Call Her Daddy host and Unwell co-founder Alex Cooper joins Mixed Signals live at Cannes Lions to talk about what it takes to turn a hit podcast into a real media business. Max and Ben ask Alex how Unwell's creative agency ended up going toe-to-toe with Call Her Daddy in revenue, what she learned from her interview with Michelle Obama, and why she's more interested in the marketing than most talent in her field.

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David Droga is the vice chair of Accenture Song and the most decorated creative in Cannes Lions history. He joins Mixed Signals to talk about what it actually takes to sell a CMO on a bold idea (and why the boldest of ideas are sometimes the easiest to sell). Max and Ben ask David about how AI is changing the advertising business he's spent his life building, whether the creative visionary still has a place at the top of the industry, and what the New York Times' "Truth Is Worth It" campaign can teach struggling news brands about their own value. He also walks through some of his most famous ads.

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New_Public co-director and coiner of the "filter bubble," Eli Pariser, joins Mixed Signals to walk through his new report on what news consumption looks like when AI takes over. Max and Ben ask Eli how soon your morning routine will change, which platforms are most exposed to AI disruption, and whether centralizing everyone's attention was actually a mistake.

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The hosts of The New York Times’ Popcast show join Mixed Signals to talk about how a two-decade-old music podcast became one of the most coveted interview slots in music — landing Taylor Swift, A$AP Rocky, Olivia Rodrigo, and Bad Bunny — by offering something most celebrity press won't: no question approval, no topic restrictions, and critics who've actually been covering these artists for years.

Image Credit: Lucia Bell-Epstein for The New York Times/Reuters

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Fox News' Special Report host Bret Baier joins Mixed Signals to talk about what it's like to sit at the center of American political media. Max and Ben ask Bret how he navigates tough questions while maintaining access to President Trump,  what he actually learned from the Fox News Dominion discovery process, and why he doesn't vote. They also get into his new book, his 2028 predictions, and whether CBS News has any shot at replicating what he's built.

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Audie Cornish and Ari Shapiro spent years together in the buttoned-up, professional audio journalism world of NPR co-hosting All Things Considered. Now, they’re reuniting at CNN for something very different — podcasting. The two join Max and Ben to talk about how their new show Engagement Party is really just a continuation of their off-mic dynamic from their NPR days, how they’ve both dealt with the pivots and shifts that come with a career in modern media, and whether the growing crop of amateur podcasters (us included…) can learn something from the audio pros that came before them.

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A note from Ben:

We'll be back on Friday with our regularly scheduled episode of Mixed Signals, but I wanted to drop into your feed this week with an interview I think you'll like from another Semafor show — Compound Interest, Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami's great new show about how business is changing in both subtle and seismic ways.

I sat down with Liz to guest host this week's episode — a conversation with Joe Weisenthal of Bloomberg's Odd Lots — to examine how the business of business media has evolved. We also talk about why X is still the place to be for finance and tech watchers, why he thinks Substack’s drive to monetize expert amateurism has made it worse, and why he’s optimistic that the age of AI may actually be good for journalism … or at least podcasts.

Subscribe to get Compound Interest from Semafor Business, or watch it on YouTube.

Chef and Cove owner Flynn McGarry joins Mixed Signals to talk about what it's like to navigate food media. He was first profiled as a teenaged chef prodigy and has since become a restaurant owner trying to figure out what actually drives people through the door in 2026. Max and Ben ask Flynn how early media attention shaped his sense of himself, how he missed years of TV development deals (including one with White Lotus creator Mike White), and how he learned what kinds of social media content drives traffic at his restaurants.

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The brothers behind Angel Studios, the faith-and-values-based studio behind increasingly popular blockbusters, join Mixed Signals to explain how their two-million-member Guild subverts the traditional greenlighting process. Max and Ben ask the Harmon brothers whether Angel Studios is a niche media company or something with genuine mainstream scale.

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YouTube creator and Newpress co-founder Johnny Harris joins Mixed Signals to break down how he went from selling his own plasma to running a YouTube channel with over 7 million subscribers. Max and Ben ask Johnny about how he built a sustainable business explaining difficult topics without chasing the outrage that drives so much attention online, and why millions of people are obsessed with longform video explainers.

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Sports media mogul Maverick Carter joins Mixed Signals to discuss the next phase of athlete-led media, from scaling SpringHill Company into a global content powerhouse to rethinking how fans engage with sports. He also breaks down the NBA’s attention economy, his foray into live and digital entertainment, and why a more global basketball game could be the industry’s biggest opportunity. Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter: https://www.semafor.com/newsletters/media 

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