
On with Kara Swisher
422 episodes — Page 8 of 9
Will Elon Musk Turn Twitter Into Yahoo Mail?
Twitter rose to prominence as a global public square that helped enable the Arab Spring, but Elon Musk has changed all that. The platform is complying with governments more, and a murky algorithm and blue check jungle makes it feel less relevant and less reliable than ever before. Nayeema and Kara break down how the fruit has fallen and where it may eventually land (Yahoo Mail, anyone?) with Zoë Schiffer, managing editor of Platformer, and Ryan Mac, The New York Times’s tech and accountability reporter, who was among those banned by Musk back in December. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram — yes, Instagram, it’s better than Yahoo Mail — we’re @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How Will Lina Khan and the FTC Tackle AI?
After a discussion about Elon and the new “Chief Twit,” Linda Yaccarino, we turn to a woman who has refused to meet with Musk: Lina Khan. The Chair of the Federal Trade Commission has tech giants from Meta to Amazon on the defensive. Now she’s got the agency’s eyes set on the next big gorilla: artificial intelligence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Watergate to Trump and Today’s GOP: A Throughline
From the verdict in Trump’s sexual assault case to the Santos indictment and the Supreme Court saga, scandal is rife in Washington. Today we turn to the OG: Watergate, as examined in the new HBO series, “White House Plumbers.” Writers and creators Peter Huyck and Alex Gregory and director David Mandel discuss how the show compares to their last collab (“Veep”), trace a line between the blind allegiance to Nixon in the 1970s and the “Big Lie” of 2020 and contemplate what a Trump scandals series may look like 50 years from now would be like (think: Timothée Chalamet as Rudy Giuliani). You can follow Kara and Nayeema on Instagram - search for @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Making Relationships Work (or Not) with Maggie Smith
Relationships are hard. When do you know it’s time to marry? When do you know it’s time to break up? We get inside those questions with Kara, Nayeema and our guest today: Maggie Smith. The poet’s viral 2016 poem “Good Bones” was accompanied by professional success, and cracks in her personal life. Smith talks about that fallout, documented in her new memoir “This Place Could be Beautiful” – and whether life is more beautiful on the other side. You can follow Kara and Nayeema on Instagram — search for @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Roy Wood Jr. on President Biden, Tucker Carlson, Trevor Noah and (of course) the WGA Strike
After a look inside a writers' strike that could upend Hollywood, Kara and Nayeema turn to today’s guest: writer and comedian Roy Wood Jr. Fresh off his performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Wood breaks down how he chose his jokes for the president, what (if anything) was considered off limits and why we need to start engaging with viewpoints we don’t like. You can follow Kara and Nayeema on Instagram — search for @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Snap’s Evan Spiegel on AI, AR, and – yes – TikTok
The Snap CEO talks about the challenges facing the company’s AI chatbot, how augmented reality glasses could change how we compute the real world and why a TikTok ban would “help” Snap. You can follow Kara and Nayeema on Instagram. Search for @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ron Klain on the Likely Biden-Trump 2024 Showdown
It’s looking like 2024 will be another round of Biden vs. Trump. But will the sequel end in the same result? Here to discuss the prospective race — and the many issues at stake from abortion to gun control to Ukraine and China — is President Biden’s former Chief of Staff, Ron Klain. You can follow Kara and Nayeema on Instagram - search for @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ben Smith on the Turmoil at Buzzfeed, Fox News and Everything In Between
To make sense of a turbulent and important week in media, we turn to Ben Smith who was the founding Editor in Chief of Buzzfeed News (2012 to 2020) and the former New York Times media critic (from 2020 to 2022). On the agenda: the shuttering of Buzzfeed News, the meaning of Murdoch's settlement with Dominion and what Ben is working on these days, including his news organization Semafor and his forthcoming book, Traffic. Since we taped Kara got her blue check (against her wishes!) when Twitter re-verified some accounts over the weekend. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. And you can follow Kara and Nayeema on Instagram -- yes, Instagram: @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Larry Summers on the Politics & Economics of Envy
We turn to economist and former Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers, to help us make sense of inflation, Silicon Valley Bank and what Biden should do next. Also on the agenda: why Summers believes in a politics and economics of opportunity — “not of envy.” Plus, why he thinks America needs more people like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jen Psaki on Her New Show and Her Old Boss
After a quick rundown of how the 2024 presidential race may shape up, we turn to today’s guest: Jen Psaki, the former White House Press Secretary and host of the new MSNBC show, “Inside with Jen Psaki.” On the agenda: Biden’s Achilles’ heel, the Trump bump and how Psaki will parlay her insider status to journalism. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Inside the Elon-Substack Drama with Chris Best & Hamish McKenzie
Last week, Elon kicked off a feud with both Substack and his very own former Twitter Files ingénue (and Substack star), Matt Taibbi. Kara and Nayeema break down the battle of the bros before turning to an interview with those at the center of the storm: Substack co-founders Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie. The two address questions about Substack Notes (which Elon dubbed, and they deny, is a “Twitter clone”), the challenging business model of newsletters and their stance on free expression. Somehow, they manage to avoid uttering the name “Elon.” Kara doesn’t shy away though. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What Rupert Murdoch and Succession’s Logan Roy Have in Common (and Don’t)
EToday, after Kara and Nayeema discuss what the Dominion defamation lawsuit might mean for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp, we turn to a fictional media story of Logan Roy and HBO’s Succession. Our guests are Brian Cox, series creator Jesse Armstrong and director Mark Mylod. SPOILER ALERT: there are lots of spoilers in this episode, starting at about 10 mins in so go watch the show first. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. You can listen to other episodes of the Succession companion podcast here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani talks TikTok, Telehealth Deal on GLP-1/Ozempic and Why She Took the Job
WeightWatchers recently announced a $132 million deal to acquire telehealth company Sequence and enter the prescription drug space (think: GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic). It begs the question: why is a company built on personal accountability facilitating medical interventions? We ask our guest, WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani. Before and after the interview, Nayeema and Kara discuss their own experiences with diet fads and whether drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic will help America deal with the obesity epidemic or simply avoid tackling underlying issues like food supply, corporate greed and light regulation. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Brooke Shields: Stardom, Teen Girls & Social Media
EAfter a brief discussion about the impact of social media on the mental health of teenage girls, Kara and Nayeema turn to today’s guest: Brooke Shields. She became a teenage superstar through her roles in “Pretty Baby” and “Blue Lagoon” as well as the famous Calvin Klein ads (“Do you want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.”). In her new Hulu documentary, “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” she talks about how she sees those hypersexualized roles today and how she survived life in an industry that she says did nothing to help her. Shields also revisits her complex relationship with her mother, who introduced her to modeling and acting, and how Shields now counsels her own two teenage daughters about feeding the social media “monster.” Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How to Make It in Media with Audie Cornish
As she pens her memoir, Kara’s been thinking about legacy, but on this episode we reflect on the legacy of another powerhouse reporter: Audie Cornish. After hosting NPR’s flagship “All Things Considered” for a decade, Audie Cornish took a risk and left for the greener pastures of CNN+ — only to see that venture get unceremoniously squashed by CNN’s new CEO less than a month after it launched. Yet Cornish has made it work: launching a new podcast, “The Assignment” and providing on-air analysis (slash occasionally taking the anchor chair) at CNN. In a conversation taped live at the On Air Fest, where Cornish was honored with the the 2023 Audio Vanguard Award, she talks about how she learned to ask for help as a young reporter covering Hurricane Katrina, what the media industry has to pay attention to in order to outgrow its early naivete and why the “chaos” at CNN is healthy. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Katie Porter: Taking Big Business to Task While Running for Dianne Feinstein’s Seat
EAfter a quick discussion of last week’s TikTok testimony, Kara and Nayeema turn to today’s guest: Congresswoman Katie Porter. The California Democrat has gone viral for her whiteboard-wielding grilling of CEOs like Jamie Dimon and Mark Zuckerberg and her subtle art of not giving a f*ck during the recent marathon that was Kevin McCarthy’s speaker vote. But today, Kara’s the one doing the grilling (sans whiteboard). Taped live at Manny’s in San Francisco, the two talk about the aftershocks of Silicon Valley Bank as well as what was behind her very early announcement that she was running for Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat. Stay tuned until the end to hear what Kara’s mom thinks about Katie Porter. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
When Silicon Valley Invaded Texas
Lawrence Wright has produced some of the most seminal pieces of journalism on scientology, terrorism and – now – the Silicon Valley invasion of his hometown: Austin, Texas. Kara and Larry taped this interview in front of a live (outdoor) audience in Austin. They talk about recent transplants – from Elon Musk to Joe Rogan and Emma Stone – and the city’s transition from a quirky capital to a growing hub for tech companies and home to Hollywood stars and a breeding ground for libertarian ideas. And, most fundamentally, they talk about the idea of finding a place that feels like home. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on GPT-4 & the A.I. Arms Race
We’re on the cusp of an artificial intelligence arms race that has venture capitalists drooling, regulators petrified and competitors from Google to Microsoft to Elon Musk racing to get their products out the door. Kara talks to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and the man who’s led the launches of ChatGPT and GPT-4. They discuss the hallucinations of ChatGPT+, why Open AI moved from an open-source nonprofit to a closed-source “capped profit” company and why Altman doesn’t believe artificial intelligence developers should enjoy Section 230 immunity. Afterwards, Kara and Nayeema break down the interview and the promises and perils of an unknowable A.I.-powered future. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Reid Hoffman Talks Trump, Thiel & AI
EFrom AI and the recent launch of GPT-4 to behind-the-scenes pressure on Washington to resolve the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, today’s guest is in the thick of it all. Kara tells Nayeema that Reid Hoffman is “one of the good ones.” Kara has known the billionaire Greylock VC Partner since the 90s, when he was fresh off the sale of PayPal and before he co-founded LinkedIn. Today they discuss Hoffman’s donations to Biden and other Democrats, how his political views have impacted his friendships with Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, and why he is so bullish on AI. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SVB, IG & AI with Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom
After a quick rundown of Kara’s Twitter feud with SVB-enthusiast David Sacks, we turn to an interview with a former Silicon Valley Bank customer: Kevin Systrom. When you found one of the most successful social media apps at 27, it’s tough to figure out where to go with Act Two. But after leaving Facebook (now Meta) in 2018, Systrom is back with an AI-powered news-reader called Artifact which has been dubbed a “Tiktok for Text.” Onstage at SXSW this weekend, as the SVB crisis was playing out, Kara and Kevin discuss his regrets about Instagram, his plans to crack the news business and what’s wrong with tech bros. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Walter Isaacson Is Writing the Book (Literally) on Elon Musk
EDoes Kara ever get sick of talking about Elon Musk? That’s a question Nayeema asks today, and they both agree: as exhausting as he can be, Elon is a defining force in business, media and innovation. So today we turn to the titan’s biographer: Walter Isaacson. He’s written the book on everyone from Leonardo da Vinci to Steve Jobs, and is now deep in the Elon Files. Taped in front of a live audience at the New Orleans Book Festival, Kara and Isaacson discuss whether Elon is driven primarily by narcissism or mission (aka the “prick to productivity ratio”), how Elon does and doesn’t compare to Steve Jobs, and how Isaacson approaches his job as a biographer of some of the world's biggest personalities, both alive and dead. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jamie Lee Curtis and Donna Langley Take Us Inside Hollywood
EToday, Kara sits down with Jamie Lee Curtis, who’s nominated for her first Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, and Donna Langley, the Universal Film Studio head who greenlit “Cocaine Bear.” Taped in front of a live audience at the Upfront Summit, the trio talks about why the revival of the “Halloween” series became such a box office hit – and how it’s led to a whole new chapter in Curtis’s career. Before the interview, Kara and Nayeema share their Oscar predictions and stay tuned for the end to find out what not-so-funny joke that Chris Wallace played on Kara (no, not that Chris Wallace). Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Marc Benioff’s Toughest Conversation with Kara Swisher
EKara has interviewed Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff many times but he says she'd never been as prepared to grill him as she was this time. It’s a showdown between a savvy CEO who is deft at turning the tables…and an interviewer who is unafraid to pin him down. Taped in front of a live audience at the Upfront Summit, the two tackle whether Marc will be able to keep up the victory lap of a surprisingly strong earnings report, his succession plan, their divergent takes on a divisive Elon Musk – and why having activist investors breathing down his neck is “fun” for Benioff. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Is Bing Back? with Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi
Is AI going to fall in love with you? Write your term papers? Or help you plan a trip to Belize? The answer to all three is: maybe. How well it does any of those things remains to be seen, but Kara tells Nayeema the fast-developing AI will be more significant than almost anything else she's covered in tech. To understand the it, we’re joined by Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft, who is in charge of rolling out the new, AI-powered Bing. On the agenda: how the tech works, why the launch demo was buggy, the ethical considerations of a new technology and what Bill Gates has to say about AI. Thoughts? Questions? Email us [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How Much Damage Did Trump Do to America’s Standing In the World?
EA year after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and weeks after the presence of a Chinese spy balloon led U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to put off his Beijing visit, Kara and Nayeema talk about where the U.S. stands in the world and whether President Biden has the global coalition and momentum he claims. These are great questions for our guest today, Richard Haass. The foreign policy expert helms the Council on Foreign Relations and has had a long career in the Carter, Reagan and both Bush administrations as well as beyond working on intractable challenges from Northern Ireland to Iraq. Kara asks him why America’s global standing is on the decline, how Biden should deal with Xi and why his most recent book looks not to the rest of the world, but to our domestic problems. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Will Killing Section 230 Kill the Internet?
As Justice Kagan has asked, “Every other industry has to internalize the costs of its conduct. Why is it that the tech industry gets a pass?” Yet she and the other 8 Supreme Court Justices seemed wary this week as they heard oral arguments in two cases that could upend the Section 230 immunity that social media companies enjoy, Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh. Today, we hear from three experts: Stanford Law professor Evelyn Douek, National Constitution Center President and CEO Jeffrey Rosen and UC Berkeley computer science professor Hany Farid. Up for discussion — what’s at stake in these two cases, which way the wind seems to be blowing and, of course, will killing Section 230 kill the internet? Questions? Comments? Email us [email protected] or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Welcome to AI Warfare
EAI isn’t just changing search. It’s changing national security, too. Today, Kara talks to Trae’ Stephens, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril, about how the growing defense tech industry is using the power of AI and the speed of Silicon Valley to challenge “beltway bandits” like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. They discuss drones in Ukraine, the ethics of “smart walls” along the US-Mexico border and, yes, those balloons. Thoughts? Questions? Email us [email protected] or find us Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ken Buck Takes On the Big Tech Boogeyman
Congressman Ken Buck is a Republican from Colorado who’s decided to take on “Big Tech.” He talks about his proposed TikTok ban, the uphill battle for antitrust legislation and why he’s defending Elon’s “free speech” push. Thoughts? Questions? Email us [email protected] or find us on Twitter (if you can in this new, Elon-centric algorithm) @karaswisher and @nayeema Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ruben Gallego Is Ready to Take On “Queen MAGA” Kari Lake for Kyrsten Sinema’s Seat
EAfter Kara and Nayeema debrief the latest Elon drama (the Congressional hearings in which conservatives failed to prove they’d been “censored” on Twitter), we dive into our interview with Representative Ruben Gallego. The Arizona congressman is the only contender so far in the 2024 race for Kyrsten Sinema’s coveted U.S. Senate seat … though he tells Kara he’d welcome the opportunity to face “Queen MAGA” Kari Lake in the race. And he explains why he’s not worried even if Senator Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in December, runs in a three-way race. Also, Gallego discusses some of the issues of identity politics and wedge issues that we also heard with last week’s guest Brooke Jenkins. You can listen to that episode here, if you missed it. Thoughts? Email us [email protected] or find us Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
"Donald Trump Has Made Democrats Great" (Again)
We discuss Biden's State of the Union speech — and the state of the Democratic party — with three of the party's savviest strategists: Bernie Sanders’s 2020 campaign manager Faiz Shakir, former White House Communications Director (and host of The Circus) Jennifer Palmieri, and Tom Bonier, the CEO of TargetSmart. On the agenda: how Marjorie Taylor Greene's State of the Union heckling made President Biden shine, how Democrats have rallied in response to Trump, whether the party can win the narrative and wedge-issue wars...and, of course, if Biden is running in 2024. Tell us what you think. Email us at [email protected] or find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Conservative or Liberal? This Prosecutor Refuses to Be Put in a Box
From Donald Trump to George Floyd and Tyre Nichols, the last five years have changed our national conversation about public safety and policing. That’s particularly true in San Francisco, where progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin lost his seat in a heated recall election last year, and today’s guest — SF District Attorney Brooke Jenkins — stepped into the powerful role. In the months since she assumed office, the Black and Latina DA has spoken of the city’s “lawlessness,” revoked plea deals, allowed more teenagers to be prosecuted as adults and pushed for more policing of drug dealing. Her critics say she’s too conservative for the notoriously liberal city. She says she’s creating consequences for those who break the law. As Kara tells Jenkins, “Only in a city like San Francisco could they call you a conservative.” You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Or email us! [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Big Business of Online Dating (Land of the Giants)
Today, Nayeema sits down with dating industry veteran Lakshmi Rengarajan and journalist Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz before we play you an episode of the podcast they host — Land of the Giants: Dating Games. In conversation, the three explore the business of online dating, the incentive apps have to keep users swiping and the power the people who run and build these dating services have in shaping our love lives. Kara and Nayeema will be back on Monday with a fresh episode of On with Kara Swisher. Until then, find them on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. __ Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, The League. If you’ve ever wondered why using these different dating apps feels similar, it may be because they’re all owned by Match Group, the company that helped start online dating in the 90s, and now owns two-thirds of the dating app market. Today, Match is a dating app conglomerate with millions of users and over 45 brands around the world. That’s billions of dollars worth of swipes and subscriptions. But does paying for what Match Group calls “superpowers” — things like Hinge’s ‘roses’ and Tinder’s ‘super likes’ — get users any closer to connecting with real-life people? • Hosted by Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz (@sangeetaskurtz) and Lakshmi Rengarajan (@Shmi_So_Far) • Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear next week's episode by hitting the plus sign in your favorite podcast app • Follow @TheCut and @verge on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mark Zuckerberg: Oops!...I Did It Again
EWhen Meta announced Donald Trump would be allowed back on Facebook and Instagram, it wasn’t the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg who made the decision. He punted. So why is an executive who holds such control hiding from the power he has amassed? Kara has some ideas — she’s covered Mark from the jump, seen him sweat through interviews and gotten Mark to say things he probably wishes he hadn’t. So today, we then turn the tables and Kara Swisher is On with Nayeema Raza. Together, Nayeema and Kara unpack an oral history of a company that, for far too long, hid behind the idea of being a small start-up and used that excuse to shamelessly make — and shamelessly repeat — costly mistakes. They journey through the first days of Facebook, examine how the company has navigated controversies from Cambridge Analytica to the Trump decision… and get a sense of why Kara will probably never get to interview Mark again. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Has the Silicon Valley Bubble Burst? A Conversation w Jessica Lessin & William Cohan
Rapid-fire layoffs, activist investors at the gate and tumbling stock prices — tech has had a bad year. But Kara tells Nayeema she’s seen it all before and that the industry, if not all its captains, will survive this shake-up, too. In the panel interview, Kara is joined by two other journalists: Jessica Lessin, founder and CEO of The Information, a scoop-laden tech news platform covering Silicon Valley, and William Cohan, a former M&A banker and a founding partner at Puck, another excellent source for scoops. They tackle what’s behind the long decline, and recent rally, of tech stocks, and when and how the Valley will bounce back. Then they zoom in on what Meta, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Netflix will need to zoom in on to survive the storm. And Jessica offers a theory: the time is ripe for a changing of the old tech guard. Sorry, Elon — it may be time to step aside. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Biden’s Antitrust Advisor Left the White House. Here’s His Exit Interview
In his first extensive interview since he stepped down as the Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy on the National Economic Council, Tim Wu shares what he learned in the West Wing. We find out who holds most sway with the President, how Lina Khan undid any perception that there is any antitrust exception for “nice guys,” and get Wu’s predictions on lawsuits against Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft. Also: Kara presses him on why Biden — who campaigned on getting rid of Section 230 and hinted at breaking up Big Tech — hasn’t been able to make much headway when it comes to regulating Silicon Valley. Before the interview, Kara and Nayeema look at exits, from Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand, to Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings. And among all the exits, they also discuss one possible return: Meta’s looming decision regarding Donald Trump’s Facebook account. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter at @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Intelligence Squared: Swisher and Scaramucci Debate If Elon Is Killing Twitter
Today, we're sharing an episode of the podcast Intelligence Squared, which provides a forum for balanced debate where people disagree — but talk about it. It’s Kara Swisher vs. Anthony Scaramucci. And the question is: Is Elon Musk Killing Twitter? Shockingly, Kara argues, "yes." You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter at @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Inside the Prince Harry Book Blitz and What It Means for the Monarchy
He was King Charles’s Communications Chief for almost a decade. She wrote the book on Charles (literally). Our guests today – Patrick Harverson and Catherine Mayer – are two insiders who take us beyond the media spectacle and into the inner workings of both the Crown and the British media. They consider whether the revelations inside Prince Harry’s best-selling book “Spare” will shake-up a stodgy palace. They discuss the unquenching hunger of the tabloid machine, debate the resilience of the monarchy – and examine whether the response to this royal controversy hints at a deeper culture war brewing in Britain. Finally, they unpack an emotion that permeates Harry’s pages: grief. Kara and Nayeema taped this episode in London where they were joined by Brooke Hammerling, a strategic communications expert and Kara’s go-to source for all things royal. Before and after the interview, the trio looks at how people on both sides of the pond are responding to the book’s many revelations. And Brooke shares why a tell-all … may not have been the best strategy for Harry and Meghan. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter at @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ian Bremmer on Putin, Xi…and Elon Musk
EKara and Nayeema are taping from Europe this week, so today we decided to tackle all things international with Ian Bremmer, the president of Eurasia Group and the man Fortune 500 CEOs seek out to make sense of political risk and exposure. In the interview, Ian projects the Top Risks for 2023 -- from a rogue Russia to a global energy crunch. He breaks down recent developments in Brazil, Ukraine, Iran and China. We double click on the risk of disinformation, divisive social media and other “weapons of mass disruption” rampant in a digital age. And Bremmer makes a bold comparison between CEOs in Silicon Valley and autocrats abroad saying: “Xi Jinping increasingly rules China the way that Putin rules Russia, the way that the Supreme Leader rules Iran, the way that Mark and Elon rule their companies.” You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter at @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What’s Next for GOP & Trump – w/Charlie Sykes & Manu Raju
The dust from last week’s once-in-a-century, marathon voting session in the House has settled, and Kevin McCarthy is finally Speaker of the House — for now. But what’s next? We talk to Manu Raju, CNN’s Chief Congressional Correspondent, and Charlie Sykes, a former conservative talk radio host and a founder of The Bulwark, to make sense of it all. They run through some of the colorful personalities in the House Republican Conference, unpack how the Republican Party unraveled and discuss the opportunity for the Democrats to emerge as unified party. And, of course, they make predictions about Trump, Biden and more in 2024. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Are You “Dying of Politeness”? Geena Davis Explains.
EGeena Davis became a breakout star in Hollywood, with an Oscar under her belt and starring roles in hit films like “A League of Their Own” and “Thelma & Louise.” Yet even all that success didn’t always protect her from feeling small in Hollywood. In this episode, we visit her memoir, “Dying of Politeness,” and Davis opens up about moments in her life and career when she felt too polite to speak up. Decades later, many of these moments remain raw. Before and after the episode, Kara and Nayeema reflect on their own personal experiences, talk about the tax that women pay and discuss how Hollywood, Silicon Valley and other powerful industries have changed — and how they haven’t. You can find Kara Swisher and Nayeema Raza on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Peering into the Future with Tony Fadell
Less screen time: it’s on everyone’s list of new year’s resolutions — or, at least, it’s on ours! Today, Kara and Nayeema discuss the addictiveness of tech and social media, before Kara dives into a conversation about the present and future of tech with a person who’s been around Silicon Valley for decades: engineer and designer Tony Fadell. The “father of the iPod,” as he’s known, helped bring the famous 5,000 songs to your pocket before helping design the iPhone, co-founding Nest ( selling it to Google for $3.2 billion) and writing the bestselling book, “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making.” These days, he is bullish on climate tech and excited about the newest product he's designed: Stax, a crypto hard wallet. Kara and Tony trade notes on Silicon Valley, including why Apple should think beyond four-wheel cars, why Google struggles to innovate (coddling employees is part of it) and how the next Fortune 500 companies will be the ones who help solve climate change. Oh, and they talk about the different types of assholes — and whether you need to be an one in order to build something great. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Love, Life & Other Advice from Kara and Nayeema
EFor our final episode of 2022, Kara and Nayeema unabashedly dish out advice and answer questions you sent in (and some you didn’t). They tackle dating woes, difficult family dynamics, salary negotiations, choosing between career and travel and even give … fashion tips? In addition to listener questions, we hear from past guests and friends, including Kathy Griffin, John King, Rick Wilson, Mike Birbiglia and Walt Mossberg. Stay tuned till the end to hear Kara’s ultimate escape plan — which involves an island and a donut shop. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Legacy of Steve Jobs
We're sharing Kara’s September 2022 conversation with Tim Cook, Sir Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs on the life and legacy of Steve Jobs. It’s one of Kara’s favorite conversations of the year, and one in which she cried (though she denies it). Kara handpicked this trio to join her for her final Code interview. Cook, the CEO of Apple, worked with Jobs for decades and succeeded him as CEO. Ive, now co-founder of the creative collective LoveFrom, collaborated with Jobs on the design many of Apple’s game-changing products, like the iPod and the iPhone. And Powell Jobs, the founder and president of Emerson Collective, was married to Jobs for 20 years. In this wide-ranging conversation, they cover design, ethics and, of course, Kara’s favorite topic: death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Casey Newton, Kara & Nayeema Talk Tech
From the high speed train wreck that is Twitter 2.0, to the extradition of a fallen crypto kingpin and AI that can rewrite your dating profile, there’s a lot happening in tech right now. Nayeema Raza moderates a conversation with Kara Swisher and Casey Newton, the founder and editor of Platformer. They break down the biggest stories of 2022 and look at what lies ahead in 2023. Will there be less billionaire grift? Is this the year that AI takes your job? And, "OK Google," could this be the year that Bing gets its revenge? This conversation was taped in front of a live audience at Manny’s in San Francisco. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Piers Morgan On Murdoch, Musk and – yes – Meghan Markle
EWhat’s more toxic: Tabloids or Twitter? Piers Morgan may know – the outsized personality has been an outsized influence in both spheres for decades, since his start as show business editor at Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun. In this interview, Morgan discusses his rise – and stumbles – and the return to Murdochland, where he now hosts the Fox Nation show, “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” We tackle characters with whom Morgan has beefed — from Donald Trump to Meghan Markle. And Kara asks Morgan, who is famous for stirring up debate, what part of him is authentic and what’s performance. “I think that when expressing my strongly held opinions, there's always a bit of theater to it.” You can find Kara Swisher and Nayeema Raza on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fox News, Dominion — oh, and Donald Trump
What’s one way to stop misinformation? It might just be a giant defamation lawsuit. This week, media titan Rupert Murdoch was deposed in a $1.6 billion suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News and Fox Corporation. They allege Fox knowingly and maliciously aired baseless claims accusing Dominion of an election fraud conspiracy. Somewhat surprisingly, instead of settling out of court, Fox News is denying the allegations, and the case is scheduled to go to trial in April. To unpack the lawsuit and the revelations it has brought (and will continue to bring) to light, we turned to New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters, who says this could be “one of the most consequential First Amendment cases in a generation.” He breaks down the case, the souring Murdoch-Trump alliance and Fox News’s future. Plus, we review Ron DeSantis’s chances in 2024 (outlook: not good) and Ben Shapiro and Elon Musk’s chances of one day besting Murdoch (outlook: somewhat better). You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Aging, Death and Other Uplifting Topics with Mike Birbiglia
EAging, parenting by mortality and dying alone or kinless: these are just some of the uplifting topics Kara and Nayeema tackle today before our interview with Mike Birbiglia. The comedian and writer is deep in his latest Broadway show, “The Old Man and the Pool,” which doesn’t shy away from such heavy topics either. Birbiglia and Kara discuss mortality, parenthood, their last words and finding comedy in all of life — even the sad bits. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A Bad Week for Donald Trump? … And Potentially for Gay Marriage?
It’s been a bad week for Donald Trump. Herschel Walker lost the Georgia Senate runoff and a New York jury found the Trump Organization guilty of criminal tax fraud. But the former President (and current presidential candidate) still has something to look forward to: a busy conservative Supreme Court which has three Trump-appointed justices. Today, Kara and Nayeema discuss two of the cases the court heard this week. One focuses on a North Carolina election law case that could upend democratic protections in states like Florida, Arizona and Michigan. The other is about free speech and gay marriage and is close to Kara’s heart. In the interview, Kara speaks to a panel of experts about this very case: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, a free speech case brought by a web designer who doesn’t want to be penalized for not providing wedding websites for same-sex couples. She explores the impact this case could have with Louise Melling, Deputy Legal Director at the ACLU and Director of its Ruth Bader Ginsburg Center for Liberty; Dale Carpenter, the Judge William Hawley Atwell Chair of Constitutional Law, and Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University; and Sasha Issenberg, Washington correspondent for The Monocle and author of “The Engagement," about the battle for same sex marriage in America. Stay tuned until the very end when Kara rants about how a onesie became a symbol of something far more important. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Man Behind "Sex and the City" and "Emily in Paris"
Love them or hate them, chances are that you’ve watched at least one Darren Star series. Kara once called them the “hottest trash on TV” but for over 30 years she has devoured shows that Star has created and executive produced, including “Sex and the City,” “Beverly Hills 90210” “Melrose Place,” “Uncoupled” and — most recently — the Netflix hit “Emily in Paris.” In this conversation, Kara and Darren discuss how HBO paved the way for risqué television, how streaming has eclipsed network televisions and how Star got inside the mind of the straight girl. Before the interview, Nayeema and Kara discuss why TV — trash or not — is being recycled into nostalgia programming. And they dive into the dark days media is facing right now after layoffs at CNN, hiring freezes around the news industry and shutterings of small media outlets pave the way for a “bad winter.” You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why Twitter’s Former Safety Chief Left Elon Musk
Elon Musk's Twitter is a spectacle, and the drama and meaning of the last six months is perhaps best unpacked by Yoel Roth. The company’s former head of trust and safety survived the early flood of firings and resignations — in fact, he was ascendant, in the early days of this new Twitter, and he became the face Musk presented to advertisers. Kara asks Roth whether he felt “used” by Musk and why — having been embraced by Elon’s inner circle — he ultimately decided to abandon Elon. Before the interview, Kara and Nayeema weigh in on Elon Musk’s seeming needling of Tim Cook, and they discuss whether Apple has too much power. Stay tuned until the end for Kara’s rant on this very topic. You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices