Recode Staff

Plus, a former Walmart exec accuses the company of inflating e-commerce growth numbers, Peter Thiel shades Silicon Valley, and the man who helps Elon Musk get dressed.

Plus, the CFO of Boxed leaves as the company looks at acquisition offers, Toys ‘R’ Us is closing all of its 700 U.S. stores, and extraordinary human Stephen Hawking, in his own words.

“My theory — very un-Hollywood — is I’d rather have a small piece of what I anticipate to be a much bigger pie than a big piece of what I anticipate to be a small pie.”

“It’s this sort of tug-of-war between FUD and FOMO that drives the [bitcoin] price in the short run.”

Plus, Amazon is still No. 1 in corporate brand reputation, the black market for Spotify playlists and Instagram followers, and this startup will back up your brain — but it has to kill you first.

The Senate Minority Leader talks about Amazon, net neutrality and why you can’t negotiate with Donald Trump.

Plus, Apple’s market cap hits an all-time high of $922 billion and the company buys the Texture magazine app; Lyft is growing faster than Uber, and John Oliver explains cryptocurrency.

He also worked on the FX series “Justified,” and — for about a minute — “Full House.”