16 Minutes on the News
16 Minutes on the News is a short news podcast where we cover the top headlines of the week in tech and business, the a16z Podcast way. With hosts Sonal Chokshi — a16z’s editor in chief and the showrunner for the a16z Podcast — and Zoran Basich, and guests from a16z and the broader tech ecosystem, the show tries to answer: why are these topics in the news; what’s hype and what’s real, from our vantage point; and what are our experts’ quick takes on these trends?
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Featured Episodes
Tiktok and ‘Seeing Like an Algorithm’
Contributing Guests
Eugene Wei and Sonal Chokshi
In one of our special “2x” episodes of 16 Minutes (32ish minutes;) — our show where we quickly cover the headlines and tech trends, offering analysis, frameworks, explainers, and more — we cover the algorithm th...
Semiconductor Shortage and the Global Supply Chain Squeeze
Contributing Guests
Frank Chen and Zoran Basich
In this week’s episode of 16 Minutes, our show where we talk about tech trends in the news, what’s hype/ what’s real, and where we are on the long arc of innovation, the topic is semiconductors – specifically, the ongoing globa...
Section 230, Content Moderation, Free Speech, the Internet
Contributing Guests
Mike Masnick and Sonal Chokshi
In this special “2x” episode (#32) of our news show 16 Minutes — where we quickly cover the headlines and tech trends, offering analysis, frameworks, explainers, and more — we cover the tricky but important topi...
GPT-3, Beyond the Hype
Contributing Guests
Frank Chen and Sonal Chokshi
In this special “2x” explainer episode of 16 Minutes — where we talk about what’s in the news, and where we are on the long arc of various tech trends — we cover all the buzz around GPT-3, the pre-trained ...
LATEST EPISODES
Ransomware Attacks on the Rise; Hackers Target IoT
Contributing Guests
Martin Casado, Zoran Basich, and Joel de la Garza
Welcome to 16 Minutes, the a16z show where we talk about tech trends in the news, what’s hype and what’s real, and the long arc of innovation.In today's episode we’re talking about the latest developments and trends in...
Science (and Tech), the Endless Frontier
Contributing Guests
Martin Casado, and Sonal Chokshi
Given recent buzz and ongoing debates around the Endless Frontiers Act -- which some have described as “the most important piece of legislation no one's heard of” -- this episode is a rerun of an episode from last year, recorded...
Malaria Vaccine Breakthrough, Beyond the Buzz
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, Rajeev Venkayya, and Jorge Conde
Playing out against the backdrop of a global pandemic (including recent massive surges in regions around the world) is the news that came out a week ago that a candidate "malaria vaccine becomes first to achieve WHO-specified 75%...
Apple Event: Desktop-Tablet Convergence, Cord-Cutting, "Find Anything," & More
Contributing Guests
Zoran Basich, and Steven Sinofsky
In this week’s episode of 16 Minutes, our show where we cover tech trends in the news — and also cover themes from company developer and innovation events! — we focus on the latest coming out of Apple’s event this week. The...
J&J Vaccine Pause; FBI Accesses Servers in Exchange Hack
Contributing Guests
Vineeta Agarwala, Zoran Basich, Jorge Conde, and Joel de la Garza
We have two brief segments in today’s episode: News and analysis of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine pause, and the widespread hack of Microsoft Exchange Servers across the country (and the dramatic and unusual steps the FBI...
NFTs: What, Where, How, Why, Who
Contributing Guests
Linda Xie, Jesse Walden, and Sonal Chokshi
This deep-dive -- one of our occasional 2-4X explainer episodes on 16 Minutes; (past such episodes have covered everything from Section 230 and Tiktok to GPT-3 and the opioid crisis) -- teases apart what's hype/ what's real -- and the...
The U.S. Vaccine Rollout
Contributing Guests
Bob Wachter, Vineeta Agarwala, and Zoran Basich
Today on our news analysis show 16 Minutes — since this show is all about teasing apart what’s hype/ what’s real and where we are on the long arc of innovation — we're taking a quick pulse-check with the experts on just where...
The Johnson & Johnson Vaccine and COVID Efficacy Rates
Contributing Guests
Lauren Richardson, Zoran Basich, and Jorge Conde
In today's episode of our news analysis show 16 Minutes, our topic is the ongoing buzz and the mixed news around the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was the third vaccine for COVID approved under Emergency Use Authorization by...
Semiconductor Shortage and the Global Supply Chain Squeeze
Contributing Guests
Frank Chen, and Zoran Basich
In this week’s episode of 16 Minutes, our show where we talk about tech trends in the news, what’s hype/ what’s real, and where we are on the long arc of innovation, the topic is semiconductors – specifically, the ongoing...
When Christie's Meets Crypto — The NFT Moment
Contributing Guests
Kayvon Tehranian, and Zoran Basich
In this week’s episode of 16 Minutes — where we talk about tech trends in the news, what’s hype/ what’s real, and where we are on the long arc of innovation — the topic is NFTs ("non-fungible tokens"); specifically, the news...
China Steams Ahead in Gaming; MetaHuman Creator and the Uncanny Valley
Contributing Guests
Jonathan Lai, and Zoran Basich
We have two brief segments — taking up less than 16 Minutes! — in this week’s episode of "16 Minutes," where we talk about tech trends in the news, what’s hype/what’s real, and where we are on the long arc of innovation....
Beyond Bezos: Amazon, Cloud, and CEO Transitions
Contributing Guests
Martin Casado, Sonal Chokshi, and Zoran Basich
Amazon just announced this week that its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos "will transition to the role of Executive Chair in the third quarter of 2021 and [CEO of Amazon Web Services] Andy Jassy will become Chief Executive Officer at that...
Anatomy of a Hack: SolarWinds and Ripples Beyond
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, Steven Adair, and Joel de la Garza
In this special “3x”-long episode of our (otherwise shortform) news analysis show 16 Minutes -- past such 2-3X explainer episodes have covered section 230, Tiktok, GPT-3, the opioid crisis, more -- we cover the SolarWinds hack,...
Dall-E AI for Images; Direct Listings, SEC Ruling for Issuing Shares
Contributing Guests
Scott Kupor, Frank Chen, and Zoran Basich
We've got segments on artificial intelligence and IPO innovation in today's episode of 16 Minutes, where we take a look at the news and what it means for the long arc of innovation.In the first segment (0:00): Take the surrealistic...
All about Section 230, In the News
Contributing Guests
Mike Masnick, and Sonal Chokshi
All about section 230 of the Communications Decency Act -- what does and doesn't it say? How does this law play out against broader questions and debates around platforms, content moderation, and free speech? This conversation...
FinCEN Crypto Rule; Haven Healthcare Breakup
Contributing Guests
Anthony Albanese, Katie Haun, Zoran Basich, and Julie Yoo
We're covering two trends in this week’s episode of "16 Minutes," where we talk about the news, tech trends, and the long arc of innovation:
#1 FinCEN, the Treasury Department's financial crimes enforcement arm, proposed a new...
U.S. Government Hacked; Scaling Ethereum
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, Ali Yahya, Zoran Basich, and Joel de la Garza
We're back to covering multiple items on our show 16 Minutes -- which covers the news, occasional explainers, and teases apart what's hype/ what's real -- as well as where we are on the long arc of innovation:#1 Hackers spied on U.S....
AlphaFold! Protein Folding, Beyond the Hype
Contributing Guests
Vijay Pande, and Sonal Chokshi
In this episode of our show 16 Minutes -- where we talk about the headlines, and where we are on the long arc of tech trends -- we cover the news around Google DeepMind's AlphaFold system for predicting the 3-D structure of proteins...
Transparency in Pricing, Ruling Healthcare
Contributing Guests
Justin Larkin, Sonal Chokshi, and Julie Yoo
[simplecast-embed src="https://16minutes.simplecast.com/episodes/16mins-transparency-in-coverage-rules-cms-hhs-healthcare-pricing-cost-patients-payers-hospitals-comparison-competition?dark=true"]The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...
Apple Silicon: A Long Game, Changing the Game
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, and Steven Sinofsky
We cover the latest coming out of Apple’s event last week, where they announced the first new lineups of devices based on Apple Silicon M1 chips, which officially came out today. And since there’s already plenty of analysis on...
Covid Vaccine! Beyond Science via Press Release
Contributing Guests
Vineeta Agarwala, Sonal Chokshi, and Jorge Conde
A vaccine for COVID seems to be (almost) here... or is it? What's hype/ what's real beyond the headlines (and beyond the press release), when it comes to the announcement earlier this week from Pfizer and BioNTech that their vaccine...
Gaming Is Among Us
Contributing Guests
Jonathan Lai, and Sonal Chokshi
Aliens are among us. Well, the online multiplayer game Among Us is -- a murder mystery set in space, where the group must figure out who the alien imposter is (a variation of party games like Werewolf or Mafia) -- has seemingly...
A Nobel for CRISPR! When, Who, How, What Now
Contributing Guests
Vijay Pande, Sonal Chokshi, and Jorge Conde
"It's CRISPR!" This week, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna (also an a16z co-founder, of Scribe Therapeutics), for the development of the CRISPR/Cas9 method for genome...
Nvidia + Arm
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, Frank Chen, and Steven Sinofsky
We cover the latest news since Nvidia (maker of GPUs among other things) announced its intent to acquire Arm (provider of silicon IP for system-on-chips inside billions of devices), arguing that "This combination has tremendous...
Tiktok and 'Seeing Like an Algorithm'
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, and Eugene Wei
In one of our special "2x" episodes of 16 Minutes (32ish minutes;) -- our show where we quickly cover the headlines and tech trends, offering analysis, frameworks, explainers, and more -- we cover the algorithm that powers TikTok, the...
Apple and the 'Doctor’s Office on a Wrist'
Contributing Guests
Vijay Pande, Sonal Chokshi, and Rachel Kalmar
We cover the latest coming out of Apple's event yesterday, focusing on their new watches (including a lower price model); new sensors (including blood oxygen); and services for healthcare. Is always-on, (relatively) low-cost, passive...
A Faster, Cheaper Test -- Will It Really Democratize Coronavirus Testing?
Contributing Guests
Vineeta Agarwala, and Sonal Chokshi
In this episode of 16 Minutes, we cover the recent news around the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization approval of Abbott Lab's latest COVID-19 test, which takes 15 minutes and will cost $5. At that speed and price point -- as well as...
Teladoc & Livongo, Is Virtual Care Fully Here?
Contributing Guests
Vijay Pande, Sonal Chokshi, and Julie Yoo
In this episode of 16 Minutes -- our show where we cover recent headlines; tease apart what's hype/ what's real; and help orient where we are, trends-wise, on the long arc of innovation -- we cover the merger of Teladoc and Livongo,...
GPT-3, Beyond the Hype
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, and Frank Chen
In this special "2x" explainer episode of 16 Minutes -- where we talk about what's in the news, and where we are on the long arc of various tech trends -- we cover all the buzz around GPT-3, the pre-trained machine learning model...
Funding Science & Innovation; Remote Work & Future Silicon Valley
Contributing Guests
Martin Casado, Sonal Chokshi, Chris Lyons, and David Ulevitch
This holiday break episode of 16 Minutes on the News (#36) covers two timely and still developing-news topics:#1 The National Science Foundation could rebrand as the National Science AND Technology Foundation -- as well as get up to...
Apple App Clips, Program the Offline World!
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, Dan Frommer, and Connie Chan
A number of features were announced at Apple's WWDC/ Worldwide Developers Conference this week, but this episode of 16 Minutes on the News focuses on just one: Apple's "App Clips" coming to iOS14. Because App Clips -- small,...
Videogames as Medicines -- So What Is/Isn't a Digital Drug?
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi
The FDA just approved the first ever videogame that can now be legally marketed and prescribed as a medicine. It's a game called EndeavorRX (formerly known as Project EVO and developed by Akili Interactive based on technology licensed...
Snapchat & Bitmoji: Mobile, Social, Cloud Gaming, Identity
Contributing Guests
Andrew Green, Jonathan Lai, and Sonal Chokshi
At last week's Snap Partner Summit, a number of announcements -- including a navigation redesign and Bitmoji for Games -- have broader implications for the gaming industry and beyond. Especially when such messaging games, built on...
Section 230 CDA: Content Moderation, Free Speech, the Internet
Contributing Guests
Mike Masnick, and Sonal Chokshi
In this special "2x" episode (#32) of our news show 16 Minutes -- where we quickly cover the headlines and tech trends, offering analysis, frameworks, explainers, and more -- we cover the tricky but important topic of Section 230 of...
The Security and Privacy of Contact Tracing
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, and Joel de la Garza
While governments, policymakers, and employers around the world are all figuring out how to reopen the economy, contact tracing -- which includes identifying and warning contacts of exposure in order to stop chains of transmission --...
CRISPR for Covid Testing and FDA EUAs
Contributing Guests
Andy Tran, Sonal Chokshi, and Jorge Conde
As calls for better, faster, cheaper, portable testing for COVID-19 disease are heard around the world -- given the important role of test-trace-isolate in re-opening the economy! -- the FDA recently issued an Emergency Use...
The Case of Zoom and Scaling Cloud Security
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, David Ulevitch, and Joel de la Garza
Zoom has not only experienced unprecedented, rapid growth (from 10M to 200M daily active users) due to the coronavirus pandemic and shelter-in-place -- but is also seeing a shift in use cases from primarily enterprise to more consumer...
Drugs & Debates: Real World Data, Randomized Controlled Trials
Contributing Guests
Vijay Pande, and Sonal Chokshi
If the best way to know whether a medicine is effective is through a clinical trial, then where does (and doesn't) real-world data and real-world evidence come in? The topic is always top of mind in drug development, with additional...
The Economic Virus - Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy, and Small Business
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, and Alex Rampell
The U.S. Federal Reserve recently made a range of moves -- from cutting interest rates to near zero (which it also did in the 2008 financial crisis) and using other tools -- to support "the flow of credit to households and businesses,...
Hospitals' Historic Moment & the New Data Rules
Contributing Guests
Venkat Mocherla, Sonal Chokshi, and Julie Yoo
This episode of 16 Minutes on the News covers the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' "historic rules" to provide patients more control of their data. They've been a long time coming, and despite recent fights over them, the...
Gaming & Chrome OS/Steam; Going Cashless; Coronavirus Latest
Contributing Guests
Jonathan Lai, Sonal Chokshi, Andrew Chen, and Alex Rampell
This episode of 16 Minutes on the news covers:Google could bring Steam support to Chrome OS, according to an earlier unconfirmed report, and what that could mean for the broader gaming ecosystem, developers as well as devices -- with...
What's Up With All These Fintech Acquisitions; SEC Rules
Contributing Guests
Scott Kupor, Sonal Chokshi, and Anish Acharya
This episode of 16 Minutes on the news covers:all the recent fintech acquisitions! from Intuit announcing it's acquiring Credit Karma this week to Morgan Stanley announcing it's acquiring E-trade last week to Visa acquiring Plaid last...
Coronavirus Updates
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, Judy Savitskaya, and Julie Yoo
This episode covers the latest updates since our previous deep-dive on the novel coronavirus outbreak. We cover the latest developments -- new name, new declarations, new numbers, new definitions -- as well as:practical implications...
Epic Battles in Healthcare, FICO Changes
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, Angela Strange, Anish Acharya, and Julie Yoo
This episode of 16 Minutes on the news covers:FICO credit score changes, what are they, do they matter? -- with a16z fintech general partners Angela Strange and Anish Acharya;electronic health record provider Epic's letter urging...
Coronavirus Outbreak
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, and Judy Savitskaya
This episode of 16 Minutes on the news from a16z is all about the recent coronavirus outbreak -- or rather, a new type of coronavirus called 2019-nCoV for 2019 novel coronavirus. Since it's an ongoing and fast-developing news cycle,...
CES 2020 - Screens, 8K, 5G, Cars, Micromobility, Smart Home
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, and Steven Sinofsky
This episode of our news show teases apart what was just a concept, what's near from the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2020). Board partner Steven Sinofsky (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi) takes us on a quick tour of the...
Regulating AI; Negative Interest Rates (#19)
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, Frank Chen, and Alex Rampell
In this 19th episode of our news show, where we cover recent headlines from our vantage point in tech, we cover the following news items (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi):recent moves to regulate artificial intelligence (AI)...
Personal Genomics - Hype vs Reality (#18)
Contributing Guests
Sonal Chokshi, and Jorge Conde
For our first episode of 2020 -- #18 of our show 16 Minutes, where we cover recent headlines, the a16z way, from our vantage point in tech, and especially what's hype/ what's real -- we do one of our special deep-dive episodes on a...
Star Wars in Fortnite; Encryption Ultimatum (#17)
Contributing Guests
Martin Casado, Jonathan Lai, and Joel de la Garza
On this show, we cover recent headlines, the a16z Podcast way -- what’s hype, what’s real; why they matter from our vantage point in tech -- and this week, we cover the following news (in conversation with Sonal Chokshi):Star War...
Direct Listings NYSE SEC; Vaping Apps & Apple, CBD & FDA (#16)
Contributing Guests
Scott Kupor, Vijay Pande, and Sonal Chokshi
This is the 16th episode of 16 Minutes, our news show where we cover the top headlines, the a16z Podcast way: what’s real / what’s hype; why they matter from our vantage point in tech.This week, we cover the following news (in...
Featured Guests
- Mark Ruffalo Editor in Chief, Wired
- Elle Miranda Editor in Chief, Wired
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