Anchor: What exactly did this video reveal? And why is it important?

Brad Stone: Well, it's really an unscripted moment. Uber's corporate culture has been in the news lately, ever since Susan Fowler, a former engineer, wrote a pretty scathing blog post about her experience at the company. Then we received, basically, a dash cam video from a longtime Uber driver who's unhappy about the direction that pay for drivers has been going.

He sent that to us. And have a listen. So in this conversation, which takes place on Super Bowl Sunday, Travis is actually talking to some friends about the culture at Uber and how the company is doing. Have a listen.

Travis Kalanick: That's kind of how I roll.

Passenger: My year is coming up. I'm going to be 40.

Travis Kalanick: I make sure every year is a hard year.

Passenger: [inaudible].

Travis Kalanick: If it's easy, I'm not pushing hard enough.

Brad Stone: So Ryan, you've had to counsel many a CEO and a founder through these unflattering moments. What do you tell him when they're in the vortex of bad news, like Uber is right now?

Ryan Sarver: Yeah. I think it's true for any company, any crisis that happens, it's about truth-seeking. How do you try and get to the root of what's going on? Know that most of the infrastructure in the company around you is there to try and hold that information away from you. So you have to be actively and aggressively looking for that truth and then trying to figure out how to solve it quickly and communicate as clearly as possible.

Brad Stone: Well, I can't say we thought a lot about whether to write this story. But it seemed to me that Travis's personality is really kind of central to all of these questions. This is a company that has changed how cities work. And he's not only talking about the culture of Uber, but really kind of showing a little bit of his pugnaciousness.

Ryan Sarver: Personality.

Brad Stone: Right, his personality. So have a listen to this second clip, where the driver challenges Travis Kalanick about the issues around driver pay. And he responds somewhat forcefully. Have a listen.

Travis Kalanick: You know what?

Driver: What?

Travis Kalanick: Some people don't like to take responsibility.

Driver: I take [bleep] responsibility.

Travis Kalanick: They blame everything in their life on someone else.

Driver: But why you sending the email for town car?

Travis Kalanick: Good luck.

Anchor: Brad, that was some pretty surprising stuff. What do you think this really reflects, in terms of Uber's culture? Is there really a trickle down effect? I mean, when you have a CEO that says this rather pugnacious things like that, what does that mean for the overall company?

Brad Stone: You know, this is why, actually, Uber has been successful. Because Travis, he doesn't suffer fools. He has bowled over every regulatory and competitive challenge in his way.

The issue is that he has to be a politician now. Right? He has to deal with these very sensitive constituencies. And here is, maybe, an example of him not putting his best foot forward.

And Ryan, I'm curious to hear what you think. You're friends with some of these folks on the Uber management team. And you've known Travis for a long time. Do these CEOs and founders now have a responsibility to be a little less pugnacious and more politically astute?

Ryan Sarver: Yeah. I think any company that ascends in the way they have and other companies have, there is a point where you're fighting as an outsider for a long time. And suddenly, you are someone that everyone else looks at. And it's a transition that happens. And you see if some leaders make it and some don't. And I think they're going through that transition now.

I mean, watching this, I'm curious to see it and think through, like, you guys get something like this dropped on your doorstep. How do you think about the process of assessing that and whether you publish it or not?

Brad Stone: Uber is a utility now. It's changed the way these cities cities operate. And Travis's personality and Uber's culture is so very much in the news right now. So it seemed to me that when we got this video that we really didn't have any choice. It's very much topical. And it is another one of these unscripted glimpses about the man and about the company.