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187 episodes 2.4M+ downloads Weekly · ~90 minutes

The Deep Dive

Conversations with the builders, thinkers, and operators reshaping how the world works.

Featured Episode EP 187

The AGI Timeline Debate — What Researchers Actually Believe

with Dr. Aisha Patel AI Safety Researcher, MIT

We talk to someone actually in the room at the frontier labs about what researchers privately believe versus what gets said publicly. An honest conversation about timelines, risk models, and what "alignment" even means.

May 1, 2026 1h 42m
AI Safety AGI Timelines Alignment Research

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Recent Episodes

Latest Conversations

  • EP 187 Featured
    1h 42m

    The AGI Timeline Debate — What Researchers Actually Believe

    with Dr. Aisha Patel AI Safety Researcher, MIT

    We talk to someone actually in the room at the frontier labs about what researchers privately believe versus what gets said publicly. An honest conversation about timelines, risk models, and what "alignment" even means.

    AI Safety AGI Timelines Alignment Research
    May 1, 2026 Show notes
  • EP 186
    1h 18m

    Inside the Builder Economy — How Microtools Are Eating Software

    with Tom Ridgeway Founder, Buildspace

    The tools used to build software are themselves becoming products. Tom Ridgeway explains why the microtools wave isn't just a productivity story — it's a structural shift in who can build companies.

    Builder Economy No-Code Tools Bootstrapping
    Apr 24, 2026 Show notes
  • EP 185
    1h 55m

    The Infrastructure Bet — Why the Next Tech Giant May Be Boring

    with Rena Johansson Infrastructure Investor, Sequoia

    The most durable tech businesses of the next decade won't have flashy consumer brands. Rena Johansson makes the case for infrastructure as the highest-conviction investment thesis in tech right now.

    Infrastructure Venture Capital Cloud Costs
    Apr 17, 2026 Show notes
  • EP 184
    1h 28m

    Trust by Design — Building Products That Don't Manipulate

    with Dr. Jonas Weber Design Ethics Researcher, Stanford HCI

    A researcher who has spent a decade studying how interface design manipulates behavior explains what the industry gets wrong — and what "ethical design" actually requires in practice.

    Design Ethics Dark Patterns Regulation
    Apr 10, 2026 Show notes
  • EP 183
    1h 35m

    The Climate Tech Reality Check

    with Fatima Al-Hassan Climate Tech Founder, Series B

    After raising $40M to build a carbon capture hardware company, Fatima Al-Hassan gives an unvarnished view of what climate tech actually looks like from inside a scaling hardware startup.

    Climate Tech Hardware Startups Venture Capital
    Apr 3, 2026 Show notes
  • EP 182
    1h 12m

    Remote Work 5 Years Later — What Actually Changed

    with Dr. Priya Sundar Organizational Psychologist, MIT Sloan

    Five years after the forced experiment, what does the research actually show? Dr. Sundar separates the science from the narrative on hybrid work, productivity, and what we're still getting wrong.

    Remote Work Productivity Research Organizational Culture
    Mar 27, 2026 Show notes

187 episodes in the archive — every conversation fully searchable.

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The Hosts

Who We Are

Marcus Chen

Co-host & Executive Producer

Former technology journalist with bylines in WIRED, MIT Technology Review, and The Atlantic. Marcus has been reporting on the intersection of technology and society for over a decade. He started The Deep Dive in 2020 to have the longer, more honest conversations that print journalism wouldn't allow. His beat: power, labor, and the political economy of the internet.

Priya Mehta

Co-host & Operator Perspective

Product strategist and early-stage investor. Priya spent seven years inside Google and Stripe building products used by millions of people before leaving to advise founders. She brings the operator and investor lens to every conversation on The Deep Dive — asking the questions that only someone who has shipped at scale thinks to ask. She joined the show in Season 2 and hasn't left.

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2.4M+

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What Listeners Say

50,000 People Tune In Every Week

"The only podcast where I consistently learn something I didn't know I needed to know. The AGI episode with Dr. Patel genuinely changed how I think about where this is all going."

Sarah Kim — Staff Engineer, Vercel

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Typically 75 to 110 minutes. We don't believe in cutting conversations short to hit an arbitrary runtime. If the conversation has more to say, we let it breathe. Episode length is always listed on each show note page so you can plan accordingly.

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Yes. Full AI-assisted transcripts are available for every episode from EP 100 onwards. You'll find the transcript link on each episode's show notes page. We're working backwards through the back catalog — EP 1–99 will be available by mid-2026.

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