Allbirds was once valued at $4.1 billion. The sustainable shoe brand had a fast and meteoric rise that mirrored the path of many other direct to consumer brands, but by early 2024 Allbirds' luck had changed. Find out what wrong for the company and the DTC market broadly, and how they're trying to find their footing again. Featured Guests: Ann Gehan, Retail Reporter at The Information Elizabeth Segran, Senior Staff Writer at Fast Company See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy...

It's 1940 and as Adolph Hitler’s forces storm across Europe, the American army pays a nearly broke U.S. carmaker to develop a lightweight, durable, all-purpose, all-terrain automobile for use in the coming world war. The vehicle that’s created comes to be known as the Jeep and it plays a pivotal role in winning that war. But the Jeep has a bumpy homecoming. And as Americans start spending more time on the road and behind the wheel, they pave the way for the rise of an off-road challenger....

A lot has happened at OpenAI since that whiplash week in November 2023 when the board ousted its chief executive. There was an investigation to determine whether Sam Altman’s firing was just, and a lawsuit from OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk. Meanwhile, the company’s competition has been charging ahead. Julia Black, a reporter with The Information, joins host David Brown to break down the latest developments and shed light on where Sam Altman — and the future of AI — are going next.  See...

After five intense days, Sam Altman prevails over the OpenAI Board and is reinstated as CEO, with a new board in place.  But the turmoil has shown that OpenAI is vulnerable and its competitors, including Google and Microsoft, are ready to take advantage of OpenAI’s weakness.  And with OpenAI’s old board out and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever’s role at OpenAI murky, the path is clear for OpenAI to develop and commercialize AI at an even faster rate than as before.  See Privacy Policy at...

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s move to fire Sam Altman with no warning kicks off five days of chaos for the tech company. After he gets over the shock, Altman uses all his corporate savvy to fight back. For days, over McDonalds and Boba tea, Altman and the board feud over the path forward for Altman and OpenAI, while the business community waits on tenterhooks to find out the future of one of the most important AI companies in the world. See Privacy Policy at...

Costco's membership retention rate is the stuff of other retailers' dreams, nevermind the love they get on social media. With very little paid advertising, the company has managed to keep its spot as the third largest retailer in the U.S. We’re finding out how they do it with Susan and David Schwartz, authors of “The Joy of Costco: a Treasure Hunt from A to Z,” and Business Insider reporter Dominick Reuter. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at...

From the outside, OpenAI looked like one of Silicon Valley’s biggest success stories. In 2022, it had stunned the world with the release of ChatGPT3.5, leapfrogging some of the biggest tech companies to be an industry leader in artificial intelligence. But, inside the company walls trouble was brewing. Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever had increasing concerns about the speed at which OpenAI was commercializing and releasing AI products. He worried about the direction AI was heading and the...

With everything Taylor Swift’s been up to lately, being a Swiftie is almost a fulltime job. Today, David speaks with two digital creators who have been covering her since day one. First up, pop culture YouTuber Lauren Lipman talks about Taylor’s NFL era, the challenges of covering Taylor during her fight for her masters, and the time she got to meet Taylor.  Next, digital creator and longtime Swiftie Autumn Kennedy takes us inside her fan account TS Tour Tips. With more than 400,000...

When Taylor Swift began planning The Eras Tour, she probably didn't expect to be at the forefront of an antitrust battle that could decide the future of concerts in the U.S. But the battle for Taylor Swift tickets leads Swift, her fans, and Senators into a tussle with Ticketmaster, the biggest live events company on the public markets. And Hollywood's next. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

By 2019, Taylor Swift's battle to get her masters back from Scooter Braun has gone public. She decides to fight by deploying her own, very dangerous weapon -- the Swifties. And Braun pulls out all the stops to protect his $300 million asset. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

By 2014, Taylor Swift has spread her wings into pop. But as her self-confidence grows, so does her discontent with her label. So she makes a bold move. Meanwhile, mega-manager Scooter Braun sees a business opportunity in Swift's early masters. The problem is, Swift has serious beef with Braun and his clients. And when she finds out about his plan, it'll be all out war. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’ve got the keys to Barbie's dream house and we’re unlocking her legacy, staying power and what’s ahead. We're joined by Time reporter and Mattel expert Eliana Dockterman and entertainment and culture journalist Matthew Jacobs to talk about Barbie's ups and downs and the key business decisions that revived the flailing brand. Plus, what's behind the movie's Oscars nominations... and snubs. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at...

When Taylor Swift signed to an upstart country label as a teen, she probably didn't realize that she was signing away the rights to something she would spend decades getting back -- her masters. Swift’s fight for her $300 million master recordings is a scrimmage that could reshuffle the entire business model of the music industry. But first, Swift has to make it big. And that's a one-in-a-million shot. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at...

When the Apple Watch first debuted, designer Jony Ive envisioned the gadget as a must-have in the world of high fashion. But even if the smartwatch hasn’t become a mainstay in the luxury world, it has become a tool many of us can’t live without. Wired Editor-at-large Steven Levy joins David to unpack the evolution of the Apple Watch.  Steven’s covered Apple since the early 80s, and he’s connecting the dots to share how the Apple of yesterday brought us the Apple Watch of today. Later, GQ...

It’s 2016 and in the wake of a major PR fiasco, Samsung is rolling out their new round smartwatch with a beautiful rotating bezel, while an MLB cheating scandal puts the Apple Watch squarely in consumers’ sights. And, enhanced health features in the Series 4 rocket Apple Watch sales to record heights. Meanwhile Samsung gets hit with a lawsuit and then releases a tone-deaf ad campaign savaged by women around the world. And as both smartwatch contenders add more health functionality to their...

It’s 2012 and Apple’s legendary designer in chief, Jony Ive, decides the company’s first product launch after Steve Jobs’ death should be a smartwatch. But he struggles to get buy-in from CEO Tim Cook and upper management. Meanwhile Samsung races to beat Apple to market.. Then Samsung raises the stakes with a wildly successful satirical ad campaign aimed at Apple’s pretentiousness, but eventually launches a flawed smartwatch that leaves consumers cold. After Apple finally greenlights the...

Before Apple and Samsung took over our wrists, there was Fitbit. The fitness tracker was just about the coolest thing in Silicon Valley, and everyone in tech was wearing one — including Wired Magazine senior editor Michael Calore and senior writer Lauren Goode! Long before the pair started hosting the Wired Gadget Lab podcast, they were crushing their steps goal while reporting on the buzziest wearable on the market. Michael and Lauren join David to help trace the steps that Fitbit took to...

It’s 1936 in a small town in Korea and a rakish scion of a wealthy family realizes he has to clean up his act by starting a small import export business.  By the 1980s, he fast tracks South Korea’s first computer chip factory, and turns hundreds of engineers into fiercely loyal, tirelessly diligent “Samsung Men.” But as Apple’s star rises, Samsung turns to American designers from California to teach its employees innovation and free-wheeling creativity. The result is a 1999 futuristic watch...

Can you imagine video games without Sony? A partnership between Sony and Nintendo could have changed the future of Playstation — and the video game industry — as we know it… if the deal hadn’t ended with a dramatic betrayal. Tristan Donovan, author of Replay: The History of Video Games (and writer of this season of Business Wars), joins David to tell us about the console that almost wasn’t. You’ll also hear why Nintendo is so hard to predict, and where the video games market is going...