Channels with Peter Kafka

Data Centers, Elon Musk, and the New Politics of Tech, with David Weigel

Not long ago, most Americans had never heard of data centers. Now most Americans are actively opposed to them.It’s a head-snapping change — one that is befuddling tech bo

The Weird, Big Business of Microdramas

Microdramas are the new phone-first soap operas: stories chopped into dozens of one-minute episodes: Low-budget productions filled with romance, werewolves, secret babies

The $12.5 Billion Lakers, the NFL’s TV Fight, and Sports Media’s Big Split

Sports teams keep selling for more money because, in theory, their media rights keep becoming more valuable. But the companies that actually pay for sports TV are startin

Joanna Stern on the New Siri, OpenAI’s Weird Gadget, and Life After the Wall Street Journal

Joanna Stern spent more than a decade explaining technology to Wall Street Journal readers. Now she’s doing it on her own — with a new media company, New Things, and a ne

Oliver Darcy on Status, Bari Weiss, and Why Media Reporters Are Too Soft

Two years ago, Oliver Darcy left CNN and launched Status, a paid newsletter focused on the media business. The basic bet was that readers would pay for the scoops and ins

Lucas Shaw on Warner Bros' Limbo, Netflix's Anxiety, and Hollywood’s Sort-of Comeback

When I last talked to Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, Netflix was buying Warner Bros. Discovery. Six months later, Paramount has the deal — but, surprisingly, it’s on hold while

Substack Wants To Become A Social Network; Beehiiv Wants To Stay Invisible

You are a normal person, so if you think about “people writing their own newsletters” you probably think: “Substack”. But just as Xerox isn’t the only way to make photoc

Inside Podcasting’s Fight Over Netflix, YouTube, and Creator Control

Chris Balfe is the CEO of Red Seat Ventures, the company behind some of the biggest names in podcasting, including Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Bill O’Reilly, and, more r

"We’re in a Race Against Time," Joe Kahn on Running the New York Times in the Age of AI Slop

Joe Kahn runs the New York Times newsroom, which means he runs the most powerful news operation in the world. He joins me to talk about what that power is for — and why h

Encore: Inside Joe Weisenthal's brain

We originally published this interview with Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal on Feb. 11, 2026, and it's one of my favorite chats of the year. We'll be back with a new conversat

The Ad Industry's Weirdest Tradition

The Rebooting's Brian Morrissey joins me from Cannes, where OpenAI is pitching advertisers, creators are becoming media brands, and thousands of people are still flying a

A Hollywood Manager Explains the New Rules of Show Biz

Today’s show is about money, and how to make it in entertainment. The streaming boom made Hollywood feel like it had solved its money problem: Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Di

Brian Stelter on the 60 Minutes Mess; Nilay Patel on Apple’s AI Problem

Brian Stelter and Nilay Patel are both covering big, powerful institutions that are undergoing real change, whether they like it or not. Stelter, CNN’s chief media analy

How Dhar Mann Turned After-School Specials Into A Billion-View Business

Dhar Mann’s videos look simple, because they are simple: Someone acts badly, someone learns a lesson, everyone gets a moral by the end. You don’t have to be a kid to enjo

Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour Explains Why Boring Data Is a Great Media Business

I think of Dow Jones as The Wall Street Journal, because that’s the part I know — and the part I used to work near/around/inside. But Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour has built

Vox Media's Jim Bankoff Explains Why He's Selling to James Murdoch

Jim Bankoff has spent nearly 20 years building Vox Media. Now he’s selling a big chunk of it to James Murdoch, who is acquiring Vox Media's Podcast Network - the same one

Versant CEO Mark Lazarus is Running a Post-Cable Cable Company

Versant is the new company Comcast created when it spun off CNBC, MS NOW, USA and other cable networks it no longer wanted inside the mothership. That makes Mark Lazarus’

Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch on AI, the Met Gala and His Secret Succession Plan

Roger Lynch has spent the last seven years trying to turn Condé Nast from a magazine company into a profitable portfolio of global brands. Now he has a new set of problem

The Internet’s Let-It-Rip Era, With The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel

The internet is in its let-it-rip era: more AI slop, more video, more clips — and very little in the way of guardrails or rules. Charlie Warzel, who writes and hosts Gal

AI Can Make Software Now. That Changes Everything, with Paul Ford

Learn to code, they told us. Then the computers went and learned to code. Now anyone can do it, in theory, courtesy of Claude Code and other vibe coding apps. Tech peopl