Exponent is a podcast about tech and society hosted by Ben Thompson and James Allworth

Ben Thompson is the author and founder of Stratechery, a blog about the business and strategy of technology. You can follow him on Twitter @benthompson.

James Allworth is the co-author with Clay Christensen of How Will You Measure Your Life and a writer for the Harvard Business Review. You can follow him on Twitter @jamesallworth.

Episode 048 — An Exhausting Week

In this week’s episode, Ben and James discuss Dick Costolo stepping down as CEO of Twitter, Apple’s seeming war on Google, and the concerning launch of Apple Music.

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Episode 047 — Apple, Google, and Privacy

In this week’s episode, Ben and James briefly discuss Jony Ive’s promotion, the future of Apple, Google I/O, and Tim Cook’s speech on privacy.

Links

  • Ben Thompson: The Apple Car and Jony Ive — Stratechery Daily Update
  • Ben Thompson: Google IO: Android and Serving the World; Photos, Google Now, and the World’s Information; Google’s Turning Point — Stratechery Daily Update
  • Ben Thompson: The Funnel Framework — Stratechery
  • Matthew Panzarino: Apple’s Tim Cook Delivers Blistering Speech On Encryption, Privacy — TechCrunch
  • Ben Thompson: Tim Cook’s Unfair and Unrealistic Privacy Speech, Strategy Credits, The Privacy Priority Problem — Stratechery Daily Update
  • Ben Thompson: Strategy Credit — Stratechery
  • Anna Garvey: The Oregon Trail Generation — Social Media Week

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Episode 046 — Everything Has a Price

In this week’s episode, Ben and James discuss ad-blockers, both personal ones and the rumored carrier-implemented one, as well as Internet.org and the moral quandary that is the Internet.

Links

  • Ben Thompson: Carriers to Implement Ad-Blocking — Stratechery Daily Update (members-only)
  • Laura McGann: How Ars Technica’s “experiment” with ad-blocking readers built on its community’s affection for the site — Nieman Lab
  • Ben Thompson: Open Source Apps — Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: The Changing — and Unchanging — Structure of TV — Stratechery

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Episode 045 — It’s a Watch that Does Stuff

In this week’s episode, Ben finally has an Apple Watch: James has lots of questions about it. (And yes, we should have talked about Google Now.)

Links

  • Horace Dediu: The Battle for The Wrist — Asymco
  • Ben Thompson: Mobile Makes Facebook Just an App; That’s Great News – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Why Now for Apple Watch – Stratechery
  • John Gruber: Watch, Apple Watch – Daring Fireball

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Episode 044 — Up in the Clouds with Twitter

In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss why Twitter needs new leadership, its massive potential, and why Google probably should acquire it

Links

  • Ben Thompson: Twitter Needs New Leadership – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Twitter’s Marketing Problem – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Facebook and the Feed – Stratechery
  • Ev Williams: Sometimes Things Stay Stuck – Medium
  • Ben Thompson: Twitter Acquires MoPub – Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson: Peak Google – Stratechery

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Episode 043 – Project Fi and Facebook’s Feed

In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss the prospects for Google’s Project Fi as well as Facebook’s decision to change their News Feed algorithm

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Episode 042 — Monopolizing Your Ears

In this week’s episode Ben and James thank John Siracusa then dive into the EU’s antitrust investigation of Google and discuss whether or not antitrust is more or less important in technology.

Links

  • John Siracusa: OS X Reviewed – Hypercritical
  • John Siracusa: OS X 10.10 Yosemite Review Conclusion – Ars Technica
  • Ben Thompson: Growing Apple at WWDC – Stratechery
  • Danny Sullivan: Analyzing the EU’s Antitrust Charges Against Google Over Shopping Search – Search Engine Land
  • Chris Dixon: Proprietary Services vs Open Protocols – Medium
  • Ev Williams: Sometimes Things Stay Stuck – Medium
  • Exponent Episode 005: The World Has Changed – Exponent.FM

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Episode 041 – Bubbles

In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss whether or not there is a bubble, as well as a bit on the Apple Watch. Please note this was recorded before the Apple Watch reviews were released.

Links

  • Ben Thompson: It’s Not 1999 – Stratechery
  • The Unicorn List – Fortune
  • Ben Thompson: The Multitudes of Social – Stratechery
  • Bill Gurley: Investors Beware: Today’s $100M+ Late-stage Private Rounds Are Very Different from an IPO – Above the Crowd
  • Turd on the Front Porch – The Talk Show
  • Ben Thompson: Apple Watch’s Bad Messaging – Stratechery (members-only)
  • David Pierce: iPhone Killer: The Secret History of the Apple Watch – Wired
  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Government Surveillance – YouTube
  • Ben Thompson: Apple Watch: Asking Why and Saying No – Stratechery

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Episode 040 – BuzzFeed and Amazon

In this week’s episode Ben and James discuss BuzzFeed in the context of the Brother Orange story, then talk about Amazon’s Dash Button and Home Services initiative, along with a dive into the technical details of Amazon’s balance sheet (sorry, it’s a bit dry) and why Ben is nervous.

Links

  • Matt Stopera: I Followed My Stolen iPhone Across The World, Became A Celebrity In China, And Found A Friend For Life – BuzzFeed
  • Ben Thompson: Why BuzzFeed is the Most Important News Organization in the World – Stratechery
  • Matt Stopera: Who Is This Man And Why Are His Photos Showing Up On My Phone? – BuzzFeed
  • Peter Osborne: Why I have resigned from the Telegraph – OpenDemocracy
  • Introducing Amazon Dash Button – Amazon
  • Introducing Amazon Dash Replenishment Service – Amazon
  • Amazon Home Services – Amazon
  • Ben Thompson: Losing my Amazon Religion – Amazon
  • Timothy Green: Amazon.com Inc. Is Losing More Money Than You Think – Motley Fool
  • Marc Bain: Consumer culture has found its perfect match in our mobile-first, fast-fashion lifestyles – Quartz

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Episode 039 – Lando Calrissian Publishers

In this week’s episode Ben and James follow up on last week’s episode, introduce the Toilet Bowl philosophy of career development, and then dive into the future of publishers in the world of Facebook.

Due to some technical issues there is a rather abrupt stop at the end – sorry about that!

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