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Mixed Signals from Semafor Media: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Semafor Podcasts
Every Friday media reporter Max Tani and Semafor Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith pull back the curtain on the游戏副本 important stories about media, revealing why you see and hear what you see and hear.
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- 2 weeks ago25 min
Google’s Josh Spanier on the CMO armageddon that never came, and why AI is at “the end of the beginning
Google VP of marketing and Frontier CMO podcast host Josh Spanier joins Ben in Mountain View to talk about the state of marketing today, and why the predicted CMO armageddon for 2026 never happened. Ben asks Josh why he thinks even sophisticated advertisers are only a few meters into the AI race and how Google uses incrementality and thousands of AI-generated budget scenarios to prove what’s working. They also get into Josh’s daily watch channel, what CMOs learn by being forced to post every day, and a lightning round of Signal or Noise. This is a special branded episode of Mixed Signals, presented by Think with Google and produced as part of our partnership by Semafor Brand Studio. For more, check out ThinkwithGoogle.com and watch Frontier CMO: https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkwithGoogle Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsignals@semafor.com
- 3 weeks ago1h 0m
Kevin Roose on the singularity and his council of Claudes
New York Times veteran and "AGI Chronicles" author Kevin Roose joins Mixed Signals to talk about what it was like to be patient zero for the AI media moment (a Valentine's Day evening where he stayed up chatting with a Microsoft chatbot that told him to leave his wife). Max and Ben ask Kevin how he used AI aggressively to write his book without letting it actually write a word, and whether taking a grant from an AI safety–linked nonprofit is a problem. They also get into his new show at NPR, and why he decided to leave the New York Times. 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
- Oct 9, 202648 min
Alex Gibney on his Elon Musk documentary and why the doc business has never been more scared
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
- Oct 2, 202639 min
Kasey Esser on being the "Brad Pitt of microdramas" and what's next for the booming vertical video format
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
- Sep 25, 202651 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 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
- Sep 18, 202649 min
Pangram CEO Max Spero on why human touch is about to become the scarcest thing on the internet
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
- Sep 11, 202641 min
Salman Rushdie on what he's learned about media after a lifetime of being trapped by it
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
- Sep 4, 202655 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 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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