Pod-Alization: Perel Is A Pearl; Cohen On Trump; Google CEO On AI

 Psychotherapist moves her podcast from Spotify To Vox

 
Psychotherapist and New York Times best-selling author Esther Perel and her popular podcast Where Should We Begin? have moved from Spotify to the Vox Media Podcast Network. With each episode featuring real, anonymous pairs in one-time therapy sessions, Where Should We Begin? has made waves for its intimate and sophisticated take on relationships — consistently making best-of lists from outlets including Vogue, GQ, and Cosmopolitan.

This is a good show in my estimation. It's as if Dr. Phil actually knew what he was talking about and cared about his guests.

In the podcasting world, this is big news. It's like if quarterback Aaron Rodgers was actually traded from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets. FYI -- there are not a lot of podcast network moves in the industry. This is a blockbuster.

Perel is recognized as one of today’s most insightful voices on modern relationships. Fluent in nine languages, she helms a therapy practice in NYC and serves as an organizational consultant for Fortune 500 companies around the world. Her celebrated TED Talks have garnered 40M+ views and her bestselling books, Mating in Captivity and The State of Affairs, have been translated into more than 30 languages.


Cohen speaks out on Trump indictment on Mea Culpa Podcast

 Leading independent podcast studio Audio Up Media has released Michael Cohen’s exclusive statement about the indictment of former president Donald J. Trump on Cohen’s Mea Culpa Podcast. The show, which recently crossed 80-million downloads, has grown to become one of the largest political news podcasts in America and was instrumental in the former president’s indictment.

 “This is a watershed moment for the show and podcasting as a medium,” says Audio Up chief creative officer and Mea Culpa producer Jimmy Jellinek.

 Cohen’s statement is also a reminder of the remarkable turn-around he has made from being Donald Trump’s former fixer, “willing to take a bullet” for the former president, into his chief antagonist; willing to stop at nothing to bring down Trump and put an end to his criminal regime.

 The Mea Culpa Podcast launched two weeks before the 2020 election on the heels of Cohen’s first book release, the New York Times bestselling “Disloyal,” which charted Cohen’s journey from loyal soldier to prison. His testimony before the House Select Committee prior to his incarceration riveted the nation and was a prescient warning of Donald Trump’s intentions. 

Upon release and still under house arrest, Cohen launched Mea Culpa with Audio Up Media. Producer Jimmy Jellinek, a former crime reporter for the New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair, flew to New York City and built a small recording studio for Cohen in his apartment. 

As Audio Up says: "All of this occurred under heavy surveillance from what appeared to be Trump operatives.  The show was an immediate hit upon launch. What started as a true mea culpa with Cohen apologizing to America turned into a three-year odyssey to dismantle the Trump agenda."

With twice-a-week episodes and a ubiquitous social media presence, Cohen and Audio Up have kept the show in the news.

 Listen to Michael Cohen’s exclusive statement here

 

Hard Fork Podcast talks with Google CEO about Artificial Intelligence innovation and safety

In the most recent episode of the New York Times's Hard Fork podcast, hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton speak with Google C.E.O. Sundar Pichai on Google’s delicate balance between A.I. innovation and safety.

For years, Google was seen as one of the most cutting-edge developers of A.I. But, with OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT, and other chatbots beating Google to market, is that distinction still the case? Google’s chief executive is in an unenviable position: Scramble to catch up or, in the face of potentially harmful technology, move slowly.

You can listen to this episode of “Hard Fork” on Apple, Spotify, Amazon or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop weekly on Fridays.

The full transcript of the episode is available here, with highlights below.

Casey Newton
Yeah, it just strikes me that you are in such a tricky position because you have this one group of people that’s saying, like, move faster. Release the stuff faster. Go compete with all these other people. You built all this technology. Don’t let that lead go to waste.

And then you have other people saying what Kevin just said, which is like there’s a non-zero risk that this stuff does something really, really bad. What is that like for you, waking up every day and just having both of those things in your ear?

Sundar Pichal
There is a sense of some whiplash, right? It’s like asking, hey, why aren’t you moving fast and breaking things again?

Which, for all of us, over the past few years. I think we realize we are going to be bold and responsible. We are working with urgency. We are excited at this moment. There’s so much we can do. So you will see us be bold and ship things, but we are going to be very responsible in how we do it.

So there will be times when we will hold back things. I think what we are doing in Bard, for us, is an example of it. We haven’t hooked up Bard to our most capable models yet, and we plan to do it deliberately. And so through this moment, I think we are going to stay balanced, but we are going to innovate. And there is a genuine excitement at this moment, so we’ll do that. [...]

Am I concerned? Yes. Am I optimistic and excited about all the potential of this technology? Incredibly. I mean, we’ve been working on this for a long time. But I think the fact that so many people are concerned gives me hope that we will rise over time and tackle what we need to do.

Casey Newton
So we should continue to write columns where we’re very nervous about where all this is going?

Sundar Pichal
As well as columns where you’re excited about the possible benefits of all of this.

No word if Pichal was actually being controlled by a Google AI cybernetic overload.


Graphic of headphones over a podcast mic with a frequency wave in the background.




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