457 episodes

What happens when media, entertainment, and technology collide? Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians and podcasters to get their take. Produced by Recode and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Recode Media with Peter Kafka Vox

    • News
    • 4.5 • 512 Ratings

What happens when media, entertainment, and technology collide? Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians and podcasters to get their take. Produced by Recode and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

    CNN’s CEO is out; Apple reveals its goggles

    CNN’s CEO is out; Apple reveals its goggles

    After just over a year of questionable leadership and on the heels of an unflattering Atlantic profile, Chris Licht is out as the head of CNN. Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to Puck’s Dylan Byers, who not only covered Licht, but became part of the story.
    Then! Apple revealed its long-rumored mixed-reality headset this week. It’ll cost $3,500 when it goes on sale sometime next year, and will allow people who aren’t you to see your eyes while you use it. Wired’s Lauren Goode went face-on with the new device and shares her impressions.
    Featuring: Dylan Byers (@DylanByers), Founding Partner and Senior Correspondent at Puck
    Lauren Goode (@LaurenGoode), Senior Staff Writer at Wired
    Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode
    More 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

    • 47 min
    NYT rising star Astead Herndon on podcasts, power, and the 2024 race

    NYT rising star Astead Herndon on podcasts, power, and the 2024 race

    It’s not just Ron DeSantis: All kinds of candidates are piling into the 2024 presidential race. New York Times national politics reporter Astead W. Herndon is covering the contest in audio form, via his show, “The Run-Up” — a weekly deep dive from the campaign trail. Herndon’s reporting is thoughtful and clear-eyed, and gives everyone he talks to — candidates, party leaders and, crucially, voters — the opportunity to really explain how the world looks from their perspective.
    Vox’s Peter Kafka is a huge fan, and talks to Herndon about his very fast rise in journalism, how he prepares to talk to people from all walks of life (including the MyPillow guy); why audio reporting is so different than text; and how hosting a New York Times podcast compares to being on the front page of the New York Times.

    Featuring: Astead Herndon (@asteadwh), Politics Reporter for NY Times & Political Analyst for CNN
    Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode
    More 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

    • 50 min
    Meet the media insider who makes Succession feel real

    Meet the media insider who makes Succession feel real

    Succession — the HBO drama about a Murdoch-ish family of media moguls — feels authentic thanks, in part, to consultant Merissa Marr. Marr covered the Murdochs and other media titans for years at The Wall Street Journal, and she’s worked with the creative team behind Succession since the beginning. Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to Marr about Succession’s obsession with getting tiny details about Big Media just right; which non-Murdoch moguls influence the show’s depiction of the Roy clan; what happens when art and reality clash — and, of course, some Elon Matsson talk.

    Featuring: Merissa Marr (@mermarr), media journalist and TV consultant
    Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode
    More 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

    • 32 min
    It’s TV’s biggest week - and TV is on strike

    It’s TV’s biggest week - and TV is on strike

    Live from New York, it’s Upfronts week, where TV networks sell billions of dollars of advertising with glitzy presentations. It’s also the third week of the writers’ strike, which means the people who make the shows that run in between ads are picketing those presentations. So it’s a good time to talk about the state of the post-streaming boom TV business. Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw drops by the studio to talk to Vox’s Peter Kafka about challenges facing the networks as they sell ads, and the writers as they try to get better deals - and whether either side really thinks AI is going to write a script anytime soon.

    Featuring: Lucas Shaw (@Lucas_Shaw), media reporter for Bloomberg
    Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode
    More 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

    • 44 min
    Ken Jennings on the future of Jeopardy!

    Ken Jennings on the future of Jeopardy!

    Ken Jennings won 74 straight episodes of Jeopardy back in 2004. Somehow he’s turned that winning streak into a career, and now co-hosts the surprisingly resilient game show.
    Peter Kafka talked to Jennings about his job and much more at the Crosscut Ideas Festival in Seattle. And while the sound quality isn’t pristine, the conversation covers a lot of ground. Jennings, for instance, talks about the tension between Jeopardy’s producers, who want to refresh the show in the hopes of bringing in new viewers, with its large and loyal audience, who want things kept the way they are. Also discussed: Why you still can’t stream Jeopardy! (blame it on syndication), the show’s attempts to diversify the contestant pool, and how, as a man who once competed against an AI named Watson (and lost), he sees AI could be used as a tool to help Jeopardy! in the future.

    Featuring: Ken Jennings (@KenJennings), Jeopardy! Co-Host
    Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode
    More 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

    • 48 min
    How worried—or excited—should we be about AI?

    How worried—or excited—should we be about AI?

    AI is amazing… or terrifying, depending on who you ask. This is a technology that elicits strong, almost existential reactions. So in the final episode of our special series about AI, we dig into the giant ambitions and enormous concerns people have about the very same tech.
    Featuring: New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose (@kevinroose), who tells me why his viral conversation with Bing’s AI chatbot changed the way he thought about the new tech.
    Then: Google has everything to lose here, so I speak with James Manyika, Google’s Senior Vice President of Technology and Society, about the company’s ambitions for AI. [9:23]
    Plus: I talk to Professor Emily M. Bender (@emilymbender), one of the people behind a now-famous paper on AI’s limits. Her “stochastic parrot” seems to have hit a nerve with some of AI’s biggest proponents. So maybe she’s onto something. [29:30]
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 53 min

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5
512 Ratings

512 Ratings

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false psychology ,

The endeavor episode

Great conversation! It was both refreshing and encouraging to hear a CEO be honest about the motives of a new company. I hope that other companies recognize that industry does not “have” to be stymied by it’s business model objective. At this time, it’s so important that a company be nimble enough to pivot quickly; and to achieve a successful pivot, said company will rely heavily on its team’s ability to work more intuitively and to incorporate more real time data to aid in decision making. Ari- it was really nice to hear honesty and I hope more executives follow your lead. Gratitude

Dan1777999877 ,

Huge Fan!

I am a huge fan of this show. Peter brings on incredible guests, and has extremely valuable conversations. Insightful, educational and entertaining. Every episode is a home run!

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