Decoder with Nilay Patel

Latest episodes

Showing 20 · updated from the feed

Kevin Roose is AGI-pilled. Why aren't you?

#20 trending · Business

My guest today is Kevin Roose, a journalist and author of the new book The AGI Chronicles. Kevin was a longtime New York Times reporter and host of the popular podcast Ha

Oct 26
1 h 08 min

Bill Gates says to prepare for 20 years of ‘tumultuous’ AI disruption

My guest today is Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft and chairman of the Gates Foundation. You may have noticed Bill in the news more lately — he’s been o

Oct 22
1 h 16 min

JB Pritzker thinks AI could help us live to 100 — or threaten us like nukes

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, has a lot of thoughts about AI, tech, and privacy. Those issues are driving a big and maybe kind of unexpected political realignment — and wit

Oct 19
59 min

Why Elon Musk wants to sell you cell service

My guest today is Walter Piecyk, a telecom analyst at LightShed Partners, and we’re discussing SpaceX’s plan to become a major wireless carrier. Last week, the company ag

Oct 17
53 min

Benn Jordan thinks the surveillance problem is much bigger than Flock

Today, I’m talking with Benn Jordan, musician, YouTuber, researcher, and investigative journalist. In the last couple of years, Benn has become a high-profile face in the

Oct 15
1 h 02 min

Rewind: Ronan Farrow on Sam Altman’s ‘unconstrained’ relationship with the truth

Hey everybody, it’s Nilay. We’re off today for the holiday, and we’ll be back this Thursday with new episodes. In the meantime, we wanted to revisit a conversation from e

Oct 12
1 h 00 min

Another billionaire thinks he can fix Warner Bros.

Acquiring Warner Bros. never goes well for anyone. AOL failed, AT&T failed, and Discovery failed — although it did succeed in flipping the assets to David Ellison’s Skyda

Oct 10
45 min

OpenAI has a Muse problem

My guest today is Hayden Field, The Verge’s senior AI reporter, and we're discussing the new wave of consumer friendly AI agents. AI enthusiasts have been using agents fo

Oct 8
45 min

Adam Schiff on AI regulation, free speech, and impeaching Trump one more time

California Sen. Adam Schiff sits on a bunch of the committees that do tech and AI oversight, so I really wanted to ask him about how we might regulate anything related to

Oct 5
58 min

The AI warnings are getting louder

Hey everybody, it’s Nilay. We’ve got a little bonus drop for you today — I was recently interviewed about AI safety by Shumita Basu for Apple News In Conversation, and I

Oct 3
36 min

How Utah locals fought Kevin O'Leary's AI data center

Today I’m talking with Josh Dzieza, a longtime features writer here at The Verge, about a massive data center in Utah that does not exist, might never exist, and yet has

Oct 1
44 min

The SaaSpocalypse that wasn't, with Atlassian's CEO

My guest today is Mike Cannon-Brookes, who is co-founder and CEO of Atlassian. Atlassian is one of those companies that every other company runs on — it makes important p

Sep 28
1 h 16 min

Can Cloudflare save the web from AI?

Cloudflare discovered in June that bots already make up more than half of internet traffic — and CEO Matthew Prince says that bots could outnumber humans a thousand to on

Sep 26
1 h 18 min

I have some questions for Mark Zuckerberg

It’s a big week for Meta. The company has its big Connect conference, and the new Muse AI agent appears to be an early hit. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been doing a lot of in

Sep 24
23 min

Can John Ternus find Apple's next big thing?

Today, I’m talking with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who is the world’s best-sourced Apple reporter. Earlier this month, Apple hosted its annual iPhone hardware event, and th

Sep 21
58 min

Does AI need an antitrust exemption so it doesn't kill everyone????

The biggest story in tech right now is the spiraling debate about AI safety and regulation. The CEOs of all these companies have issued various calls to slow down develop

Sep 19
46 min

Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse

Today, I’m talking with Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI. As you’re no doubt aware, the biggest story in tech right now is the spiraling debate about AI safety a

Sep 17
52 min

Adam Conover explains how YouTube ruined everything

Adam Conover is a familiar face to anyone who’s spent time on the internet. He got his start at CollegeHumor back in the day, before transitioning into cable TV with Adam

Sep 14
1 h 05 min

Why the current tech backlash feels different

We’re back with another Decoder mailbag special. This time, we focused on feedback to Nilay’s “software brain” video essay, our ongoing coverage of AI and Big Tech backla

Sep 10
54 min

How Sonos rebooted itself

My guest today is Sonos CEO Tom Conrad. Tom was on the board at Sonos during the disastrous 2024 app redesign that threatened to crash the entire brand, and he took over

Sep 3
1 h 13 min

Chart trend

Position in the Business chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#101#200JulAugSepOct

#67

all-time peak

days in the top 100 since Nov 2024

Chart positions

Where Decoder with Nilay Patel ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Oct 27, 2026).

#112 ▲ 15 Business US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

I thought this interview did a great job of explaining how the business works from the creators' agents' POV while flagging the threat that AI may pose very soon to creators.

PhillyGirl99 · Jul 2026

A podcast that talks about tech with normal people in mind? Who would have imagined such a thing could exist. It is refreshing to hear talk about tech take the social world into account instead of pretending it doesn’t exist. This podcast gives a way better perspective than most tech podcasts. The hosts care about “why” questions and not just bootlicking for billionaires

northshorestalker · May 2026

It’s incredibly satisfying to watch Nilay hold tech leaders accountable while delivering real journalism on the most important tech developments of this era. Truly a refreshing approach to get to the bottom of critical issues, and avoid the classic canned talking points. Excellent conversation, journalism, and tech reporting.

estuhldreher · Mar 2026

A great blend of business insights from top leaders and well researched policy implications. Bringing a tech savvy perspective to the modern political and business landscape.

ItsNevin · Mar 2025

Nilay has some great guests and topics, but it’s often worsened by his very apparent political bias. Would love if this was more independent and neutral

AMH238 · Jun 2025

Has a noticeable political bias the last few months, to the point that chunks of episodes are just rants. Unfollowed and lost a lot of respect for the journalistic integrity here with the latest Tesla protestor organizer interview. I learned nothing and felt dumber for listing. It was over-the-top whining, some outright wrong numbers and misinformation, and Nilay didn’t correct or pushback. He went right along with the guy, and Nilay’s questions were softballs. Very disappointed as it used to be a good show, but par for the course for the Verge content.

playermagic · Mar 2025

We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.