David has a Light Phone III, and it's making him wonder a lot of things about technology. So The Verge's Allison Johnson joins the show to talk about the whole trend of minimalist smartphones, and to figure out which features a smartphone absolutely needs, and which ones we could all probably do without. After that, The Verge's Andy Hawkins takes us through a big weekend in the Tesla Takedown movement, what's happening with Elon Musk's car company, how automakers are responding to impending tariffs, and whether we're wrong to be excited about the new Nissan Leaf. Finally, The Verge's Jen Tuohy answers a question from the Vergecast Hotline (call 866-VERGE11, or email vergecast@theverge.com!) about all-seeing cameras in our homes. Which mostly don't exist yet. Mostly. Further reading: Light Phone III review: everything in moderation: https://www.theverge.com/reviews/637178/light-phone-iii-review-minimalist-smartphone There’s no perfect minimalist phone — yet: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/5/3/17304466/minimalist-light-phone-nokia-3310-unihertz-jelly-punky-mp01 One year with the Light Phone 2: https://www.theverge.com/24140675/light-phone-2-one-year-retrospect We went to 10 anti-Tesla protests — and a couple counter protests, too: https://www.theverge.com/tesla/639183/tesla-takedown-protest-march-29-elon-musk-doge ‘Tesla Takedown’ protesters planning ‘biggest day of action’: https://www.theverge.com/news/633091/tesla-takedown-protesters-planning-biggest-day-of-action How Elon Musk turned the Tesla brand so toxic: https://www.theverge.com/decoder-podcast-with-nilay-patel/633200/tesla-takedown-protest-elon-musk-toxic The Nissan Leaf lives on as a compact SUV with a Tesla charge port: https://www.theverge.com/news/636386/nissan-leaf-third-generation-ev-suv-nacs Ring’s latest security camera is a drone that flies around inside your house: https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/24/21453709/ring-always-home-cam-indoor-drone-security-camera-price-specs-features-amazon Project Astra is the future of AI at Google: https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/14/24156296/google-ai-gemini-astra-assistant-live-io Alexa Plus arrives with promise but plenty of questions: https://www.theverge.com/amazon-alexa/622172/amazon-alexa-plus-panos-panay-interview Chapters: 00:00 Intro and Light Phone 3 03:00 Minimalist smartphones with Alison Johnson 20:20 Essential apps for a minimalist phone 25:03 AI Chatbots 35:15 The future of minimalist phones 38:15 Tesla protests 39:39 Global day of action against Tesla 42:04 Elon Musk's response 47:27 Tesla's sales and market data 54:45 Tariffs and the auto industry 01:00:58 Nissan Leaf's new look 01:03:39 Smart home AI and privacy concerns (Hotline) Subscribe: http://goo.gl/G5RXGs Like The Verge on Facebook: https://goo.gl/2P1aGc Follow on Twitter: https://goo.gl/XTWX61 Follow on Instagram: https://goo.gl/7ZeLvX Follow on TikTok: http://bit.ly/42VeCVU The Vergecast Podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/vergecast Decoder with Nilay Patel: https://link.chtbl.com/decoder More about our podcasts: https://www.theverge.com/podcasts Read More: http://www.theverge.com Community guidelines: http://bit.ly/2D0hlAv Wallpapers from The Verge: https://bit.ly/2xQXYJr If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may receive a commission without exerting any influence on editorial content. For more information about our ethics policy, visit: https://bit.ly/3P4bJgz