Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

What’s the Deal With Elon Musk? Ashlee Vance Tells All on ‘Re/code Decode’ Podcast.

Also Walt Mossberg talks photo apps and their many complications.

Last week, Re/code debuted its first podcast, Re/code Decode,” with an interview of Slack’s Stewart Butterfield.

This week, in our Red Chair interview, we talked to Ashlee Vance, author of the new hit book on the high-profile entrepreneur, “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.” Whatever happens with Musk’s SpaceX rocket effort or the Tesla electric car company, the story is indeed pretty fantastic.

And Walt Mossberg took on our weekly feature of the latest gadgets in Too Embarrassed to Ask, in which our crack reviewers break down the confusion and frustration tech often brings to consumers. He and I discussed Google and Apple photo services and their many complications.

Finally, in our closing segment called Enough Said, in which we pontificate until we’re weary about a controversial topic of the week, I address the Reddit community and the thorny issue when free speech runs right into hate speech.

If you like what you hear, you can also head over to “Re/code Replay,” an archive of audio content from our events and other interviews like mine with President Barack Obama and many others by Walt Mossberg, Peter Kafka, Ina Fried and more. We’ve already published about 30 episodes from past events, including all of the Code 2015 sessions, and we’ll add more over time.

Every episode for both shows will be available in two places: On our site at http://recode.net/podcasts and on Apple iTunes (here for “Re/code Decode” and here for “Re/code Replay”). We’ll be adding more distributors soon, as well as new episodes weekly. And you can follow @recode for updates on upcoming guests.

If you like what we’re doing, please write a review on iTunes — and, if you don’t, just strafe me on Twitter @karaswisher. You can also suggest guests for the show there and I will try my level best to nab them for our Red Chair interview.

Next week in that hot seat: Sam Altman, Y Combinator major domo.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Technology
The case for AI realismThe case for AI realism
Technology

AI isn’t going to be the end of the world — no matter what this documentary sometimes argues.

By Shayna Korol
Politics
OpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agendaOpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agenda
Politics

The AI company released a set of highly progressive policy ideas. There’s just one small problem.

By Eric Levitz
Future Perfect
Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.
Future Perfect

Protecting astronauts in space — and maybe even Mars — will help transform health on Earth.

By Shayna Korol
Podcasts
The importance of space toilets, explainedThe importance of space toilets, explained
Podcast
Podcasts

Houston, we have a plumbing problem.

By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Technology
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputerWhat happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
Technology

How they’re using AI at the lab that created the atom bomb.

By Joshua Keating
Future Perfect
Humanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious missionHumanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious mission
Future Perfect

Space barons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t seem religious. But their quest to colonize outer space is.

By Sigal Samuel