Recode Decode, Hosted By Kara Swisher

Conservative analyst Bill Kristol talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the impeachment effort against President Trump, how politics has entered a "crisis of truth" in the era of Fox News and social media, and the steps that should be taken pre-emptively to ensure that the 2020 elections are free and fair. Kristol also predicts that Trump could be "impeached by Thanksgiving," and explains why he doesn't think "Trumpism" goes away even if its namesake does, outlining one scenario for future elections that would be even worse for American political stability than today's circumstances. Plus: Why we should be talking more about China's technological prowess and why Kristol would "prefer if the Republican Party could be saved, but I'm not sure it can be." Featuring: Bill Kristol (@billkristol), director of Defending Democracy Together and host of Conversations with Bill Kristol Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Reset, Recode's new pod

Gary Cohn, the former Director of the National Economic Council and former chief economic adviser to President Trump, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about what he's done since leaving the Trump administration, including a "significant" investment and advisory position he's taken up in a mobile security company called Hoyos Integrity. Cohn explains how Hoyos is developing a more secure phone for people who deal in confidential information, such as government workers; how it's trying to advance digital wallets as an alternative to credit cards in the US; and the political backlash to Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency. Cohn, who's also the former president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, also talks about the powerful tech companies that went public during his tenure there, how private investors are over-valuing companies like WeWork before they are profitable, and why he doesn't think a recession is coming. Plus: How he feels about the way his former boss Trump uses Twitter. Featuring: Gary Cohn, i

Recode's Kara Swisher talks to the creators of two new plays that intersect with tech issues: Heidi Schreck, the former star and playwright of What the Constitution Means to Me, and the writer and director of Right to Be Forgotten — Sharyn Rothstein and Seema Sueko. Schreck took the name of her play from a series of debate competitions she competed in as a teenager, but has developed a more complicated appreciation for the Constitution as an adult, and discusses how its flaws connect to her own life story. Later in the show, Rothstein and Sueko talk about the thorny political question of how permanent our communications online should be, and whether people have a "right to be forgiven" for past misdeeds. Featuring: Heidi Schreck (@heidibschreck), writer and former actor, What the Constitution Means to Me Sharyn Rothstein, writer, Right to Be Forgotten Seema Sueko (@Seemasue), director, Right to Be Forgotten Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe fo

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about his new book, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, which details the extreme lengths men like Harvey Weinstein have gone to escape accountability for sexual abuse. He discusses why other journalists before him couldn’t nail the Weinstein story, and how the powerful Hollywood producer tapped into a network of shady allies in his attempt to suppress it — including some of Farrow's former bosses at NBC News. He also talks about how the public and the press mistreated women like Rose McGowan, his recent story about the MIT-Jeffrey Epstein cover-up, and why the book is ultimately optimistic about the future. Plus: Will Catch and Kill be a movie? Featuring: Ronan Farrow, author, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Reset, Recode's new podcast that explores why

Filmmaker Ken Burns talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his latest documentary series "Country Music," in which he explores the history of the genre, its place in the larger American musical landscape, and the powerful universality of "three chords and the truth." Burns says that unlike rock and jazz, country music is largely a story about powerful women, and also unpacks the ways in which it reflects the intermingling ethnic diversity of the US. He also discusses his online video destination Unum, which lets people curate "mixtapes" of history by drawing connections among Burns' 38 years of docuumentaries, and why he's glad he wasn't one of the first people to make the leap to digital filmmaking. Plus: Burns previews the next seven films he's working on, including the American Revolution, the Great Society, and the Buffalo. Featuring: Ken Burns, director and producer, Country Music, and founder of Unum Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for

Cambridge Analytica’s former business development director Brittany Kaiser talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about her new book TARGETED: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again. Kaiser talks about how she first observed the dangers of social media while working on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, why she mistakenly believed Cambridge Analytica was using technology as a force for good, and what happened when she decided to turn on the company and testify about its abuses in the UK Parliament. She also deconstructs Facebook's excuses for the scandal and its slow response, and predicts that 2020 could be "exponentially worse" than 2016 for election interference. Featuring: Brittany Kaiser, author of TARGETED: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again. Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to

Matt Hulett, the president of education company Rosetta Stone, talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about the company’s pivot away from language-learning CDs and into a more advanced and “approachable” mobile app. He also talks about his “promiscuous” background in the tech industry; Rosetta Stone’s literacy catch-up program for children, Lexia Learning; and the bigger picture of how language education is changing around the world. Plus: What’s the best way to make learning stick, and will Elon Musk’s Neuralink or some other moonshot technical development make learning languages unnecessary? Featuring: Matt Hulett, president of Rosetta Stone (@matt_hulett / @RosettaStone) Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the w

Recode's Kara Swisher interviews two CEOs in this double-feature episode of Recode Decode: First, she speaks with OpenDoor CEO Eric Wu about how technology is encroaching on the real estate industry, why housing is ripe for disruption, and how OpenDoor is bracing for the next recession. Later in the show, Swisher talks to Evite CEO Victor Cho about how the 21-year-old company is exploring new revenue models, avoiding the "MySpace slide," and what Cho learned from Eastman Kodak's failed turnaround. Featuring: Eric Wu (@ericwu01), CEO of OpenDoor Victor Cho, CEO of Evite Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Follow Us: Newsletter: Recode Daily Twitter: @Recode and @voxdotcom Learn mor

Andrew Marantz, a staff writer at the New Yorker, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno‑Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation. He discusses the danger of designing social media platforms around emotional engagement, how people like Mike Cernovich and Milo Yiannopoulos exploited people's belief in a broad political "consensus," and technology's role in advancing hate and extremism online. Marantz also explains what he calls the culture of "big swinging brains" in Silicon Valley, and why banning people from Twitter — including President Trump — isn't a comprehensive solution. Featuring: Andrew Marantz (@andrewmarantz), staff writer at the New Yorker and author of Antisocial. Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About

Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of HP who ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about campaigning against Donald Trump, her friendship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and the over-concentration of power among a handful of CEOs in the tech industry. Fiorina also talks about her experience as one of the few female tech CEOs of the 1990s, the “lasting damage” President Trump has done to the Republican Party, and why she's impressed by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's handling of the impeachment inquiry. Plus: What did Steve Jobs get right that Mark Zuckerberg has not? Featuring: Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina), author of Find Your Way and host of the leadership podcast By Example Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About Recode by Vox:

Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how the FEC works, how it tries to defend elections from foreign influence, and why the Commission is currently immobilized by a lack of "quorum" — in other words, it doesn't have enough members to launch or conclude any investigations. Weintraub talks about pending legislation to make advertising and campaign contributions more transparent, and explains how the FEC's current paralysis may undermine the cybersecurity of the 2020 presidential campaign. Plus: How she pushed back on President Trump's evidence-free claims about voter fraud in New Hampshire. Featuring: Ellen Weintraub (@EllenLWeintraub), chair of the Federal Election Commission Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About Recode by Vox: R

Barack Obama's former cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel, now the CEO of the nonprofit Cyber Threat Alliance, talks with Recode’s Kara Swisher about the state of US cybersecurity heading into the 2020 elections. Daniel says the proposed solutions to election hacking may just cause new problems: "If you can track your vote," he says, "I can track your vote." Featuring: Michael Daniel (@CyAlliancePrez), president and CEO, Cyber Threat Alliance Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Follow Us: Newsletter: Recode Daily Twitter: @Recode and @voxdotcom ... But enough about us We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really h

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, one of the FTC's two Democratic commissioners, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the state of antitrust problems in the tech industry, the history of pushback against the FTC for alleged over-enforcement, and whether it is under-enforcing the law today. Slaughter also talks about her objections to the $5 billion fine against Facebook that the FTC negotiated this year, the limitations on its speed and fining power, and its investigation of YouTube for COPPA violations, which led to a $170 million fine. Plus: The actions the FTC has taken against Uber and TikTok, why it was so permissive of tech M&A during the Obama administration, and why Slaughter doesn't think the US needs a new internet regulatory agency. Featuring: Rebecca Kelly Slaughter (@RKSlaughterFTC), FTC Commissioner (@FTC) Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered i

Mark Warner, the senior US Senator from Virginia, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about several interconnected policy issues affecting the 2020 elections, including the security of voter registries, the expectation of social media manipulation by Russia and other hostile foreign powers, and the newly announced impeachment inquiry into President Trump's phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. Sen. Warner also talks about the potential of regulators breaking up tech giants and how the US government's relationship with those companies has improved since 2016, yet still calls for more oversight of their unprecedented power. Plus: Why he's "cautiously optimistic" about Republicans in the Senate embracing election reform and new privacy laws, his proposal for incentivizing companies to invest in their workers, and how Warner thinks Congress might be able to fix Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act without repealing it wholesale. Editor's note: This interview was recorded the morning of Wed

John Napier Tye, the founder and CEO of Whistleblower Aid, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how his non-profit law firm helps people seeking to legally expose corruption in the government and at private companies. It recently worked with a whistleblower at MIT, connecting them with New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow to discuss the university's cover-up of funding that had come from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; Tye also discusses the US official who reported President Trump's phone call with the president of Ukraine, the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013, and how whistleblowers can protect themselves from criticism and retribution. Plus: Will we always need whistleblowers? Featuring: John Napier Tye, founder and CEO of Whistleblower Aid (@wbaidlaw) Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and p

Recode's Kara Swisher talks with Hermitage Capital CEO Bill Browder, a hedge fund manager turned human rights activist and his son, Josh Browder, whose company DoNotPay helps consumers fight everything from parking tickets to the Equifax leaks. They talk about the different ways they have pursued justice for relatively powerless people, their entrepreneurial journeys, and how both the Putin regime and mega-corporations have taken advantage of the internet. Featuring: Bill Browder (@BillBrowder), Hermitage Capital CEO Josh Browder (@JBrowder1), DoNotPay CEO Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Follow Us: Newsletter: Recode Daily Twitter: @Recode and @voxdotcom ... But enough about u

New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey talk with Recode's Kara Swisher about their new book, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement. They talk about how Kantor and Twohey reported stories about sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein; how Weinstein's network of lawyers and advisers kept his misconduct under wraps; and how the story help launch an ongoing reckoning around power imbalances between men and women worldwide. They also explain why they interviewed Christine Blasey Ford, the college professor who testified in Congress that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982. Featuring: Jodi Kantor (@jodikantor), New York Times investigative reporter and co-author, She Said Megan Twohey (@mega2e), New York Times investigative reporter and co-author, She Said Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott G

Steve Schwarzman, the CEO of the private equity firm The Blackstone Group, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about his new book, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence. Schwarzman — a longtime advisor to President Trump — also discusses his scholarship program that teaches future leaders how to do business in China, how he would like to see policymakers address populist anger, and the big economic trends he and Blackstone are currently pursuing. Plus: Can we fix the H-1B visa program without simultaneously addressing other forms of immigration? Featuring: Steve Schwarzman, CEO of The Blackstone Group and author of What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence. Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is chan

Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about why he's still running for the Democratic nomination in 2020, the threat of job automation and his proposed "robot tax," and how de Blasio thinks about the future of transit in New York and beyond. He also talks about how the plan for New York to become one of Amazon's "HQ2" locations fell apart, and why he supports both a national privacy bill and tougher antitrust action against Facebook and Google. Featuring: Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio), mayor of New York City and 2020 presidential candidate Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Follow Us: Newsletter: Recode Daily Twitter: @Recode and @voxdotcom

Author and spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about her campaign to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2020. Williamson explains why she's still in the race even though she didn't qualify for the third debate and talks about what she has learned from running as an non-establishment candidate, negativity and anger on social media, and how she thinks about the tech industry — and vice versa. She and Swisher also discuss her entrepreneurial journey, her divisive comments about religion, vaccines, and medication, and what Williamson would do if she were CEO of Twitter. Featuring: Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson), 2020 presidential candidate Hosts: Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), Recode co-founder and editor-at-large More to explore: Subscribe for free to Pivot, Kara’s podcast with NYU Professor Scott Galloway that offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech i