Podcast
GeekWire
Hosted by GeekWire · EN
GeekWire brings you the week's latest technology news, trends and insights, covering the world of technology from our home base in Seattle. Our regular news podcast features commentary and analysis from our editors and reporters, plus interviews with special guests.
33episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Amazon's next big business, Satya Nadella's DIY app, and a VC's rallying cry for Seattle tech
1w ago00:35:43Tap to summarizeThis week: Microsoft and Amazon both reported quarterly numbers, and both stocks rose on cloud results that beat expectations. Is AI spending is paying off in real business? And in related news, Microsoft sees a rare annual headcount decline, hitting product R&D hardest. Plus: Satya Nadella builds a Power BI dashboard out of an analyst's research report, and touts it on the earnings call to make a bigger point. Jeff Bezos names Amazon's chips business as the long-awaited fourth pillar. And AI House managing director Jacob Colker delivers a much-needed pep talk for Seattle tech, calling on the region to recognize and build on its strengths. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Related stories and links: Microsoft and Amazon earnings Microsoft Azure tops $100B in annual revenue as record AI spending cuts into cash flow AWS is 'booming,' but Amazon's free cash flow turns negative on record AI spending Microsoft R&D jobs drop for second straight year as total headcount falls for first time in a decade Which Microsoft businesses are growing and shrinking, according to obscure table in regulatory filing Amazon's fourth pillar Jeff Bezos says this business is becoming Amazon's next 'pillar' A rallying cry for Seattle tech Watch: A venture capitalist's passionate speech, a rallying cry, really, about Seattle Seattle's AI2 Incubator rebrands as AI House, and adds key investor as managing director 'I'm tired of that narrative': Seattle VC pushes back on tech exodus talk The Washington tech ecosystem New map traces Washington state's tech 'universe' to a few key hubs, and shows what's at risk After hiring AWS exec and raising $107M seed round, Virginia startup plants flag in Seattle area GeekWire's Seattle engineering centers list See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →
The greenest goodbye: Human composting and the science of becoming soil
2w ago00:35:23Tap to summarizeOn this special mid-week episode, we're sharing a remarkable installment of GeekWire’s new podcast, Positive Charge, which is all about finding slivers of hope in climate and sustainability. In their latest show, reporter Lisa Stiffler and producer Laura Scott find that hope in an unexpected place: an innovative alternative to traditional burial and cremation. It might not be the topic you were planning to delve into today, but we think you'll find it enlightening and inspiring. You can follow and subscribe for more at geekwire.com/positivecharge. John Cook and Todd Bishop will be back this weekend with the regular weekly show. What if the greenest thing you ever do is die? This episode of Positive Charge digs into human composting — the process, also called natural organic reduction, that turns a body into clean soil instead of ash or embalmed remains. It's the end-of-life option Martha Stewart says she wants, and a Seattle entrepreneur is the reason it exists. Katrina Spade set out to build a climate-friendly alternative to cremation and burial while still a graduate student in architecture, drawing on a practice farmers have long used to compost livestock. Turning that idea into a business meant clearing two enormous hurdles: engineering a process that safely breaks a body down into soil in a matter of weeks, and rewriting laws that made the practice illegal in all 50 states. We go inside Recompose, her Seattle facility, where bodies rest in stainless steel vessels and naturally occurring microbes generate all the heat that does the work. Then the episode turns to the people signing up. Interest cuts across the political map, with as many customers coming from conservative Eastern Washington as from Seattle, and a surprising share of them are young. Tune in to hear why composting is catching on as death care, how the science actually works, and what it means to choose becoming soil. Sources and references Interviews: Katrina Spade, founder and CEO of Recompose Micah Truman, founder and CEO of Return Home Elyssa Tappero, customer of Recompose and tsunami program manager for the Washington Emergency Management Division Additional sources: Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, chair of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Washington State University Inside Recompose, where the human composting startup is ready to grow its formula beyond Seattle (GeekWire) 50+ & Unfiltered with Shawn Killinger, Episode 124 with Martha Stewart The environmental toll of cremating the dead (National Geographic) The Potential of Our Decay: Cemeteries That Save the American Landscape (Smithsonian) This episode was hosted by Lisa Stiffler and Laura Scott, and edited and produced by Laura Scott, with editorial assistance from Todd Bishop. Sponsored by Amazon Sustainability. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →What's going on with Seattle startup funding, a Kalshi setback, Impinj's long game, and a smartphone detox
2w ago00:37:39Tap to summarizeThis week on the GeekWire Podcast: Seattle startup funding drops 40% in the first half of the year while AI money floods everywhere else. We dig into the numbers and the implications for the region. Plus: a Seattle judge deals Kalshi a setback, Impinj marks a decade on the Nasdaq after a 26-year climb, and nearly 40 Seattleites trade their smartphones for flip phones for five weeks. Related Stories Venture funding drops in Seattle area as AI boom reshapes startup world Helion raises $465M at $15.5B valuation as it aims to commercialize fusion UK data center startup Nscale bets big on Bellevue for U.S. engineering hub Anthropic expands in Seattle as AI boom offers hope for struggling office market Seattle judge deals blow to Kalshi, rejects prediction market's federal defense How Impinj has survived 26 years in a market that's 'just getting going' Ditch your smartphone for a flip phone for a month? With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Silicon Valley icon Vinod Khosla: What kind of Seattle Seahawks owner will he be?
3w ago00:34:14Tap to summarizeThis week: Silicon Valley legend Vinod Khosla's family is leading a group that's buying the Seattle Seahawks for a record $9.6 billion. We dug into hours of his talks and interviews to answer the big questions: Who is this guy, why does he want an NFL team, and what does his track record tell us about the kind of owner he'll be? Plus, the blind spot that could get him into trouble. Featuring highlights from his 2015 talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Also: A mystery trove of aerospace artifacts is rescued from a Seattle-area electronics recycler, and we want to hear about your coolest tech history find. Send your comments, voice memos and photos to todd@geekwire.com. With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Microsoft's reset, a new era for Seattle startups, and how AI is changing everything for founders
4w ago00:40:37Tap to summarizeOn this week's show, we're out on the GeekWire deck for our annual founder open house, where we dig into Microsoft's latest round of layoffs — including a major Xbox shakeup — and the surprising rise of hardware companies on the GeekWire 200. Then we sit down with four guests to talk about how AI is reshaping how they build: Jana Schuster of StackIQ, whose AI-native platform helps companies find redundancy in their software spending — like Rocket Money, but for business — with a small team. Blake Resnick and David Benowitz of Brinc Drones, whose mechanical engineers are now vibe coding their own prototypes; Boaz Ashkenazy of Shift AI, who's setting up always-on agents and rethinking how we interact with AI tools. Finally, the GeekWire Trivia Challenge: how a longtime T-Mobile executive got his start in the wireless business, and the star-studded history of T-Mobile celebrity endorsers. Stories mentioned: Microsoft cuts 4,800 jobs, about 2% globally, revamps salesforce and launches massive Xbox overhaul GeekWire 200 update: New unicorns and a hardware surge remake our list of top Pacific NW startups Former GitHub CEO's startup Entire unveils its answer to the crush of AI coding agents Chicago software company plants flag in Seattle area as new leadership team seeks AI talent T-Mobile exec Mike Katz exits after 28 years, as carrier reshuffles top ranks and taps ex-AT&T leader With Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Fusion energy: Wishing upon a star in a jar — Introducing 'Positive Charge' from GeekWire
Jul 200:38:02Tap to summarizeThis week on the show, we're sharing the debut of Positive Charge, a new GeekWire podcast from reporter Lisa Stiffler and producer Laura Scott about the innovations that could help save the planet. In this episode, they dig into the high-stakes race to harness the power of the sun and make fusion energy real, visiting two Seattle-area startups chasing this dream, and asking whether limitless clean power is finally within reach. Also out this week: their debut episode on the "forever chemicals" in our water and the companies figuring out how to destroy them. Follow Positive Charge wherever you get your podcasts, or at geekwire.com/positivecharge. Positive Charge is presented with support from Amazon Sustainability. Sources and references David Kirtley, Helion Energy, CEO and co-founder Manav Singh, Helion Energy, director of electrical engineering Matthew Thompson, Zap Energy, senior vice president of fission technology and former vice president of systems engineering and pulsed power Laura Berzak Hopkins, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, associate laboratory director for Strategy and Partnerships, and deputy chief research officer GeekWire’s related coverage: Helion gives behind-the-scenes tour of secretive 60-foot fusion prototype as it races to deployment Helion makes big bet on ‘Tiny Merge’ fusion testbed to meet aggressive Microsoft timeline Inside Zap: Fusion pioneer tries to build ‘a star in a jar’ to unlock abundant clean energy Zap Energy’s nuclear double play: Fusion startup adds traditional fission to its lineup, in industry first See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →From the dot-com boom to AI security: F5 at 30, with CEO François Locoh-Donou
Jun 2700:37:34Tap to summarizeThis week: F5 turns 30 years old this year, and the Seattle company has reinvented itself repeatedly to get here — starting, improbably, as a group of University of Washington students trying to build online video games. On this week's GeekWire Podcast, recorded on location at F5 Tower, the company's chairman, president and CEO François Locoh-Donou joins us to trace that journey, from a 1990s internet load-balancing startup to a company that helps keep many of the world's biggest apps running and secure. Today F5 is a publicly traded company with about 6,500 employees and more than $3 billion in annual revenue, and it counts over 80% of the Fortune 500 among its customers. Locoh-Donou discusses F5's expansion into AI security, including its acquisition of SurePath AI this week, and the company's broader M&A strategy. On a personal note, he reflects on his path from Togo to Seattle, his leadership philosophy, and his message to high school students from underrepresented backgrounds who visited F5 Tower before the company took them to a World Cup match. Plus: his World Cup predictions, and a GeekWire trivia question that stumps the room. With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop. Edited by Curt Milton. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Anthropic, Amazon, and the Fable shutdown; AI-powered school arrives; World Cup tech
Jun 2000:33:23Tap to summarizeAnthropic takes its most powerful models offline after a U.S. order, with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly contributing to the concerns that helped trigger it. Todd and John dig into the Amazon-Anthropic dynamic, how agentic AI is upending Amazon's "working backwards" tradition, an AI-driven school arriving soon in the Seattle area, and the sensor-packed World Cup ball. With GeekWire co-founders John Cook and Todd Bishop; edited by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Following through in Cleveland: A GeekWire trip report, plus data center ‘theater’ and the SpaceX IPO
Jun 1300:28:43Tap to summarizeIn February, Seattle angel investor Charles Fitzgerald warned the region not to become the next Cleveland, prompting Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb to join the podcast and make the case for his city's comeback. This week we close the loop: Fitzgerald and GeekWire co-founder John Cook call in from an abandoned Westinghouse factory in Cleveland, where days of meeting entrepreneurs, civic leaders, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine left them struck by a city hustling and aligned around jobs in ways Seattle no longer is. Back home, we dig into Seattle's unanimous one-year moratorium on new large data centers, which Fitzgerald calls political theater, and he explains why he's sitting out the SpaceX IPO.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →Microsoft Build decoded: Solara, Scout, AI models, GitHub’s woes and more with Mary Jo Foley
Jun 600:43:13Tap to summarizeMicrosoft's Build conference was a firehose: in-house AI models, agent-first devices, new coding tools, and a Copilot "super app" that got teased but never shown. Todd Bishop and Mary Jo Foley sort through what's real and what's not quite fully baked, from Project Solara and the Scout agentic assistant to Microsoft's push for AI self-sufficiency and the mounting pressure on GitHub. Related Stories: Inside Microsoft’s Project Solara: A new platform for devices that run AI agents instead of apps Microsoft unveils seven homegrown AI models in new bid for ‘long term self-sufficiency’ Mary Jo Foley: No Copilot ‘Super App’ at Microsoft Build, but plenty of agentic fodder Microsoft’s OpenClaw team takes on the personal assistant challenge Edited by Curt Milton.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →