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This is Recode Media with Peter Kafka.

That is me. I'm part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

I'm recording this at Vox Media Headquarters in New York City.

If you like my voice, I have bad news.

I'm about done talking to you.

Good news.

Kara Swisher is coming on to talk to Jessica Powell. She's the former head of communications at Google. She left last year. And now she has this satirical novel about working in Silicon Valley called The Big Disruption. She's publishing it like a techie should. On the internet, on Ed Williams medium site. So you can go find it there. You're going to hear that conversation in a second, but before we get to that one brief promotion for Kara Swisher and her burgeoning media empire, Kara has a new podcast. This one is with Scott Galloway. It's called Pivot. Not the Pivot, just Pivot. You're going to like it. Go find it on the internet. And as always, tell someone about this show and all the other shows we bring to you from RICO. Okay, enough intro. Here is Kara Swisher and Jessica Powell. Thanks, Peter. I'm here in Washington, D.C. with Jessica Powell. She's the former head of Google's communications team, a vice president there, and she left just over a year ago. At the time, I reported she was going to grad school, but she is here with a new book with the best title ever, The Big Disruption, a totally fictional but essentially true Silicon Valley story. Jessica, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Don't you like me on the other side of this? It's terrifying.

I know.

I have a whole new appreciation for what I used to put people through.

Exactly.

So I want you to start by reading a short excerpt from the book, and then we'll explain it. I think it's one from the introduction. Right. Please read it. to interview at anahata was a privilege and the the next, nearly inevitable step, to be rejected from

Anahata, was a great honor. Just making it into the company's lobby already indicated that one was

superior to 99.39% of the world's population. To be accepted, of course, required passing an even

...