Business Wars

By 2014, Taylor Swift has spread her wings into pop. But as her self-confidence grows, so does her discontent with her label. So she makes a bold move. Meanwhile, mega-manager Scooter Braun sees a business opportunity in Swift's early masters. The problem is, Swift has serious beef with Braun and his clients. And when she finds out about his plan, it'll be all out war.

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We’ve got the keys to Barbie's dream house and we’re unlocking her legacy, staying power and what’s ahead. We're joined by Time reporter and Mattel expert Eliana Dockterman and entertainment and culture journalist Matthew Jacobs to talk about Barbie's ups and downs and the key business decisions that revived the flailing brand. Plus, what's behind the movie's Oscars nominations... and snubs.

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When Taylor Swift signed to an upstart country label as a teen, she probably didn't realize that she was signing away the rights to something she would spend decades getting back -- her masters. Swift’s fight for her $300 million master recordings is a scrimmage that could reshuffle the entire business model of the music industry. But first, Swift has to make it big. And that's a one-in-a-million shot.

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When the Apple Watch first debuted, designer Jony Ive envisioned the gadget as a must-have in the world of high fashion. But even if the smartwatch hasn’t become a mainstay in the luxury world, it has become a tool many of us can’t live without.

Wired Editor-at-large Steven Levy joins David to unpack the evolution of the Apple Watch.  Steven’s covered Apple since the early 80s, and he’s connecting the dots to share how the Apple of yesterday brought us the Apple Watch of today. Later, GQ Senior Style Writer Cam Wolf, tells us how the rise of the Apple Watch has changed the mechanical watch market.

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It’s 2016 and in the wake of a major PR fiasco, Samsung is rolling out their new round smartwatch with a beautiful rotating bezel, while an MLB cheating scandal puts the Apple Watch squarely in consumers’ sights. And, enhanced health features in the Series 4 rocket Apple Watch sales to record heights. Meanwhile Samsung gets hit with a lawsuit and then releases a tone-deaf ad campaign savaged by women around the world. And as both smartwatch contenders add more health functionality to their devices, they’re dogged by controversies over patents, consumer privacy and failure to deliver on vaulted promises of medical grade precision.

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It’s 2012 and Apple’s legendary designer in chief, Jony Ive, decides the company’s first product launch after Steve Jobs’ death should be a smartwatch. But he struggles to get buy-in from CEO Tim Cook and upper management. Meanwhile Samsung races to beat Apple to market.. Then Samsung raises the stakes with a wildly successful satirical ad campaign aimed at Apple’s pretentiousness, but eventually launches a flawed smartwatch that leaves consumers cold. After Apple finally greenlights the smartwatch project, Jony Ive and Apple engineers grapple with a host of challenges.

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Before Apple and Samsung took over our wrists, there was Fitbit. The fitness tracker was just about the coolest thing in Silicon Valley, and everyone in tech was wearing one — including Wired Magazine senior editor Michael Calore and senior writer Lauren Goode!

Long before the pair started hosting the Wired Gadget Lab podcast, they were crushing their steps goal while reporting on the buzziest wearable on the market. Michael and Lauren join David to help trace the steps that Fitbit took to become one of the most enduring pioneers of the wearable world, walking 10,000 steps so that the Apple Watch could run...and answer calls...and text.

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It’s 1936 in a small town in Korea and a rakish scion of a wealthy family realizes he has to clean up his act by starting a small import export business.  By the 1980s, he fast tracks South Korea’s first computer chip factory, and turns hundreds of engineers into fiercely loyal, tirelessly diligent “Samsung Men.” But as Apple’s star rises, Samsung turns to American designers from California to teach its employees innovation and free-wheeling creativity. The result is a 1999 futuristic watch phone – a forerunner to Samsung’s first Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

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When a charismatic young doctor announces revolutionary treatments for cancer and HIV, patients from around the world turn to him for their last chance. As medical experts praise Serhat Gumrukcu’s genius, the company he co-founded rockets in value to over half a billion dollars. But when a team of researchers makes a startling discovery, they begin to suspect the brilliant doctor is hiding a secret. From Wondery, the new season of Dr. Death: Bad Magic is a story of miraculous cures, magic and murder. Hosted by Laura Beil.

Listen to Dr. Death - Bad Magic: Wondery.fm/Dr.Death

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Can you imagine video games without Sony? A partnership between Sony and Nintendo could have changed the future of Playstation — and the video game industry — as we know it… if the deal hadn’t ended with a dramatic betrayal. Tristan Donovan, author of Replay: The History of Video Games (and writer of this season of Business Wars), joins David to tell us about the console that almost wasn’t. You’ll also hear why Nintendo is so hard to predict, and where the video games market is going next. 

For the full story on what went down with Playstation in the early 1990s, listen to the Business Wars Nintendo vs. Sony season, also written by Tristan. 

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