflare use its place in the ecosystem to direct the money back to the people who make content?
Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.
Links:Â
How I choose which Cloudflare employees to replace with AI | Wall Street Journal
Why Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince is the internetâs unlikely defender | Decoder (2024)
Cloudflare will now block AI crawlers by default | The Verge
Patreon partners with Cloudflare to block AI crawlers | 404 Media
Sony and Warner sue Anthropic in latest AI music lawsuit | Billboard
Trump administration supports OpenAI in NYT copyright lawsuit | The Verge
Google Zero is here â now what? | The Verge (2024)
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoderâs producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.Â
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
I have some questions for Mark Zuckerberg
Thursday, September 24, 2026 ⢠Duration 23:11
Itâs a big week for Meta. The company has its big Connect conference, and the new Muse AI agent appears to be an early hit. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been doing a lot of interviews about it all â so of course we asked for him to be on Decoder. Meta declined, for whatever reason.Â
But luckily Mark just did a big interview with our friend and former colleague Alex Heath on the Sources podcast. So I figured we could highlight some moments from that conversation to point out some obvious gaps in what Mark is saying about Meta and hopefully inspire the next set of people who talk to him with some follow-up questions.
Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.
Links:Â
Mark Zuckerberg interview | Sources Podcast
How Meta got everything it wanted in secret data center deal | New York Times
Can you forget how you feel about Meta? | The Verge
Zuck doesnât want to press pause on AI | The Verge
Meta glasses are a workplace menace | The Verge
Mark Zuckerberg doesnât understand how to live | The Verge
Four takeaways from Mark Zuckerbergâs massive AI manifesto | The Verge
Meta says US states are seeking $1.4 trillion in penalties | Reuters
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoderâs producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Can John Ternus find Apple's next big thing?
Monday, September 21, 2026 ⢠Duration 58:26
Today, Iâm talking with Bloombergâs Mark Gurman, who is the worldâs best-sourced Apple reporter. Earlier this month, Apple hosted its annual iPhone hardware event, and this event was special, for a number of reasons.Â
It was new Apple CEO John Ternusâ first major product launch. It was also the debut of the foldable iPhone Duo. So I wanted Mark on the show to explain why this event was so important, and how John Ternusâ Apple will look a lot different from Tim Cookâs.Â
Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.
Links:Â
Apple iPhone Duo launch event: the 5 biggest announcements | The Verge
The iPhone Duo is Appleâs first foldable | The Verge
Tim Cookâs CEO-like pay package shows he isnât going anywhere | Bloomberg
Appleâs Phil Schiller steps down from running App Store | Bloomberg
Appleâs new CEO will need to soon overhaul his management team | Bloomberg
Appleâs Ternus takes the reins as CEO, with AI as job No. 1 | Bloomberg
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoder is produced by Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Eileen Felix. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Does AI need an antitrust exemption so it doesn't kill everyone????
Saturday, September 19, 2026 ⢠Duration 46:14
The biggest story in tech right now is the spiraling debate about AI safety and regulation. The CEOs of all these companies have issued various calls to slow down development and develop regulation, including asking for antitrust exemptions so they can all coordinate on safety issues.
So to make sense of it all, I called Jonathan Kanter, the former antitrust chief for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Biden Administration. There's a lot going on, and we really got into the weeds of how all this regulation might work, and how it might interact with antitrust law, competition policy, and our relationship with China.
Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.
Links:Â
Is Big Techâs AI slowdown a safety pact or a cartel? | The Verge
Inside the suddenly explosive world of AI safety | The Verge
Execs and politicians on slowing down AI development | The Verge
Microsoft AI CEO: AI threats are real, Anthropic makes it worse | The Verge
Lina Khan: We donât need new laws to prosecute AI CEOs | Gizmodo
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoderâs producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse
Thursday, September 17, 2026 ⢠Duration 52:59
Today, Iâm talking with Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI. As youâre no doubt aware, the biggest story in tech right now is the spiraling debate about AI safety and regulation. So I really wanted to talk to Mustafa about what he thinks is real and not in AI safety, whether the concept of alignment itself is up to the task, and whether this industry needs to slow down before it kills us all.Â
Read the â full interview transcript on The Vergeâ .
Links:Â
A warning about âmodel welfareâ | Mustafa Suleyman
Humanist AI Code of Conduct | Microsoft
Is Big Techâs AI slowdown a safety pact or a cartel? | The Verge
A brief history of AI executives calling for regulation | The Verge
What execs and politicians are saying about slowing down AI development | The Verge
Anthropic CEO says itâs time to pump the brakes on AI | The Verge
Microsoftâs AI chief says superintelligence is near, but wonât take your job | Decoder (2026)
Mustafa Suleyman says conversational AI is the next web browser | Decoder (2024)
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoderâs producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Adam Conover explains how YouTube ruined everything
Monday, September 14, 2026 ⢠Duration 01:05:05
Adam Conover is a familiar face to anyone whoâs spent time on the internet. He got his start at CollegeHumor back in the day, before transitioning into cable TV with Adam Ruins Everything, then onto Netflix, and all the way back to YouTube again, where he posts videos and hosts a podcast.
That is exactly the kind of career path that fascinates me, and it also happens to touch on basically every major Decoder theme there is.Â
Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.
Links:Â
YouTube is making it harder to earn money on YouTube | The Verge
Adam Conover regrets shilling Sam Altmanâs World | The Verge
Elon Musk is an idiot | Adam Conover
How HBOâs creatives survived corporate chaos | Decoder
YouTubeâs Neal Mohan on the future for creators | Decoder (2021)
Banning Trump was the right decision, says Instagramâs Mosseri | Decoder (2021)
Ethics in journalism, with Ben Smith | Decoder
Hank Green will gladly take billionairesâ money for education | Decoder
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoderâs producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Xander Adams. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.Â
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why the current tech backlash feels different
Thursday, September 10, 2026 ⢠Duration 54:35
Weâre back with another Decoder mailbag special. This time, we focused on feedback to Nilayâs âsoftware brainâ video essay, our ongoing coverage of AI and Big Tech backlash, surveillance, interviewing politicians ahead of the midterms, and more.
Remember: we really do read every email, so please keep sending us your feedback, and letting us know what you think of our coverage and how we can improve.Â
Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.
Links:Â
How to win â and lose â Decoder | Decoder Mailbag (2026)
Nilay answers your burning Decoder questions | Decoder Mailbag (2025)
Answering your biggest Decoder questions | Decoder Mailbag (2024)
Sundar Pichai on AI, search, and the future of the web | Decoder (2026)
The people do not yearn for automation | Decoder
Blueskyâs new CEO wants a big tent, not a bubble | Decoder
New York Governor Kathy Hochul thinks AI should be âless evilâ | Decoder
Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!
Credits:
Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Decoder is produced by Gregg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.Â
The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices