The Vaizey View
The Vaizey View offers an insider's perspective on the tech and media industry in the UK and Europe. Hosted by Lord Ed Vaizey, who served as the UK'sTech Minister for six years, the show features analysis of the latest happenings in the tech space through interviews with the movers and shakers behind the scenes, with a particular focus on how tech disruption is changing public policy in so many areas. You'll get unfiltered opinions and the characteristic dry wit of someone who's seen it all and wants to help his audience get smarter and more insightful about the issues of the day.
Episodes
Joining Microsoft as an intern in 1988, Phil Spencer has been part of the company’s entire gaming journey. Now, as CEO of Microsoft Gaming, he tells Ed about the company’s commitment to making sure that the folks making their products reflect the diversity of the 3 billion strong gaming community - and the steps Microsoft is taking to democratize who can make these games. It’s an honest and insightful conversation with one...
Today Ed is joined by a long-time colleague, Herman Narula, CEO and co-Founder at Improbable.io - one of Europe's most successful and best-known tech companies. For over a decade the company has built the foundational technology to support scaled experiences in the Metaverse, taking in over $750M in funding. Their clients span defense firms as well as Yuga Labs, home of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and this range of experienc...
Ed has an in-depth chat with AI expert and CEO of Chinese deep tech VC Sinovation Ventures, Kai-Fu Lee. His extensive knowledge of AI is matched by an innate ability to explain its advantages and pitfalls in plain language. As Ed learns, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about AI’s potential for optimizing class plans to accommodate a range of students, as well as creating entertainment that can be “good for you....
SUSE CEO Melissa Di Donato joins Ed for an invaluable conversation about the role Open Source software is playing across organizations and governments worldwide. Noting that 35% of all enterprise software contains open source-derived code, Melissa details how the 56 million developers contributing to open source projects globally are laser-focused on keeping systems flawlessly updated and impervious to bad actors. SUSE had...
Talk about a masterclass! Ed catches up with Priya Lakhani OBE, CEO at CENTURY Tech and Gauthier Van Malderen, Founder & CEO at Perlego, for a razor-sharp discussion about how data is transforming EdTech right now. Priya, who also serves as non-executive Director of Ed’s former haunt - the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) - and Gauthier, whose own company has been likened to a ‘Spotify for textbo...
Ed faces down another rival podcaster - Jimmy’s Jobs Of The Future host Jimmy McLoughlin OBE - along with Digital Futures CEO Scott Vincent to discuss how to fill all the new roles coming online as the economy modernizes. McLoughlin, a veteran of 10 Downing Street, and Vincent, who sold his consulting company to Accenture, opine on the challenges of re-skilling an existing workforce as well as finding a more diverse pool o...
Today Ed sits down with a pair of authors who’ve managed to do the impossible: make the mechanics of financial transactions fascinating. The pair’s recently published book, “The Pay Off: How Changing the Way We Pay Changes Everything,” (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094F69F8Q/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1), underscores how the explosion of new payment systems around the world is impacting consumers and the ...
Ed returns to the mic with his second-ever in-person interview - and it’s a great one. William Tunstall-Pedo, a tech pioneer and AI guru, sold his Cambridge, England-based tech company Evi to Amazon; together, they built Alexa - one of the most successful new tech products in history. William’s been coding commercial products since he was 13, so his insights about the challenges and promises of AI and deep learning, as wel...
Ed sits with a big thinker (and rival podcaster), Damian Bradfield, the Chief Creative Officer and co-Founder of WeTransfer and WePresent. While he is focused on tools that empower creativity, he’s taking the long view on what our digital future should look like - as covered in his 2019 book “The Trust Manifesto” (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/307/307675/the-trust-manifesto/9780241369845.html). Tune in to hear the pair e...
Ed has a revealing conversation with Matthew Barzun, the former US Ambassador to the UK and, prior to that, Sweden. A former CNET executive and campaign strategist credited with creating the ‘citizen fundraisers’ that fueled Obama’s rise, Barzun’s communal viewpoint comes to the fore in the conversation. His recently published book, “The Power of Giving Away Power” (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602163/the-power...
Best-selling author Noreena Hertz provides an eye-opening look at the epidemic of loneliness afflicting many of us, and engages Ed in a discussion about what tech’s role could be in addressing a situation that it has played no small role in creating. Her latest work, “The Lonely Century: How To Restore Human Connection in a World That’s Pulling Apart” (https://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Century-Restore-Connection-Pulling-ebook/...
Ed returns to in-person recording with an eye-opening conversation with Doug Gurr, the former head of Amazon UK who now serves as Director of the Natural History Museum in London. Braving the aging infrastructure of the building as well as a surprise thunderstorm, Ed and Doug take us beyond the ongoing ‘digitization’ of museum galleries - spurred into overdrive during the pandemic - to explore how AI and machine learning c...
Tune in for an insightful conversation between Ed and Tim Davie CBE, who is the 17th Director-General (CEO and Editor-In-Chief) of the storied media institution. Tim’s keen understanding of the media firmament is driving the organization’s innovation, and uncovering new opportunities for collaboration with seeming competitors like Netflix. His insights into the threats and opportunities around audio are worth the price of ...
Today, Ed is joined by LionTree and Kindred Media CEO and Founder Aryeh B. Bourkoff for a crucial conversation with Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of England who’s now serving as the UN's Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance.
In a far-ranging discourse, the trio discusses the financial and technical ramifications of achieving net zero, and the work that must go into it. Mark's just-released new book, "V...
Ed welcomes Theo Blackwell MBE, whose job Ed (only half jokingly) covets; Theo is London’s first Chief Digital Officer, appointed in 2017. His role is a delicate balancing act between federal, local and commercial stakeholders and the populace. Their conversation is a fascinating look into what happens when a city takes a more holistic approach to innovation, whether it entails blending disparate data streams to create a t...
Saul Klein is one of the UK's best known serial entrepreneurs and seed investors. A Founding Partner at seed fund Localglobe, his previous roles include: Partner at Index Ventures; co-Founder of Lovefilm (acquired by Amazon); and part of the original executive team at Skype (acquired by eBay). Ed and he have a fascinating conversation around the possibilities of the UK’s explosive tech growth, and also - counter-intuitivel...
Ed welcomes Australia’s former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who led the country between 2015 and 2018. Turnbull was already a successful tech investor before he became PM, and like Ed, had also served as his country's tech minister. Their discussion covers a fascinating array of timely topics, including: building broadband infrastructure, supporting the tech ecosystem, tech regulation and the role of China. Australia’s...
Ed is joined by Ron Kalifa, who chairs both Network International and FutureLearn, and served as the CEO and Vice Chairman of UK payments powerhouse Worldpay. He shares findings from the report he recently submitted to UK finance minister Rishi Sunak examining the UK FinTech sector. Bolstered by heavy investment, the country’s financial services heritage and a burgeoning pool of tech talent, England’s FinTech outlook is un...
If keen insight and quick wit are your thing, then you’ll want to catch Ed’s conversation with Will Page. As Chief Economist at Spotify, he’s had a front row seat as the first industry to suffer digital disruption has reinvented itself. He’s baked those observations into a highly touted new book, “Tarzan Economics: Eight Principles for Pivoting Through Disruption,” and shares some amazing and telling anecdotes about everyt...
Philanthropist and Burnbrae Group Chairman Jim Mellon takes Ed on a whirlwind tour of the very near future of agritech, spanning everything from the meatless burgers that are virtually mainstream; through the rapid transition of the milk market to dairy alternatives; to the enticing world of cell-based meat, where one, non-intrusive sample can produce the meat of eight cows. Exciting stuff! Check out Jim’s new book, “Moo’s...
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