Vox Media Podcast Network
500 episodes listed below
Peter Kafka interviews reporters and executives on the business fights inside OpenAI, Musk's companies, and legacy media.
Channels with Peter Kafka treats media and technology as businesses first. Its interviews move from Sam Altman’s trust problem to Tesla’s investor base, People Inc.’s post-Google strategy, Hollywood dealmaking, and the politics around a World Cup in Trump’s America.
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Channels with Peter Kafka is a one-on-one interview show; nearly every episode is Kafka in conversation with a single guest for 35 to 50 minutes. The host is Peter Kafka, a veteran media and technology journalist who currently holds a chief correspondent role at Business Insider, and the show runs under the Vox Media Podcast Network. Recurring subject matter centers on power and accountability inside major tech and media companies: AI industry governance and leadership disputes (OpenAI, Sam Altman, Anthropic), Elon Musk's overlapping business ventures (SpaceX, Tesla, X, xAI), and the business pressures facing legacy publishers as Google referral traffic declines and AI licensing deals reshape revenue. Guests are typically investigative journalists and media reporters (Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz of the New Yorker, Bloomberg's Max Chavkin, media critic Eric Wemple), or industry executives and insiders speaking about their own companies or reporting (People Inc CEO Neil Vogel). The show periodically widens its lens to entertainment and sports, bringing on a TV writer to discuss a Silicon Valley satire or Men in Blazers co-founder Roger Bennett to discuss World Cup politics and culture. Episodes are built around a news hook or a specific piece of reporting rather than general industry chat, and frequently reference primary source material like leaked memos, court records, or long-form profiles. Cross-promotional ad breaks for other Vox Media and Business Insider podcasts (Net Worth and Chill, The Verge Cast, The Curiosity Shop) appear within episodes. The show suits listeners who want detailed, sourced discussion of the business and governance stories behind AI companies and major media outlets rather than general tech news roundups. Production is conversational and lightly produced, with the host pushing guests on specifics rather than letting claims go unchallenged.
Made for: People who follow the business and governance side of tech and media industries, including AI company leadership, legacy publisher economics, and platform power struggles.
What sets it apart: Grounds each conversation in a specific investigation, deal, or document (a New Yorker profile, an IPO filing, a leaked memo) rather than general industry commentary, and pairs tech-industry guests with occasional media-critic and sports-media voices.
Media and tech aren’t just intersecting — they’re fully intertwined. And to understand how those worlds work, and what they mean for you, veteran journalist Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers - and gets them to spell it out in plain, BS-free English.Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Peter Kafka makes media strategy legible by pressing executives and observers on the incentives, risks, and power behind their decisions.
Channels with Peter Kafka follows the decisions that reshape media and technology, using extended interviews to connect executive strategy with the pressures underneath it.
Peter Kafka keeps asking what the corporate story leaves out, so you can stop nodding at the valuation.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sharp governance-minded look at Sam Altman, OpenAI, and why trust matters when frontier AI moves into the market.
Sam Altman's trust problem lands here as a governance story, not just a founder-profile pile-on. Peter Kafka starts with the question that matters for business listeners: are Altman's reported failings unusually serious, or part of the behavior powerful tech leaders often get…
Sharpest when it traces the money beneath the satire.
This conversation works best when it stays on incentives and leaves the larger ideas in view. It is strongest in the way it frames hourly pay as something a character can see as fundamentally unfair once she believes she has created far more value, and in the way it treats…
A sharp business read on how Musk keeps Tesla's valuation story alive as government scrutiny builds.
Elon Musk comes back into focus as a business story, with Tesla framed as part industrial company and part market phenomenon. Peter Kafka and Bloomberg's Matt Shafkin spend the strongest stretch on why Musk is hard to value in normal financial terms: years of big claims around…
A sharp operator conversation on People Inc's push toward owned brands, app engagement, and less dependence on the open web.
People Inc's strategy comes through as a media company trying to rely less on open-web traffic and more on brands it can own, deepen, and monetize directly.
A World Cup conversation that uses football to read the country around it.
Roger Bennett treats the World Cup less like a tournament than a test of the country hosting it. He folds in history, politics, and culture without losing sight of the matches, and Peter Kafka keeps asking the next obvious question, which gives the talk some needed pressure.
A steady look at ownership, leverage, and the Post's uneasy Bezos era.
Peter Kafka and Eric Wemple trace how a billionaire owner can pull a newspaper deeper into his wider business orbit. They move through The Washington Post's cuts, buyouts, and management changes, then weigh Jeff Bezos's public turn toward Donald Trump against the harder question…
A sharp ESPN strategy conversation about streaming fragmentation, sports rights, betting and what younger fans may tolerate.
Peter Kafka frames Jimmy Pitaro's challenge plainly: ESPN is still central to sports TV, but the old bundle is shrinking and the audience is being split across streaming apps. The best parts of the conversation sit in that tension.
Stephen Dubner tests bourbon economics, Alzheimer's research, and money advice against hard data.
Daily business news with Kai Ryssdal, tracking Fed policy, oil shocks, and private credit.
Galloway rotates Office Hours Q&A, Raging Moderates politics, and China Decode geopolitics weekly.
Joel and Matt answer listener money questions weekly in the show's Ask HTM segments.
Brené Brown's long-form conversations linking grief, caregiving, politics, and nonviolence to her vulnerability research.
Sam Altman has a trust problem.
A character is eaten up by the unfairness of hourly wages.
Peter Kafka and Bloomberg's Max Chavkin center the episode on SpaceX's planned IPO, with Chavkin arguing that Musk is no longer just selling rockets but a bundle that includes Starlink and XAI.
This episode explores how prediction markets are transforming various aspects of society by turning everything into a bet, touching on business applications, AI, and technology trends.
Neil Vogel wants to know where the money still is.
Matt Belloni discusses the Oscars, the Ellisons, and the future of Hollywood in this interview about the entertainment industry.
Roger Bennett treats the World Cup like a civic stress test.
This episode discusses recent developments in Hollywood, including Netflix's decisions, Paramount's successes, and the Ellisons' influence in the entertainment industry.
Peter Kafka discusses Donald Trump's power and its impact on media and tech.
Peter Kafka interviews industry leaders about the intertwined worlds of media and technology.
Peter Kafka interviews industry leaders about the intertwined worlds of media and technology.
Kafka tests the ownership question around Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post.
Peter Kafka interviews industry leaders about the intertwined worlds of media and technology.
This episode discusses running a newsroom in Minneapolis and explores how to create a high-quality production like Game of Thrones on a reduced budget.
Peter Kafka interviews industry leaders about the intersection of media and technology.
This episode features an interview with Semafor's Justin Smith discussing how to build a profitable media company within three years.
Peter Kafka interviews industry leaders about the intersection of media and technology.
This episode features an interview with Craig Finn, leader of The Hold Steady, discussing friendship, fans, and the band's second life, hosted by Peter Kafka who knew him from junior high.
Peter Kafka interviews podcasting pioneer PJ Vogt about creating meaningful work in podcasting.
This episode delves into the ongoing battle between Netflix and Paramount over Warner Bros, featuring insights from Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw on the implications for the media industry.
This episode features an interview with Lachlan Cartwright, who transitioned from tabloid journalism to becoming a prominent media gossip writer, discussing insider stories about media and power.
Peter Kafka and Lucas Shaw discuss Netflix's $83 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery.
Peter Kafka interviews PBS CEO Paula Kirker about the impact of federal funding cuts on public broadcasting.
Peter Kafka interviews entrepreneur Tony Hale about his new venture and the future of media.
Peter Kafka discusses Meta's new AR glasses and interviews tech reporter Alex Heath about his new venture and Mark Zuckerberg.
Sports still drives TV, and ESPN remains close to the action.
Peter Kafka interviews New York Times journalist Mike Isaacs about the latest AI developments, including OpenAI's new model and the state of Silicon Valley.
Peter Kafka introduces a discussion about magazines and their relevance, sharing a personal anecdote about moving to New York to work at a glossy magazine.
Peter Kafka interviews media reporter Max Tani about his scoop on the New York Times and the state of media business.
Peter Kafka interviews Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker about the show's seventh season and its cultural impact.
Peter Kafka interviews Emily Sundberg about her one-person newsletter business and the media industry.
Peter Kafka hosts a bonus episode with Ben Smith and Brian Morrissey discussing optimistic developments in the media industry.
Peter Kafka interviews media and tech leaders about the intertwined worlds of media and technology.
Peter Kafka interviews Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney about their recent court victory against Apple and the implications for app store control.
Peter Kafka interviews Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman about the business of political news and the current state of Congress under the second Trump administration.