Media

When you think of a talk show, what do you picture?

Most people think of the obvious elements: A telegenic host (probably a comedian, maybe a journalist if they’re particularly charismatic), cameras, studio lights, an audience, and a celebrity on a press tour who walks out from behind a curtain to make small talk for a couple of minutes before the show goes to commercial.

Kareem Rahma’s bet when he launched his show, SubwayTakes, a few years ago, was that very few of these elements were necessary for a great talk show to work. In a world where the primary screens in our lives are the ones we carry in our pockets every day, on camera talk shows would eventually follow them there.

Now, SubwayTakes is up for an Emmy and is part of the emerging class of new talk shows pushing the format online. He’s one of a series of hosts who’ve reinvented the format — like Sean Evans, who subjects his guests to increasingly hot wings while asking fairly straightforward questions, or Adam Friedland, whose interview show is both a send up of late-night and an homage to it.

On Mixed Signals, we’ve been tracing how talk shows and other old-guard media formats are being rewired for the internet and the new economics of attention. You can see this theme in our recent episodes, which tackle loneliness and social media, the ethics of sports betting, journalism, and brand deals, “anti-social” platforms like Reddit, and how AI can reshape social media and the news itself.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to Mixed Signals, summer Fridays are a great time to catch up. You can find us on any major streaming platform (Apple, Spotify, YouTube, etc).

Kareem Rahma on vertical video

SubwayTakes is reinventing the talk show for the vertical video era. Rahma joins Mixed Signals to discuss how he built a show that feels spontaneous but runs like a TV production, why his Kamala Harris episode never aired, and his new show, Keep the Meter Running.

Plus, he discusses his business model, the costs, and what he learned from watching Vice go bankrupt.

Vivek Murthy on loneliness

Vivek Murthy is more worried about your phone than your body. The former surgeon general makes the case that America’s loneliness crisis is a public health emergency — and that social media is a bigger driver of it than almost anything else we’re paying attention to.

“Social media, for many people, has become antisocial media,” he argues.

He also talks about why he chose to focus on isolation rather than cancer or heart disease after his tenure as surgeon general, whether the science on social media harms is as definitive as he suggests, and what he’d say to people who think the health risks of drinking alcohol are worth the social benefits.

Katie Nolan on sports media

Katie Nolan is questioning where sports media is headed. The sports media host and Casuals podcast creator talks about navigating two decades of upheaval in the industry, including why she decided not to put gambling ads on her podcast even when they were everywhere.

“As soon as it was legal, everything became gambling. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t immediately handing them off to something that could become a real problem in their lives,” she says.

She also shares her thoughts on how politics inserts itself into sports and whether the window that opened for women in the industry is closing again.

Steve Huffman on Reddit culture

Steve Huffman is glad that you can’t get famous on Reddit. The site’s co-founder and CEO talks about what it means to be the internet’s anti-social media hub, how Reddit thinks about its partnerships, and why it’s a good thing that you can’t profit from being a prolific Redditor.

“You can’t get rich or famous by being good at Reddit — and that’s by design,” he says.

Plus, he talks about how Reddit is being used in LLMs and why the company is suing Anthropic.

The hosts of ‘Popcast’ on interviewing stars

The New York Times’ Popcast is one of the most coveted interview slots in music. Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli have landed interviews with the world’s biggest musicians — Taylor Swift, A$AP Rocky, Olivia Rodrigo, and Bad Bunny. The secret to their success: no question approval, no topic restrictions, and years of credibility.

“We have canceled interviews the day before they happen when we’re told, ‘You can’t ask about X, Y, and Z,’” Coscarelli says.

They talk to Ben and Max about the evolution of their two-decade-old podcast, killing the written review, and whether literacy is over.

Eli Pariser on AI

Eli Pariser thinks AI is about to change how you start your day. The director of New_Public believes AI summarization will soon change your morning routine — and news might be uniquely vulnerable.

“I think it’s going to be a really big reconfiguration of where value is in information production,” he says.

Plus, he talks about his “filter bubble” concept, which platforms are most exposed to AI disruption, and whether centralizing everyone’s attention was actually a mistake.