logo
episode-header-image
May 2019
49m 51s

Recode Decode: Facebook’s former securit...

The Verge
About this episode

Alex Stamos, the former Chief Security Officer at Facebook, and Ev Williams, the co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Medium, talk with Recode's Kara Swisher in these live interviews from the 2019 Collision conference in Toronto, Canada.

In the Stamos interview: Is Facebook misunderstood?; Stamos’ proposed solutions; legitimate candidates vs. the Russians; how to protect ourselves from all election attackers; the weaponization of Facebook’s products; America’s reluctance to regulate; breaking up Facebook and Google; why big companies need to stop rewarding employees with stock; Stamos’ recommendations for Mark Zuckerberg; and is Facebook actually committed to change?

And in the Williams interview: Why he left the board of Twitter; where social media is right now; why his venture firm Obvious Ventures doesn’t invest in social; its investment in Beyond Meat; Williams’ theories of venture investing; the lack of diversity in what companies get venture funding; how techlash has changed Silicon Valley; the many iterations of Medium; would Williams buy established media companies?; and is he worried about the media?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next
Today
Is ChatGPT killing higher education?
Hello! Decoder senior producer Kate Cox here. I’m afraid I’m still not Nilay, but I hope you’ve been enjoying our series of guest hosts this summer while he’s out on parental leave. We have a few more really great guest episodes coming up, before Nilay returns to the host chair l ... Show More
57m 1s
Aug 21
Amazon is betting on agents to win the AI race
This is Alex Heath, your Thursday episode guest host and deputy editor at The Verge. One of the biggest topics in AI these days is agents — the idea that AI is going to move from chatbots to reliably completing tasks for us in the real world. But the problem with agents is that t ... Show More
53m 50s
Aug 18
How the head of Obsidian went from superfan to CEO
Obsidian is a note-taking and productivity app that occupies the same "second brain" space as competitors like Notion — but in a lot of ways, it's also startlingly different. Obsidian's files are Markdown-based, stored locally on your own devices, and completely free to use. Step ... Show More
54m 22s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2021
Facebook's Content Moderators Are Leaving Their Jobs With PTSD
If you’re on Facebook then there’s a company you’ve probably never heard of that makes it bearable. Accenture. The little-known consulting firm is one of the biggest companies in the booming market of content moderation. But you’ll probably never hear its name come out of the lip ... Show More
39m 46s
Jul 2022
Why Instagram Broke Its Square
When Mark Zuckerberg bought Instagram in 2012, he promised he would be hands-off with the company’s curated aesthetic and simple features. But as Facebook scaled the startup into a social media juggernaut, tensions flared. Instagram’s founders would leave, and it’s now a very dif ... Show More
37m 41s
Jan 2021
Left holding the mic: Will shareholders still love Twitter and Facebook?
Shares in Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, all slid at the start of the week. But analysts said they won’t fall far. This week, co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner dig into the unfolding drama at the world’s biggest platforms and ... Show More
19m 28s
Aug 2022
Zuckerberg's Biggest Bet
Mark Zuckerberg has a vision for the future -- that in a few years, we’ll be living our digital lives in a blend of augmented and virtual reality. The metaverse. To pursue that vision, Zuckerberg’s renamed his entire company and invested billions of dollars in a bid to make Meta ... Show More
32m 34s
Nov 2022
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg says sorry after big job losses at the tech giant.
The founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has said sorry after the tech giant laid off more than 11,000 staff 13% of its global workforce. Senior Tech Reporter Kali Hays from Business Insider in Los Angeles gives us her assessment of the move and what it means for the sector. Its i ... Show More
27m 12s
Mar 2019
‘I invested in Facebook … now I am ashamed’
Roger McNamee was a Facebook fan and an advisor to Mark Zuckerberg. Now he says he’s sad about the way the company is being run and the impact that it’s having on the world.Zuckerberg first sought out his advice, McNamee says, in 2006, shortly after Yahoo was making a $1bn bid to ... Show More
22m 30s
Oct 2016
Confessions of a Tech Entrepreneur Who Lied to Investors
When Antonio Garcia Martinez was trying to raise money for his fledgling tech company, he worried that an honest pitch wouldn't get him the funds he needed. So he lied. This week, Brad and Bloomberg Technology's Ellen Huet explore the murky world of early-stage startups -- not ju ... Show More
15m 47s
Mar 2023
SVB, IG & AI with Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom
After a quick rundown of Kara’s Twitter feud with SVB-enthusiast David Sacks, we turn to an interview with a former Silicon Valley Bank customer: Kevin Systrom. When you found one of the most successful social media apps at 27, it’s tough to figure out where to go with Act Two. B ... Show More
1h 1m
Jul 2021
Interview: Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s metaverse
Casey Newton talks with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about his vision for an embodied internet (or "the metaverse), the challenges of governing it, and gender imbalance in virtual reality today. They also discuss President Biden’s fierce criticism of Facebook’s failures in removi ... Show More
43m 25s