Down Round
By Down Round
Join James "JR" Hennessy, author of newsletter The Terminal, and Raph Dixon, semi-retired producer from The Meeting Tree and self-described "small business owner" as they delve into the weird and wonderful at the intersection of technology, business and culture.
(Premium) #38 - The Apple tax, Elon and our old friend SBF
Down Round has gone premium, and this is our first episode in the warm, comforting embrace of the paywall. We’re celebrating with an omnibus ep updating you all on a few things we’ve gone over previously: Apple, Elon and SBF.
If you’re listening to the preview in front of the paywall – do yourself a favour and sign up. Go on then.
#36 - Smartphones: Can’t beat ‘em! Seriously, we’ve tried.
Everybody promised to disrupt the smartphone — and the smartphone outlasted them all: www.theverge.com/2022/11/23/23474090/smartphone-next-big-thing-ar-vr-metaverse-alexa
#35 - FTX: It just gets worse and worse
Thank you to everyone who made the FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried episode our most listened ever. As a reward for your loyalty, you get another episode about it. Say thank you.
#34 - The inaugural Down Round Q&A Special
#33 - Disney: That’s showbiz, baby!
As Bob replaces Bob (who in turn replaced Bob) we look at the recent goings on at The Walt Disney Company, and how it all fits into the streaming landscape.
#32 - Twitter & Elon Musk, again: Back at it again
We’re checking back in on Twitter under the Musk regime. It’s all going great!
#31 - FTX & Sam Bankman-Fried: SBF, a polycule, amphetamines and the biggest crypto scam in history
Where do we begin with this mess?
The world's second biggest exchange, and crypto's golden boy has collapsed in a matter of days - from $36b to nothing.
Even by crypto standards this story is absurd.
Links
#30 - Airbnb: Tenants of the world unite – you have nothing to lose but your bond!
Airbnb sort of sucks now, and it seems like the company realises it. It has announced guest-friendly changes, but are they enough?
Raph and James dive into all the thorny problems surrounding the company, and come to a final decision on whether you should be forced to do the dishes in your Byron Bay short-term stay. (The answer is no.)
#29 - Apple vs Europe: See you in hell, Lightning cable!
The EU is forcing Apple change its iPhone cable, and they’re huffy even though they were definitely going to do it anyway. The boys discuss European regulation more generally.
#28 - [ATTN: YOUR DATA HAS LEAKED ON THE DARK WEB] ft. Ariel Bogle
A recent series of high-profile hacks of Australian companies including Optus and Medibank have people worried about user data and privacy. Given Raph and James are both terminally chill about their own data, they brought on someone who actually knows what they're talking about: ABC journalist Ariel Bogle.
Links
- The biggest hack in history: Australians scramble to change passports and driver licences after Optus telco data debacle – The Guardian
- ‘The damage here is potentially irreparable’: Scale of Medibank hack worsens – Sydney Morning Herald
- Critics say more needs to be done to stop the next Optus or Medibank style of data breach – ABC
#27 - Elon Musk & Twitter: What happens when a cool and funny guy liberates free speech
Elon's first few days at Twitter HQ have been eventful.
#26 - Productivity software: Another day, another dollar
Productivity software. Our many and valued white collar listeners will know it very well. But will they be able to respect Microsoft Teams after the Down Round boys give it a skewering?
#25 - Peaceful Rain Sounds to Sleep/Study to - beautiful, ambient, relax, chill
Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are changing the way music is made. We discuss.
#24 - Meta's Metaverse: A 10 minute long game of beer pong where no one speaks
We've plugged into blockchain metaverses, but how is Facebook/Meta's multi-billion dollar attempt going?
Company Documents Show Meta’s Flagship Metaverse Falling Short - Wall Street Journal ($)
#23 - Kanye West (Ye): Is Yeezus going to finally solve social media's moderation conundrum?
Kanye says he's going to buy Parler, the 'free speech'-focused Twitter clone. But more broadly, what is a platform's responsibility when it comes to removing speech? Do we want our tech overlords to determine what is allowed to be said and what isn't? If not them... then who?
#22 - AI: Is it (finally) coming for our jobs? ft. Dan Nolan
AI is once again all the rage – with investor money, engineering talent and media interest flooding into the sector once again. What does the future hold?
Dan Nolan, notorious poster and AI entrepreneur, joins us to discuss.
#21 - Alt-Tech: This episode is strictly NOT for soy drinkers
An anti-woke bank, a conservative safe-space for the desperate and dateless, a censorship-proof YouTube and a free speech Twitter.
We check in on right-wing tech.
#20 – Google: Whistling through the graveyard
Google. You know it as a search engine, an email provider, a cloud hosting service, a mobile operating system, a friend. But did you know that Google is also a killer? Join us on a spooky pre-Halloween journey into the many products Google has unceremoniously killed before their time.
Links
#19 - Elon Musk: What's going down in the DMs of the richest people on the planet?
As part of the ongoing 'Does Elon Have to Buy Twitter?' drama a court has ordered the messages between Elon and many wealthy business leaders and VCs to be made public. It's a treasure trove.
Leave us a review if you have something to say...
#18 - Love: What happens when you give a "one click checkout" guy LSD?
The relationship between frictionless payment, recreational drugs and attempting to find a greater purpose. Silicon Valley's weird relationship with drugs.
#17 - NEOM: This podcast is officially sponsored by the Saudi Public Investment Fund
Saudi Arabia is building the city of the future which includes a 250 metre wide, 500 meter tall and 170km long vertical city. It's supposed to be ready in 8 years time. How's it looking? On track, we bet.
Links:
MBS’s $500 Billion Desert Dream Just Keeps Getting Weirder - Bloomberg
#16 - Uber: The unbearable agony of ridesharing
Have the grand promises of Uber come to pass? Or are we living in an endless nightmare from which we might never wake, endlessly begging from a release that surely never to come? No? Just us? OK.
#15 - Adobe: The most hated company on Earth rides again
Adobe has announced it will acquire the much-loved design platform Figma. What does it all mean, and why does everyone hate Adobe so much?
Down Round investigates. (By which we mean we discussed it, with no investigation or reporting whatsoever.)
#14 – Amazon: The plan for world domination ft. Mark Di Stefano
You asked for a longer episode, and now we've delivered. We are joined by the Mark Di Stefano of the AFR – and formerly of BuzzFeed and The Information – who dispensed the dirt on Amazon for longer than our usual 15-20 minutes. Are you happy now?
#13 - AI Art: Finally, creatives get knocked down a peg
Is AI generated art going to put every graphic designer, writer and podcaster out of a job and win every small town local fete art competition?
DALL-E, MidJourney, Stable Diffusion et al.
Where Does Alex Jones Go From Here? By Charlie Warzel
#12 - OnlyFans: Finally, the British invented something interesting
What happened next? Listen and find out.
#11 - The Rant Zone: The 7 most busted things online
A scheduling hitch leaves Raph and James unprepared, but little did they know, they'd been preparing for this episode their whole lives...
Instead of going deep on one topic, we touch on 7 things that are broken on the internet/in the tech we use every day. Introducing, The Rant Zone.
#10 – The Ethereum Merge: It's time to freak out
The crypto world is in a tizz about the biggest change to Ethereum since it launched. Will Ethereum moving from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake be a black swan disaster event, or the beginning of a new global blockchain reality? Well, we know two guys who are ready and willing to pontificate baselessly on that very question. (Hint: it's us.)
#9 – Twitter, Elon and some guy named Mudge
A whistleblower complaint by renowned hacker Mudge gives us a peek behind the curtain at the alleged shitshow that is Twitter Inc.
Photo of Mudge and Bill Clinton: https://twitter.com/dotMudge/status/1235223136334995457?s=20&t=v0rD3-FAuNEIgUeRP5fttQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3CKgkyc7Qo
#8 — The Metaverse: What's it like in there? We checked.
A sad mea culpa on Adam Neumann, then we talk the latest Metaverse happenings. Raph immersed himself in Decentraland, James immersed himself in Matthew Ball's new book, The Metaverse: And How it Will Revolutionize Everything.
They both report back.
#7 - Andrew Tate: A testosterone-fuelled journey into the algorithm
How did kickboxing champion, manosphere influencer and general ne'er-do-well Andrew Tate hack the algorithms to appear in everyone's feed and become the world's most Googled person? And what the heck does it mean?
#6 - Tornado Cash: You can’t sanction an idea, man!
Tornado Cash is a decentralised "mixer" that allows users to obscure their crypto transactions. It's been sanctioned by the US government, who say it is used to launder money.
#5 - Flow: Elevating the world's consciousness, again
Adam Neumann, the man who set $40 billion on fire during the WeWork IPO debacle, is back – and he's just been given $350 million for another crack.
Links
- FT: WeWork’s Adam Neumann on investing, startups, surfing and Masayoshi Son
#4 – It's time to BeReal
BeReal: The hot new social media craze touts itself as the antithesis of Instagram. But one thing Instagram does is actually make money. Can BeReal reject the tried-and-true path of extracting value from its users while turning a profit? James and Raph discuss.
#3 – MindGeek: One weird trick to lose all your advertising revenue
Visa and Mastercard have both stopped offering their payment processing services to MindGeek, the shadowy conglomerate behind some of the internet's most visited sites – including, but not limited to, YouPorn, Pornhub, RedTube and Brazzers.
What's all this then?
Links:
MindGeek: the secretive owner of Pornhub and RedTube – Financial Times
Visa and Mastercard suspend payments for ad purchases on Pornhub and MindGeek amid controversy – CNBC
#2 – Helium: Finally, a non-criminal use case for crypto... right?
James Hennessy and Raph Dixon on the intersection of technology, business and culture.
This week, after a quick update on the rollercoaster at Instagram since our last episode, we discuss the golden-child of the blockchain: Helium. According to crypto-utopians (including, somehow, the New York Times) Helium provides an obvious use case for crypto outside of buying drugs and evading financial regulation. Unfortunately it might not quite be living up to the hype.
Links:
Maybe There’s a Use for Crypto After All – The New York Times
Web3 darling Helium has bragged about Lime being a client for years. Lime says it isn't true. – Mashable
I’m Regretting Mining Helium… – VoskCoin on YouTube
#1 – Apple is F'ing Facebook
Snap and Twitter stocks plummet, Facebook is in a tizz, social media is being redefined – and it's all Apple and TikTok's fault.
Join James JR Hennessy and Raph Dixon at the intersection of business, tech and culture.
Subscribe to James' Substack here: https://www.theterminal.info/
More about The Meeting Tree here: https://themeetingtree.com