Podcast #17: Paul and Rich Exchange Frank Views
Podcast #17: Paul and Rich Exchange Frank Views
This week Paul and Rich set out to ostensibly talk about the ongoing saga of Gawker vs Hulk Hogan and Peter Thiel (recorded just days before the Gawker bankruptcy announcement). Instead, they find themselves debating about the ethics of media and business, free-market capitalism, surge pricing, universal basic income, the ethos of the Valley — and Rich promises Paul that he will never read The Fountainhead.
Paul: [long sigh]
Rich: Paul, why the sigh? It’s gonna be a great episode!
Paul: I’ll tell you. Because Silicon Valley and East Coast media culture are fighting again.
Rich: Oh, you’re squinting while you say it.
Paul: Well I just feel like it’s like your parents fighting, it’s exhausting.
Rich: Yes.
Paul: I feel like these two worlds that I’ve been part of for twenty-plus years, they just can’t get along. And it’s always this eternal Thanksgiving dinner, where like, on the left, Silicon Valley is like, “Well YOU always want to report on the WORST possible things.” And the media’s like, “We’ve been around forever and you guys are a bunch of upstarts.”
