Decoder with Nilay Patel

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 as interim CEO to right the ship during that period. About a year ago, he took the permanent role.

I have been dying to have Tom on the show to talk about how the board decided to move on from previous CEO Patrick Spence, how he diagnosed the issues inside the company, and what decisions he made to fix them. Plus. Tom was willing to get into the weeds and nerd out with me, and I think this one is pretty fun because of it.

Links:

After two years of turmoil, Sonos attempts a triumphant return | The Verge

How Sonos’ Tom Conrad Is reshaping the brand after app disaster | Bloomberg

An in-depth interview with Sonos interim CEO Tom Conrad | The Verge (2025)

Sonos’ smart assistant is expanding from music to home control | The Verge

Inside Sonos’ decision to sue Google — and how it won | Decoder (2022)

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Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s an election year, with a shocking amount of tech policy at stake, and Gov.Hochul has taken strong positions on almost every major tech issue there is. You'll hear us talk about the settlement Meta reached with dozens of states, including New York, and about widespread age verification.

We also discussed 3D printing ghost guns; surveillance and Flock cameras; the politics of building — or not building — AI data centers; and, of course, Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

New Yorkers will need to verify their age for algorithmic feeds | The Verge

The cat-and-mouse game over 3D-printed guns has begun | The Verge

Hochul says she’s using AI to analyze ‘every single rule’ in New York | The Verge

NY becomes the first state to enact a data center moratorium | The Verge

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, I’m talking with Hayden Field, The Verge’s senior AI reporter, about some pure Decoder bait: the seemingly-endless org chart changes at OpenAI, and how all of them seem to consolidate power under cofounder Greg Brockman, the company’s president.

While Sam Altman is the CEO and still OpenAI’s most public face, Brockman has amassed enormous power and influence within the top ranks of the company as other senior leaders have left in rapid succession. So I wanted Hayden to break down for me what’s going on at OpenAI, and the increasingly important role Greg Brockman will play in its future.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

It’s Greg Brockman’s OpenAI now | The Verge

OpenAI’s Brockman brushes off concerns about leadership changes | CNBC

Sam Altman on building OpenAI & betting on the impossible | David Senra

OpenAI’s Q2 sales show tepid growth compared to Anthropic | WSJ

Anthropic's revenue run rate reportedly surpasses $65 billion pre-IPO | Axios

OpenAI President On Reinventing Computers | Johanna Stern / YouTube

Greg Brockman takes control of OpenAI’s products in latest shake-up | Wired

OpenAI’s president is a Trump mega-donor | The Verge

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tim Cadogan is CEO of GoFundMe, the for-profit platform where you can donate to help people with everything from medical expenses to little league uniforms to starting a new business.

Tim took over as CEO in March 2020 — a chaotic moment when GoFundMe became a load-bearing part of American culture. So you can imagine I had a lot of questions for Tim, how he thinks about all this, and how he makes some very tough decisions on what money to make and what money not to make.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

The GoFundMe CEO wants you to ask: ‘How can I help?’ | New York TImes

GoFundMe CEO: We weren't meant to replace COVID relief | USA Today

GoFundMe Is a healthcare utility now | The Atlantic

As Gaza is bombarded, GoFundMe donations are stuck in limbo | The Verge

For the uninsured, crowdfunding provides little help in paying for healthcare | University of Washington

Oregon nonprofits claim GoFundMe impersonated them | Central Oregon Daily News

The causes and consequences of medical crowdfunding | ScienceDirect

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder’s producers are Greg Ott, Kate Cox, and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Eileen Felix. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today is Robert Hart, The Verge’s London-based AI reporter. Robert recently wrote a fantastic story for us about the debate raging inside the world of mathematics — and the existential crisis over what it means that new frontier AI models have become very good at math in a shockingly short period of time.

I wanted to dive into all of this with Robert, who actually spoke to some of the most accomplished mathematicians working today to figure out what’s hype and what’s real — and to get a sense of just how exciting, and how scary, all of this is.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

The AI takeover of mathematics has begun | The Verge

Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science | OpenAI

An unreleased Anthropic model made progress on the Riemann hypothesis| TechCrunch

OpenAI’s amazing — but vastly oversold — new model Astra | Gary Marcus

OpenAI’s math breakthrough played to AI’s strengths | Understanding AI

Why the legendary Erdős problems are falling to AI | Quanta

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Ursa Wright. Our supervising producer is Greg Ott, and our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices