Podcast
Newcomer Pod
Hosted by Eric Newcomer | newcomer.co · EN
Join Eric Newcomer, Tom Dotan, and Madeline Renbarger to get the inside story on the biggest news in Tech, Silicon Valley, and Venture Capital.
15episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
How Tech's San Francisco Values Gave Way to the Right
1w ago01:06:45Tap to summarizeHow San Francisco's tech culture went from countercultural idealism to right-wing power, and what it means for the rest of us.Jonathan Weber, editor at large at The New Yorker and author of City on the Edge, joins Eric Newcomer to trace the 30-year arc of how San Francisco became the center of the tech universe, and how the industry that once promised to change the world ended up changing politics instead. From the early commercial internet to the rise of OpenAI and Anthropic, Weber connects the dots between Silicon Valley's cultural roots and its dramatic political shift toward the right.The conversation covers the dot-com boom and bust, the sharing economy's broken promises, why tech executives became dismissive of public concerns, how AI is accelerating the disconnect between the industry and everyday Americans, and what history tells us about where this all goes next.City on the Edge is available now wherever books are sold.Subscribe for weekly conversations with the founders, investors, and executives shaping the tech industry.
Transcribe →WIRED's Editor on Elon, Trump & Silicon Valley's War on the Press
2w ago00:54:12Tap to summarizeWIRED's global editorial director on why Silicon Valley wants to control the press and what she's doing about it.Katie Drummond, global editorial director of WIRED, sits down with Eric Newcomer to talk about the simmering war between tech and media. From surviving the Gawker bankruptcy to now running one of the most scrutinized publications in tech, Katie doesn't hold back on why figures like Peter Thiel and Trae Stevens want to buy or dismantle WIRED, why so much of Silicon Valley turned toward Trump, and what serious tech journalism looks like in 2026.Listen to Katie's podcast Uncanny Valley: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/uncanny-valley-wired/id266391367Subscribe for weekly conversations with the founders, investors, and executives shaping the tech industry.
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The Man Who Helped Destroy Gawker Is Coming Back For The Rest of Media
3w ago01:10:52Tap to summarizeThe man who helped bring down Gawker is back, and this time he’s coming for the media industry.Eric sits down with Aron Ping D’Souza, the Oxford law student who first pitched Peter Thiel on the idea that would eventually bankrupt Gawker. Today, Aron is building the Enhanced Games, a PED-legal sporting competition, and Objection AI, a Peter Thiel-backed platform designed to investigate news articles line by line using former CIA and FBI agents.They revisit the Gawker lawsuit and the Hulk Hogan case, then dive into the growing crisis of trust in media, from anonymous sourcing to AI-generated journalism. Aron also explains why Ronan Farrow’s Sam Altman profile concerns him and why he believes AI is about to fundamentally reshape how information is created, investigated, and trusted online.Subscribe for weekly conversations with the founders, investors, and executives shaping technology and culture.
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Vinod Khosla on the End of Jobs and the Future of Capitalism
3w ago01:05:26Tap to summarizeVinod Khosla on Why AI Could End Human Labor and Change Capitalism ForeverVinod Khosla joins Newcomer to discuss AI, capitalism, freedom, education, religion, and why he believes technology will fundamentally reshape how humans live and work.The legendary venture capitalist behind Sun Microsystems and early bets on OpenAI shares his thoughts on why AI could eliminate the need for traditional jobs, how capitalism may evolve in an AI-driven world, and why future generations may no longer need careers purely for survival.He also discusses Silicon Valley’s biggest blind spots, the future of education and creativity, human purpose after AI, why institutions are failing to adapt, and what comes next for entrepreneurship and innovation.Vinod also explains why he thinks most people underestimate the speed of AI progress, and what happens when intelligence becomes effectively unlimited.Subscribe for more conversations with the people shaping technology, media, startups, and culture.
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Katie Jacobs Stanton on Elon, Trump & Why Silicon Valley Won’t Speak Up
Apr 2700:56:20Tap to summarizeSilicon Valley has more power than ever, so why won't it speak up?Katie Jacobs Stanton, former Twitter executive, Obama White House alum, and founder of Moxxie Ventures, joins Eric Newcomer to talk about what's really happening inside the Valley right now. They get into why tech leaders stayed silent when ICE showed up in Minnesota, what Sam Altman's Molotov comment really exposed, and why Katie thinks the current AI cycle is building on quicksand the same way the dot-com era did. Plus: her seat on Yahoo's board, what Kara Swisher's "take your space" advice looks like in practice, why Democrats need to worry about a lot more than AI, and the one portfolio bet she's most excited about right now.Watch the full episode for an inside look at tech, politics, and where Silicon Valley goes next.
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Amanda Askell on AI Consciousness, Claude & Silicon Valley’s Biggest Fear
Apr 2000:55:36Tap to summarizeAmanda Askell, AI safety researcher at Anthropic, joins Eric Newcomer to break down one of the biggest and most uncomfortable questions in tech right now: could AI systems like Claude become conscious, and if they do, what do we owe them?They discuss why treating AI systems poorly might matter more than people think, how researchers are approaching questions of AI consciousness, and why some of the biggest fears about artificial intelligence are not the ones most people are talking about.The conversation also explores the future of AI alignment, the risks of getting it wrong, and how Silicon Valley is thinking about building powerful systems responsibly.Watch the full episode for a deeper look at where AI is headed and the ethical challenges that come with it.Subscribe for more conversations with the people shaping technology, startups, and the future.
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Kara Swisher — "I'd rather have Ted Cruz make decisions about AI"
Apr 1400:52:18Tap to summarizeKara Swisher has spent decades as the most feared journalist in Silicon Valley. She predicted the January 6th insurrection in 2019. She called out Zuckerberg on hate speech years before it became a mainstream conversation. She warned about techs drift toward right wing politics before anyone wanted to hear it. And she has been right about most of it.Eric sat down with Kara Swisher — CNN Contributor, Author, Podcast Host — to talk about Sam Altman and whether she was too close to him during the OpenAI board crisis, why she thinks Silicon Valley has become addicted to playing the victim, her take on Elon Musk, Mark Andreessen and Peter Thiel, why she would rather have Ted Cruz making decisions about AI than the tech industry itself, and what she thinks is coming next.One of the most honest and unfiltered conversations on this channel.
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Jim Lanzone — "They Had a Chance to Sell for $44 Billion. They Didn't."
Apr 701:00:10Tap to summarizeJim Lanzone has spent his entire career betting on companies the internet forgot about and making them matter again. CEO of Ask.com, Tinder, and now Yahoo. Eric sat down with him to find out how he pulled off the turnaround nobody thought was possible, what single decision handed Google the internet, and why Yahoo is building its own AI search product for the first time in over a decade.They get into the $44 billion Microsoft deal Yahoo walked away from, why AI chatbots are failing publishers and what needs to change, how Yahoo Scout is trying to do search differently, and what 700 million users actually looks like in 2026.If you think Yahoo is a relic, this conversation will change your mind.
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The Startup That Crashed Its Own Servers Because of Open Claw
Mar 3101:25:12Tap to summarizeVCs surveyed across the industry ranked their most exciting enterprise tech companies and the #1 early stage pick was a name almost nobody had heard of. Eric sits down with Han Wang, CEO of Mintlify, the knowledge infrastructure platform that quietly powers the docs for Anthropic, Lovable, and thousands of other companies and found out their servers crashed overnight because of Open Claw before Han even knew what it was.Then in the second half, Eric talks to Jesse Zhang, CEO of Decagon, ranked #4 on the late stage list in a category that includes some of the most well funded names in enterprise AI, on how agents are replacing call centers, why voice AI is closer than you think, and where the customer experience space is headed in the next three years.Two of the most exciting under the radar bets in enterprise AI right now, in one episode.
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Matt Mahan — "California's Failure Is the Best Ammunition Trump Has Ever Had"
Mar 2401:05:09Tap to summarizeMatt Mahan is the Mayor of San Jose and a candidate for Governor of California. He is one of the only prominent Democrats in the state willing to say out loud that California's failure to fix housing, homelessness, and energy costs has handed the MAGA movement its best ammunition. It isn't a partisan argument. It's a governance one.In this conversation, Eric sits down with Matt to get into why California has spent $20 billion on high speed rail and delivered nothing, why the billionaire wealth tax will backfire, and how San Jose reduced homelessness by a third without raising taxes. They also get into his break with Gavin Newsom, the tech industry's growing political power, and what a competence first Democratic message actually looks like in practice.They also talk about what's next — the jungle primary on June 2nd, what Matt thinks California needs from its next governor, and why he believes fixing the state is the most powerful counter to what's happening in Washington right now.
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