Born to Be Wired by John Malone

Born to Be Wired

Lessons From a Lifetime Transforming Television, Wiring America for the Internet, and Growing Formula One, Discovery, Sirius XM, and the Atlanta Braves

John Malone

Simon & Schuster · Print & ebook · September 2, 2025

If you’ve ever streamed a show on HBO Max, seen a Formula One race, hummed a tune on SiriusXM, bought concert tickets via Ticketmaster, or watched an Atlanta Braves game, you’ve crossed paths with John Malone.

We earn from qualifying purchases.

Who it’s for
A seasoned operator’s account of making big systems work, with enough room for conversation.
Genres
Business Lives, Media & Communications, Entertainment Industry
Published
Simon & Schuster, September 2, 2025

Nearest books

Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved. Most of these share its genre: Business Lives.

  1. Who Is Michael Ovitz?Michael Ovitz52% matchAlso shares Entertainment Industry
  2. When Genius FailedRoger Lowenstein49% match
  3. The OutsidersWilliam N. Thorndike Jr.51% match
  4. The Accidental NetworkRouzbeh Yassini-Fard63% match
  5. Call Me TedTed Turner, Bill Burke62% matchAlso shares Media & Communications
  6. That Will Never WorkMarc Randolph62% match
  7. Am I Being Too Subtle?Sam Zell60% match

For younger readers: Steve Jobs: the Man Who Thought Different

Start with three books, and this one can be the first.

Members get a new edition every morning: a route out from their books to essays, research and talks, with the reason for each.

Start with this book

About this book

If you’ve ever streamed a show on HBO Max, seen a Formula One race, hummed a tune on SiriusXM, bought concert tickets via Ticketmaster, or watched an Atlanta Braves game, you’ve crossed paths with John Malone. You just didn’t know it. John Malone remains a stranger to most people, though millions have been touched by the technologies and content he made possible.

Continue reading

In Born to Be Wired, this legendary “cable cowboy” shares stories from behind the scenes of the most transformative deals in media, entertainment, and technology. He recounts the extraordinary saga of how America was wired— how a single copper strand evolved from a rural TV-antenna service into a high-speed backbone powering the internet and clearing the path for Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Malone offers an insider’s account of launching television’s first cable networks—including Discovery, TBS, QVC, and BET—and the strategy behind era-defining mergers, from Warner Bros. Discovery to Live Nation Entertainment. His Liberty Media ventures, including Formula One, have delivered long-term returns often compared to Berkshire Hathaway. More than a business story, this is a personal reflection—from a quiet kid with a mechanic’s curiosity to a media visionary confronting the costs and consequences of disruption in an industry he helped reshape. Trained at the storied Bell Labs and gifted with a mathematical mind, Malone saw patterns in complexity. Where others saw chaos, he saw systems—and reconfigured companies with the precision of an engineer, unlocking value no one else could see. Sweeping, revealing, and deeply human, Born to Be Wired offers a rare glimpse into the logic—and the life—behind the screen.

Inside the Machine

A seasoned operator’s account of making big systems work, with enough room for conversation.

Come here for

  • inside-track business stories
  • TV, internet, and media-industry scale

Expect

  • career lessons in motion
  • industry history with a practical edge

Where it sits

Business Lives82%
Media & Communications61%
Entertainment Industry20%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Business Lives
  • Media & Communications
  • Corporate Histories
Authors
John Malone
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Published
September 2, 2025
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Business Lives