Overview of People I Mostly Admire — “Susan Wojcicki: ‘Hey, Let’s Go Buy YouTube!’”
This episode of People I Mostly Admire (Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher) features Steve Levitt interviewing Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube. The conversation covers Wojcicki’s path from growing up on Stanford’s campus through early involvement at Google (she was employee #16), her role in building Google’s ad business and the decision to acquire YouTube, and the large practical and ethical challenges of running a platform that now hosts a billion hours of video watched per day. The interview mixes business history, product and policy thinking (ads, moderation, regulation), diversity and education in tech, and personal reflections on parenting and living without regrets.
Key topics discussed
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Susan Wojcicki’s background and career path
- Grew up on Stanford campus; Harvard undergrad in history & literature; considered an econ PhD; moved into technology and got an MBA.
- Rented her garage/rooms to Sergey Brin and Larry Page in the early days; later joined Google as marketing manager and moved into product development.
- Early Google employee (#16); later led Google’s ads and Google Video teams; advocated for and executed the acquisition of YouTube for $1.65B; became YouTube CEO in 2014.
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Building Google’s advertising system
- Early banner/text ads failed; key innovation was moving to CPC (cost-per-click) and optimizing for click-through rate (CTR).
- Use of Vickrey (second-price) auction and automation replaced large parts of a traditional sales force, dynamically matching supply/demand across inventory.
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The YouTube acquisition and product decisions
- Google had its own Google Video product but recognized YouTube’s product-market fit and bought it rather than trying to outcompete.
- Wojcicki modeled the acquisition quickly and later returned to lead YouTube after an internal reorg.
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Trust and safety / content moderation
- Recognition that moderation is complex and adversarial; YouTube started intensifying efforts around 2016.
- Multi-pronged approach: remove content that violates policies, demonetize borderline content, reduce recommendation/visibility for borderline content.
- Metrics and actions: reported removal of millions of videos (11 million in one quarter cited), reduced US viewership of borderline content by ~75%, and served massive public-health-related content during COVID (hundreds of billions of impressions).
- Strategy aims to remove economic incentives for harmful creators while preserving a “grayscale” of interventions beyond outright takedown.
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Regulation and public accountability
- Wojcicki expresses mixed feelings: regulation could simplify compliance, but private companies can act faster and more granularly; questions whether governments could respond quickly enough to novel harms (e.g., COVID conspiracies).
- Values multiple companies experimenting with different approaches; recognizes limits and trade-offs of private governance.
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Diversity in tech and education
- Wojcicki argues for earlier, broader CS education (middle school) to close participation gaps and increase representation.
- Notes resource constraints (teachers, devices) as barriers; praises tools like Scratch and encourages exposure so kids see they can build useful things.
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Personal life, parenting, and advice
- Has five children; practical parenting lessons: don’t obsess about milestones, give kids chores early, and prioritize a multidimensional life.
- Life philosophy: live without regrets, make long-term right decisions even if risky, balance work/family/friends/society.
Major takeaways
- Small technical and economic design decisions can scale into massive, company-defining advantages (e.g., CPC + CTR + second-price auction).
- Strategic humility and pragmatism matter: acquiring a superior rival (YouTube) instead of trying to beat it can be the right long-term choice.
- Content moderation requires layered strategies (remove, demonetize, de-recommend) and continuous adaptation; there is no single silver bullet.
- Education policy matters for workforce diversity — early access to CS (and teacher/device resources) is a critical lever.
- Private companies can iterate quickly on policy and product, but there are legitimate arguments for clearer regulatory frameworks; it’s a trade-off between speed/flexibility and public accountability.
- Personal advice from Wojcicki: seek mission-driven, growing opportunities; it’s rarely “too late” to move into tech; aim for a life you won’t regret and keep it multidimensional.
Notable facts & numbers
- YouTube users watch about 1 billion hours of video per day.
- Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion.
- In one recent quarter, YouTube removed about 11 million videos.
- During COVID, YouTube served hundreds of billions of impressions of public health information.
- Wojcicki was one of the very early Google employees (around the 16th hire).
Memorable quotes / insights
- On the ad breakthrough: “We started looking at the click through... That breakthrough, which was really simple, made a huge difference.”
- On acquiring YouTube: “It was hard because you had to say, hey, we weren't as good as we thought we were.”
- On moderation strategy: “It's not just black or white on or off the platform. There are a lot of different dials that we use.”
- On living a good life: “Make sure I live a life without regrets... do the right thing for my friends, my family, and in my job and for society.”
Actionable recommendations (for listeners)
- For educators and policy advocates: push for accessible CS education by middle school and investment in teachers/devices to broaden participation.
- For product teams: consider economic incentives (monetization) and algorithmic exposure (recommendations) together when designing systems that can amplify behavior.
- For leaders: be willing to acknowledge product failures and pivot — acquisition or partnership can be better than trying to win on every front.
- For individuals considering tech careers: demonstrate interest, leverage domain skills, and target growing, mission-oriented organizations.
Episode structure / listening notes
- Early sections: Wojcicki’s background, how she encountered Google founders, joining Google.
- Middle sections: building Google ads, the CPC breakthrough, automation and auction mechanics.
- Next: the Google Video → YouTube story and acquisition.
- Later: running YouTube — scale, responsibilities, moderation, COVID response, and regulatory perspective.
- Closing: diversity, education, parenting, and life advice.
This episode is practical for listeners interested in technology strategy, platform governance, digital advertising economics, and leadership decisions made at critical inflection points.