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
6 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.
66 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.
18 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.
19 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.
60 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.
41 snips
Feb 26, 2026 • 1h 12min
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on surviving the AI slop-pocalypse
Steve Huffman, co-founder and CEO of Reddit, steers the company through product, moderation, and AI strategy. Conversation hits fighting AI-generated spam and bot verification. They examine Reddit’s anti-self-promotion culture, prediction-market vibes, onboarding new users via local communities, and the company’s AI licensing and legal battles.
29 snips
Feb 19, 2026 • 1h 15min
Notion's CEO on if AI is really killing software companies
Ivan Zhao, CEO of Notion, leads the company through an AI- and agent-first product shift. He discusses Notion’s custom agents, how they automate triage and status updates, and why work tools must be agent-friendly. He also covers hiring young talent, shifting from seat-based pricing to usage/outcome models, and building agent-ready integrations like email and calendar.
71 snips
Feb 11, 2026 • 1h 32min
OpenAI's Fidji Simo on why ads are coming to ChatGPT
Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI and former leader at Facebook and Instacart, discusses ChatGPT's next chapter. She explains why ads are being introduced and how they will be kept separate from model outputs. The conversation covers the move from reactive chatbot to proactive assistant, concerns about emotional attachment to AI, and new products like Sora and ChatGPT Health.
10 snips
Feb 5, 2026 • 1h 16min
Where AI video is headed next, with Synthesia's Victor Riparbelli
Victor Riparbelli, CEO and co-founder of Synthesia, builds generative AI video for enterprise training and comms. He talks fundraising and turning deepfakes into a scalable business. Short takes cover video replacing longform text, avatars for corporate continuity, interactive training role-plays, translation/editability advantages, and provenance, verification, and safety trade-offs.
Jan 30, 2026 • 1h 18min
Where we'll go when the bots take over, with Sublime's Sari Azout
Sari Azout, founder of Sublime and builder of a curated discovery product, shares stories from her crypto-era beginnings and Miami founder life. She explores taste as a competitive edge in AI age. Conversations cover community-driven product design, alternative revenue like merch and zines, and designing discovery without feeds or likes.
