Bold Names

4.3 (1.4K)
TECHNOLOGY
UPDATED WEEKLY

WSJ’s Bold Names brings you conversations with the leaders of the bold-named companies featured in the pages of The Wall Street Journal. Hosts Tim Higgins and Christopher Mims speak to CEOs and business leaders in interviews that challenge conventional wisdom and take you inside the decisions being made in the C-suite and beyond.

1D AGO

Even More Bold Names in 2026

Bold Names is gearing up to be bigger and bolder than ever in 2026. Get ready for another year of the best minds in business and tech going deep on the latest industry moves. From the C-suite of tech companies like SAP, Qualcomm and Affirm, to leaders from Lamborghini, Southwest Airlines and Chobani, WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins will be back next week to kick off a new year of conversations with the leaders shaping tomorrow. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026 McLaren CEO Zak Brown On F1 And Business Strategy At 200 Miles Per Hour This Tech Founder's $1.3 Billion Company Is Taking On Apple and Samsung This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next? Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 min
12/26/2025

Encore: This CEO Says Humanoid Robots Are The "Space Race" of Our Time

Who will take care of you in old age? Jeff Cardenas, the CEO and co-founder of Apptronik, says the answer is robots. The startup founder set out to build a smart, dexterous robot after watching his grandfathers grow old and dependent in their later years. Beyond healthcare, Cardenas sees robots as essential to U.S. economic growth and national security with applications across industries. Even with the latest advances in artificial intelligence and hardware, what will it take for humanoid robots to make the leap from science fiction to reality? On the latest episode of the Bold Names podcast, Cardenas tells WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins why Apptronik is betting it will create the home robot helper that everyone will want. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast' Reid Hoffman Says AI Isn’t an ‘Arms Race,’ but America Needs to Win Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash How the U.S. Stacks Up to China’s ‘Engineering State’ Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

33 min
12/23/2025

SPECIAL WSJ’s Take On the Week: How This Fed Hawk Views the Economy, Inflation, AI and Jobs

As a special bonus, we’re bringing you an episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week. Co-host Telis Demos and guest host WSJ Chief Economics Correspondent Nick Timiraos are joined by Beth Hammack, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, to discuss the state of the U.S economy, interest rates and the central bank itself. Hammack shares her views on what she’s hearing from businesses in her district and what that could mean for consumer prices and the labor market. She emphasizes the importance of Fed independence and the chairman’s role in fusing differing viewpoints to create stable monetary policy. She also offers her perspective on the so-called neutral rate as well as artificial intelligence. If you like what you hear, subscribe to WSJ’s Take On the Week for weekly market previews and analysis. Visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: Inside Visa’s Tech-Charged Future: From Crypto to AI Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next? Further Reading: Cleveland Fed’s Beth Hammack Skeptical of Further Cuts Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

40 min
12/19/2025

The Boldest Ideas of 2025 — And What’s in Store for 2026

In this special episode, Tim Higgins and Christopher Mims revisit some of their favorite moments from the first year of Bold Names. We look back on conversations with guests including Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the explosive growth of AI and the complexities of the U.S.-China trade war. Then, Mims and Higgins flip the script to interview each other about the technological breakthroughs and geopolitical shifts that defined 2025 — and ask if the AI industry is heading toward a bubble burst next year. Plus, we answer your questions. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: How Microsoft’s AI Chief Defines ‘Humanist Super Intelligence’ This CEO Says Global Trade Is Broken. What Comes Next? Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast Why IBM's CEO Thinks His Company Can Crack Quantum Computing Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

24 min
12/12/2025

Inside PlayStation's Plans to Lead a $200 Billion Industry

Gaming is a $200 billion industry that dwarfs Hollywood — and PlayStation is at the center of it all. On this week’s episode of Bold Names, Sony Interactive Entertainment SVP Eric Lempel joins WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to discuss how the company plans to compete in a mobile-first gaming world. We talk about keeping the “soul” of game development as artificial intelligence becomes more integrated into businesses, the success of games like “Fortnite” and “The Last of Us,” and what the next decade holds for the console wars. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes:This Tech Founder's $1.3 Billion Company Is Taking On Apple and Samsung Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash The Google-Backed Startup Taking on Elon Musk in Humanoid Robotics Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

26 min
12/05/2025

McLaren CEO Zak Brown On F1 And Business Strategy At 200 Miles Per Hour

What business lessons are forged at 200 miles per hour? On this week’s Bold Names, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown joins Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins to talk about his new book, “Seven Tenths of a Second.” A racecar driver turned executive, Brown leads a global racing organization worth hundreds of millions of dollars. We talk about the pressure and focus required to run a winning Formula One team, and what racing has taught Brown about leading a competitive business. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: How Uber Plans to Win the Self-Driving Car Race 70,000 Bets a Minute: How FanDuel’s Parent Is Winning at Sports Gambling How Tubi Is Coming for Netflix and YouTube in the New Streaming Wars Space Trucks: One Startup’s Plan to Get the U.S. Back on the Moon Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column.Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

31 min
11/28/2025

SPECIAL WSJ Tech Live: The Man Leading Trump’s AI Charge Against China (The Journal Podcast)

This week, we’re bringing you an episode of The Journal, produced by Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. In this episode, recorded at WSJ’s Tech Live, host Jessica Mendoza sits down with Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, to discuss everything from chips to chatbots, how Kratsios thinks AI should be regulated, and whether or not the AI boom might be a bubble. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast' Reid Hoffman Says AI Isn’t an ‘Arms Race,’ but America Needs to Win Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash How the U.S. Stacks Up to China’s ‘Engineering State’ Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 min
11/21/2025

Biden’s Antitrust Architect on How Big Tech Threatens U.S. Prosperity

Are we becoming a nation mined for our money, data, and attention? Author and legal scholar Tim Wu certainly thinks so. A key architect of President Joe Biden’s antitrust policy, Wu joins WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins on Bold Names to explain how a handful of tech platforms conquered the economy and why he fears Silicon Valley could become “inefficient, bloated, and bested by foreign competitors,” if the country doesn’t rein in monopoly power. Wu shares insights from his new book, “The Age of Extraction,” which maps out a path toward restoring competition and rebuilding an economy that works for everyone. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com. Check Out Past Episodes: The World’s Tech Giants Are Running Out of Power. This CEO Plans to Deliver. Why This Investor Says the AI Boom Isn’t the Next Dot-Com Crash Inside Visa’s Tech-Charged Future: From Crypto to AI Condoleezza Rice on Beating China in the Tech Race: 'Run Hard and Run Fast Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Read Christopher Mims’s Keywords column. Read Tim Higgins’s column. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

36 min

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WSJ Special Access is a curated selection of interviews and conversations with top business leaders and newsmakers from The Wall Street Journal’s exclusive live events. Plus, go inside the C-suite with Executive Insights from WSJ Pro, a series that gives you essential context about industry news and trends. Special Access is available for WSJ subscribers only. To gain access as a subscriber, connect your account.

4.7 (25)

NEWS COMMENTARY

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Alex Ossola

Host
Danny Lewis

Host
Condoleezza Rice

Guest

4.3

out of 5

1,421 Ratings

Information and fun listen

08/25/2024

Ainge1983

Great show that inform on a variety of technical and business subjects. Even and unbiased, there is no proselytizing to a particular political viewpoint.
Pleasant commercials for companies.

09/03/2025

Samson38$

Just listened to 4. Robotics, Online sports betting, US Aid and one I forgot. There was nothing said that a business undergrad wouldn’t already know. The problem is the shows traditional model. In the old days, media company’s loved getting CEOs as guests. But that doesn’t work anymore because, especially at large firms, senior execs have an army of PR and HR people making sure everything they say is a sales pitch for the company. So they don’t say anything. Startups are a bit different til they get HR going. What’s weird is this show started pretty good, then got political, which I haven’t seen at all in the recent 4. Plus, props for them for asking tough questions of the betting guy. But did they really think he was going to say anything interesting? So, I’m dropping them which is disappointingly as the topics are good and it’s well produced.
Giggle

08/31/2025

Mike9797

The host giggles like a 7 yr old every two minutes. The guest not laughing. So why this giggling. No point or purpose. I had to stop listening to program content.
WSJ is now NPR

06/29/2025

Eddo's IPOD

Why do I feel like I’m listening to NPR when I listen to your reports?

WSJ’s Bold Names brings you conversations with the leaders of the bold-named companies featured in the pages of The Wall Street Journal. Hosts Tim Higgins and Christopher Mims speak to CEOs and business leaders in interviews that challenge conventional wisdom and take you inside the decisions being made in the C-suite and beyond.