Decoder with Nilay Patel

It’s time for our annual Fourth of July grill episode here at Decoder, which is when we invite the CEOs of outdoor cooking companies onto the show to explain just how their businesses kind of look like every other business. And this is a very special edition. 

Today we’re talking to Roger Dahle, the CEO of Weber Blackstone, a full circle moment for Decoder. Roger was our first-ever grill CEO on the show back when he was the CEO of just Blackstone. Five years later, Roger now runs one of his biggest competitors, after Blackstone announced a merger with Weber in 2024. So we talked about that process, and how Roger is managing the integration of these two grilling giants. 

Links: 

Weber and Blackstone to combine | The Verge

How Blackstone became the darling of grill TikTok | Decoder (2021)

How arson led to a culture reboot at Traeger, with CEO Jeremy Andrus | Decoder (2022)

Big Green Egg CEO Dan Gertsacov on growing kamado cooking | Decoder (2024)

How SharkNinja took over the home | Decoder (2025)

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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 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

Hey everyone, Nilay here. You might remember I took a break from Decoder last year — we had a baby, so I took some leave. In my place, we had an excellent slate of guest hosts, and we’ve been working hard to bring you those episodes in full video since we launched our official Decoder YouTube channel.

So today, we’re featuring a really great interview conducted by my very good friend Joanna Stern, now the founder and CEO of New Things, and Ford CEO Jim Farley. Joanna pulled some exclusive news out of Jim at the time, including some telling quotes on Trump’s tariff policy, on Ford competing with Chinese EVs, and the company's stance on Apple CarPlay. 

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links: 

Ford CEO Jim Farley on China, tariffs, and the quest for a $30,000 EV | Decoder

Joanna Stern is not a robot, but she lived with them | Decoder

Ford's Jim Farley: 'I totally would’ve done it differently.’ | The Verge

Ford pulls the plug on the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck | NPR

Inside the lab where Ford is trying to crack the code on cheap EVs | The Verge

Ford is fighting against physics to build affordable EVs | The Verge

Ford reveals breakthrough process for lower priced EVs | The Verge

Ford CEO Jim Farley on building the electric F-150 | Decoder (2021)

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.

The show is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. The video version of this episode was edited by Kabir Chopra. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. 

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

A lot has changed on the internet, in the creator landscape, and at Patreon itself since CEO Jack Conte was last on the show in 2021. AI and platform shifts have stolen creator content and decimated artists' reach and revenue streams, and Patreon has made some pretty existential changes to the way it works in response. 

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links: 

My thoughts on AI | Patreon

I tried to prove I’m not AI | Howtown

Patreon: Apple’s 30% tax is the price of staying in the App Store | The Verge

Welcome to hell, Elon (2022) | The Verge

Reality is losing the deepfake war | Decoder

Elon Musk is steamrolling Wall Street to become a trillionaire | Decoder

Incorruptible | Simon & Schuster

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 Xander Adams. 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 Hayden Field, senior AI reporter for The Verge. Often when Hayden comes on the show, it’s because something has gone wrong in the world of AI. Last weekend, that something was a pretty intense mix of Anthropic, the Trump administration, and Anthropic’s new AI model, Fable 5. 

Hayden actually just published a fantastic play-by-play on The Verge about how the Fable ban went down, and the scramble through the weekend from both sides to figure out what exactly happened and how it might get resolved. So I wanted her to come on and just walk me through the timeline and what it all means.

Read the ⁠full interview transcript on The Verge⁠.

Links: 

Inside the fight over Claude Mythos 5 | ⁠The Verge⁠

Anthropic cuts off Fable 5 and Mythos 5 access following government order | ⁠The Verge⁠

Anthropic got hit by export rules nobody understands | ⁠The Verge⁠

Anthropic’s safety superpower | ⁠Stratechery⁠

"They screwed us": Personality clashes sent Anthropic's models offline | ⁠Axios⁠

Anthropic’s call for AI nonproliferation | ⁠New York Times⁠

Trump signs exec order to review AI models before release | ⁠The Verge⁠

New Anthropic model finds security problems ‘in every major OS, browser’ | ⁠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 Kate Cox and Nick Statt and 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 Slydio CEO Adam Bry, who runs the leading US maker of autonomous drones. We covered a lot in this conversation, including Skydio’s police and government work at a time when military use of AI is more controversial than ever and competing with Chinese drones against the backdrop of the Trump’s administration’s DJI ban.

There’s a lot in this one – maybe more than anything, it was refreshing to hear Adam talk about using AI to bring even more people to work at Skydio as the company expands. I also got to fly a drone, which ruled.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links: 

Flying a semi-autonomous industrial drone | Decoder

Sorry kid, drones are for war now | The Verge

The FCC’s foreign drone ban is here | The Verge

Skydio is pivoting to enterprise — its consumer drones are dead | The Verge

Skydio commits $3.5B to expand US manufacturing | Skydio

A US drone maker tries to take back the country’s skies | Bloomberg

DEA looks to add Skydio, Parrot drones to its arsenal | FedScoop

The future of border security isn’t at the border at all | 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 Kate Cox and Nick Statt and 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