Épisodes

  • Alex Gibney on his Elon Musk documentary and why the doc business has never been more scared

    Alex Gibney on his Elon Musk documentary and why the doc business has never been more scared
    Oct 9 2026
    Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney joins Mixed Signals to talk about his four-hour film on Elon Musk. Max and Ben ask Gibney how he built an AI avatar of Musk using only his actual words when Musk refused to participate, what Elon’s first wife, Justine Musk, taught him about “gaslighting” as a management strategy, and why he thinks Musk’s political turn was less ideological than it was transactional and childlike. Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media For more from Think with Google, check out ThinkwithGoogle.com. Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com
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    49 min
  • Kasey Esser on being the "Brad Pitt of microdramas" and what's next for the booming vertical video format

    Kasey Esser on being the "Brad Pitt of microdramas" and what's next for the booming vertical video format
    Oct 2 2026
    Actor and producer Kasey Esser joins Mixed Signals to explain the multi-billion dollar "microdrama" industry, and why he's become one of its biggest stars. Max and Ben ask Kasey how a werewolf Romeo-and-Juliet show that shot in just a week for a hundred thousand dollars became a global hit, what it's like to translate Chinese scripts for American audiences in real time on set, and how microdramas make all of their money. Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media For more from Think with Google, check out ThinkwithGoogle.com. Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com
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    39 min
  • Liquid Death CEO Mike Cessario on selling water like a punk band, and why comedy is the one thing Coca-Cola can't buy

    Liquid Death CEO Mike Cessario on selling water like a punk band, and why comedy is the one thing Coca-Cola can't buy
    Sep 25 2026
    Liquid Death founder and CEO Mike Cessario joins Mixed Signals (with Semafor business editor Liz Hoffman filling in for Max) to explain how he built a billion-dollar water company by treating his ads like SNL sketches. Ben and Liz ask Mike why he thinks comedy is a more durable marketing genre than celebrity testimonials, why big companies almost never win when they sue smaller ones, and whether Liquid Death will fizzle out into the graveyard of buzzy consumer brands that came before it. Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media For more from Think with Google, check out ThinkwithGoogle.com. Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com
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    51 min
  • Pangram CEO Max Spero on why human touch is about to become the scarcest thing on the internet

    Pangram CEO Max Spero on why human touch is about to become the scarcest thing on the internet
    Sep 18 2026
    Pangram founder and CEO Max Spero joins Mixed Signals to explain how his AI detection tool actually works, and why he thinks the escalating cat-and-mouse game between AI detectors and "humanizers" is a fight worth having. Max and Ben ask Spero about how Pangram can already distinguish Claude from ChatGPT, why he built a humanizer internally and refuses to release it, and what it would actually take for a fine-tuned personal AI to fool his model. Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media For more from Think with Google, check out ThinkwithGoogle.com. Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com
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    49 min
  • Salman Rushdie on what he's learned about media after a lifetime of being trapped by it

    Salman Rushdie on what he's learned about media after a lifetime of being trapped by it
    Sep 11 2026
    Author Sir Salman Rushdie joins Mixed Signals to talk about why he made a documentary about the attack that nearly killed him, and why he's ambivalent about having done it. Max and Ben ask Salman how he and director Alex Gibney divided authorship of the film, and what he felt watching footage of the attack for the first time. They also get into what he's learned from decades of being both subject and strategist in his own media coverage, and why he's trying very hard to pretend AI doesn't exist. Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media For more from Think with Google, check out ThinkwithGoogle.com. Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com
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    42 min
  • Jessica Tarlov on being the lone Democrat at Fox, what she knows about Pete Hegseth, and why she defends her conservative colleagues

    Jessica Tarlov on being the lone Democrat at Fox, what she knows about Pete Hegseth, and why she defends her conservative colleagues
    Sep 4 2026
    Jessica Tarlov is the co-host of both Fox News' The Five and the Raging Moderates podcast. She joins Mixed Signals to talk about what it's like to be outnumbered four-to-one on the most-watched show in cable news — and why she thinks most of her liberal friends are missing what's really happening there. Max and Ben ask Jessica how she navigates on-air conflict without making it personal, what she knew about Pete Hegseth before he became Defense Secretary, and why she finds herself defending her Fox colleagues to New York liberals almost as often as she defends Democrats on air. Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media For more from Think with Google, check out ThinkwithGoogle.com. Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com
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    56 min
  • Taylor Lorenz on the moral panic around kids and phones, and how she logs 17 hours of screen time

    Taylor Lorenz on the moral panic around kids and phones, and how she logs 17 hours of screen time
    Aug 28 2026
    Internet reporter and YouTuber Taylor Lorenz joins Mixed Signals to make the case that the bipartisan push to get kids off social media is less about child safety than it looks. Max and Ben ask Taylor where the actual line is between moral panic and legitimate concern, why she thinks the academic consensus on social media and youth mental health is being drowned out, and her at times surprising anti-anti-AI stance. Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com
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    38 min
  • Social media consultant Rachel Karten on the death of the follower, micro-dramas, and being “algorithmically ungovernable”

    Social media consultant Rachel Karten on the death of the follower, micro-dramas, and being “algorithmically ungovernable”
    Aug 21 2026
    Social media consultant and “Link in Bio” newsletter author Rachel Karten joins Mixed Signals to explain what social media actually is in 2026. Max and Ben ask Rachel how the shift from follower-based to algorithm-driven distribution broke the contract between platforms and creators, why brands are quietly building their own shows without telling anyone they’re behind them, and what the regulatory gap around paid content is actually doing to the feed. Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media For more from Think with Google, check out ThinkwithGoogle.com. Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com
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    47 min