Michael Copeland

Technology Writer and Content Strategist · 84 appearances on the record.

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Michael V. Copeland is a veteran tech journalist who served as a senior editor at WIRED and senior writer at Fortune and Business 2.0. In 2013, he joined venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to lead content strategy, creating and hosting the firm's flagship a16z Podcast before later leading content initiatives at AWS.

7statements → 7claims → 6claims resolved → 83%fully supported → 4.33/5average certainty → 1.17/5average debate potential → 1said about them ↓

5 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 assertions · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 6 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Michael argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Copeland: Dell buying EMC is the largest tech deal in history
“We just witnessed the largest tech deal in history when Dell bought EMC.”
Michael Copeland Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 0:04 a16z Podcast | Dell + EMC -- Why the Python Just Ate the Cow

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
88% certainty 4
100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: speaking style how? →

258 words/min while actually speaking · 14.9 um and uh per 1k words · 20.9 false starts per 1k · 43% of pauses land inside a clause

Um and uh per 1,000 words, year by year. Hover a point for the year's tape.

510152015201620192015 · 15 per 1k · 9 episodes2016 · 8.2 per 1k · 10 episodes2019 · 16.2 per 1k · 50 episodes

No argument clarity score for Michael Copeland: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews.

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 58,411 words across 69 episodes of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

Everything Michael Copeland said on the a16z Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Supported
Copeland: Dell buying EMC is the largest tech deal in history
“We just witnessed the largest tech deal in history when Dell bought EMC.”
Michael Copeland Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 0:04 a16z Podcast | Dell + EMC -- Why the Python Just Ate the Cow
Assertion Supported
Copeland: Past 40 years saw more job creation than any previous period
“The evidence is there's been more jobs created and more job creation in the last, you know, 40 years than, you know, ever, right?”
Michael Copeland Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 8:58 a16z Podcast | Talking Humans and Machines with NYT’s John Markoff
Assertion Partly supported
Felix Baumgartner Reached 833.9 MPH During Stratospheric Jump
“During his leap from the stratosphere, Felix Baumgartner fell faster than the speed of sound, reaching an estimated speed of 833.9 miles per hour, plummeting from the edge of space. Baumgartner's return trip to Earth lasted just over nine minutes, but there wa…”
Michael Copeland Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 0:04 a16z Podcast | Breaking the Barriers of Human Potential
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Iguodala joined the Golden State Warriors partly for the Silicon Valley scene
“What you may not know is that Iguodala signed with the Warriors in part to be near Silicon Valley and the tech scene.”
Michael Copeland Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 0:16 a16z Podcast | Andre Iguodala Knows Tech -- And Why the Warriors Won't Be Stopped
Assertion Supported
Copeland: Smartphones dwarfed all prior computing platforms in scale
“And then came the mobile phone, which, in the form of the smartphone, has dwarfed them all.”
Michael Copeland Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 0:14 a16z Podcast | What Comes After the Smartphone
Assertion Supported
UC Berkeley's AMPLab Is the Birthplace of Apache Spark
“The place where Apache Spark was born, UC Berkeley's Amplab has not just created a major open source software platform, it's spun out more than its share of groundbreaking companies.”
Michael Copeland Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 0:05 a16z Podcast | AMPLab, the Power of Open Source, and the Future of Systems Software
Assertion Supported
Adam Back invented Hashcash, used in Bitcoin mining
“Back invented Hashcash, a proof-of-work system, which, among its other applications, is used in Bitcoin mining.”
Michael Copeland Jan 2, 2019 ▶ 1:08 a16z Podcast | Hard Forks, Hard Choices for Bitcoin

The other half of the tape: Michael Copeland's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode on the a16z Podcast. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Sonal Chokshi 1

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0011112019episodesmentions
0112019episodes it came up in
000.50.5112019episodesmentions per episode
2019 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (84)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
a16z Podcast | Move Fast But Don't Break Things (When It Comes to Computational Biology) Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Finally a Tablet that Replaces Your Laptop Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Teams, Trust, and Object Lessons Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Mobile Falls Hard for Virtual Reality Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Infrastructure... Is Everything Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Open vs. Closed, Alpha Cities, and the Industries of the Future Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Breaking the Barriers of Human Potential Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Hall of Fame Football Meets Venture Capital Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Reinventing Insurance Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | When Banking Works Like My Smartphone Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Software is What Distinguishes the Hardware Winners Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Nobody Discusses Work Software Outside of Work -- and Then There’s Slack Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | What Software Developers (and Therefore Every Company) Need Jan 2, 2019 54s
a16z Podcast | The Year Mobile Began to Truly Dominate Tech Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Scaling Ideas and Startups in the U.K. and Europe Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | Building Tech Startups in a Place Where Tech Isn’t Everything Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | London Calling for Tech Done in a Different Way Jan 2, 2019 8m
a16z Podcast | Using Social Tools to Build Homes for Those Most in Need Jan 2, 2019 6m
a16z Podcast | The Data Science of Food and Taste Jan 2, 2019 6m
a16z Podcast | Data Down on the Farm Jan 2, 2019 6m
a16z Podcast | The Future of Food Jan 2, 2019 6m
a16z Podcast | Defeating Aging with Aubrey de Grey Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | Fintech from the World's Financial Capital -- London Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Beyond Lean Startups Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | What Comes After the Smartphone Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Dell + EMC -- Why the Python Just Ate the Cow Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | AMPLab, the Power of Open Source, and the Future of Systems Software Jan 2, 2019 7m
a16z Podcast | How Big Companies Can Get the Most From Silicon Valley Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Wall Street's Most Hated Man -- A Conversation With Overstock.com's Patrick Jan 2, 2019 6m
a16z Podcast | The Best Way To Be Smart ... Is To Not Be Stupid Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Apple Has Lock on Luxury Smartphones, But Not Business of TV Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Crypto, Security, CS, Quantum Computing, and More with Our New Professor-in Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Hard Forks, Hard Choices for Bitcoin Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Compensation Isn’t About Paying the Most, It’s About Being Consistent Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | Connecting People with Digital Work, the Gig Economy, and More Jan 2, 2019 28s
a16z Podcast | Talking Humans and Machines with NYT’s John Markoff Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | When Software Eats Cars Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Tech's Biggest Ideas and How They Take Hold -- With Marc Andreessen and Dan Jan 2, 2019 50s
a16z Podcast | The Internet is His Religion Jan 2, 2019 49s
a16z Podcast | Bitcoin, Greece, and What’s Next for Cryptocurrency Jan 2, 2019 54s
a16z Podcast | A Copernican Update ... In Tech, the Smartphone is the Center Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Why Every Business is in the Data Business Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Big Data Goes Really Big Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Innovation and Regulation -- What Happens When Policy Lags Behind Technolog Jan 2, 2019 1m
a16z Podcast | Bitcoin's Growing Pains -- and Possibilities Jan 2, 2019 52s
a16z Podcast | The Changing Relationship Between Tech and Government Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Latinos and the Tech Economy -- U.S. Reps. Sanchez and Gallego Talk Bridgin Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Finding and Hiring for (Expectations) Fit on Both Sides Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Good Bubbles, Bad Bubbles -- and Where Unicorns Come from Jan 2, 2019 1m
a16z Podcast | Verizon Plus AOL -- Why? -- The Short Answer is Mobile Jan 2, 2019 1m
a16z Podcast | Making Security More Useable Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | Barbarians at the Gate -- How to Think About Enterprise Security Today Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Getting Security Right Isn’t as Hard as You Think (But the Effort Never End Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Software and Overcoming the Randomness of Birthplace Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | The Five Stages of Bitcoin -- Disdain, Dismissal, Curiosity, Oh F**k!, and Jan 2, 2019 1m
a16z Podcast | How Hacks Happen (Let’s Just Say Mistakes Have Been Made) Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Tackling Senior Care with Help from Technology Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Messaging is the Medium Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Security's Painful Prominence and Why There is No Turning Back Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Public or Private? Finding the Right Board Seat Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | What the Apple Watch Is -- and Isn't Jan 2, 2019 1m
a16z Podcast | Embracing Sales Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | The Marketplace Rules Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Searching for Mobile's Third OS Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Crisis Time -- What to Do When Things Go Sideways Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | Mobile is Eating the World (and Apple is Gobbling Fastest) Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Dumb Storage Gets Smart Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Enough with the Old Stuff -- Time for New Questions in Mobile Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Technology and the Opening of Myanmar Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Ecommerce and the Holiday Shopping Collision Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | Where's My Stuff? -- The Lowdown on Logistics and Ops Jan 2, 2019 52s
a16z Podcast | When Fantasy Football and Crowdfunding Collide Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Trigger, Action, Reward, Investment -- Four Steps for Habit-Forming Product Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | Apple Takes on Payments and Your Wrist Jan 2, 2019 3m
a16z Podcast | Building Brands and Running Retail -- Ron Johnson and Tristan Walker Break Jan 2, 2019 5m
a16z Podcast | Ben and Marc Explain (Practically) Everything – Part 2 Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Ben and Marc Explain (Practically) Everything – Part 1 Jan 2, 2019 4m
a16z Podcast | The Micro and Macro of Mobile Jan 2, 2019 1m
a16z Podcast | When Large Scale Gets Really Massive -- Managing Today’s Enterprise Network Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | Google I/O -- A Three-Hour Tour (in 30 minutes) Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | People Marketplaces Take On One of the Last Great E-Commerce Opportunities: Jan 2, 2019 2m
a16z Podcast | The Future Of Television Jan 2, 2019 1m
a16z Podcast | Apple and Google Won the Mobile OS War, But a New War Has Already Begun Jan 2, 2019 2m

Played on the show (19)

Episodes where a recording of Michael Copeland was played rather than Michael taking part, or where the tape carries an address with nobody putting questions to them. Listed because the words are on the record, kept out of every score on this page because they were not said on this show. We read this off the tape: who was spoken to, who was asked something, who answered whom.

EpisodeDateOn tapeWhat it is
a16z Podcast | Your Worst Deeds Don’t Define You -- Life and Redemption in Prison Jan 2, 2019 24s clip played
a16z Podcast | Truth and Humanity in Leadership Jan 2, 2019 32s clip played
a16z Podcast | I Reject the Term Viral Video Jan 2, 2019 43s clip played
a16z Podcast | Mapping the Future of Virtual Reality Jan 2, 2019 43s clip played
a16z Podcast | Building Affirm, and Why Max Levchin Has Watched Seven Samurai 100-Plus Tim Jan 2, 2019 34s clip played
a16z Podcast | The Future of Money and Monetization Jan 2, 2019 56s clip played
a16z Podcast | The Fundamentals of Security and the Story of Tanium’s Growth Jan 2, 2019 54s clip played
a16z Podcast | Harnessing the DevOps Movement -- Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls Jan 2, 2019 52s clip played
a16z Podcast | Making the Most of the Data That Matters Jan 2, 2019 44s clip played
a16z Podcast | The Future of Software Development Jan 2, 2019 57s clip played
a16z Podcast | Andre Iguodala Knows Tech -- And Why the Warriors Won't Be Stopped Jan 2, 2019 33s clip played
a16z Podcast | Writing a New Language of Storytelling with Virtual Reality Jan 2, 2019 32s clip played
a16z Podcast | The Role of Academia in the Startup World Jan 2, 2019 60s clip played
a16z Podcast | Building the Right Technical Advisory Board Jan 2, 2019 57s clip played
a16z Podcast | Establishing Online Identity is Hard -- It Shouldn't Be Jan 2, 2019 45s clip played
a16z Podcast | Is It Possible to Achieve Equitable Equity for Startup Employees? Jan 2, 2019 55s clip played
a16z Podcast | The Future of Entertainment and What David Petraeus and the Olsen Twins Can Jan 2, 2019 47s clip played
a16z Podcast | Beyond Bitcoin -- The Blockchain Jan 2, 2019 24s clip played
a16z Podcast | Demystifying Venture Capital Jan 2, 2019 36s clip played
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