Mixed Signals from Semafor Media
Every Friday media reporter Max Tani and Semafor Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith pull back the curtain on the most important stories about media, revealing why you see and hear what you see and hear. Mixed Signals from Semafor Media is supported by Think with Google.
Episodes
David Droga is the vice chair of Accenture Song and the most decorated creative in Cannes Lions history. He joins Mixed Signals to talk about what it actually takes to sell a CMO on a bold idea (and why the boldest of ideas are sometimes the easiest to sell). Max and Ben ask David about how AI is changing the advertising business he's spent his life building, whether the creative visionary still has a place at the top of the indust...
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June 12, 2026 • 50 mins
New_Public co-director and coiner of the "filter bubble," Eli Pariser, joins Mixed Signals to walk through his new report on what news consumption looks like when AI takes over. Max and Ben ask Eli how soon your morning routine will change, which platforms are most exposed to AI disruption, and whether centralizing everyone's attention was actually a mistake.
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The hosts of The New York Times’ Popcast show join Mixed Signals to talk about how a two-decade-old music podcast became one of the most coveted interview slots in music — landing Taylor Swift, A$AP Rocky, Olivia Rodrigo, and Bad Bunny — by offering something most celebrity press won't: no question approval, no topic restrictions, and critics who've actually been covering these artists for years.
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May 29, 2026 • 42 mins
Fox News' Special Report host Bret Baier joins Mixed Signals to talk about what it's like to sit at the center of American political media. Max and Ben ask Bret how he navigates tough questions while maintaining access to President Trump, what he actually learned from the Fox News Dominion discovery process, and why he doesn't vote. They also get into his new book, his 2028 predictions, and whether CBS News has any shot at re...
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Audie Cornish and Ari Shapiro spent years together in the buttoned-up, professional audio journalism world of NPR co-hosting All Things Considered. Now, they’re reuniting at CNN for something very different — podcasting. The two join Max and Ben to talk about how their new show Engagement Party is really just a continuation of their off-mic dynamic from their NPR days, how they’ve both dealt with the pivots a...
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May 19, 2026 • 42 mins
A note from Ben:
We'll be back on Friday with our regularly scheduled episode of Mixed Signals, but I wanted to drop into your feed this week with an interview I think you'll like from another Semafor show — Compound Interest, Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami's great new show about how business is changing in both subtle and seismic ways.
I sat down with Liz to guest host this week's episode — a conversation with Joe Wei...
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May 15, 2026 • 42 mins
Chef and Cove owner Flynn McGarry joins Mixed Signals to talk about what it's like to navigate food media. He was first profiled as a teenaged chef prodigy and has since become a restaurant owner trying to figure out what actually drives people through the door in 2026. Max and Ben ask Flynn how early media attention shaped his sense of himself, how he missed years of TV development deals (including one with White Lotus creator Mik...
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May 8, 2026 • 49 mins
The brothers behind Angel Studios, the faith-and-values-based studio behind increasingly popular blockbusters, join Mixed Signals to explain how their two-million-member Guild subverts the traditional greenlighting process. Max and Ben ask the Harmon brothers whether Angel Studios is a niche media company or something with genuine mainstream scale.
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May 1, 2026 • 54 mins
YouTube creator and Newpress co-founder Johnny Harris joins Mixed Signals to break down how he went from selling his own plasma to running a YouTube channel with over 7 million subscribers. Max and Ben ask Johnny about how he built a sustainable business explaining difficult topics without chasing the outrage that drives so much attention online, and why millions of people are obsessed with longform video explainers.
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April 27, 2026 • 30 mins
Sports media mogul Maverick Carter joins Mixed Signals to discuss the next phase of athlete-led media, from scaling SpringHill Company into a global content powerhouse to rethinking how fans engage with sports. He also breaks down the NBA’s attention economy, his foray into live and digital entertainment, and why a more global basketball game could be the industry’s biggest opportunity.
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Max Tani and Ben Smith sit down with bestselling author and journalist Patrick Radden Keefe to discuss his gripping new book, London Falling. Keefe reveals how he finds his projects, and navigates his new, unexpected status as a celebrity journalist. They also discuss the art of true crime storytelling, adaptations of his work for film and TV, and how compelling human drama lies at the heart of every interesting topic.
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April 10, 2026 • 38 mins
On this week’s episode of Mixed Signals, Max and Ben chat with Bluesky COO Rose Wang about how the social media platform is rethinking social media through a more decentralized model. They discuss its rapid growth, reputation as a politically charged space, and the challenge of turning a utopian vision into a real business.
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April 3, 2026 • 39 mins
Tech journalist Joanna Stern joins Mixed Signals to discuss leaving The Wall Street Journal after more than a decade to launch her own venture, “New Things,” and what it really takes to bet on yourself in today’s media landscape. Max and Ben ask how she’s using AI as a “co-founder,” and what she learned from immersing herself in artificial intelligence for her new book, I Am Not a Robot.
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March 27, 2026 • 42 mins
Former Sony Entertainment CEO and current Snap Inc. Chairman Michael Lynton joins Mixed Signals to revisit the decision that led to one of the most consequential hacks in history: approving The Interview, the Seth Rogen–James Franco comedy that provoked a cyberattack from North Korea. Max and Ben ask why he broke his own greenlight process, and how he managed the fallout as private emails were leaked and careers were upended....
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March 20, 2026 • 32 mins
Douglas Scott Wreden and Aiden McCaig of the Lemonade Stand podcast join Ben and Max to explain how they turned gaming audiences into a loyal following for business, tech, and politics—and what it says about the future of media.
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Find us on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani
If you have a tip or a comment, please email us mixedsig...
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March 19, 2026 • 33 secs
Introducing The CEO Signal, a new show from SEMAFOR hosted by Penny Pritzker and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson.
In each episode, they sit down with global CEOs to discuss the moments of judgment that define leadership — how they interpret the forces shaping their industries, weigh difficult choices, and make decisions when the stakes are high.
The CEO Signal builds on the SEMAFOR's CEO Signal newsletter, the briefing read by ma...
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March 13, 2026 • 47 mins
Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg joins Mixed Signals on the one-year anniversary of the scoop known as "Signalgate" — when he was accidentally added to a top-secret Trump administration group chat. Max and Ben ask if anything actually changed after the scandal, how Donald Trump reacted to the story, and why the president invited Goldberg to the Oval Office afterwards. Goldberg also talks about falling out with Benjam...
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Twitch streamer Hasan Piker joins Mixed Signals for a wide-ranging conversation about what it means to be the internet’s most prominent leftist streamer. Max and Ben ask him about the scale of his audience, the grind of broadcasting seven days a week, and whether constant livestreaming changes the way he thinks. Piker also talks about collaborating with Democratic politicians like Zoran Mamdani, and dialing back his rhetoric ...
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March 3, 2026 • 1 min
A note from Ben Smith: If you're listening to Mixed Signals' coverage of the radical changes to the world of media, I think you'll really enjoy Semafor's newest show, Compound Interest from Semafor Business, that casts a light on how pressure from technology and from Wall Street is radically shifting virtually every business.
On Compound Interest, our brilliant colleagues Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami are talking to people at the ...
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February 27, 2026 • 35 mins
Former BBC News boss Deborah Turness joins Mixed Signals for her first public interview since resigning amid a controversy over an editorial mishap involving a Donald Trump speech. She talks about whether the BBC is truly impartial, how she handled newsroom blind spots around rising populist movements like the UK's Reform party, and why she believes public media can survive a polarized age. The interview was recorded at Semafor&rsq...
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