This is a very strange time to be doing a trailer for a new podcast about solving tech and business

problems in America. It's strange because the pandemic has frozen so many things in place,

but it's also accelerated so many things about the future. And it's strange because politics

in the United States, where the biggest tech companies are, have gone completely haywire ahead

of this election. But the future is still coming. People are building technology and talking about

making policy for it right now. It's important to talk to them. I'm Neil Appetel and welcome to

Decoder. The podcast about big ideas and other problems. This is a show where I'm going to interview

executives in the world of tech and business, policy makers from across government, and a few other

assorted troublemakers about the problems they're solving, the trade-offs they have to make,

and the opportunities they see in the future. The first official episode of Decoder is scheduled

to launch a November 10th. I think you're really going to like the guest.

So as we were talking about launching the show, one thing I realized is that although

Decoder might seem like an interview show, I'm not just asking questions here. I have a point of

view. I have strong beliefs and I have opinions and I'm hoping it will be challenged or questioned

on this podcast. So we're calling this episode zero. It's supposed to be a big hype-be marketing

trailer. That's what I told them I was going to make. But instead, I want to just spend a couple

minutes telling you about myself and what I'm trying to do. Let's start with the obvious.

I'm the editor in chief and one of 12 co-founders of the verge and what I have really come to believe

after a decade covering the tech industry and being a co-founder myself is that we take too many

things for granted. Too often our conversation about tech or policy or both skips over the essential

fact that none of this stuff is inevitable. Every app you use, every button you push, every website

you click on in the laws that govern them all. People built them, people made choices about them,

...