The latest episode of The Vergecast opens with a question that’s been lurking in the tech world for years: what responsibility do you have to speak up when bad things happen? It’s the kind of question that makes people uncomfortable, especially when you’re running a business that depends on staying in everyone’s good graces.
David and Nilay don’t dance around it. They dive straight into why The Verge chose to cover Alex Pretti’s killing and the ICE occupation of Minneapolis, even though it might seem outside their usual wheelhouse. Sure, there are tech angles to explore, but that’s not really the point. The point is simpler and more uncomfortable: if you build a platform, at some point you need to decide what it’s actually for.
When Tech CEOs Go to the White House
The conversation shifts to Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, who attended a screening of the Melania documentary at the White House. There’s a photo. There’s Brett Ratner in it. And there’s a whole lot of backlash that followed.
It’s a fascinating case study in corporate business strategy meeting real-world politics. How mad are we allowed to be at Cook? How much does this kind of thing matter in the long run? The hosts dig into what it means when tech leaders choose proximity to power over taking a stand, and whether that calculus has changed in recent years.
The question isn’t just about Cook, though. It’s about all the CEOs quietly capitulating, the ones making calculations about access and influence while their employees and customers watch. And it’s about how those choices shape legacies. Will Cook be remembered as the guy who grew Apple’s services revenue, or the guy who showed up to smile for photos when it mattered?
Foldables, Prices, and Missing Review Units
After the heavy lifting, the show pivots to gadgets. Samsung’s Z Trifold comes up, specifically its outrageous price tag and the fact that Samsung didn’t bother sending out review units before launch. When a company skips the review circuit, it’s usually not because they’re bursting with confidence about the product.
The hosts also touch on Google’s Aluminium OS, whatever Moltbot is calling itself this week, and other bits of technology news that feels almost quaint compared to the opening segment. There’s something about discussing folding phones after talking about federal occupations that puts everything in perspective.
Lightning Round Chaos
The lightning round delivers exactly what it promises. There’s a segment called “Brendan Carr is a Dummy” that now has its own theme music, which is either the best or worst thing depending on your tolerance for inside jokes becoming recurring bits.
The Trump Phone makes an appearance. Tesla’s apparent pivot away from actually making cars gets a mention. And there’s a mechanical keyboard that the hosts describe as “truly glorious,” which honestly sounds like the kind of distraction we could all use right now.
The episode wraps up with links to everything they discussed, particularly their Minneapolis coverage. It’s thorough, it’s thoughtful, and it refuses to pretend that tech exists in some pristine bubble separate from everything else happening in the world. Maybe that’s the real point: platforms don’t get to choose whether they have power, only whether they’re willing to use it when it actually counts.
