Ronan Farrow on Sam Altman's "unconstrained" relationship with the truth

Ronan Farrow on Sam Altman's "unconstrained" relationship with the truth

From Decoder with Nilay Patel by The Verge

April 16, 2026 · 1h 2m

About this episode

Ronan Farrow discusses his investigative reporting on Sam Altman and the implications of his trustworthiness in relation to OpenAI.

Today I’m talking with Ronan Farrow, one of the biggest stars of investigative reporting working today. He broke the Harvey Weinstein story, among many, many others. Just last week, he and co-author Andrew Marantz published an incredible deep-dive feature in The New Yorker about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, his trustworthiness, and the rise of OpenAI itself. So Ronan came on the show to discuss the piece, his reporting process, and why he thinks this story and the revelations it contains really matter. Read the full interview transcript here on The Verge. Links: Sam Altman may control our future — can he be trusted? | The New Yorker Hey ChatGPT, which one of these is the real Sam Altman? | New York Times Suspect throws molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s home | Wired The attacks on Sam Altman are a warning for the AI world | The Verge The vibes are off at OpenAI | The Verge Why Sam Altman was booted from OpenAI | The Verge Sam Altman, unconstrained by the truth | Gary Marcus A brief history of Sam Altman's hype | MIT Tech Review Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder…

People in this episode

Guest: Ronan Farrow

Topics covered

  • investigative reporting
  • Sam Altman
  • OpenAI
  • trustworthiness

Keywords

  • Harvey Weinstein
  • The New Yorker
  • reporting process

Mentioned in this episode

Products: OpenAI, Decoder

More episodes of Decoder with Nilay Patel

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Decoder with Nilay Patel podcast page.