I have always enjoyed this show but what I enjoy is conversations about organisational charts and decision making frameworks. Everyone is covering the current administration’s ludicrous decisions currently and, yes, it needs scrutiny; but it’s not the USP of this show and I’d much rather they frame this through conversation with tech CEOs vs constant explicitly political episodes.

Has a noticeable political bias the last few months, to the point that chunks of episodes are just rants. Unfollowed and lost a lot of respect for the journalistic integrity here with the latest Tesla protestor organizer interview. I learned nothing and felt dumber for listing. It was over-the-top whining, some outright wrong numbers and misinformation, and Nilay didn’t correct or pushback. He went right along with the guy, and Nilay’s questions were softballs. Very disappointed as it used to be a good show, but par for the course for the Verge content.

Informative, entertaining. One of the few places captains of industry are challenged.

I used to love this podcast. Nilay has always done a great job to challenge technologists and its role in society. Now we have a politics that clearly does not align with Nilays (or mine), it’s become the focus of this podcast and it’s wearing. It’s now a Trump protest podcast. I’ll tune back in a year or two and hope it gets back to the awesomeness it once was!

A great blend of business insights from top leaders and well researched policy implications. Bringing a tech savvy perspective to the modern political and business landscape.

This used to be my favorite business podcast. Sadly, over the last two months, it has morphed into "This Week In Left Wing Conspiracy Theories". Why? I really wanted it to stay the way it was, not turn into yet another Vox Media "How Trump is destroying America" drivel. Sad :(

This is the 21st century, not the 20th. Politics defines how the web works or doesn’t, what the web can deliver and what it illegal. Laws passed in Europe affect how technology works in America and how censorship is applied. China is a communist dictatorship which requires backdoors built in hardware, and they want to push their not-independent technology companies into the American marketplace. Most governments today can pull the plug on the web, as has been demonstrated in Africa and Russia, and China vigorously monitors and censors communication apps. If a podcast doesn’t or won’t discuss the effects of politics on technology, how can it possibly be a good podcast today? England forced Apple to stop decryption of private information. Anyone who thinks politics doesn’t matter in business and technology is, to be frank, an idiot.

I’ve been listening to this podcast for around 3 years and have enjoyed it for the most part. Main issue is the drift towards political talk. I have political podcasts that I listen to, and that’s what I expect to hear there. When I listen to those, I’m in the mood for some political talk/theory. When I listen to Decoder, I’m looking for tech and business. I don’t even necessarily disagree with the political view expressed, it’s just not needed.

Nilay is a great interviewer because he really understands what is at stake. He leads the conversations into the truly consequential parts of technology and how it continues to affect civics, economics, politics, and just being human. Other comments complain about the politics here, but you can’t do justice to the impact technology and innovation has if you don’t look at the whole picture. No one does it better than Nilay, in my opinion.

Do we have to wait another 4 years until this pod gets back to just covering what listeners come for? Sad… this is a 5 star pod when the politics stay out of it.

Anyone “2025” Nilay “I hate Trump”

Just send it

One of the only podcasts I have consistently listened to for a very long time.

Great podcast if not for the left leaning political slant. Nilay can’t help himself but to act as a mouthpiece for liberal talking points, honest and backed by facts or not… It’s a shame because without that this would be a 5 star podcast.

nilay is a national treasure!! keep up the great work

I'm generally a fan of Decoder, and today I was moved to send a compliment for "It's the first amendment stupid" - Great episode - an interesting titbit of history on the regulation of speech via broadcast licenses (yeah kudos for somehow making that interesting! ) and very neatly and sharply bringing home the potential impact of our impending Choice.

I love the pure journalism contained within this podcast.

As the internet devolves into advertising driven nonsense…. The Verge holds the banner for trustable source of information. Thank you for standing for truth and trust.

Thanks for the great work team Decoder!

Some good info but too many interviews that end up more like ads for company of the ceo being interviewed. Combined with advertisers like Schwab, you need to take everything with a grain of salt.

Really going down hill. Could be so much better. My advice: quit trying to be cool to these interview subjects and ask harder questions.

One of the best pod casts I have listened to in the last year. Extremely informative! Great lineup of guests. Host is great at questioning the guest. Listening to all the shows I have missed.

Idk what the exact issue is maybe it’s me. (It’s probably me) But Nilay sometimes mumbles or slurs his words slightly. And even when i have AirPods Pro in I struggle to know if he said “are” or “aren’t”, and similar but i know sometimes he says things as an aside kinda quickly and when he does I’m like pleeeease into the mic. I like everything these folks talk about bc it’s so far beyond me. But I can’t help but feel it’s an issue of diction, like there’s a reason why news people sound the way they do and did during time of radio and I guess I want that back. 🫥😬😮‍💨😵‍💫

homie is the most thoughtful thinker in the game. he’s open minded and inspired/inspiring but also ruthlessly critical at the same time - you can tell he takes a lot of care and time to wrestle with that balance. all the vergecast folks do this too tho. anyways much love

Decoder is a must listen for me. I'm especially interested in episodes on law and AI, and especially when those two intersect. But really, every episode is so well made, informative, and entertaining.

Great podcast on the pitfalls of idol worship, and the downfall of a company that ran out of ideas.

I’m in business development and I swear this podcast makes me better at my job. Nilay interviews some of the most successful, dynamic executives in tech and beyond. You learn so much about how they build and run their businesses, and you learn how to talk like an executive, which is a hilarious side benefit. I recommend this podcast to my colleagues, and I’m recommending it to YOU.

Be like Mike, give 5 stars

Nilay does a great job interviewing CEOs and getting into their philosophies and how they work. Definitely a great listen for anyone interested in tech, business, and how they intersect.

In a sea of podcasts for the intersection of business and tech, this one stands out as one of the best. Nilay is one of the best journalist interviewers out there, at a time when many just lib softball questions and don’t press the issues at hand, he handles the job incredibly well. I also like the new additional episodes that aren’t interviews. Keep up the great work!

Always interesting listen. Not the same standard business interview show.

Just heard it for the first time with Polestar CEO. It was a great and insightful interview. I’m looking forward to putting this podcast in my regular rotation.

Really great journalism requires two things: first, it requires deep and substantive reporting; but second, it requires a coherent vision of the subject. The balance of these two things is impossibly tricky, but Nilay is the rare genius who does the work and pulls it off. Journalism is not the bloodless, or mindless, assembling of facts. That’s a necessary precondition for journalism, but not the measure of success. Journalism requires an editorial insight into the beat being covered, it requires a clear point of view, that guides the journalists and the audience as they together explore the beat covered. Nilay is so successful because he is committed to both of these dimensions of his work, and DECODER is a pure example. I’ve learned so much from this podcast, and I am so grateful for it. When Nilay enters into every interview, I know what he cares about, and I understand WHY he cares about it. I love having him as a guide into the world of leaders, decision makers, and other entrepreneurs. I love the clarity and consistency of his curiosity, and how it has given me a useful framework for evaluating each of his guests. One of the special pleasures of Nilay’s work is that, because of his consistency and transparency, I can compare guests across podcasts. When CEOs return to the show, Nilay has a ready scorecard for them to answer to because he can refer back to their last visit. But even better, when he has multiple executives on from a single industry, we can meaningfully compare and contrast their styles, their visions, their assessments of the state of the industry, because Nilay is there to patiently set them each alongside the others. I have learned so much by the contrasting approaches of the different executives, even when they face identical problems. Ultimately, Nilay is producing a record of the industries that he covers. It is guided by his interests and passions, but it is developed with an exacting patience and thoroughness that has it grow more and more useful as the episodes pile up. You can feel Nilay’s work really elevating the industries he covers by meaningfully holding them accountable. Not to his arbitrary whims, but to the measure of their own words. Nilay remembers what you said six months ago, and he’s ready to hold you to your claims. On a personal note, I am really inspired by how Nilay balances the grace of a good host with the precision and bravery of a lawyer. He’s always genial, welcoming, respectful, but never timid or obsequious. He has his questions, and he wants answers. Not only is this impressive, but it’s an approach that really humanizes his subjects. Executives can often be distant, risk averse, and just plain difficult as interview subjects. But Nilay, as a successful founder himself, is able to really engage with these leaders in a way that helps me to understand who they are and why they do what they do. You should listen to DECODER.

Great mix of business and tech topics, and interviews with leaders in the space.

I think Nilay has a really interesting perspective so I appreciate how the second show allows a more deep dive into a topic than previously available. The AI copyright and Tesla episode were particularly insightful! I appreciate the thoughtfulness and insights from The Verge staff.

Thoughtful and amazing interviews!

Decoder is a super enjoyable, engaging show that dives into the business-y side of tech without buying into a lot of tech’s own hype. Nilay’s a fantastic interviewer - he does a great job getting into the minds of the interviewees, and pushing them on interesting, difficult topics. Definitely worth a subscribe

And his Tesla takes are completely valid. signed, a proud Model Y owner

I think this show is entirely too researched. If I want to want to bother to learn about things I’ll listen to this. Until then I’ll have Grok read my X feed while I am FSD my way TO THE MOON!!

I appreciate how Nay brings a broad context to his interviews… I love how he frames the podcast episode before each listen. Decoder team you do a great job.

Love Nilay and The Verge. I used to only listen if I was interested in the guest, but a lot of the guests were off my radar. But he’s switched things up lately and every episode is great.

Been listening ever since the host Nilay accidentally got the Substack CEO to launch their weird “no position on hate speech” — prescient! If you want to know a lot about org charts, this is the podcast for you

Nilay is a polished interviewer who asks pointed and pressing questions to all of his guests. I always learn something new and appreciate the perspective he brings with his role at The Verge and the jovial yet professional tone he carries throughout the conversation.

Really bad takes on business, based on pop culture / mass media more than actual facts and research. I can get this elsewhere thanks.

It’s harder and harder to take this seriously because the bias is so obvious they don’t even try to hide it. I agree with other comments that generally the interviews seem to avoid hard questions. It’s sad because there are some good conversations, but due to the bias it’s hard to take anything objectively.

Keeps you up to date on the most relevant business / tech related topics. I listen every week…

I started listening when the podcast first launch and found the experience mostly unsatisfying. I have always appreciated Nilay’s perspective, however, the interviews felt very shallow and repetitive to me: someone who has a clear stake in a position comes on and avoids answering any difficult questions with little charge by the host. I would finish each episode having learned nothing from the guest and the show soon lost any appeal for me. However, it looks like they have added some shows that do not center around guest interviews so I may revisit some of these newer episodes to see their value for me.

Nilay has been incredibly thoughtful in his structure for interviews. The “decoder questions” always come but there’s so much more to each discussion. He is not hesitant to push on guests when needed. He is also able to communicate concepts that I’m not sure I would otherwise care about or maybe not understand why they’re important.

The second episodes are fantastic! I love listening to Nilay just explain things. Love it.

This is the same guy who has ruined the vergecast by introducing a bad fit then failing to train them ! I tried quitting the show but I have failed so now I suffer through it because Niley who is the boss can’t give us a more intelligent person , Cranz ruined the vergecast and its all your fault.