S1E119 - We Asked Sarah Lacy Are We in an Oligarchy of Tech Bros Under Trump?
In a wide-ranging and provocative conversation that traversed the intersections of technology, politics, and social change, veteran tech journalist Sarah Lacy and host Michael Krasny engaged in a candid dialogue that explored the most pressing cultural and political issues of the moment.
The conversation began with Lacy opining on venture capitalists investing in Trump. They went on to talk about the increase in hypermasculinity, and Lacy brought up the diminution of trans rights.
Krasny asked Lacy about her falling out with Kara Swisher and why they aren't speaking. They then discussed press exclusions from the White House and the decision by Jeff Bezos to limit opinions on the editorial page of The Washington Post.
Krasny inquired about Lacy's political views, including her feminist perspective, and asked for her major advice for working mothers. Lacy then spoke more about trans rights and shared her views on Gen Z, as well as the influence of her parents on her life.
The conversation shifted to discussions of profit and money-making via chaos. They talked about Lacy's most recent book, her Palm Springs bookstore, and the future of tech journalism. It was an invigorating and illuminating hour!
Biography
Sarah Lacy is one of the best-known investigative journalists, authors, and serial entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. She helped build TechCrunch as its first Editor-at-Large, before founding investigative news site Pando.com in 2011, and the online community ChairmanMom.com in 2018.
She is the author of three critically acclaimed books, "Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0" (Gotham Books, May 2008) and "Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos" (Wiley, February 2011) and “A Uterus Is a Feature Not A Bug: The Working Woman’s Guide to Overthrowing the Patriarchy” (Harper Business, November 2017).
As a journalist, Lacy wrote for BusinessWeek and hosted Yahoo Finance's online show TechTicker and was a frequent guest on national television from the major morning news shows to the financial networks to the partisan cable news networks.
Lacy is known for her on stage interviews with many of the best-known entrepreneurs in the United States and China, including Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Systrom, and many more with a combined millions of views on YouTube today. She has delivered keynotes on entrepreneurship, startup culture, the tech world, and gender equality all over the world.
Known for her fearless, outspoken reporting, Lacy has been profiled in publications as varied as the New York Times and San Francisco Magazine. She was called one of Marie Claire's "Three Women Changing Everything" in 2014, and in 2019 Margaret Atwood nominated her has one of “the 12 women who are shaping our future” in the Times of London.
Lacy lives part-time in San Francisco, where she is a consultant and collaborative writer to startups and founders, and also in Palm Springs, where she co-owns The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs with her family.
Conversation recorded on February 28, 2025.