Masters of Scale

32 episodes scanned. 33% of ad slots promote the show's own products.

Recent Episodes

1. Thriving in chaos: top leaders’ strategies from Masters of Scale Summit

   Nov 3, 2026

   Recorded live at the Masters of Scale Summit, this Rapid Response session hosted by Bob Safian brings together several business, tech, and media leaders to discuss operating amid rapid change. Upwork CEO Hayden Brown argues that leaders must adopt a pioneer mindset, navigating toward a horizon rather than a fixed roadmap, and that public companies need to restore startup-style agility in both mindset and mechanics. Other segments cover chaos theory, AI-driven work, speed versus haste in public safety, and how a husband and wife balance career and family.

2. Reed Hastings on Hollywood’s future, Netflix’s shakeup and knowing when to leave

   Oct 31, 2026

   Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings speaks with Kara Swisher, recorded live at the Masters of Scale Summit 2026, about his departure from Netflix's board after nearly 30 years. The conversation covers how Netflix shifted viewing from scheduled broadcast to on-demand streaming, competition from YouTube, the failed bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, and Netflix's leadership changes. It also addresses Hastings's views on AI risk and regulation, his work on AI in education, and the public image of tech leaders.

3. Maria Ressa on how to save democracy from Big Tech

   Oct 29, 2026

   Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa discusses the legal and political pressures she has faced in the Philippines, including a decade of cases against Rappler and herself, and the impact of former president Rodrigo Duterte and Facebook on information integrity. She lays out the three intertwined crises she describes in her book The Fight Back (truth, order, and accountability), along with concrete steps individuals can take, and covers the business challenges facing news organizations. The conversation with hosts Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger also addresses AI governance, UN efforts on AI safety, and public interest technology.

4. Eric Schmidt scores US vs. China: who’s winning the AI race?

   Oct 27, 2026

   Former Google CEO and current Relativity Space CEO Eric Schmidt speaks with host Bob Saffian live at the Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco about the AI race between the U.S. and China. He discusses the narrowing capability gap (now roughly six months), compute and energy constraints, the open-source versus closed-weight debate, and AI security risks such as model guardrail removal. The conversation also covers a scorecard comparing U.S. and China strengths and Schmidt's proposal of a "no surprise rule" for cooperation between the two countries.

5. Reid Hoffman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar on where AI goes from here

   Oct 22, 2026

   OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar joins Reid Hoffman on stage at the 2026 Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco to discuss where AI is heading. The conversation covers OpenAI's mission of AGI for humanity, its "pacing the frontier" approach to safety, and efforts to build public trust through healthcare, enterprise deployments, and community engagement. They also discuss cybersecurity risks, how AI is changing job tasks, and the company's data center and community investments.

6. REI’s secrets to sustaining a beloved brand and touching grass

   Oct 20, 2026

   Mary Beth Laughton, President and CEO of REI, discusses reviving the 88-year-old outdoor retailer after joining from Nike in early 2025. She covers REI's cooperative structure, which serves members rather than shareholders, along with its retail strategy, digital and AI shopping, union bargaining, and her decision to publicly rescind REI's support for a Trump cabinet nominee. She also reflects on lessons from her earlier roles at Sephora, Athleta, and Nike.

7. Rich Roll’s ‘crash course’ in entrepreneurship

   Oct 15, 2026

   Rich Roll, host of a long-running wellness and endurance podcast, joins Jeff Berman to discuss passing 1,000 episodes and the independent podcast network he is building. The conversation covers his approach to integrity and ignoring the algorithm, the network's 360-degree brand partnership model, and his path from a law career through alcohol addiction and recovery to ultra-endurance athletics.

8. The AI race to save American science and reshape medicine forever

   Oct 13, 2026

   Renee Wegrzyn, co-founder of Transfyr and former founding director of ARPA-H, discusses how federal research cuts are affecting U.S. science and whether the private sector can fill the gap. She explains Transfyr's approach to capturing "magic hands" tacit knowledge in labs using computer vision, audio, and equipment data, and how that work supports AI and physical lab automation. The conversation also covers the risks to U.S. scientific competitiveness and her idea of the next "Sputnik moment."

9. Pioneers of AI: OpenAI’s Tibo Sottiaux doesn’t want humans to be an ‘afterthought’

   Oct 10, 2026

   Thibault "Tibo" Sottiaux, OpenAI's head of product and platform, discusses his role leading ChatGPT, Codex, and the API platform, along with the DevDay agent releases. The conversation covers the Astra model, including the decision to hold its broader release over safety concerns, along with alignment, the Hugging Face incident, and recursive self-improvement. He also describes OpenAI's internal culture and his view that humans should stay at the center of AI development.

10. Building a marketplace from scratch, with Hipcamp founder Alyssa Ravasio

    Oct 8, 2026

    Alyssa Ravasio, founder and CEO of Hipcamp, discusses how she built the camping marketplace from a campsite-search directory into a booking platform that adds private land as supply. She covers the funding and early customer-feedback moments, the North Beach brainstorm that led to the private-land pivot, insurance and California's AB 518 regulatory changes, and managing her own health as a founder. The conversation also touches on company culture, in-person team gatherings, and how the company now has close to 100 employees.