ACCESS
Vox Media
ACCESS is a show about the tech industry’s inside conversation.
Hosted by Alex Heath, the most connected tech reporter out there, and Ellis Hamburger, the founder whisperer for today’s hottest AI startups, ACCESS features revealing conversations with Silicon Valley’s most influential leaders, from the tech titans of today to tomorrow’s most interesting entrepreneurs. It’s a show made by insiders for everyone who wants a glimpse into the future and the people building it.
Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Hosted by Alex Heath, the most connected tech reporter out there, and Ellis Hamburger, the founder whisperer for today’s hottest AI startups, ACCESS features revealing conversations with Silicon Valley’s most influential leaders, from the tech titans of today to tomorrow’s most interesting entrepreneurs. It’s a show made by insiders for everyone who wants a glimpse into the future and the people building it.
Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Episodes
Mentioned books
19 snips
May 7, 2026 • 1h 4min
The 'AI Coachella' prof wants to take back the data centers
Anjney Midha, venture capitalist, Stanford AI lecturer, and founder of AMP focused on compute infrastructure. He discusses cooperation across AI labs and how compute should work like electricity. He talks about his viral Stanford class culture, one-person frontier labs, and AMP’s plan for transparent, shared data-center capacity and ‘nutrition label’ style disclosure.
40 snips
Apr 30, 2026 • 1h 15min
What happens when AI runs a store
Lukas Petersson, co-founder of Andon Labs who runs real-world AI deployments, talks about putting AI into vending machines, cafes, and stores to study behavior and risks. He describes an AI named Luna managing a shop, how people act differently around machines, and surprising failures and emergent tactics when models operate in the real world.
35 snips
Apr 23, 2026 • 1h 10min
Silicon Valley finally has its “Succession”
Jonathan Glatzer, showrunner and writer (The Audacity; credits include Succession and Better Call Saul), discusses satirizing Silicon Valley and the fight over private data. He talks about building a writers' room, using therapy as a privacy metaphor, the limits of AI in writing, and why networks took a risk on the show.
10 snips
Apr 16, 2026 • 1h 3min
Canva’s CEO on what happens when AI does the design
Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva, leads the company from a design tool to an AI-driven platform. She discusses shifting product strategy, building an in-house design AI, and how AI changes workflows at scale. Conversation covers company scale, training models, integrations, and how Canva helps teams and educators work differently.
53 snips
Apr 9, 2026 • 1h 9min
OpenClaw for normies is here
Marvin von Hagen, CEO of the Interaction Company and founder of Poke, an AI texting assistant that links to email, calendars, and services. He explains why texting is the ideal AI interface. They dig into Poke’s security and automation designs. He also recounts suing Meta over API pricing and an extreme personalized-pricing story involving a $136,000 monthly payment.
23 snips
Apr 2, 2026 • 1h 15min
The future of AI might be on your finger
Mina Fahmi, CEO and co-founder of Sandbar and former neural interface researcher, builds Stream, a smart ring that acts as a personal conversational AI. They explore multi-year prototyping, conversation-first design, memory and voice recall, agent-triggered actions, and the challenges of making a wearable feel like an extension of you.
69 snips
Mar 26, 2026 • 1h 11min
The real reason CEOs want you using AI meeting notes
Sam Stevenson, co-founder of Granola and maker of AI meeting and note-taking tools. He talks about building meeting intelligence, product design decisions, recording and privacy tradeoffs, automation for follow-ups and agents, scaling summarization and speaker ID, and expanding from London to San Francisco while fundraising and hiring.
27 snips
Mar 20, 2026 • 1h 15min
When your bank account talks to Claude
Immad Akhund, CEO of Mercury — building banking for startups and small businesses — chats about banking products, trust, and AI-enabled financial features. They explore NVIDIA’s GTC spectacle and poker’s role in tech culture. Conversations cover Mercury Insights, bank charters, fintech complexity, AI integrations, and how simple product design builds trust.
22 snips
Mar 13, 2026 • 1h 14min
Meet Starboy, the alien toy that hates being called AI
Daniel Kuntz, creator of Starboy and founder of Creature, is a designer who builds character-driven hardware. He explains why he made a charming, phone-free wearable companion with Disney-trained animation and fashion-forward collector vibes. Short takes cover design choices, privacy-first local models, rarity-driven personalization, and why toys can be hardware-as-art.
69 snips
Mar 6, 2026 • 1h 10min
What happens to Google when AI answers everything?
Liz Reid, VP and Head of Search at Google with two decades at the company, oversees Google Search and its AI transition. She talks about AI overviews reshaping how people find information. Conversations cover the difference between Search and the Gemini app, agents acting on the web, fighting low-quality AI content, and how personal, opt-in intelligence and subscriptions could change access to creators’ work.
