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The gamification of traffic.

In a twist on the standard Remnant formula that nobody asked for, Jonah is joined by noted chicken wing connoisseur Steve Hayes to co-host today’s episode. Their guest is Ben Smith, founder of Semafor, former editor in chief of BuzzFeed News, and author of the new book, Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral. The book takes us back to the early days of the internet to explore how the rivalry between Jonah Peretti of BuzzFeed and Nick Denton of Gawker paved the way for today’s climate of disinformation, and naturally, it raises a number of questions. How has journalism changed since the dawn of the internet? Why does the young right tend to confuse social media with real life? What can we do to fix the media landscape? And will Jonah ever get over the golden age of blogging?

Show Notes:

Semafor

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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Dispatch, based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, enormous lizards roamed the Earth. More immediately prior to that, Jonah spent two decades at National Review, where he was a senior editor, among other things. He is also a bestselling author, longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times, commentator for CNN, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. When he is not writing the G-File or hosting The Remnant podcast, he finds real joy in family time, attending to his dogs and cat, and blaming Steve Hayes for various things.

Steve Hayes is CEO and editor of The Dispatch, based in Annapolis, Maryland. Prior to co-founding the company in 2019, he worked at The Weekly Standard for 18 years, covering Washington, politics, and national security. Steve is the author of two New York Times bestsellers. He also worked as a contributor at CNN and Fox News, and currently serves as a political analyst at NBC News. When Steve is not focused on The Dispatch, he’s probably traveling with his family, grilling, or riding his mountain bike.

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