WEBVTT 00:01.134 --> 00:02.569 - [Voiceover] Production funding for this program 00:02.569 --> 00:05.806 is made possible in part by the WKNO Production Fund, 00:05.806 --> 00:09.977 the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you. 00:09.977 --> 00:11.578 Thank you. 00:11.578 --> 00:19.786 (ambient music) 00:23.657 --> 00:26.493 - If you don't know who he is, just Google him. 00:26.493 --> 00:28.362 I'm here with the head of 00:28.362 --> 00:30.797 Global Outreach for Media with Google. 00:30.797 --> 00:32.132 He's also an author. 00:32.132 --> 00:35.202 It's time for A Conversation with Daniel Sieberg. 00:35.202 --> 00:37.437 So let's start with your childhood, 00:37.437 --> 00:39.473 and then we'll work our way through the fun conversations 00:39.473 --> 00:41.341 of Google, obviously, and everything going on, 00:41.341 --> 00:42.509 especially in the media front. 00:42.509 --> 00:44.211 Google Labs, Google News Labs. 00:44.211 --> 00:45.512 - [Daniel] Mm-hmm. 00:45.512 --> 00:46.780 - And then also, too, your book, The Digital Diet. 00:46.780 --> 00:48.815 So let's start though, with your childhood. 00:48.815 --> 00:52.119 You were a scout in Vancouver, Canada. 00:52.119 --> 00:54.254 So give us a little bit of your childhood, your story. 00:54.254 --> 00:57.457 - Yeah, so I grew up on the west coast of Canada. 00:57.457 --> 00:59.293 Was born in Vancouver. 00:59.293 --> 01:01.094 I spent a lot of time in Victoria, 01:01.094 --> 01:03.530 which was on an island, it's on Vancouver Island. 01:03.530 --> 01:06.166 It's a very, it's a rainforest. 01:06.166 --> 01:08.101 For people who don't like rain, it's not the place to live, 01:08.101 --> 01:11.305 but it's got tons of outdoor activities. 01:11.305 --> 01:14.041 I grew up with the mountains, and the ocean, and beaches, 01:14.041 --> 01:16.510 and you know, took it all for granted, I think, 01:16.510 --> 01:19.179 as a kid growing up, 01:19.179 --> 01:22.182 and did get a chance to join the Boy Scouts. 01:22.182 --> 01:26.320 I was a Cub Scout, and then eventually became a Queen Scout. 01:27.487 --> 01:28.956 The reason it's called a Queen Scout, 01:28.956 --> 01:31.625 is that or course Canada's part of the commonwealth, 01:31.625 --> 01:35.495 and so the equivalent of an Eagle Scout, if you will. 01:35.495 --> 01:37.497 The description when you do receive the award, 01:37.497 --> 01:39.232 it says something to the effect of, 01:39.232 --> 01:41.368 if you were called upon, you could serve the queen, 01:41.368 --> 01:43.470 in some sort of an emergency situation. 01:43.470 --> 01:44.438 - [Jeremy] You're a guardian. 01:44.438 --> 01:46.440 - Yeah, a guardian of the queen. 01:46.440 --> 01:49.609 I think growing up, I did sort of secretly wished 01:49.609 --> 01:51.611 that it had been a king scout, 01:51.611 --> 01:53.113 depending who was on the throne. 01:53.113 --> 01:56.016 Of course, you know, long live the queen, and so on. 01:56.016 --> 01:57.718 Yeah, that was a great experience. 01:57.718 --> 02:00.821 I think it was a foundational one, for me. 02:00.821 --> 02:04.358 My mom was actually a volunteer as part of it. 02:04.358 --> 02:07.194 You know, I got a chance to do a lot of outdoor activities. 02:07.194 --> 02:09.496 Hiking, and exploring, and all that kind of stuff. 02:09.496 --> 02:11.164 - Well I know that you give it a lot of credit 02:11.164 --> 02:13.266 for really shaping who you are today. 02:13.266 --> 02:14.768 And in terms of public speaking, 02:14.768 --> 02:16.837 and just building connections and relationships, 02:16.837 --> 02:18.472 and taking a leadership role. 02:18.472 --> 02:20.407 So it kind of shared that side of it. 02:20.407 --> 02:21.541 - Yeah, exactly. 02:21.541 --> 02:22.542 I mean I think that the three things 02:22.542 --> 02:24.578 that I took away from scouts were 02:24.578 --> 02:26.913 teamwork, because you're really encouraged 02:26.913 --> 02:28.382 to work with your peers. 02:28.382 --> 02:31.184 You know, whether it's putting a tent together, right? 02:31.184 --> 02:34.521 I mean you all have to kind of work on it in the same way. 02:34.521 --> 02:37.758 Going on a hike and making sure people don't get lost. 02:37.758 --> 02:39.459 Discipline, which is something that, 02:39.459 --> 02:40.694 you know, it's not the military, 02:40.694 --> 02:43.163 but you do have to take care of your uniform. 02:43.163 --> 02:45.766 You know, make yourself presentable. 02:45.766 --> 02:48.368 Think about how you are to society, 02:48.368 --> 02:49.803 and sort of being a good person, 02:49.803 --> 02:51.638 and the values of being and scouting. 02:51.638 --> 02:53.473 And then, achievement, you know? 02:53.473 --> 02:55.642 I think that of course with school, and so on, 02:55.642 --> 02:58.011 you see, you get grades, you get feedback. 02:58.011 --> 03:01.214 But you know, when you're a kid growing up, there's nothing, 03:01.214 --> 03:03.450 I mean it was cool for me to get badges, right? 03:03.450 --> 03:06.553 You'd get a, you'd see that you could actually get to some, 03:06.553 --> 03:09.122 you know, there'd be a series of goals you'd try to get to. 03:09.122 --> 03:10.323 There was a reward. 03:10.323 --> 03:11.992 I really, I thought that was great. 03:11.992 --> 03:15.128 And I think it helped to shape who I am. 03:15.128 --> 03:19.666 Now I seek out those types of people, I think. 03:19.666 --> 03:21.835 Similar-minded people. 03:21.835 --> 03:23.503 Even today, when I work on different projects, 03:23.503 --> 03:25.739 I think about teamwork, discipline, achievement, 03:25.739 --> 03:28.408 and how do we kind of cross each of those things, 03:28.408 --> 03:29.776 and put them all together. 03:29.776 --> 03:31.044 - The other aspect of growing up, 03:31.044 --> 03:33.013 is you got involved in technology earlier on. 03:33.013 --> 03:35.015 So your dad, electrical engineer? 03:35.015 --> 03:36.383 Is that correct? 03:36.383 --> 03:37.684 - Well not full-on engineer, I guess you would say, 03:37.684 --> 03:39.753 but electronics technician, if you will. 03:39.753 --> 03:43.356 He worked with oceanographers, 03:43.356 --> 03:47.594 and would go up to the arctic every summer 03:47.594 --> 03:50.831 aboard these huge, Canadian Coastguard icebreakers. 03:51.665 --> 03:52.866 Actually, he would do it 03:52.866 --> 03:54.134 even before those ships were available. 03:54.134 --> 03:56.336 It was the only way to get through the ice 03:56.336 --> 03:59.339 to basically right up to the North Pole, 03:59.339 --> 04:02.809 to take salinity samples of the ocean, 04:02.809 --> 04:04.978 to look at the marine life, you know? 04:04.978 --> 04:08.482 He was part of the sort of the technical side, 04:08.482 --> 04:11.618 helping to produce the current meters that would go down. 04:12.519 --> 04:14.988 The research scientists were there to look at the data. 04:14.988 --> 04:16.490 He did this for 30 years. 04:16.490 --> 04:19.893 I had a chance to go with him, at one point. 04:19.893 --> 04:21.862 As I was doing a story for CBS News 04:21.862 --> 04:24.131 when I was working there, which was really cool. 04:24.131 --> 04:27.467 He got married, at one point, at the North Pole. 04:27.467 --> 04:29.569 I always heard tons of stories about polar bears, 04:29.569 --> 04:32.706 and you know, he was just this kind of adventurous guy. 04:32.706 --> 04:35.308 Now he's retired, on an island on the West Coast, 04:35.308 --> 04:38.145 but he's got this flowing gray hair. 04:38.145 --> 04:40.647 He looks sort of like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, 04:40.647 --> 04:41.815 at this point. 04:42.983 --> 04:44.217 - But that allowed you on your end, 04:44.217 --> 04:46.419 to be able to take apart things, 04:46.419 --> 04:48.955 and really get fascinated with just technology overall, 04:48.955 --> 04:51.124 which ultimately led you, when you talked about 04:51.124 --> 04:53.727 being a technology reporter for CNN, CBS, 04:53.727 --> 04:55.929 these different huge national media outlets, 04:55.929 --> 04:57.464 international media outlets. 04:57.464 --> 04:59.399 That kind of paved the way for your interest. 04:59.399 --> 04:59.933 - Yeah. 04:59.933 --> 05:01.268 Exactly. 05:01.268 --> 05:04.538 I saw him being curious about how things worked, 05:04.538 --> 05:06.840 and always trying to figure out how to fix things, right? 05:06.840 --> 05:08.275 So I never got any of those skills. 05:08.275 --> 05:11.411 I'm not an engineer, I'm not a programmer, right? 05:11.411 --> 05:13.713 But seeing that, that was possible, 05:13.713 --> 05:15.415 and trying to sort of be a part of that world, 05:15.415 --> 05:18.652 I think as time went on, what I realized was 05:18.652 --> 05:20.187 I didn't have that ability. 05:20.187 --> 05:22.489 What I tried to have was the ability to explain to people 05:22.489 --> 05:24.925 why that was important, why technology was important, 05:24.925 --> 05:28.461 and how it fit into our lives, you know, as I got older. 05:29.729 --> 05:33.200 I will say I actually took 05:34.034 --> 05:36.736 a computer science course in college really early on. 05:36.736 --> 05:38.238 It was about learning Pascal. 05:38.238 --> 05:39.973 I thought, alright, I'm gonna try to go and actually learn 05:39.973 --> 05:40.740 how to be a programmer. 05:40.740 --> 05:42.542 I failed miserably. 05:42.542 --> 05:45.078 Somehow, somebody who failed a computer science language 05:45.078 --> 05:46.046 ended up working at Google. 05:46.046 --> 05:47.214 (laughing) 05:47.214 --> 05:48.148 It is possible. 05:48.148 --> 05:49.349 - There's hope for all of us. 05:49.349 --> 05:50.450 - I work in marketing, just to be clear. 05:50.450 --> 05:52.319 I'm not an engineer. 05:52.319 --> 05:56.556 I think having that, sort of, insatiable curiosity 05:56.556 --> 05:58.225 about how things work, 05:58.225 --> 05:59.993 and the value of them in society 05:59.993 --> 06:02.062 was a big part of what I learned from my dad, 06:02.062 --> 06:03.463 and you know, my mom encouraged 06:03.463 --> 06:05.932 that kind of exploration, and stuff as well, so. 06:05.932 --> 06:07.100 - Let's fast-forward. 06:07.100 --> 06:08.735 Before we get to Google, give us one story, 06:08.735 --> 06:11.304 because you covered a lot of really cool things. 06:11.304 --> 06:14.641 Swimming with sharks, going up and doing zero gravity, 06:14.641 --> 06:17.310 so many things as a reporter. 06:17.310 --> 06:19.379 What's one fun story that you got to cover 06:19.379 --> 06:22.115 you say, ah, this is a good memory. 06:22.115 --> 06:24.184 - I think I would have to tell the swimming with sharks 06:24.184 --> 06:26.353 story because there was a bit of a technological angle 06:26.353 --> 06:28.521 to that as well. 06:28.521 --> 06:31.691 I was a science and technology reporter for CBS, 06:31.691 --> 06:33.526 so I would occasionally cover environment, 06:33.526 --> 06:34.427 and that kind of thing. 06:34.427 --> 06:36.229 It was tied to shark week, 06:36.229 --> 06:39.232 and CBS has had a partnership with Discovery. 06:41.001 --> 06:45.739 So I had just gotten my scuba training in the pool, 06:45.739 --> 06:47.607 which for anybody who has done scuba, 06:47.607 --> 06:49.309 you know it's very theoretical, of course. 06:49.309 --> 06:50.543 And you take the tests, 06:50.543 --> 06:52.579 and you're clearing your breathing valve. 06:52.579 --> 06:54.014 You know, it's pretty basic. 06:54.014 --> 06:56.349 - So you went from basic, to swimming with sharks. 06:56.349 --> 06:57.584 - Right. 06:57.584 --> 07:00.086 So my first open dive, which you have to do 07:00.086 --> 07:05.025 to sort of be certified, was with a tiger shark, 07:05.025 --> 07:07.027 and about eight to ten lemon sharks, 07:07.027 --> 07:09.929 which sounds so sweet, but they are not, 07:09.929 --> 07:12.332 off the coast of the Bahamas. 07:12.332 --> 07:14.834 I offered to go do this story about shark conservation. 07:14.834 --> 07:16.169 At the time, I didn't have children or anything. 07:16.169 --> 07:17.404 My wife thought I was insane. 07:17.404 --> 07:19.839 I said alright, I'll go do this. 07:19.839 --> 07:21.875 I just distinctly remember jumping in the water 07:21.875 --> 07:24.144 for the first dive, and you know, 07:24.144 --> 07:26.546 there are two or three camera guys. 07:29.049 --> 07:32.819 We went with an operation called, with Stuart Cove. 07:32.819 --> 07:35.088 He wrangles sharks for Hollywood. 07:35.088 --> 07:37.157 He's been around sharks his whole life. 07:37.157 --> 07:38.391 And he was my buddy, right? 07:38.391 --> 07:39.859 Everybody, when you go diving, has a buddy. 07:39.859 --> 07:41.394 - A good buddy to have, someone who wrangles sharks. 07:41.394 --> 07:42.662 - Right? (laughing) 07:42.662 --> 07:44.998 That gave me somewhat of a level of safety. 07:44.998 --> 07:47.400 But I remember he had like this vice grip on my arm. 07:47.400 --> 07:50.303 He was like, don't move away from me when we go down. 07:50.303 --> 07:51.805 Just stay next to me. 07:51.805 --> 07:53.273 And he said, don't wave your hands around 07:53.273 --> 07:55.375 'cause the sharks will think that they're fish. 07:55.375 --> 07:58.011 I'm like okay, I'll do whatever you want. 07:58.011 --> 07:59.412 I could remember going down in the water, 07:59.412 --> 08:01.581 and it was only about like 25 feet. 08:02.782 --> 08:05.418 The sharks were just kind of everywhere. 08:06.353 --> 08:07.754 This tiger shark had come, 08:07.754 --> 08:08.755 and that's why they were all excited 08:08.755 --> 08:10.357 about getting in the water. 08:10.357 --> 08:12.692 I remember having this odd feeling 08:12.692 --> 08:15.695 like I need to search for like, 08:15.695 --> 08:17.764 does hitting the snout of a shark 08:17.764 --> 08:19.599 actually deter them from coming toward. 08:19.599 --> 08:21.201 But I just had this moment of like, 08:21.201 --> 08:22.602 I really need to know that information right now. 08:22.602 --> 08:24.404 - [Jeremy] Can I Google this right now? 08:26.206 --> 08:27.674 - That was also kind of the time I realized 08:27.674 --> 08:29.409 I had a bit of a problem with technology, 08:29.409 --> 08:32.846 where I would just, sort of thinking about it so much. 08:32.846 --> 08:35.014 I remember even coming back on the boat, 08:35.014 --> 08:36.383 you know, back to shore, 08:36.383 --> 08:39.152 and being so lost without service on my phone. 08:39.152 --> 08:41.688 I was just despondent that I couldn't share a picture, 08:41.688 --> 08:43.156 or something, right? 08:43.156 --> 08:44.624 Just enjoy the moment, Daniel. 08:44.624 --> 08:47.694 Like stop being so, I need to be connected all the time. 08:47.694 --> 08:50.063 - And that's a big part of what we'll talk about in a second 08:50.063 --> 08:51.231 'cause I want to cover Google first, 08:51.231 --> 08:53.333 but is The Digital Diet, this book. 08:55.068 --> 08:56.336 We'll come back to this, 08:56.336 --> 08:58.438 but talk about what it's like to work at Google, 08:58.438 --> 08:59.873 'cause I know that obviously 08:59.873 --> 09:01.141 you're here in Memphis right now. 09:01.141 --> 09:02.542 You just spoke at a lot of different events. 09:02.542 --> 09:03.877 You got a chance to tour 09:03.877 --> 09:05.378 St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, 09:05.378 --> 09:06.479 the National Civil Rights Museum. 09:06.479 --> 09:07.647 So you've been immersed. 09:07.647 --> 09:08.515 You spoke at the Friends of Scouting dinner 09:08.515 --> 09:09.282 with the Boy Scouts. 09:09.282 --> 09:10.517 - [Daniel] Mm-hmm. 09:10.517 --> 09:13.353 - But that's a big part of the questions was, 09:13.353 --> 09:15.055 you know, what was it like working at Google? 09:15.055 --> 09:15.855 What's it like? 09:15.855 --> 09:17.056 And talk about New York. 09:17.056 --> 09:18.591 So what's it like working at Google? 09:18.591 --> 09:20.827 - Yeah, you know, I went from traditional news, as you say. 09:20.827 --> 09:24.230 CNN, CBS, ABC, and elsewhere. 09:24.230 --> 09:27.133 To, you know, a company that, 09:27.133 --> 09:28.835 some people's only touchpoint with it 09:28.835 --> 09:31.204 is seeing something like The Internship, the movie, right? 09:31.204 --> 09:33.573 And wondering if that's real, and so on. 09:34.908 --> 09:38.144 What I would say is that there are elements of that movie, 09:38.144 --> 09:40.346 if that's what people know, that are true. 09:40.346 --> 09:42.015 People do ride bikes across the campus. 09:42.015 --> 09:44.717 I'm in the New York office, but in Mountain View 09:44.717 --> 09:46.186 people are riding really colorful bikes, 09:46.186 --> 09:47.353 and they're sitting outside, 09:47.353 --> 09:50.290 and they're playing beach volleyball. 09:50.290 --> 09:51.925 I mean there are lots of, you know, 09:51.925 --> 09:54.227 ways to try to decompress a little bit. 09:55.094 --> 09:59.532 I think that the, and the food is amazing and you know-- 09:59.532 --> 10:00.300 - [Jeremy] The Google 15? 10:00.300 --> 10:01.568 Is that right? 10:01.568 --> 10:02.769 - The Google 15, which you put on, you know, 10:02.769 --> 10:04.003 the first month or two that you're there. 10:04.003 --> 10:05.872 - And you had to wear a hat, correct? 10:05.872 --> 10:07.207 - You do wear the Noogler hat, 10:07.207 --> 10:09.442 with the propeller on the top. 10:11.778 --> 10:15.181 I think that there a lot of ways for Googlers to, 10:15.181 --> 10:16.883 you know, try to relax because people there 10:16.883 --> 10:18.251 do work incredibly hard. 10:18.251 --> 10:20.620 But I think that by in large, I don't think people 10:20.620 --> 10:23.189 take advantage of them enough, 10:23.189 --> 10:25.692 because people are so driven, and so ambitious. 10:25.692 --> 10:28.695 I would love to see more people find a nap pod, 10:28.695 --> 10:30.296 and just you know, take a 20-minute nap, 10:30.296 --> 10:32.966 and kind of recalibrate a bit. 10:32.966 --> 10:36.169 Yeah, there's an emphasis on work-life balance, right? 10:36.169 --> 10:38.538 So these things are there for that reason. 10:38.538 --> 10:41.674 People work hard, and hopefully they can find some time 10:41.674 --> 10:44.811 to just chill out a little bit. 10:44.811 --> 10:46.513 - Talk about the work you actually do, 10:46.513 --> 10:49.482 'cause a big part of this, the news lab, the Google News Lab 10:49.482 --> 10:52.719 and you put out a lot of valuable information 10:52.719 --> 10:54.521 for media outlets to use. 10:54.521 --> 10:57.824 You help them to decipher what all the information means, 10:57.824 --> 10:59.192 but really interesting things. 10:59.192 --> 11:00.827 So give us a little bit of your world, 11:00.827 --> 11:01.928 and what you actually do at Google. 11:01.928 --> 11:03.363 - Sure. 11:03.863 --> 11:05.832 As you mentioned, I'm the head of media outreach, 11:05.832 --> 11:09.402 and I work on a team called the Google News Lab. 11:09.402 --> 11:12.839 As part of that, we also have a team 11:12.839 --> 11:15.642 that looks at Google Trends data. 11:16.743 --> 11:20.046 As people, for example, are watching a debate, 11:20.046 --> 11:22.682 or watching the Super Bowl, or the Oscars, 11:22.682 --> 11:25.652 or whatever it is, and they want to know more. 11:25.652 --> 11:27.053 They get curious. 11:27.053 --> 11:28.955 They want some context around something they saw. 11:28.955 --> 11:31.257 It could be outside of a temporal event like that, 11:31.257 --> 11:34.494 but we see those queries come in. 11:34.494 --> 11:37.297 It's all anonymized, aggregated data, 11:37.297 --> 11:40.633 but we see the insights of what's on the mind of people 11:40.633 --> 11:42.769 when they're watching a big sporting event, 11:42.769 --> 11:46.105 or which celebrities are they interested in, 11:46.105 --> 11:47.807 which candidates, which issues, 11:47.807 --> 11:50.009 you know, what's front-of-mind for anybody. 11:50.009 --> 11:53.212 And then we share that data through our Twitter handle. 11:53.212 --> 11:56.983 At Google Trends there's a data curation team 11:56.983 --> 11:59.285 that works on that. 11:59.285 --> 12:01.721 I think it's valuable, certainly for the media 12:01.721 --> 12:05.358 who wants to try to tell a story about something, 12:05.358 --> 12:07.560 but potentially for marketers, 12:07.560 --> 12:10.229 for companies who want to see what people care about, 12:10.229 --> 12:11.998 what pushed them to actually search for something. 12:11.998 --> 12:14.133 You know, during the Super Bowl, for example, 12:14.133 --> 12:17.103 we looked at the most searched commercials 12:17.103 --> 12:19.105 that were up on YouTube. 12:20.440 --> 12:23.543 The most searched commercial was actually the one with 12:23.543 --> 12:25.745 the couple that was running away from the bears, 12:25.745 --> 12:27.113 and it was a car where you can start 12:27.113 --> 12:28.281 with a voice search command, 12:28.281 --> 12:30.416 and you know, they drove away. 12:31.851 --> 12:34.020 You could argue whether that was the best commercial or not, 12:34.020 --> 12:35.154 but it turns out that was the one 12:35.154 --> 12:38.224 that most people were searching for. 12:38.224 --> 12:41.394 So, it kind of provides some interesting data points 12:41.394 --> 12:43.463 for the public at large. 12:43.463 --> 12:45.531 People want to see it, and we do just, 12:45.531 --> 12:47.667 you know, sort of put it out there, 12:47.667 --> 12:50.903 and let folks analyze it however they like. 12:50.903 --> 12:53.906 - I know that obviously you got a lot in the politics realm 12:53.906 --> 12:54.807 going on right now. 12:54.807 --> 12:56.275 - [Daniel] Yeah. 12:56.275 --> 12:57.810 - But that was one, there was an interesting story 12:57.810 --> 13:01.214 that you told of, was it Marco Rubio that had talked about, 13:01.214 --> 13:02.148 I'll let you tell the story. 13:02.148 --> 13:03.082 - Yeah, yeah, no. 13:03.082 --> 13:04.617 You're hitting on it exactly. 13:05.485 --> 13:08.788 During one of the debates that was Marco Rubio, 13:08.788 --> 13:10.957 saying something to the effect of, you know, 13:10.957 --> 13:12.792 we don't need more philosophers, 13:12.792 --> 13:15.828 you know, we need more welders, not philosophers. 13:15.828 --> 13:17.096 I think he might have said something about 13:17.096 --> 13:20.299 how they make a decent salary, or something. 13:20.299 --> 13:22.535 So we're always looking for those moments, 13:22.535 --> 13:24.003 you know, during the debate. 13:24.003 --> 13:26.105 Like when do people during the second screen experience, 13:26.105 --> 13:27.040 go to their computer? 13:27.040 --> 13:28.608 And that was one of them. 13:28.608 --> 13:31.477 We saw a spike in, not only in people looking for 13:31.477 --> 13:36.482 what did he say, but a search spike around welding classes. 13:36.716 --> 13:39.852 So people actually taking that initiative to go, 13:39.852 --> 13:42.689 and potentially become a welder, 13:42.689 --> 13:44.691 as a result of those comments. 13:45.925 --> 13:49.128 We see those spikes happen throughout you know, the debates. 13:49.128 --> 13:52.632 As we get into the sort of general election, 13:52.632 --> 13:55.902 we'll be looking at the presidential debates. 13:55.902 --> 13:57.403 - [Jeremy] RIght. 13:57.403 --> 13:59.872 - We did this four years ago, but this is the first time 13:59.872 --> 14:02.875 that we're making real-time data available. 14:02.875 --> 14:05.078 Four years ago, when we did this, 14:05.078 --> 14:09.549 we had to wait a period of time after a debate had ended, 14:09.549 --> 14:11.417 to go back, and engineers look at the data. 14:11.417 --> 14:12.351 Now it's all real-time. 14:12.351 --> 14:14.554 We have a horse race graphic 14:14.554 --> 14:15.822 where you can see search interest 14:15.822 --> 14:18.057 around each candidate, minute by minute. 14:18.057 --> 14:20.993 What did somebody say that really pushed them to search? 14:20.993 --> 14:22.528 You know, we look at the different issues 14:22.528 --> 14:23.930 that people are searching for. 14:23.930 --> 14:26.833 If somebody does start talking about gun control, 14:26.833 --> 14:30.169 does that really push people to search for gun control? 14:31.070 --> 14:34.640 I think it's an interesting reflection of the electorate, 14:34.640 --> 14:37.043 and what matters to people. 14:37.043 --> 14:38.644 It's the kind of stuff that you may not be comfortable 14:38.644 --> 14:39.946 sharing on social, you know? 14:39.946 --> 14:43.483 You might now want to say hey everybody, 14:43.483 --> 14:45.284 I'm interested in being a welder. 14:45.284 --> 14:46.919 Does anybody know some local welding classes? 14:46.919 --> 14:49.155 It just maybe wouldn't make sense to do it on social, 14:49.155 --> 14:51.491 but you feel like you want to do it on search. 14:51.491 --> 14:53.559 So it's almost more of a reflection of kind of 14:53.559 --> 14:55.461 the true self, if you will. 14:56.429 --> 14:57.930 - Obviously, you're on the front lines, 14:57.930 --> 15:01.467 and you talk about technology things like virtual reality. 15:01.467 --> 15:03.302 Give us an idea of some of the hot things. 15:03.302 --> 15:05.872 Google's working pretty heavily, and behind-the-scenes 15:05.872 --> 15:07.406 obviously than what we know as the public, 15:07.406 --> 15:09.142 but lots of really cool things. 15:09.142 --> 15:10.510 Cars that drive themselves and-- 15:10.510 --> 15:11.677 - Yeah. 15:11.677 --> 15:14.547 - Technology is so just massively 15:14.547 --> 15:16.048 rapidly changing. 15:16.048 --> 15:17.383 Talk about some of the major ones. 15:17.383 --> 15:18.785 Virtual reality, some of the things 15:18.785 --> 15:19.652 you guys are doin' there. 15:19.652 --> 15:20.820 - Sure. 15:22.221 --> 15:25.158 Our team is a very cross-product team. 15:25.158 --> 15:28.795 In other words, we look at trends, and search, 15:28.795 --> 15:31.864 and YouTube, and data visualization, 15:31.864 --> 15:33.800 and all kinds of things. 15:33.800 --> 15:35.868 Some teams within Google are much more vertical, right? 15:35.868 --> 15:37.537 So we kind of have a very panoramic view, 15:37.537 --> 15:40.540 or try to have a panoramic view of how tools 15:40.540 --> 15:43.810 apply to journalists, and newsrooms, and so on. 15:44.677 --> 15:46.546 By extension, we look at virtual reality, 15:46.546 --> 15:50.116 which has become a very hot topic 15:50.116 --> 15:53.252 for a lot of broadcasters and publishers. 15:53.252 --> 15:56.255 They want to think about new ways to tell stories. 15:56.255 --> 15:59.625 We have Google Cardboard, which if folks haven't seen it, 15:59.625 --> 16:02.395 it literally is made of cardboard. 16:02.395 --> 16:04.630 You fold it together, put your phone in it. 16:04.630 --> 16:06.999 There's a cardboard app, you hold it up to your head, 16:06.999 --> 16:12.104 and you can look around and see 360 video, 16:12.104 --> 16:14.907 there are different apps that are created 16:14.907 --> 16:17.643 to put people into different situations. 16:18.978 --> 16:20.913 It's, I think, for a lot of people, really exciting. 16:20.913 --> 16:22.815 It's a new way of immersing someone 16:22.815 --> 16:26.452 in an empathic point of view. 16:28.721 --> 16:32.758 That I think, there have been huge advances in that already. 16:32.758 --> 16:34.260 Of course, there are other manufacturers 16:34.260 --> 16:36.662 that are out there creating different devices. 16:36.662 --> 16:39.632 Some of them cost more than others. 16:39.632 --> 16:41.367 Thinking about the production side of it, 16:41.367 --> 16:44.937 that costs are coming down, how to capture 360 video, 16:44.937 --> 16:46.339 how to stitch it together-- 16:46.339 --> 16:47.640 - [Jeremy] Which you did that at the White House. 16:47.640 --> 16:48.674 - That-- 16:48.674 --> 16:49.742 - Shot of the White House. 16:49.742 --> 16:51.010 - [Daniel] That's right. 16:51.010 --> 16:52.578 - It's just so neat to how you use technology 16:52.578 --> 16:53.546 to be able to tell stories. 16:53.546 --> 16:54.480 - Yeah. 16:54.480 --> 16:55.681 We did have a chance to do it. 16:55.681 --> 16:59.051 The first 360 image with the president, 17:00.686 --> 17:01.954 after the State of the Union 17:01.954 --> 17:02.889 we were there with YouTube creators, 17:02.889 --> 17:04.523 and we were in the east wing, 17:04.523 --> 17:08.027 and we captured a 360 with the president. 17:08.027 --> 17:10.630 You could actually see, kind of, everything around. 17:10.630 --> 17:13.633 The beauty of 360 is that you can see everything. 17:13.633 --> 17:14.867 Of course, if we did one right now, 17:14.867 --> 17:17.303 you would see the camera guys, and the curtain, 17:17.303 --> 17:19.739 and the whole thing, right? 17:19.739 --> 17:20.973 Sometimes it's a trade-off for, 17:20.973 --> 17:23.409 it's a very different way of telling stories. 17:23.409 --> 17:25.878 If you're using video, for example, with 360 video, 17:25.878 --> 17:27.446 all of a sudden there's no B-Roll, right? 17:27.446 --> 17:29.248 Because everything's just there all the time. 17:29.248 --> 17:30.449 - [Jeremy] Right. 17:30.449 --> 17:32.985 - How do you do an interview in 360, 17:32.985 --> 17:35.521 because you can't sort of cut back and forth. 17:35.521 --> 17:36.856 There's just a lot. 17:36.856 --> 17:39.492 If you're using animation, let's say. 17:39.492 --> 17:43.462 There are folks looking at how to recreate a news story. 17:43.462 --> 17:46.899 If there was a police shooting on the street, or something, 17:46.899 --> 17:48.668 and you wanted to digitally animate, 17:48.668 --> 17:50.703 recreate what that was like, and show people, 17:50.703 --> 17:52.705 you know, these are the conditions 17:52.705 --> 17:54.307 when that shooting happened. 17:54.307 --> 17:56.242 How accurate do you have to be 17:56.242 --> 17:57.810 to show they have the lighting? 17:57.810 --> 17:59.445 Where was the person? 17:59.445 --> 18:01.714 Did he pull his gun at what moment, right? 18:01.714 --> 18:04.850 All these ethical considerations. 18:04.850 --> 18:07.753 It's all brand-new for, not just for newsrooms, 18:07.753 --> 18:11.157 but for other people, brands that are using it, and so on. 18:11.157 --> 18:14.226 Yeah, it's a big, hot topic for a lot of people. 18:14.226 --> 18:16.128 - Well obviously that's where we could spend a whole show 18:16.128 --> 18:17.296 in and of itself. 18:17.296 --> 18:18.230 Probably like a whole series of shows 18:18.230 --> 18:19.198 just talking about technology, 18:19.198 --> 18:20.366 and everything that's going on. 18:20.366 --> 18:21.801 I do want to talk about the book. 18:21.801 --> 18:23.202 The Digital Diet is the book. 18:23.202 --> 18:25.037 The four-step plan to break your tech addiction, 18:25.037 --> 18:26.706 and regain balance in your life. 18:26.706 --> 18:29.041 And that's what it's all about, is regaining balance. 18:29.041 --> 18:31.344 As we were talking before, the moment with the sharks. 18:31.344 --> 18:32.945 You realized wait a second. 18:32.945 --> 18:35.414 Also, too many, you were just getting off of traveling 18:35.414 --> 18:36.248 with your wife. 18:36.248 --> 18:37.149 - Mm-hmm, that's right. 18:37.149 --> 18:38.084 - She's like, wait a second. 18:38.084 --> 18:38.951 Please put your phone down. 18:38.951 --> 18:40.219 - (laughs) Yeah. 18:40.219 --> 18:42.321 - You realized, and you were on the front lines 18:42.321 --> 18:44.523 way early being a tech reporter, 18:44.523 --> 18:47.093 saying wait a second, what is technology doing to me? 18:47.093 --> 18:49.462 How is it affecting my relationships? 18:49.462 --> 18:51.030 Not only with my friends and family, 18:51.030 --> 18:53.299 but with my wife, and now your children. 18:53.299 --> 18:54.233 - [Daniel] Mm-hmm. 18:54.233 --> 18:55.668 - Talk about though, the book, 18:55.668 --> 18:57.136 and obviously we kind of covered 18:57.136 --> 18:58.437 why you wrote it a little bit, 18:58.437 --> 19:00.139 but talk about some of the main things. 19:00.139 --> 19:02.742 Because there's really some great information there 19:02.742 --> 19:05.411 on a test that you can take to figure out 19:05.411 --> 19:08.247 kind of like your BMI, but your virtual weight index. 19:08.247 --> 19:09.515 There's all sorts of good information here. 19:09.515 --> 19:11.417 - Yeah, thank you for teeing that up. 19:12.518 --> 19:15.087 The book was driven by a personal experience, as you say. 19:15.087 --> 19:16.922 That I felt just overwhelmed, 19:16.922 --> 19:21.594 and was not managing my technology effectively. 19:21.594 --> 19:22.828 I always felt like I had to post something 19:22.828 --> 19:24.430 on social media as it happened. 19:24.430 --> 19:27.233 I was in a social setting. 19:27.233 --> 19:31.103 I was the person who was like this, kind of constantly. 19:31.103 --> 19:32.738 I just wasn't aware. 19:32.738 --> 19:36.709 And by virtue of my job, I just kind of had access 19:36.709 --> 19:37.843 to all the stuff. 19:37.843 --> 19:40.346 I mean more than the average person. 19:40.346 --> 19:42.014 So the book started as a blog. 19:42.014 --> 19:44.850 It started as me just saying hey, everybody. 19:44.850 --> 19:47.286 In fact, when I announced... 19:48.387 --> 19:49.822 Announced. 19:49.822 --> 19:51.057 There wasn't some like, big national announcement. 19:51.057 --> 19:52.858 When I posted the blog, I was working at CBS, 19:52.858 --> 19:54.627 and I said I'm gonna take eight months, 19:54.627 --> 19:56.562 or I'm gonna take some time off social media. 19:56.562 --> 19:58.931 I'm just gonna quit, right? 19:58.931 --> 20:03.135 I got emails from some of my colleagues and contemporaries 20:03.135 --> 20:04.970 who work in tech reporting and stuff. 20:04.970 --> 20:06.739 They were like, are you crazy? 20:06.739 --> 20:08.140 What you do you mean you're gonna like quit? 20:08.140 --> 20:09.809 - [Jeremy] You're the tech guy! 20:09.809 --> 20:11.744 - This is like completely anathema 20:11.744 --> 20:13.112 to what you're supposed to, you're supposed to be like 20:13.112 --> 20:15.147 embracing everything. 20:15.147 --> 20:17.249 I said I can't do it anymore. 20:17.249 --> 20:18.818 And the people were kind of like, concerned. 20:18.818 --> 20:21.721 They were like, ooh wow, he's like kinda lost it. 20:21.721 --> 20:24.657 I said I just have to do it, for me. 20:24.657 --> 20:26.158 It did start out as a very personal journey. 20:26.158 --> 20:28.894 I don't think I quite ever imagined it becoming a book. 20:28.894 --> 20:31.831 As time went on, I heard from people who said like, 20:31.831 --> 20:33.365 I have this problem, you know. 20:33.365 --> 20:35.201 So it changed from being so much about me, 20:35.201 --> 20:38.070 but more about like collectively, how can we approach this? 20:38.070 --> 20:39.939 - The average person checks their cell phone, 20:39.939 --> 20:41.640 what, 125 times a day? 20:41.640 --> 20:43.109 - Right? 20:43.109 --> 20:45.444 I mean this is the kind of data, that when you look at it, 20:45.444 --> 20:48.180 and you think, what do I do with all that time? 20:48.180 --> 20:50.416 You know, 125 times per day. 20:50.416 --> 20:52.952 And is it productive, and should I be doing something else, 20:52.952 --> 20:54.987 or put my phone away entirely? 20:56.122 --> 20:57.356 It's different for everybody, right? 20:57.356 --> 21:00.059 There are food parallels 21:01.460 --> 21:02.561 by design here, right? 21:02.561 --> 21:05.030 When you think about food choices. 21:05.030 --> 21:08.701 We all have to, we make lots of different choices. 21:08.701 --> 21:10.569 At Google for example, talk about food, 21:10.569 --> 21:13.739 there are healthy choices that might be in a clear case, 21:13.739 --> 21:15.107 and then the unhealthy stuff, 21:15.107 --> 21:17.143 like maybe some candy, and so on. 21:17.143 --> 21:18.677 It's there, but it's a little hidden. 21:18.677 --> 21:21.514 It's in an opaque container, so you have to make a choice 21:21.514 --> 21:22.982 to go get that, right? 21:22.982 --> 21:24.884 Well, it's the same with technology. 21:24.884 --> 21:27.553 We may or may not use it for something healthy and positive. 21:27.553 --> 21:30.890 It may or may not have consequences of some kind. 21:30.890 --> 21:34.059 It may or may not help us from a well-being standpoint. 21:34.059 --> 21:37.229 If we don't get enough sleep, or if we're not in touch 21:37.229 --> 21:38.664 with our own identity anymore, 21:38.664 --> 21:41.600 and we're just projecting ourselves to the world. 21:41.600 --> 21:44.603 So, there are a lot of parallels with food. 21:44.603 --> 21:47.006 You mentioned the virtual weight index, 21:47.006 --> 21:49.575 which is based on the BMI, which everybody knows, 21:49.575 --> 21:51.844 is just kind of this rudimentary equation 21:51.844 --> 21:52.811 of your height and your weight, 21:52.811 --> 21:55.314 and is this a healthy profile. 21:55.314 --> 21:57.016 Same idea with the virtual weight index, 21:57.016 --> 21:59.718 which is based on all the weight that you can't see. 21:59.718 --> 22:04.056 All of the passwords, and devices, and services, 22:04.056 --> 22:05.324 and games, and all the rest of it, 22:05.324 --> 22:07.092 that we kind of carry with us all the time. 22:07.092 --> 22:08.894 It's like digital baggage. 22:09.895 --> 22:12.364 We're not always aware of what it's doing to us, 22:12.364 --> 22:14.333 and we're not also thinking necessarily about 22:14.333 --> 22:16.735 do we really need this, and should we sort of, 22:16.735 --> 22:18.137 move onto something else? 22:18.137 --> 22:20.239 I know this sounds counter to working at Google, 22:20.239 --> 22:22.241 and it's like wait, this guy's tellin' us 22:22.241 --> 22:23.976 to not use our technology? 22:23.976 --> 22:24.944 That's actually not what I'm saying. 22:24.944 --> 22:25.978 I'm just saying use it-- 22:25.978 --> 22:27.580 - Use Google, just have balance. 22:27.580 --> 22:28.581 - Yes. (laughs) 22:28.581 --> 22:29.748 You know? 22:29.748 --> 22:32.351 And use it in a way that's mindful 22:32.351 --> 22:34.620 of whatever you want to use it for. 22:34.620 --> 22:36.021 - Talk about some of the tips, 22:36.021 --> 22:38.490 'cause I know that we running close to the end time. 22:38.490 --> 22:39.692 - [Daniel] Yeah. 22:39.692 --> 22:41.126 - You have a ton of great tips in here. 22:41.126 --> 22:42.628 - [Daniel] Hmm. 22:42.628 --> 22:44.763 - One of my favorites is when you're out at a restaurant, 22:44.763 --> 22:46.665 have everybody stack their cell phones, 22:46.665 --> 22:49.168 and whoever touches it first has to pay the bill. 22:49.168 --> 22:50.336 - [Daniel] Yeah. 22:50.336 --> 22:51.904 - But share some of the tips. 22:51.904 --> 22:52.905 Maybe a few of your favorites. 22:52.905 --> 22:53.839 - Sure. 22:53.839 --> 22:55.708 Phone stack is a good one. 22:55.708 --> 22:57.543 I think for me personally, 22:57.543 --> 23:01.580 not charging smartphone in the bedroom is another one. 23:01.580 --> 23:03.382 That became a real issue with my wife and I. 23:03.382 --> 23:04.850 She had a nickname for me. 23:04.850 --> 23:07.019 It was glow-worm, because my face was always illuminated 23:07.019 --> 23:08.754 by a screen at night. 23:08.754 --> 23:11.690 We agreed, and we charge them in the kitchen, right? 23:11.690 --> 23:13.359 It's fine. 23:13.359 --> 23:16.095 I wake up, and it's not the first thing that I do. 23:16.095 --> 23:19.265 Now granted it's probably within the first 10 or 15 minutes, 23:19.265 --> 23:22.434 but I don't roll over and that's immediately what I do. 23:22.434 --> 23:24.603 I might like open the curtains or the blinds, 23:24.603 --> 23:26.672 and see the world, right, first. 23:26.672 --> 23:29.174 It takes a minute or two. 23:29.174 --> 23:31.143 That, to me, can really be helpful, 23:31.143 --> 23:32.811 and potentially give you better sleep, 23:32.811 --> 23:34.079 because I think when the phone's in the room, 23:34.079 --> 23:37.082 you're always tempted to just go and look at it. 23:37.082 --> 23:39.251 A couple others, I mean I would say, 23:39.251 --> 23:42.221 I hope no one from Google is listening right at this minute, 23:42.221 --> 23:45.257 but I turn off my work email notifications. 23:45.257 --> 23:46.525 If I want to check my work email, 23:46.525 --> 23:48.761 it's more of a proactive decision. 23:48.761 --> 23:51.196 I will go into my work email, and I will look at it, 23:51.196 --> 23:53.599 but I'm not getting the pings at the top of my-- 23:53.599 --> 23:54.533 - [Jeremy] Right. 23:54.533 --> 23:55.501 You're choosing when to check. 23:55.501 --> 23:56.969 - Right. 23:56.969 --> 23:59.838 That feels like I have a little more control over that, 23:59.838 --> 24:03.075 because you could check email 24/7, if you wanted to. 24:04.009 --> 24:08.147 The last one I think, is with out-of-office messages, 24:08.147 --> 24:10.015 and we all use them, you know. 24:10.015 --> 24:12.184 You go on vacation, and you set something up. 24:12.184 --> 24:15.487 I think really being strict about 24:15.487 --> 24:17.956 when you adhere to what that says. 24:17.956 --> 24:21.827 If it says, if your message says I am not available, 24:21.827 --> 24:23.562 or I am offline, whatever it is? 24:23.562 --> 24:25.631 Then you just have to be not available, 24:25.631 --> 24:28.233 unless it's some crazy emergency, right? 24:28.233 --> 24:30.436 Otherwise, it's just a slippery slope of 24:30.436 --> 24:31.770 responding to this one, and making an exception. 24:31.770 --> 24:33.105 - Well share what your friend does 24:33.105 --> 24:34.606 'cause I absolutely love it. 24:34.606 --> 24:36.108 I'm totally stealing this, but show what your friend does. 24:36.108 --> 24:38.410 - So this is somebody at Google. 24:39.445 --> 24:41.280 I actually know a number of people who do this. 24:41.280 --> 24:43.649 When they go on vacation they will say, 24:43.649 --> 24:48.287 I am currently out of the office until such and such date. 24:48.287 --> 24:51.757 And when I return, I will be deleting every email 24:51.757 --> 24:53.492 that I have received during that time. 24:53.492 --> 24:55.194 If you would like to get in touch with me, 24:55.194 --> 24:58.163 or if it's important, please be prepared to resend it 24:58.163 --> 24:59.531 on that day when I come back. 24:59.531 --> 25:01.667 It's kind of like email bankruptcy. 25:01.667 --> 25:03.502 They're just like, I don't want to deal with 25:03.502 --> 25:04.870 you know, all of these emails. 25:04.870 --> 25:07.639 And we all dread it, coming back to the office. 25:07.639 --> 25:09.708 So he's just decided to put it on everybody else. 25:09.708 --> 25:10.509 - [Jeremy] I love it. 25:10.509 --> 25:11.410 - So, yeah. 25:11.410 --> 25:13.312 - So, tell us where we can, 25:13.312 --> 25:15.047 'cause obviously you've got Twitter handles. 25:15.047 --> 25:16.215 You've got all that good stuff. 25:16.215 --> 25:18.283 But where can we follow the conversations? 25:18.283 --> 25:19.451 Where can we get the analytics? 25:19.451 --> 25:20.386 Where can we go to get the information? 25:20.386 --> 25:21.053 - Yeah. 25:21.053 --> 25:22.521 A few places. 25:22.521 --> 25:23.756 I would say, if you want to know more about the news lab 25:23.756 --> 25:26.792 and what we do, it's just g.co/newslab, 25:26.792 --> 25:29.228 or @GoogleNewsLab, is the Twitter handle. 25:29.228 --> 25:32.498 Our trends data, google.com/trends, 25:32.498 --> 25:34.433 or @GoogleTrends. 25:34.433 --> 25:35.634 We push all of that out. 25:35.634 --> 25:38.203 We make some graphics and visualizations 25:38.203 --> 25:40.873 to make it kind of look fun. 25:40.873 --> 25:42.341 Yeah, and if you're interested in more 25:42.341 --> 25:45.277 about The Digital Diet book, it's TheDigitalDietBook.com. 25:45.277 --> 25:46.712 Yeah. 25:46.712 --> 25:48.881 No shortage of stuff there about the team and us-- 25:48.881 --> 25:52.017 - Lots of very helpful information. 25:52.017 --> 25:53.552 Greatly appreciate you comin' on the show. 25:53.552 --> 25:55.387 Thank you everybody, for watching a conversation 25:55.387 --> 25:56.989 with Daniel Sieberg. 25:56.989 --> 26:00.989 (ambient music)