The TechCrunch team made the hard choice to stop production on this show but we encourage everyone who has enjoyed listening to Darrell break down the week's top stories to go check out Equity, which comes out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and covers the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

Darrell called it last October: Meta has built their own Twitter dupe, Threads, and it’s going pretty well so far with 30 million signups in the first 24 hours. Of course, this is a Meta product, so the platform isn’t perfect with it’s non-chronological timeline and security issues. This week we’re hearing from TechCrunch’s Taylor Hatmaker and Morgan Sung on Threads’ staying power and how Meta nailed the timing of this launch.

hein invited several fashion influencers to its facilities in China and, surprising no one but Shein and the influencers who took the trip, the internet isn’t thrilled with the viral factory tours. Shein doesn’t appear to think this latest press is bad, though, as they filed confidentially for a US IPO this week. This week Darrell is talking with Amanda Silberling about why Shein is on the "sheouts."

It’s rare for all of a company’s users to turn against it in such an intense way, but Reddit has managed to alienate all of their users at once. After a recent announcement that the company will no longer be offering their API for third-party apps, users have closed ranks and made the site virtually unusable. This week guest-host Haje Kamps talks with TechCrunch Sr. Reporter Morgan Sung about whether there is room for compromise between the moderators who keep the site running, third-party apps that users love, and the profit-motivated Reddit management team.

This week we're revisiting Inside Startup Battlefield, the four-part series that takes you behind TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield competition. If you haven't already be sure to get your tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco on September 19-21. Save an additional 15% with promo code CRUNCH. Visit techcrunch.com/disrupt to learn more. In this episode, our host and Startup Battlefield Editor Neesha Tambe breaks down how the Battlefield companies are selected for the TechCrunch Disrupt stage. Then we take a deep dive into what makes a pitch-perfect with pitch coach and TechCrunch writer Haje Jan Kamps and Startup Battlefield judge and VC Nisha Dua. You’ll also hear from: Julia Somerdin from Labby, Young-Jae Kim and Tara Peters from Anthill, Quddus Pativada from Digest AI, Blessing Adesiyan from Mother Honestly, Hikari Senju from Omneky, Mitch Tolson from Ally robotics, Elizabeth Lawler from App map, Aaron Hall from Intropic materials. Sheeba Dawood from Minerva.

At WWDC this week, Apple revealed its new Vision Pro headset, a platform it described as the advent of spatial computing. The company clearly put a lot of work into building Vision Pro, and VisionOS, the software that powers it, but is it as revolutionary as Apple marketing would have you believe? Today, Darrell is joined by Brian Heater to talk about Apple Vision Pro, and what the future might hold for spatial computing.

Many of the leading voices in AI have co-signed yet another ominous open letter warning that we should be“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI." However, the voices shouting for regulation the loudest have us wondering how much of the AI fear-mongering is warranted, and how much is self-serving theater. This week Darrell is joined by Devin Coldewey to talk about  why AI doomerism is overblown, and why the blowhards doing the blowing want it that way.

This week Meta was ordered to suspend Facebook EU’s data flows and was hit with a fine of 1.2 billion Euros under GDPR. This fine has big implications for the way these companies will be allowed to collect and share data and it may lead to big changes - either in the laws that govern the use and protection of data, or in the way Meta and other tech giants operate at a fundamental level - or both. In this episode, Natasha Lomas is here to break down a years-long security saga that’s still unfolding.

We don’t spend a lot of time taking a deep-dive into the consumer experience of gaming. But one of the biggest stories in tech this week is the much-anticipated release of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch. So Darrell is joined by Taylor Hatmaker to have a moderately spoiler-free conversation about what Link is getting up to.

Tech conference season is here and this week TechCrunch reporters attended Google I/O to try the tech, attend talks and demos, and listen to Google CEO Sundar Pichai talk about how they’re integrating AI responsibly. On this episode, Darrell is joined by TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater to talk about all the hits from Google I/O.

Meta is monetizing kids as much as they are the rest of us. But this week the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has alleged that Meta has violated a 2020 order to protect kids on the site, as well as running afoul of the agency’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The FTC will not just be doling out another financial slap on the wrist, they’re moving to completely prohibit Meta from monetizing children at all. This is the TechCrunch Podcast where we talk about the top stories in tech with the people who cover them. This week, Darrell is joined by TechCrunch reporter Devin Coldewey to talk about if Meta’s cavalier approach to compliance will finally be coming to a close.

Snapchat Rolled out their generative AI chatbot, My AI to their 750 million monthly users so it feels like the right time to pause and ask whether we’re ready for the real thing – and ready or not, whether anybody wants one. This week on the TechCrunch Podcast, Darrell Etherington is talking to TechCrunch reporter, Amanda Silberling about making robot friends on the internet.

Welcome back to the TechCrunch podcast. This week we're bringing you a special treat from our friends over at Equity. This week we recorded at Early Stage, TechCrunch's event for founders who are building startups from the ground up. Alex is talking about all things Early Stage, rockets, earnings and how a certain company is cutting costs.

Blue checkmarks on Twitter and Instagram are used by public figures and media outlets to say, “you can trust I am who I say I am and you can trust me.” But now both Twitter and Meta have changed the rules of how to get verified, and in the process have stripped some of the legitimacy of the all-powerful checkmark. This week on the TechCrunch Podcast, Darrell Etherington is talking to TechCrunch’s newest reporter, Morgan Sung about the price of being verified on social media.

The internet is always changing but something about Generative AI feels different. With the advent of Open AI’s Chat GPT, the machines are evolving beyond remix and delivery machines to become the content creators themselves. In this week’s episode of the TechCrunch Podcast, Darrell Etherington talks with Techcrunch Senior reporter Devin Coldewey about how the AI hype is overshadowing some of its shadier possible cultural side effects. Use Promo code TCPOD to ger 40% founder and investor passes to Early Stage on April 20 in Boston.

Welcome to another episode of The TechCrunch Podcast where we break down the biggest stories in tech news with the people who cover it. This week Darrell Etherington talks with Paul Sawers about the company that made a Woolly Mammoth meatball (and other lab-grown meat). And Amanda Silberling explains how AI images of Donald Trump getting arrested, the Balenciaga pope and a natural disaster that didn’t happen are fooling the internet. Use Promo code TCPOD to ger 40% founder and investor passes to Early Stage on April 20 in Boston.

Welcome to another episode of The TechCrunch Podcast where we break down the biggest stories in tech news with the people who cover it. This week Darrell Etherington talks with Taylor Hatmaker about the TikTok CEO’s congressional testimony and Jaquie Melinek is here to catch us up on everything that’s been going on in Crypto from Do Kwon’s arrest to the SEC suing the Tron founder and many celebrities.

Welcome to another episode of The TechCrunch Podcast where we break down the biggest stories in tech news with the people who cover it. This week Darrell Etherington talks with Dom-Madori Davis about how the SVB crash disproportionately affects Black founders. And Devin Coldewey fills us in on the improved capabilities of Open AI’s GPT-4.

Welcome to another episode of The TechCrunch Podcast. To address the elephant in the newsroom, the SVB debacle happened mere hours after we recorded this episode. So, this week Romain Dillet is here to talk about another big story the proposed bipartisan bill that could lead to banning TikTok in the US. And Zack Whittaker comes on to warn us about the dangers of startups selling our data.

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for—the winner is announced! In this episode, we get to know the winner of the 2022 Startup Battlefield competition. We’ll hear what’s next for their company and get insight from TechCrunch staff, VCs, and audience members on why they were the right choice. Be sure to check out all of the other podcasts in the TechCrunch Podcast Network: Found, Equity, The TechCrunch Podcast, Chain Reaction and The TechCrunch Live Podcast.