We’re kicking off the year with a deep-dive into AI ethics and safety with three AI experts: Dr. Rumman Chowdry, the  CEO and co-founder of Humane Intelligence and the first person to be appointed U.S. Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence; Mark Dredze, a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University who’s done extensive research on bias in LLMs; and Gillian Hadfield, an economist and legal scholar turned-AI researcher at Johns Hopkins University.

The panel answers questions like: is it possible to create unbiased AI? What are the worst fears and greatest hopes for AI development under Trump 2.0? What sort of legal framework will be necessary to regulate autonomous AI agents? And is the hype around AI leading to stagnation in other fields of innovation? 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 on@voxmedia.com 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?

Senator Amy Klobuchar has been legislating on Capitol Hill for 18 years. She recently won reelection and is now the number three Democrat in the Senate. And even though Big Tech has blocked her attempts at reform, at every turn, she is determined to keep pushing forward bills on everything from antitrust to privacy, competition, kids' safety and revenge porn. 

Kara and Klobuchar talk about Trump’s nominations, January 6th and the upcoming inauguration (Klocuchar was one of four members of Congress who counted the electoral votes and she’s the chair of the Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies), her attempts to work across the aisle, and of course, tech and antitrust legislation.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Regulating Tech, Antitrust, Trump’s Picks & More

After MAGA rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, many people thought Donald Trump's days as a political force were over. A notable exception was Maggie Haberman – senior political correspondent for the New York Times, political analyst for CNN, and author of Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. Four years later, as the country prepares for President-elect Trump's second inauguration this month, Kara talks to Haberman about initial actions he'll likely take on immigration, tariffs and TikTok; which of his controversial cabinet picks could pass muster in Congress; and whether tech billionaire Elon Musk will have an all-access pass to the West Wing. Plus: how seriously she takes the administration's threats to retaliate against Trump's political enemies, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and journalists like herself.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump Whisperer Maggie Haberman On Trump 2.0

AI Ethics and Safety — A Contradiction in Terms?

Samantha Bee is a comedian, author and former late-night host who hosts the podcast Choice Words with Samantha Bee and co-hosts The Daily Beast Podcast with Joanna Coles. Her weekly late-night comedy series, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee was nominated for over 70 awards — and she has personally been nominated for 18 Emmy awards and won for both writing and executive producing. 

Full Frontal was explicitly, and hilariously, political and left-leaning so it’s a bit surprising that Bee has declared herself Democrat-celibate, (at least for now). Samantha explains her new approach to politics and dishes on her biggest regret in this CNN pilot titled “Off Script” with Kara, Audie Cornish, CNN correspondent and host of The Assignment, and Van Lathan, co-host of The Ringer’s Higher Learning podcast.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samantha Bee on Being “Democrat-Celibate” (from The Assignment with Audie Cornish)

Happy Holidays! We have a special episode from our friend Adam Grant and the folks at the TED Audio Collective.

Sarah Silverman is a comedian, actor, and writer who doesn’t shy away from saying what she thinks. In this episode of ReThinking with Adam Grant, Sarah shares stories from her bold, distinctive career that has taken her from Saturday Night Live and Seinfeld to Broadway, late-night TV, plays and Disney animated movies. Adam and Sarah also discuss defusing anger, finding courage, and forging connections when we don’t see eye-to-eye. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sarah Silverman on Being Wrong – and Treating Trolls with Kindness (from ReThinking with Adam Grant)

Which subpar books actually warrant writing a bad review? Do best sellers usually live up to the hype? And how does our relationship with technology affect the publishing industry? Kara sits down with two of her favorite book critics, Dwight Garner of The New York Times and Becca Rothfeld of The Washington Post, to discuss the best and worst books of 2024. 
The trio debates standout books and notable disappointments, the craft of book reviewing, and the best way to experience a great book. They also explore the importance of best-seller lists, how concerned we should be over the rising tide of book censorship, and which books from 2024 could end up becoming forever classics.
Books mentioned includes (listed alphabetically):

What Are Children For? On Ambivalence and Choice, Anastasia Berg &amp; Rachel Wiseman

Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763

Believe Nothing Until it is Officially Denied: Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerrilla Journalism, Patrick Cockburn

D'Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths

Carson McCullers: A Life, Mary V. Dearborn

You Dreamed of Empires, Álvaro Enrigue

James, Percival Everett

When the Clock Broke, John Ganz

The Upstairs Delicatessen, Dwight Garner

Small Rain, Garth Greenwell

Lesser Ruins, Mark Haber

Alphabetical Diaries, Sheila Heti

A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman, Robert Hilburn

Splinters, Leslie Jamison

Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner

Liars, Sarah Manguso

We Who Wrestle With God, Jordan B. Peterson

Intermezzo, Sally Rooney

The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World, Christine Rosen

Things Are Too Small, Essays in Praise of Excess, Becca Rothfeld

Knife, Salman Rushdie

I Heard Her Call My Name, Lucy Sante

The Rebel’s Clinic, Adam Schatz

The Politics of Cultural Despair, Fritz Stern

Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Best (and Most Overrated) Books of 2024

Kara sits down for a live interview with Yann LeCun, an “early AI prophet” and the brains behind the largest open-source large language model in the world. The two discuss the potential dangers that come with open-source models, the massive amounts of money pouring into AI research, and the pros and cons of AI regulation. They also dive into LeCun’s surprisingly spicy social media feeds — unlike a lot of tech employees who toe the HR line, Yann isn’t afraid to say what he thinks of Elon Musk or President-elect Donald Trump.

This interview was recorded live at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC as part of their Discovery Series.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meta's Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun Makes the Case for Open Source

RFK Jr. was on the Hill, on Monday, working to persuade senators he’s capable of running the  Department of Health and Human Services and its almost $2 trillion budget. Ever since the news his lawyer has petitioned the federal government to revoke the approval of a polio vaccine broke, that job has gotten a little harder — but it doesn’t mean he won’t get confirmed. And so could a number of other highly unorthodox candidates that Trump plans to nominate for key positions in the HHS. Kara talks to an expert panel to make sense of it all and find these nominations could means for America’s public health policy. 

Her guests are: Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Dr. Celine Gounder, and Donald McNeil Jr. 

Dr. Emanuel has written and edited 15 books and over 300 scientific articles. He was Chief of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health, one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act and he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Celine Gounder is an internist, infectious disease specialist, and epidemiologist, a CBS News Medical Contributor and Editor-at-Large for Public Health at KFF Health News, and she teaches at New York University.

Donald McNeil wrote for the New York Times from 1976 to 2021, where he was a health and science reporter and the lead reporter the COVID beat. He won the prestigious John Chancellor Award in 2020 and was on the New York Times team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2021. You can find his latest work on Medium.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

RFK Jr., Vaccines, Bird Flu & Health Under Trump 2.0

Canadian chef Matty Matheson has been a force in the culinary world for over two decades, but the non-foodies of the world recognize him as Neil Fak, the goofy, handyman-come-waiter-in-training on the FX/Hulu hit series The Bear. Aside from being the show’s much-needed comic relief, Matheson is an executive producer and a culinary consultant on set. Matheson first became chef de cuisine in his early 20s and now owns over a dozen restaurants. He also runs an incredibly popular YouTube channel with over 1.5 million subscribers and he’s authored three cookbooks – his latest, Soups, Salads, Sandwiches, came out in October.

Kara and Matty talk about the good, bad and ugly of the restaurant industry, why he loves both haute cuisine and homestyle cooking and how his YouTube persona changes when he puts on his chef’s hat.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chef Matty Matheson of ‘The Bear’ on Culinary Stardom, On and Off The Screen

Representative Ro Khanna represents the wealthiest congressional district in the country, but he wants to show Democrats how to speak to the working class. And perhaps surprisingly, he’s pretty good at it. But although Khanna was one of Bernie Sanders’ co-chairs in 2020, the “progressive capitalist” from Silicon Valley (don’t call him a democratic socialist) also hobnobs with tech titans. Because according to Khanna, the way to reindustrialize and revitalize the economy is by mobilizing both union leaders and tech and industry leaders — and he thinks he can be the one to bring them together. 

Kara and Ro discuss everything from the DOGE committee, the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and Trump’s threats to jail members of the January 6 committee, AI policy, KOSA, and tech antitrust. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rep. Ro Khanna on Tech, Trump & Elon 

How will AI agents change the economy and the workforce — and are Americans ready? Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has some thoughts. After a stellar quarter boosted by the customer resource management company’s new AI autonomous agents, Agentforce, Benioff explains to Kara how employers and employees will be impacted by a new era of digital workers; why he thinks investing tens of billions in AI capital expenditures (like his competitor Microsoft) is a “race to the bottom”; and what he hopes will come from Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. 
Plus: Kara and Marc go another round on “DOGE Master” Elon Musk, and whether it’s still possible for business leaders to still defend their values and workers without fear of political repercussions. They also remember their mutual friend, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who died earlier this year.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Marc Benioff on Elon, AI Agents, and the “DOGE”

How does an ad-based streamer compete with subscription-based models like Netflix, Hulu, Max, and all the rest? By charging nothing. At least that’s what Tubi is doing. And despite being seemingly less prestigious than premium streamers, Tubi is used by millions of Americans and outranks Peacock, Max, Paramount Plus, and Apple TV+ in total viewing time. For those who are fatigued by subscriptions fees and monoculture viewing, Tubi offers an enormous catalog of nostalgia and “newstalgia” movies, hours of bingeable classics, over 250 live channels, plus Tubi originals – all at no cost to viewers. So why aren’t more people talking about it? Kara sits down with Tubi CEO Anjali Sud in this special episode of On presented by e.l.f. Cosmetics to talk about Tubi’s appeal to cord-cutters and cord-nevers; how niche-specific fans help inform Tubi content; why Sud thinks Tubi can democratize storytelling and create space for emerging filmmakers; and how she came to be one of few female CEOs in tech.

This interview was taped live at the Whitney Museum in partnership with e.l.f cosmetics as a part of their campaign to increase representation and diversity in boardrooms. Find out more here: https://www.elfbeauty.com/changing-the-board-game/so-many-dicks 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Tubi CEO Anjali Sud Says Free Is the Future of Streaming

What if the worst fears around AI come true? For Megan Garcia, that’s already happened. In February, after spending months interacting with chatbots created by Character.AI, her 14-year-old son Sewell took his own life. Garcia blames Character.AI, and she is suing them and Google, who she believes significantly contributed to Character.AI’s alleged wrongdoing. 

Kara interviews Garcia and Meetali Jain, one of her lawyers and the founder of the Tech Justice Law Project, and they discuss the allegations made by Megan against Character.AI and Google. 

When reached for comment, a spokesperson at Character.AI responded with the following statement:

We do not comment on pending litigation.

We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of one of our users and want to express our deepest condolences to the family. We take the safety of our users very seriously, and our dedicated Trust and Safety team has worked to implement new safety features over the past seven months, including a pop-up directing users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline that is triggered by terms of self-harm or suicidal ideation.

Our goal is to provide a creative space that is engaging, immersive, and safe. To achieve this, we are creating a fundamentally different experience for users under 18 that prioritizes safety, including reducing the likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content, while preserving their ability to use the platform.

As we continue to invest in the platform and the user experience, we are introducing new safety features in addition to the tools already in place that restrict the model and filter the content provided to the user. These include improved detection, response and intervention related to user inputs that violate our Terms or Community Guidelines, as well as a time-spent notification. For more information on these new features as well as other safety and IP moderation updates to the platform, please refer to the Character.AI blog.

When reached for comment, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda responded with the following statement:

Our hearts go out to the family during this unimaginably difficult time. Just to clarify, Google and Character AI are completely separate, unrelated companies and Google has never had a role in designing or managing their AI model or technologies, nor have we used them in our products. User safety is a top concern of ours, and that’s why – as has been widely reported – we’ve taken a cautious and responsible approach to developing and rolling out our AI products, with rigorous testing and safety processes.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did a Chatbot Cause Her Son’s Death? Megan Garcia v. Character.AI & Google

Nathan Myhrvold likes to challenge conventional wisdom. When the founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures (and former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft) isn’t running one of the world’s leading invention businesses, he’s busy doing norm-defying research on topics like dinosaur bone density, asteroid sizing, and the proper way to knead dough. Kara and Nathan talk about everything from AI, politics, nuclear power, and global warming to “splash shots” — photographs of colliding wine glasses.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram/TikTok as @onwithkaraswisher


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nathan Myhrvold: Tech’s Renaissance Man

Happy Thanksgiving, On listeners — today, we’re featuring a special episode of Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, one of our favorite podcasts! On Wiser Than Me, Julia shares funny, heartfelt conversations with iconic older women who bring the unapologetic wisdom and confidence that only comes with age.
On this episode of Wiser Than Me, Julia chats with 80-year-old tennis pro, activist, and LGBTQ+ icon Billie Jean King. Billie Jean delves into the nature of leadership, visualization, and her long journey towards self-acceptance. Inspired by the sports legend, Julia asks Billie Jean for advice about her niece’s college soccer career, as well as revealing the original spark that lit her own love of sports. Additionally, Julia’s mom, Judy, reflects on her generation's acceptance of societal norms and the transformative power of the feminist movement.
To hear more of Wiser Than Me, head to: https://lemonada.lnk.to/wiserthanmefd
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Billie Jean King

Elon Musk’s social media platform X lost more than 280,000 global users the day after the US presidential election. Meanwhile, sites like Threads from Meta and newcomer Bluesky have seen huge surges in signups. Kara talks to a team of social media experts about the “X-odus”; who is migrating to Threads and Bluesky and why; how those federated protocols (or “fediverse”) differ from X’s algorithmic platform; and if the social media “town square” giving way to a more fragmented communities is a good or bad thing.

Guests: Nilay Patel, Editor-in-chief of The Verge and Host of Decoder; New York Times Tech Correspondent Mike Isaac; Wall Street Journal Tech Reporter Alexa Corse.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Leaving X? Where Next? On Bluesky, Threads and the “Fediverse”

Lenard McKelvey is a best-selling author, entrepreneur and media mogul, but you probably know him as Charlamagne Tha God: host of The Breakfast Club. It’s an insanely popular and influential radio program that reaches millions of listeners daily. Charlamagne has been behind the microphone for over a decade, and he's not one for playing by the rules of traditional media. In recent years he’s gotten vocal about the state of politics in the US and interviewed a raft of powerful politicians at the helm including former President Obama, President Biden and Vice President Harris. During the 2024 Presidential race, Charlamagne was an unofficial surrogate for the Harris-Walz campaign, but was arguably more effective as an inadvertent messenger for the Trump campaign’s anti-trans advertising. 

Much like his approach to hosting, Charlamagne’s world views don’t stay within the lines of our polarized and partisan politics. He’s quick to remark on the faults of both parties and even quicker to call out the liberal media. In this episode, Kara and Charlamagne get into it all: 
the importance of meeting people where they are, both in politics and in media; why authenticity matters more than accuracy and how Democrats don’t seem to understand that; what “mainstream media” means in 2024 and the role of “good” journalists; how he felt about getting dragged into a hateful ad for President-elect Trump and how he thinks VP Harris should’ve responded; the line between funny and offensive; and, most importantly, how to seek out joy and happiness through it all. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Charlamagne tha God on Trump, Journalism and that Anti-Trans Ad

Jon Chu grew up in Silicon Valley, in the shadow of Apple Park. His father, Chef Chu, still runs his eponymous restaurant there, and Jon worshiped Steve Jobs as a kid. As a teen, he used Apple products to learn how to make movies. Now he directs some of the biggest movies in Hollywood, but his relationship with the tech industry is much more complex. 

Kara and Jon discuss his “new view” trilogy: Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights, and his latest film, Wicked. They unpack his memoir Viewfinder, and Chu explains how growing up in Silicon Valley shaped his understanding of technology — and how the industry’s switch towards data surveillance has changed his relationship with it as an artist. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram/TikTok as @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jon Chu on Wicked, Silicon Valley, and Defying Hollywood’s Gravity

What role will writers play as we head into a second Trump term? Author, journalist and Howard University professor Ta-Nehisi Coates has some thoughts. The man who has been called “one of the most important writers on the subject of America today” came to the fore during the Obama era as one of the preeminent writers on race, among other things, for his 2014 essay “The Case for Reparations” and his book Between the World and Me, an open letter to his son about growing up as a Black man in America. Kara and Ta-Nehisi discuss how the Democrats lost the “rainbow coalition” in the 2024 election, why America’s “special relationship” with Israel compelled him to rally against Palestinian oppression in his latest book The Message, and why he thinks journalists will need to embrace a new and not-so-safe normal during Trump 2.0.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ta-Nehisi Coates On Trump, Palestine and Journalism as a “Contact Sport”

What does a second Trump presidency mean for America? Kara hosts a panel of experts and reporters to reflect on the results of the election and to find out what we can expect going forward. They discuss the issues that mattered most to voters; what Democrats got wrong; the parts of our democracy that are broken beyond repair; the apparent shift in our country’s sense of self; and the role of social media versus traditional media in the digital age.

Guests:
Kristen Soltis Anderson, a pollster, founding partner of Echelon Insights, author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up) and a CNN political contributor
Isaac Arnsdorf, a national political reporter for The Washington Post and author of Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy. 
Mike Madrid, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, and author of The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy
Abby Phillip, anchor of CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump’s Second Term: How He Did It & What to Expect

President-elect Donald J. Trump has won a resounding victory against Vice President Kamala Harris, and now, the man who promised political retribution and said he may use the military to go after “the enemy within” is headed back to the White House. Only this time, there will be no guardrails — only enablers. In order to understand the threat Trump poses to our democracy, Kara talks to two historians who know a lot about the birth of American democracy and the last time we came close to losing it: Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky and Dr. Timothy Naftali. 

Chervinsky is a presidential historian and the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library. Her newest book is Making the Presidency, John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic. Naftali is a senior research scholar in the Faculty of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the former director of the federal Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram/TikTok as @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump vs Democracy: Two Historians’ Perspectives

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, isn’t on the ballot for the 2024 U.S. election, but he might as well be. Elon has become one of the Trump campaign’s top surrogates, top donors (over $119 million through the America Pac), and controls a main megaphone for pro-Trump propaganda at X. Kara and three other Musk experts discuss Elon’s outsized impact on the election, why Trump has been referring to him as the “Secretary of Cost-Cutting”, and why Musk &amp; his businesses (X, Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink) stand to gain, no matter who wins.
Guests:

Tim Higgins, The Wall Street Journal columnist and author of Power Play, Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century


Zoë Schiffer, director of business and industry at Wired and author of Extremely Hardcore, Inside Elon Musk's Twitter


Eva Dou, The Washington Post Tech Policy Reporter


Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The “Elon Election”: What It Means For America and Musk

Lying has always been a part of politics, but in recent years, political lies have come to dominate our elections and their outcomes. Even the notion that facts and truths can be objective and shared across the political divide has been put into question. As we head into a fraught election, Kara speaks with Bill Adair, professor of journalism &amp; public policy at Duke and author of Beyond the Big Lie, and Timothy Snyder, Yale history professor and author of On Freedom, about which party lies more; the role that social media plays in amplifying and spreading falsehoods; why it’s hard to get believers to turn away from the “Big Lie”; and why factuality is a cornerstone of freedom. Plus: Snyder calls The Washington Post’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate (dictated by owner Jeff Bezos) “anticipatory obedience” to tyranny. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Timothy Snyder and Bill Adair on the War on Truth & The Fight for Freedom 

Reid Hoffman isn’t just one of the most influential entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley — he’s also one of the most important mega-donors supporting the Democratic party. A member of the so-called PayPal Mafia, Hoffman is a VC partner at Greylock Ventures and Microsoft board member who co-founded LinkedIn and InflectionAI and was a founding investor in OpenAI. He is one of the leading voices in tech fighting against former President Donald Trump, and he puts his money where his mouth is — which doesn’t always sit well with progressives, and is even more upsetting to former friends, like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, who have gone full MAGA.
 
In this live interview at the Masters of Scale Summit, hosted by Hoffman in San Francisco, Kara and Reid discuss everything from the upcoming election, and the business community’s response to Trump, to Elon, Peter Thiel, Lina Khan and artificial intelligence.  

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram as @onwithkaraswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reid Hoffman on Trump, Elon, Peter Thiel and Lina Khan

Has late-night TV passed its peak? Ticket sales for live comedy shows are booming and there’s no shortage of streaming stand-up specials, but the same is hardly true for late-night television. Is it the business model or the divisive nature of political comedy that’s driving viewership down? Either way, hosting a late-night show remains one of the most coveted jobs in comedy, and in this interview, Kara talks to one of the best. Seth Meyers, SNL veteran, host of Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC, and the host of too many podcasts to name, joins the show to talk about the future of late-night; what he’s learned in 10 years of hosting; the utter lack of diversity in the industry; and what a second Trump presidency could mean for comedians. 

Kara and Seth also talk about his new stand-up special “Dad Man Walking,” which premieres on HBO and Max this weekend; how the comic folds his personal life and parenting stories into his acts and what his family thinks of it; why there are so many stand-up specials today; and which streaming platform does it best. Plus, Kara asks Seths about his “manic” content creation and his endeavors into podcasting.

“Dad Man Walking” is available on HBO and Max this Saturday October 26, 2024.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seth Meyers on Parenting, Podcasting & Late Night

“Digital machines are not just remaking stories, they're remaking us.” So says Oscar-winning actor Robert Downey Jr. as the titular character in his Broadway debut, MCNEAL. Kara talks with Downey Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar and Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher about the play and the thorny questions it raises around truth, lies and power in the AI age. They also discuss who is responsible for creating a new “social contract” around AI. Plus: Kara and Robert get into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and whether Downey is more like Elon Musk as Tony Stark aka Iron Man or in his upcoming role as Dr. Doom.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert Downey Jr., Ayad Akhtar and Bartlett Sher on “Truthful Lies” in AI, Art and Politics

What do cybersecurity experts, journalists in foreign conflicts, indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Drake have in common? They all use the Signal messaging app. Signal’s protocol has been the gold standard in end-to-end encryption, used by Whatsapp, Google and more, for more than a decade. But it’s been under fire from both authoritarian governments and well-meaning democracies who see the privacy locks as a threat. Since 2022, former Google rabble-rouser and AI Now Institute co-founder Meredith Whittaker has been president of the Signal Foundation, the nonprofit that runs the app. Kara talks with Meredith about her fight to protect text privacy, the consolidation of power and money in AI and how nonprofits can survive in a world built on the surveillance economy. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Signal’s Meredith Whittaker on Surveillance Capitalism, Text Privacy and AI 

Why, despite being the most advanced species on the planet, does it feel like humanity is teetering on the brink of self-destruction? Is it just our human nature? Israeli philosopher and historian Yuval Noah Harari doesn’t think so — he says the problem is our information trade. This is the focus of his latest book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. Harari explores the evolution of our information networks, from the printing press to the dumpster fire of information on social media and what it all means as we approach the “canonization” of AI. 

In this episode, Kara and Harari discuss why information is getting worse; how fiction fuels engagement; and why truth tends to sink in the flood of information washing over us.

Vote for Kara as Best Host in the Current Events for Signal’s Listener’s Choice Awards here: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2024/shows/craft/best-host-current-events 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yuval Noah Harari on AI & the Future of Information

After more than five decades in broadcasting, Chris Wallace has won almost every award in journalism, including three Emmy Awards, the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, and the Peabody Award. The host of CNN’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace and The Chris Wallace Show (tune in on Saturday mornings to see Kara spar with Chris and the other panelists) is also an author. 

His latest book, Countdown 1960, narrates the twists and turns of the 1960 presidential contest between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Wallace makes the case that JFK and the Democratic machines in Illinois and Texas committed massive fraud to steal the election from the Republican candidate — and that Nixon did the right thing by conceding. Chris lays out the evidence behind his claim, and then, as we head into the 2024 presidential contest with an election denier, he and Kara break down the lessons and implications for democracy.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads as @karaswisher

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris Wallace Explains How JFK (Possibly) Stole the 1960 Election

How did a Ukrainian-born hustler help former President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani dig up dirt on then-candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter to influence the 2020 presidential election – a scheme that ultimately led to Trump's first impeachment? That's the question behind ‘From Russia with Lev’, a new doc from MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that follows Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-American from a less-than-savory background, who paid his way into the former president’s inner circle in 2016 and quickly became Trump’s “Ukraine guy.” Kara sits down with Maddow and director Billy Corben to discuss how Parnas gained access to then-POTUS Trump; the mission to take down Hunter Biden; Parnas’ role in the ousting of former US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch; and how he eventually came out on the other side of it all.

Vote for Kara as Best Host in the Current Events for Signal’s Listener’s Choice Awards here: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2024/shows/craft/best-host-current-events 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel Maddow and Billy Corben on Mobsters, Russia, Trump and the 2020 Election

Will AI “agents” soon be personalized teachers, doctors, companions and even check items off your to-do list on their own? “Agentic” is the latest buzzword in AI and Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman says moving beyond the text chatbot to a "smart friend” is the goal. The former co-founder of DeepMind, Suleyman helped grow Google’s AI division before launching another start-up, InflectionAI. Earlier this year, Microsoft paid $650 million for the licensing rights to Inflection, and brought Suleyman and most of his staff on board. Kara spoke to him at this year's Lesbians Who Tech conference about his strategy for integrating Copilot into Microsoft’s existing product suite; why he views OpenAI more like a sibling than a competitor; and why renewable energies (and a lot of cash) will be vital in meeting AI’s massive energy needs.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman on AI “Friends”, OpenAI “Siblings” and Climate Change

Bill Gates needs no introduction. The co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft and the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been one of the richest people in the world for decades. He’s also spent decades giving away his fortune and working on some of humanity’’s most vexing challenges. That’s the focus of his Netflix docuseries What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates, where Bill dives into AI, misinformation, global warming, inequality, and disease.
Kara interviews Bill in front of a live audience at New York City and pushes him on the issues, his proposed solutions, and the always tricky details — plus, she finds out who Bill wants to win the presidential election. 
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bill Gates on How to Tax the Rich, AI, Misinformation, & the Election

Pete Buttigieg burst onto the political scene in 2019, and his rapid ascent into a legitimate presidential contender was one of the most surprising storylines of the 2020 Democratic primary. Today, he’s one of the most effective communicators in the party. He was also one of many Democratic voters’ favorite candidates for the Harris VP pick. 

Kara and Pete get straight to all of that in this episode: is the Harris campaign strategy working? ; Was Tim Walz the right pick for VP? How is Pete prepping the Minnesota Governor for his upcoming debate against J.D. Vance? And what is his strategy when he goes on Fox News?

Kara and Pete also discuss the Trump cult of personality that has taken hold of young men and tech bros alike; the tech CEOs that need to “come home” to “normal” (you know who we’re talking about); and why some of them continue to support politicians who vote against technological advancement and the core missions of the industry.

*Note: Buttigieg appeared for this interview in his personal capacity. Kara was limited in asking questions relating to the Department of Transportation or anything about his role in President Biden’s administration due to the Hatch Act.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pete Buttigieg Thinks Trumpism is in Its Last Season

For years, former President Donald Trump has railed against law enforcement officials who have sought to hold him accountable. In his latest book, Where Tyranny Begins: the Justice Department, the FBI and the War on Democracy, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and senior executive editor for national security at NBC News David Rohde investigates how Trump’s attacks have impacted law enforcement agencies and the civil servants who work there. In this episode, Kara and David discuss how Trump’s threats and conspiracy theories have undermined important investigations; why Attorney General Merrick Garland hasn’t been able to turn the tide on public trust; and what happens to a democracy that loses the rule of law.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From “Witch Hunt” to “Weaponization”: The Impact of Trump’s War on the DOJ with David Rohde

Kara interviews renowned economist, author, former Labor Secretary, and social media star, Robert Reich. The 78-year old professor of economics at University of California, Berkeley is as prolific as ever, pointing out the inequities in our “rigged system” and calling out the rich and powerful who want to keep it that way. 

Kara and Robert discuss the presidential candidates' competing visions for the America, our rigged economic system (and how it got this way), his prescription for reigning in Elon Musk, and his incredible ability to connect with young people on social media. No one is spared from his withering critiques — including Elon Musk, Donald Trump, trickle-down economics, the Democratic party and our two-party system.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert Reich on Trump, Harris, Musk and More

Former First Lady/Senator/Madam Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton is in a political league of her own. But the “housewife from Chappaqua” (as Kara likes to call her) isn’t ready to hang up her party hat just yet. As she details in her latest memoir, Something Lost, Something Gained, HRC continues to champion the rights of women and girls across the globe. And as a former opponent to Donald Trump and only other woman to lead a major presidential ticket, she’s an inimitable advisor and surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris in her race to the White House. 
In their sixth interview, Kara and Hillary do post-game analysis of the Harris/Trump debate, chat about campaign strategy (do voters really need more policy?), discuss the recent backlash against gender equality and what a Trump re-election could mean for HRC personally and the country at-large.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hillary Rodham Clinton Drops Truth Bombs

Last week, the Department of Justice announced major indictments alleging that, among other things, the Kremlin was paying right-wing influencers, like Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, and Benny Johnson, to spread Russian propaganda. The payments were funneled through a Tennessee-based company called Tenet Media, and while Rubin, Pool, and Johnson deny knowledge of the plot ... they don’t seem to have asked too many questions about the mysterious benefactor who was supposedly funding Tenet and paying them unseemly large amounts of money.

Unfortunately, this is only the latest in a string of foreign influence campaigns coming from Russia, China and Iran that target American elections. To break down all the news, Kara is joined by Julia Davis, Alex Stamos, and Brandy Zadrozny. Julia is a columnist for the Daily Beast, an investigative reporter, and the creator of the Russian Media Monitor; Alex is the chief information security officer at SentinelOne, the founder of the Stanford Internet Observatory, and a former chief security officer at Facebook; and Brandy is senior reporter at NBC News who covers the Internet, especially politics, tech, and extremism. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Useful Idiots? How Right-Wing Influencers Got $ to Spread Russian Propaganda

CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash has been having one hell of a summer. She co-moderated the June debate that led to President Biden’s historic decision to step out of the race; she landed the first sit-down interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz; and now she’s out with a book (co-written with David Fisher) called America’s Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History. It’s a deep dive into the Louisiana gubernatorial race of 1872 that surprisingly has had ripple effects until today. 
Kara and Dana sat down at Politics &amp; Prose in Washington, D.C., to discuss the book, the huge shifts of the current election cycle, and the upcoming debate between former President Trump and Vice President Harris.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CNN's Dana Bash On Debate Drama, the Harris Interview & America’s Deadliest Election

How much screen time is OK for a two year old? What is the right age for kids to get on Instagram or TikTok? And is there such a thing as "good" social media? Figuring out how to grapple with technology is one of the biggest headaches parents have to deal with these days. Kara talks to Dr. Becky (the "millennial parent whisperer") to get answers to the most pressing questions about tech and parenting. And this time, our expert questions come from you — our listeners!
Dr. Becky Kennedy is a clinical psychologist who’s been called the “millennial parent whisperer." She is also a best-selling author and successful entrepreneur who has 2.8 million followers on Instagram, a hit TED talk, and a subscription-based platform called Good Inside that recently launched an app.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tech and Kids: Parenting Expert Dr. Becky Answers Listener Questions

On with Kara Swisher is off for the Labor Day holiday, and we’re sharing an episode of friend-of-the-pod Preet Bharara's podcast Stay Tuned with Preet. 

In the episode you’re about to hear, Preet interviews leading U.S. political historian Joanne Freeman. Their conversation covers what may turn out to be the craziest 33 days in modern American history – from the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, to President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race – and the momentum behind Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. 

On will be back with a fresh episode on Thursday September 5th. Listen to Stay Tuned with Preet every Monday and Thursday.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Stay Tuned with Preet: Elections, Now & Then (with Joanne Freeman)

Tech’s tentacles are wrapped around almost every segment of the media industry. They haven't just choked off a large part of the ad revenue media companies relied on — Americans now consume media on devices built by tech companies and platforms owned by those same tech giants, and their algorithms often dictate what media we engage with. 

To explore, question, and analyze the myriad intersections between the tech and media, Kara is joined by three of the sharpest reporters covering these two worlds. Oliver Darcy is the founder of Status, a new newsletter on beehiiv that covers the media. He's the former senior media reporter at CNN, where he covered the intersection of media, politics, and technology. Charlotte Klein is a features writer and media columnist at New York Magazine, who previously covered media for Vanity Fair. And Joanna Stern is the Wall Street Journal’s senior personal technology columnist, as well as author of the TechThings Newsletter, and she also hosts and produces the TechThings video series.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unpacking Tech’s Influence on Today’s Media 

Almost 29 million television viewers tuned in to see Vice President Kamala Harris’s historic nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. But does size matter? And what’s next after the raucous, A-list celebrity packed, “joy-filled" DNC for the Harris/Walz campaign? With just 10 weeks left in the campaign, Kara reviews the biggest moments and messages from Chicago with today’s panel (Politico White House correspondent Eugene Daniels, co-author of Politico Playbook; Noel King, co-host of Vox’s Today Explained; political strategist Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark and founder of Republican Voters Against Trump; and V Spehar, independent journalist and host of the TikTok account, Under the Desk News) and discusses strengths and vulnerabilities coming out of the conventions for both campaigns. Plus: how RFK Jr.’s Trump endorsement will likely play out in key swing states. Note: This episode was taped on Friday, Aug 23rd, 2024.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The DNC Afterparty and What’s Next for the Harris/Walz Campaign

David Axelrod was one of the first prominent Democrats to suggest that President Biden should withdraw from the race. The former senior advisor to President Barack Obama earned Biden’s ire in the process (and a colorful nickname to go along with it), but time proved him right. And now, he’s calling on Democrat’s to temper their “irrational exuberance.” 

Kara talks to the Axe man about the Democratic National Convention (of course), his role in persudading President Joe Biden to drop out of the race, and his analysis of Vice President Harris’s messaging and campaign strategy.

To get more David Axelrod, watch him on CNN or listen to Hacks on Tap and The Axe Files.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Axelrod Breaks Down Kamala Harris’s Messaging and Strategy

The Democratic National Convention gets underway this week with party stars, social media influencers and Republican Never Trumpers flocking to Chicago for the historic event. Although Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz have already been officially nominated online, the DNC will be a prime chance to lay out their agenda to the American people. But will they? Or will they be more focused on vibes and values? This week, Kara and a team of longtime Harris reporters and political insiders break down which issues will likely be front and center at the DNC, what you won’t hear a lot about, and what role social media, memes and Generative AI will likely play in the weeks ahead. Guests: Wall Street Journal White House reporter Sabrina Siddiqui; New York Times National politics reporter and host of The Run-Up podcast Astead Herndon; Casey Newton, founder of Platformer and co-host of the Hard Fork podcast; and Reed Galen, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, president of Join the Union, and author of the substack The Home Front.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Politics, Protests and Kamalanomenon: What to Expect at the DNC

Renée DiResta is one the world’s leading experts on online disinformation and propaganda and the author of the new book, Invisible Rulers, The People Who Turn Lies into Reality. About two months ago, DiResta found out her contract as the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory would not be renewed. What’s more, the SIO, one of the foremost academic programs studying abuse online, would be essentially hollowed out. The university blames funding challenges, and says it has “not shut down or dismantled SIO as a result of outside pressure.” However, many journalists and fellow researchers suspect that political pressure from the right, including congressional hearings led by Rep. Jim Jordan and lawsuits from people like Stephen Miller, caused Stanford to cave.

Kara and Renée discuss the drama at the SIO; Invisible Rulers; the coordinated effort by the right to target academic researchers who study online propaganda and disinformation; the larger strategy to push back against content moderation by social media platforms; and the role the platforms themselves and their CEOS (looking at you, Elon) play in this fight.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How the Right Launders Online Propaganda with Renée DiResta 

Desi Lydic has been a Senior Correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show for nearly a decade. Earlier this year, Jon Stewart returned to the anchor desk on Mondays, and Lydic has been part of a rotating cast hosting the show Tuesday through Thursday, often in teams. This week, she'll be flying solo.
Kara and Desi discuss how the Harris/Walz campaign has changed the vibe for the Indecision 2024 team (her message for Dad-joke aficionado Walz: stay in your lane!); how social media has impacted the late night landscape (including her Emmy-nominated series Foxsplains); whether there are any “off limits” topics in political comedy; and why Lydic wasn't prepared to love the anchor seat.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic Mines the “Weird” 2024 Election For Comedy Gold

Roxane Gay is a writer, editor, podcaster, and culture critic. She has published a dozen books, including the seminal essay collection Bad Feminist, which just turned 10, and the memoir Hunger — both are best sellers. She writes a newsletter, The Audacity, and is a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times where, until recently, she wrote the workplace advice column, Work Friend.

Gay recently published Stand Your Ground, an essay that explores what it means to be a Black, feminist gun owner and to exercise her constitutional right to bear arms when "the Second Amendment was never meant for Black people." Kara and Roxane discuss the essay, her burgeoning media empire, and Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.

Stand Your Ground is available now as an ebook/audiobook. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher



Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roxane Gay on Guns, Kamala & Media

In almost four decades as an elected official, Rep. Nancy Pelosi is arguably the most powerful woman in American politics today. She’s been celebrated as the greatest Speaker the House of Representatives has ever seen and even now, almost two years after she gave up the gavel, Pelosi’s influence within the Democratic party is clear and unchanging. 
When President Biden announced his decision to call off his re-election campaign and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in his stead, many speculated that Pelosi was behind the decision. 
Kara asks the former Speaker what went on behind the scenes, what role, if any, she played in it, where the sudden and overwhelming support for Harris came from, and how Pelosi has maintained her grip on power in the Democratic party. Pelosi also teases her much-anticipated memoir, The Art of Power, which will be available on August 6, 2024. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nancy Pelosi on the ‘Decision to Win’ in 2024

At first blush, the successful, suburban moms in Southlake, Texas who helped kick off the anti-CRT/anti-DEI movement animating school board fights across the country have little in common with the young, self-described losers and incels who make up much of the alt-right. In fact, both are far-right extremist groups that are obsessed with race, trans people, and not surprisingly, Donald Trump — and they occasionally collaborate.  

Kara talks to Elle Reeve, author of “Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics” and a CNN correspondent, and Mike Hixenbaugh, author of “They Came For the Schools” and senior reporter for NBC News, to break down the parallels and contrasts between the two groups. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anti-DEI Moms & the Alt-Right: Two Sides of the Same Coin 

From the Senate, to the VP Residence to the Oval: Former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain has been inside President Biden’s inner circle for nearly 40 years. This spring, he even took time off from his brand new job as Airbnb’s Chief Legal Officer to help Biden prep for his (no good, very bad day) debate against Donald Trump. Kara talks to Klain (her former Hoya college buddy) about the many questions, accusations and now conspiracy theories swirling around President Biden’s decision to exit the presidential race, whether Republicans are right to call it a “coup”, how Vice President Kamala Harris should be positioning herself in the next 100 days, and what President Biden’s legacy will be in the years to come.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Debate, the Dropout and the Dems' Future with “Biden Whisperer” Ron Klain 

How did Vice President Kamala Harris raise a historic $126 million in just over 48 hours for her 2024 presidential run? The Harris campaign says 1.4 million voters and key constituencies chipped in after President Biden pulled out of the race, but maybe even more important: Harris has long-standing ties to tech titans in Silicon Valley and influential celebrities in Hollywood. On today’s show, Kara discusses the BIG money behind the blue flood with two top campaign finance reporters, Wall Street Journal reporter Emily Glazer and Teddy Schleifer from The New York Times. They also discuss how Harris’s haul compares with the pledges to former President Trump from Elon Musk and his cohort. Plus: will a complaint from Trump’s campaign keep Harris from accessing the $96 million left in the Biden/Harris war chest?

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who’s Behind the Harris Campaign Donation Tsunami?

Audie Cornish, Franklin Foer, Ashley Parker, and Alex Thompson join Kara for a special bonus episode about the recent historic tumult in this year's presidential election. The panel breaks down how and why President Joe Biden decided to drop out of the race; what his legacy will be; and what a run by Vice President Kamala Harris could look like. 

Audie is a CNN anchor and correspondent and host of The Assignment podcast. Franklin is a staff writer for The Atlantic and author of The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future. Ashley is a senior national political correspondent for The Washington Post. Alex is a national political correspondent for Axios, and he’s currently writing a book about President Biden. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What Happened to Joe Biden? What’s Next for Kamala Harris and the Dems?

Musician, producer and EGOT-winner John Legend and model, TV personality and cookbook author Chrissy Teigan are not just a celebrity couple. They are also entrepreneurs, business partners and passionate surrogates for Democratic politics. Kara spoke with the couple for a live taping of On at Cannes Lions in June about how they’ve built/collaborated on their respective business ventures and what it takes to curate successful brands that work with, not against, their outspoken personalities and political activism.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ON LIVE: Chrissy Teigen and John Legend on Entrepreneurship, Politics and Dogs

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy isn’t afraid to go after powerful interests. In mid-June, he published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for a warning label on social media platforms that says they’re associated with mental health problems for teens. The following week, he declared that gun violence is a public health crisis. However, the surgeon general's powers are limited. It'll take an act of Congress to put a warning label on social media platforms, and thanks to the Roberts court, even legislators are limited in their ability to regulate firearms.

Kara and Dr. Murthy discuss this country's seemingly intractable gun problem and the debate around the research into the harms caused by social media, along with his work on loneliness, and how Covid has eroded trust in the public health sector. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Guns, Social Media & Loneliness with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy

As unlikely as it may seem, until this episode was recorded, Kara Swisher and Rachel Maddow had never met. The two sat down for a riveting conversation that connects America’s unsavory and under-told authoritarian history with the unprecedented political peril we find ourselves in today.

After addressing the increasingly desperate calls for President Biden to step down from members of the media and his own party, Kara and Maddow turn to her latest project: the podcast Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra. It focuses on far-right extremism and Nazi propagandists in American politics during the 1930s to 1950s. It’s a story that she connects to the country’s present existential crisis — and one she looks to for guidance, as well. We ask her to explain. 

Please note — this interview was recorded prior the the assassination attempt on former President Trump on July 13th.

SEND US A QUESTION: Kara is talking to Dr. Becky this week about parenting, tech and social media and we’re opening the floor to listener questions. What would YOU like to ask her about kids and tech? Leave a voicemail at 1-888-KARA-PLZ.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rachel Maddow on Trump, Biden’s Dilemma & America’s Fascist History

Gretchen Whitmer might be one of the most down-to-earth politicians in America — the governor from Michigan began her conversation with Kara with a bawdy joke about menstruation that she takes with her to the debate stage, and at no point during the interview did she hesitate from cursing. But with the calls for President Biden to resign growing louder, the Governor is an unenviable position. She’s considered a rising star within the party, and potential presidential candidate by some, but as a co-chair for the Biden/Harris re-election campaign she has to toe the line without seeming unaware of concerns that Biden just isn’t up to the task. 

Governor Whitmer and Kara discuss the Democratic party’s current conundrum, as well as her new memoir, True Gretch, the infamous foiled attempt to kidnap and assassinate her, the best way for Biden (or any Democrat) to win Michigan’s 15 electoral votes, and her campaign slogan for 2028.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is Leading During “A Really Heavy Time”

The Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed 75 years ago to protect Europe and North America against Russian aggression – a mission that is once again top priority, as NATO supports Ukraine’s battle against President Vladimir Putin. Ahead of the NATO summit and anniversary celebration in D.C. this week, Kara sits down with US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith to talk about the war and Ukraine’s prospective membership in NATO, why the alliance is increasingly looking for partners in Asia and Africa, what members are saying about former president Donald Trump’s threats to quit the team, and how cybersecurity, climate security and AI will play a greater role in the years ahead.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Too Old or Still Relevant? NATO at 75 with Ambassador Julianne Smith

Trump’s historic felony conviction, a SCOTUS ruling in favor of presidential immunity, and a dumpster fire Biden vs. Trump debate: Those are just a few of the things that have happened on the American democracy front since Kara spoke to historian Heather Cox Richardson in January. In a special Independence Day episode, Kara and Heather replay that conversation, including history lessons from her book Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, and then rejoin at the end. They discuss what Heather thought of the first presidential debate, why she believes changing presidential horses mid-race would be disastrous for Democrats, and how events of the past six months have (or haven't) changed her perspective about American Democracy.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

July 4th Special: Why Heather Cox Richardson Still Has Hope for American Democracy

Hands with six fingers, mouths with dozens of teeth, hairlines and limbs out of whack: We’ve all seen eye-roll worthy generative AI images. But despite the prevalence of these easy to spot fakes, photography and video media companies like Getty Images are already feeling the impact of AI and trying to integrate the technology without compromising their core business. Kara speaks with Getty CEO Craig Peters about why he can promise users of the Getty AI Generator “uncapped indemnity”, whether he thinks licensing agreements with OpenAI and similar AI companies are “Faustian” deals with the devil, and how better standards to protect visual truth and authenticity could help the industry remain financially viable in the long run. Plus: how worried should we be about deep fakes impacting the 2024 election?
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Creepy Fingers, Deep Fakes, and Fair Use with Getty Images CEO Craig Peters

The 2024 race is ON and the gloves are coming off: President Biden and former President Donald Trump will go head-to-head tonight, in the first debate of this campaign season [Thursday, 9 pm ET on CNN]. The two are basically tied in the polls, so both candidates are vying for independent voters in a handful of swing states to secure the Oval. Kara hosts a panel of political junkies (Stephanie Ruhle, host of MSNBC's The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle; Eliana Johnson, editor-in-chief at the neoconservative Washington Free Beacon; and veteran Republican strategist Mike Madrid, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and author of a new book The Latino Century, How America's Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy) to discuss the top issues for voters, what could turn the tide for Trump or Biden, and whether this debate – or any – can change hearts and minds.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trump vs. Biden 2.1 with Stephanie Ruhle, Eliana Johnson and Mike Madrid

Actor and Director Griffin Dunne grew up surrounded by Hollywood fame and celebrity — his father was a TV producer, his aunt the renowned writer Joan Didion, his sister a blossoming actress and the late Carrie Fisher his best friend and onetime roommate. But the Dunne family became famous for tragedy when Griffin’s 22-year-old sister Dominique was murdered by her boyfriend. Dunne’s father, Dominick, chronicled the tumult of the murder trial for Vanity Fair, while privately struggling as a closeted homosexual. Kara talks to Dunne about the difficult decision to revisit these moments in his new memoir The Friday Afternoon Club.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Storytelling, Family & Tragedy with Griffin Dunne

Late spring/early summer is always a busy time for the Supreme Court, but this year, it’s not just the controversial decisions that are making news. The justices themselves have been in headlines — for all the wrong reasons. Kara and an expert panel discuss the ethical lapses, refusals the recuse, and of course, the cases themselves — including the big one, over Trump’s claim to “complete and total” immunity.

The panelists are: Judge Nancy Gertner (retired), a lecturer at Harvard Law School and former US District Court judge for the District of Massachusetts who served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court; Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel, and senior director for ethics at the Campaign Legal Center; and Judge David Tatel (retired), a former judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and author of the new book Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice.

This interview was recorded on Tuesday June 18. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flags, Free Trips & Secret Recordings: The Cases, Trials & Tribulation of SCOTUS

Actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus is most famous for her comedic TV characters Elaine Benes in Seinfeld and Veep’s Selina Meyer. But in recent years, Louis-Dreyfus has been showing her dramatic chops, including in her latest film Tuesday, in which she takes on grief, denial and death. She's also been winning awards as the host of her podcast Wiser Than Me. Kara and Julia discuss how in-depth conversations with iconic older women have radicalized her, her concerns about the commercialization of art films and why she thinks comedy is risky - but still very much possible.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Doing Death, Truth-Telling in Comedy and Getting Wiser

Kara takes the stage with Laurene Powell Jobs at Sixth &amp; I in Washington D.C. to talk about Kara’s recent memoir, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story. In this bonus episode of On, Powell Jobs interviews Swisher about her life as a tech reporter, the incredible influence of tech CEOs, the need for regulation, AI and the best devices of all time.

This episode was originally taped on February 29, 2024 and has been edited for clarity and length. You can find the full version of their conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrSy8XJgjjE

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Laurene Powell Jobs and Kara Talk Tech, AI & Journalism 

Kara interviews Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI, and one of the most powerful people in tech. Murati has helped the company skyrocket to the forefront of the generative AI boom, and Apple’s recent announcement that it will soon put ChatGPT in its iPhones, iPads and laptops will only help increase their reach. 
But OpenAI's rapid ascent has included its fair share of growing pains. There was “the blip,” as company insiders refer to the brief ousting of Sam Altman as CEO. (Murati became CEO for two days.) There have also been high-profile departures, an open letter accusing the company of putting product over safety, questions about highly restrictive NDAs, and even controversy over whether the company had stolen Scarlett Johansson's voice. On top of that, many fear that generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, will be used to fuel disinformation during the upcoming presidential election. Kara and Murati talk about all this, and more.
This interview was recorded live at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC as part of their new Discovery Series.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati on ScarJo Controversy, Sam Altman & Disinfo Fears

Abortion will be a key issue in the election this fall and it's also the focus of two Supreme Court rulings expected later this month. This week, Kara speaks with Cecile Richards, activist and former President of Planned Parenthood, about the fight for reproductive rights in the post-Roe era, where abortion fits into the electoral landscape, the potential outcomes of the two SCOTUS rulings, and how technology is enhancing access to abortion.

On a more personal note, Cecile also talks about her recent brain cancer diagnosis and how it’s impacted her work as a lifelong activist.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Abortion Politics in 2024 with Cecile Richards, former Planned Parenthood President

Kara sits down to talk with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The social media-savvy congresswoman from the Bronx is a member of the bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, and she recently introduced a bill to combat nonconsensual deepfake pornography.

Kara and AOC discuss the bill, and her opposition to the TikTok ban, along with her take on the overall tech landscape. They also dive into her recent back-and-forth with Marjorie Taylor Greene, her relationship with the Left, Trump vs. Biden and Gaza. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AOC on Trump vs. Biden, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tech, Gaza & More

Broad City co-creator Ilana Glazer’s new friendship flick Babes is a no-holds-barred comedy about pregnancy, parenthood and the losses that come with adulthood. Kara talks with Ilana about why women’s bodies are considered “raunchy,” whether YouTube is still a good launch pad for breakout comedians, and how she is rallying Gen Z and Millennial voters to “microdose democracy” through her political non-profit Generator Collective. Plus: why, as a Jewish American, she’s calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Making Parenthood and Politics Sexy with Comedian Ilana Glazer

When it comes to political comedy, Bill Maher is practically an institution — he’s been hosting a late-night political talk show since 1993 (with a brief hiatus in 2002-03, after Politically Incorrect was canceled following a 9/11 comment). And now the host of Real Time with Bill Maher has a new book out: What This Comedian Said Will Shock You. Kara sat with Bill in his “den of iniquity” to discuss his childhood, politics, the war in Gaza, and, of course, cancel culture.  
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bill Maher Won't Back Down (But He Might Shock You)

Today, we’re sharing Kara’s recent appearance on Possible, a podcast hosted by Aria Finger and Reid Hoffman from Wonder Media Network. We’ll be back with a new episode of On with Kara Swisher on Thursday, May 30th.
You can follow the Possible podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Possible” by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger featuring Kara Swisher

Tesla is bleeding execs, and it appears to be reaching a crisis point; over at Twitter/X, new reporting shows that Elon uses the platform to cozy up to right-wing leaders around the world and then presses them to enact policies that benefit to his companies; and while SpaceX continues to dominate in space, serious questions remain about the Pentagon’s reliance on the mercurial industrialist with a seeming soft spot for Putin and Xi. So it’s time to gather three of the best reporters covering Musk and get their take on all things Elon.
Kirsten Grind recently joined The New York Times as a tech investigations reporter. Previously, she was at The Wall Street Journal, where she reported on Elon’s drug use and the shockingly acquiescent Tesla board. Tim Higgins is the author of Power Play, Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century, and he writes a weekly column at The Wall Street Journal that is mostly about Elon Musk. And Becky Peterson covers Tesla, SpaceX, and all things Elon at The Information, where she consistently publishes scoops on the inner workings of Elon’s companies.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are Elon’s Best Days Behind Him? with Kirsten Grind, Tim Higgins & Becky Peterson

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has been reporting on protests, wars and conflicts for more than 40 years, and he’s used his platform to highlight human rights issues at home and abroad. But despite being a proponent of "ethical journalism", he flinches at being called an “activist”. Kara talks to Nick about the swashbuckling adventures detailed in his new memoir, Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life, his take on the situation in Gaza and the student protests against the war, and why he’s more hopeful than cynical about the state of the world – even with Trump back on the ballot.
This interview was taped on May 14, 2024.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Journalism, Activism and Hope with Nicholas Kristof

David Ignatius, a foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Post and the author of twelve novels, is also a noted expert on Middle East politics, one of the preeminent national security writers in the country, and perhaps, most importantly — the person who first assigned Kara Swisher to cover tech news. 
Kara talks to her old boss about his new spy thriller, The Phantom Orbit, the upcoming presidential election, the war in Gaza, and the war in Ukraine. 
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

War in Gaza, Ukraine & Space, plus Biden vs. Trump with David Ignatius

To savvy tech consumers, Walt Mossberg and Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, need no introduction. Before he retired in 2017, Walt was the undisputed dean of tech reviewers. As Senator Maria Cantwell, a recent guest and former tech executive put it, “all our product reviews lived or died by Walt Mossberg.”
MKBHD began reviewing tech products on YouTube, as a high schooler, and he now has more than 18 million subscribers to his channel. He has become this generation’s Walt Mossberg, and as Jimmy Donaldson/MrBeast, the king of YouTube, put it, “you’re the video producer that decides what tech everyone in America buys.” 
Yet, somehow, the titans of tech reviews had never met before. Kara rights this wrong, and she, Mossberg, and Brownlee discuss the art, philosophy and ethics of reviewing tech, as well as the Tesla Cybertruck, Apple Vision Pro, AI-in-a-box and Taylor Swift. 
Click here to listen to Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walt Mossberg & MKBHD Break Down The Art of the Tech Review

Author Anne Lamott has penned novels, but is most famous for her confessional memoirs about sobriety, raising her son as a single mother (Operating Instructions), being a liberal Christian and writing (Bird By Bird). Kara and Anne talk about her 20th book, Somehow: Thoughts on Love, why she thinks love is like Wi-Fi, how she dealt with nearly being canceled over a tweet, how to practice radical self-acceptance, and finding forgiveness — even for Donald Trump.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Radical Self-Acceptance, Cancel Culture, and Forgiveness with Writer Anne Lamott

Thirty-one years after founding Chipotle, Steve Ells is back with what he hopes will be another fast-casual dining revolution: the highly-automated, plant-based food chain, Kernel. Ells says that streamlining and automation will allow him to pay workers well above minimum wage and give them more benefits – all while reducing labor costs. But don’t call it a robot restaurant! Kara and Ells discuss the mechanics and philosophy underpinning Kernel’s concept and the downstream effects of integrating tech into our food.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can Chipotle Founder Steve Ells Strike "Fast-Casual" Gold Again?

In her latest play, Sally &amp; Tom, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks tackles what is, arguably, one of the most complicated and personal chapters in American history: the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman who gave birth to at least six of his children.
Kara and Parks discuss the play in the context of her past work, as well as our nation's trend of revising history to sand down its rough edges, and why wrestling with our nation’s past is a sign of love.
Sally &amp; Tom is now playing at the Public Theater. You can buy tickets at: https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2324/sally--tom/ 
Correction: Suzan-Lori Parks' Plays for the Plague Year begins in March 2020. In a previous version of this episode, we said it began in March 2022.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Threads/Instagram as @karaswisher 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wrestling with America’s (Racist) History with Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks

When Kara first met Senator Maria Cantwell in the 90s, she was a tech executive at an early player in the streaming media industry called RealNetworks. Now, the Democrat from Washington is the chair of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, and she recently released a draft of the American Privacy Rights Act. For the first time in a long time, it looks like a tech privacy bill might have a decent shot at actually becoming law. 
Senator Cantwell joins the podcast to discuss her bill, her approach to tech legislation, and the biggest (and arguably most controversial) tech bill in recent history: the TikTok divestment bill.   
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Time for a Data Privacy Bill + the TikTok Crackdown with Senator Maria Cantwell

Kara discusses the “pacing threat” that is China – from TikTok to cyberattacks to semiconductors and Taiwan – with two cybersecurity experts: Dimitri Alperovitch, co-founder and former CTO of CrowdStrike and author of the new book World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the 21st Century, and Chris Krebs, Chief Intelligence Officer at SentinelOne and former Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency under President Trump (until he was fired in a tweet for batting down Trump’s election lies).
The episode features an expert question from a previous On guest: former Congressman Mike Gallagher, the Republican from Wisconsin who chaired the Select Committee on the CCP. If you like this episode, make sure you go back to listen to that conversation as well. 
This conversation was taped live at American University on April 19, 2024.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher  
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to Prevent War with China with Dmitri Alperovitch and Chris Krebs

Despite a recent uptick, President Biden’s approval rating and his poll numbers against Donald Trump are far from stellar. And with inflation remaining stubbornly high and gas prices moving up, Biden and his party seem eager to focus voters on abortion rights — and Republicans in Arizona and Florida have given him plenty of material to work with. 
To understand how the abortion issue might play out in November — and how the Dobbs decision is already affecting millions of people across the country, even in states without bans — we turn to three experts: Shefali Luthra covers abortion for The 19th, and her book, “Undue Burden, Life and Death Decisions in Post Roe America,” comes out in May; Sarah McCammon is a national political correspondent for NPR and the co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast. Her book, “Exvangelicals: Loving, Living and Leaving the White Evangelical Church,” came out in March; and Mary Jo Pitzl is a senior state government reporter for the Arizona Republic who’s been reporting in Arizona for decades. She’s also the host of The Gaggle, an Arizona politics podcast.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is the Fight Over Abortion Rights Enough to Beat Trump? with Shefali Luthra, Sarah McCammon and Mary Jo Pitzl

Is Gen Z’s mental health in decline because their “phone-based childhood” has flooded them with anxiety and ruined their sleep? Or is there a more complex mix of factors at play? Jonathan Haidt makes his case for the former explanation in his latest book, The Anxious Generation. 
While many people intuitively agree with his argument that phones and social media are ruining kids, some researchers are accusing Haidt of coming up with a grand overarching theory that isn’t supported by the data. Kara brings the moral psychologist and NYU professor onto the podcast to discuss his ideas, the criticism he’s gotten, and his proposed solutions to the problem. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kids and Phones: Moral Panic or Time to Panic? with Jonathan Haidt

Yahoo, the one-time "oracle of the internet", has had many iterations in its 30 year history - and private equity is betting that Yahoo CEO and digital media veteran Jim Lanzone can bring back its relevance. Kara has been covering Yahoo since its inception and has known Lanzone - who has had leadership stints at Ask.com, CBS and Tinder - almost as long. They discuss Jim's vision for the new Yahoo, what’s going on with search, how he’s integrating AI, and whether there could be another Yahoo merger or IPO on the horizon.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can Yahoo Bring Back the "Good Internet"?

“Flood the zone with shit.” It’s a zinger and a strategic imperative, from the oh-so-eloquent Steve Bannon, being expertly executed by Donald Trump and the MAGA-fied GOP. 
To help us make sense of what our information morass means for the 2024 election, we’re joined by three political disinformation experts: Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation researcher, the former executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security, and the author of "How To Lose the Information War"; Sasha Issenberg, a journalist and the author of five books, most recently, “The Lie Detectives”; and Barabara McQuade, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan who teaches law at the University Michigan and recently authored “Attacks from Within.”
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will Disinformation Doom Our Democracy? with Nina Jankowicz, Sasha Issenberg & Barbara McQuade

There are a lot of Trump/Hitler comparisons being thrown around these days. So we went to the source, as chronicled by historian Timothy Ryback in his new book Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power. Ryback zooms in on the final six months before Adolf Hitler dissolved the government of the Weimar Republic, revealing that Nazi Germany was not inevitable. Kara and Ryback discuss the Berlin power players that misjudged Hitler’s bankrupt party, and the (not just rhetorical) similarities between the ascendance of Hitler and Donald Trump.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lessons Learned From Hitler’s Rise To Power

Joan Nathan, the “doyenne of Jewish-American food” and a pillar of the DC dinner party scene, joins us to talk about her memoir, “My Life in Recipes.” Nathan has written a dozen cookbooks, but this is her most personal, drawing on family recipes from the old country that go back centuries. She and Kara discuss everything from Golda Meir’s terrible matzo balls, to the limits of gastro-diplomacy, the so-called “Hummus Wars,” and the war in Gaza. 
Please note that while this discussion touches on chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen and its work in Gaza, the episode was recorded before the Israeli airstrikes that killed seven of the organization’s aid workers. 
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can Food Save The World? with Joan Nathan

Author Geraldine DeRuiter a.k.a. The Everywhereist joins Kara to talk about her new book If You Can’t Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fury. They talk about some of the author’s viral moments and the backlash she experienced after calling out two famed Italian chefs, the inherent sexism in the food industry (from dining rooms to professional kitchens), and how societal stigmas around beauty and our bodies have distorted our relationship to food.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Food, Feminism, and Fury" with Geraldine DeRuiter

Kara sits down with Brené Brown, researcher, author, and vulnerability expert, in this edition of the Burn Book book tour. Brené tries to bring out our host’s vulnerable side, asking about the life lessons Kara has learned from the tech titans she confronts in her memoir. This inevitably leads to a discussion of why Kara believes nice guys (like Mark Zuckerberg) can still be dangerous, and about her disappointment with Elon Musk. 

This interview was taped at the Chicago Humanities Festival on March 21, 2024. You can hear more from Brené Brown on her two podcasts, Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Life Lessons from Tech Titans (Kara in conversation with Brené Brown)

The effort to ban TikTok in the US is back in the spotlight as a new bill has passed through the House and is now in the Senate. Today, we have a lively debate with two guests who bring competing analysis to the table. Alex Stamos is Chief Trust Officer at SentinelOne and the former Chief Information Security Officer at Facebook (he can often be heard on Moderated Content). Taylor Lorenz is a columnist at the Washington Post covering technology and culture and hosts the new VoxMedia podcast, Power User.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Much Ado About TikTok

Reddit has been around for 19 years, but today the social media platform goes public and starts a new chapter. Its listing on the New York Stock Exchange also marks the first major social media IPO since 2019. Kara speaks to co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman about money, content moderators and whether the subreddit r/WallStreetBets could make this one a meme stock.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on the IPO

For the past decade, the European Commission has taken on Big Tech under the leadership of Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, inspiring fear and griping from tech CEOs the world over. Today, Vestager reveals why, despite being one of the toughest regulators in the business, she considers herself a tech optimist. She and Kara discuss the impact of EU antitrust lawsuits - including the most recent $2 billion fine against Apple - whether EU tech regulations passed to improve safety and competition (the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act) could hamper innovation, and if guardrails created for the future (the AI Act) might come too late. Plus: what’s next for Vestager when her term ends this year?
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Margrethe Vestager Shows Tech Gatekeepers The Door

We're continuing book tour week in this bonus episode of “On.” Kara takes the SXSW stage with Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur turned "Shark Tank" star who is currently focused on his healthcare venture CostPlus Drug Company. The two have known each other for decades and Cuban was even featured in the "Mensch" chapter of Burn Book — a short chapter at that. On stage, Mark grills Kara on how few women are featured in her book, what makes her so successful and why she didn't just call the book "told you so." Plus, Cuban shares his theory on why a possible forced divestiture of TikTok by the US government may not yield many buyers – he suggests that the social media giant isn't worth much as long as the algorithm is not for sale.

This episode was recorded on March 10, 2024 at SXSW.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Burn Book" Takes SxSW, with "Mensch" Mark Cuban

We continue Kara's tour of her memoir Burn Book: a Tech Love Story as she gets candid with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos about the nonsensical nature of 1990s/early 2000s tech culture, how technology disrupted media, where Kara's candor comes from and Ted's short-lived career as a journalist.

This interview was taped at Live Talks LA on March 4,2024. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More Burn Book with Ted Sarandos

This week, we join Kara on tour as she speaks with some of the most influential names in tech about her memoir Burn Book: a Tech Love Story. Today's stop: San Francisco’s City Arts &amp; Lectures with Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO (and recently reinstated Board Member). This time, it’s Kara in the hot seat and Altman asking the questions. The two talk about last year’s OpenAI drama, Kara’s live coverage of Sam’s ouster and return, the lawsuit Elon Musk has brought against OpenAI and the public spiral that Musk has taken in recent years.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How did Kara Scoop OpenAI, and More on Burn Book (with Sam Altman)

In high school, Reed Jobs was a summer intern in oncology labs while his dad, the late Apple co-founder and tech icon Steve Jobs, was battling pancreatic cancer. In his biography, Steve is quoted as calling his son’s interest in biotech the “silver lining” of his illness – and making cancer “non-lethal” has become Reed’s life mission. In 2023, he spun off the venture capital firm Yosemite from Emerson Collective (the philanthropy and family office founded by his mother, Laurene Powell Jobs) to focus on cancer research and biotech. Kara and Reed talk about the research-to-start up pipeline, how he’s been influenced by both of his parents, and whether AI, mRNA or CRISPR will be game changers for cancer patients.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why Reed Jobs is Betting on Cancer Innovations

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday - the nation's biggest primary vote - and hundreds of delegates are up for grabs. But what impact do primaries have when the nation seems resigned to a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump? David Chalian, CNN Political Director (i.e. the man who makes the call on election night), shares his thoughts on the stakes for 2024, why Nikki Haley is still in the race, and which state he believes matters most this November.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Chalian Makes the Call

This week marks the release of Kara’s memoir, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story and the launch of her national book tour. At events from New York to Seattle, some of the tech CEOs, politicians and other bold names Kara writes about in her book will be putting her in the hot seat. Today’s episode is the first of these conversations: former CNN anchor Don Lemon interviewed her about her career and the tech giants she’s slain, and drops some intel about his own new show on X. This conversation was taped Monday, February 26th, at NYC’s 92nd Street Y.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Burn Book Kick-Off with Don Lemon

Renowned litigator Roberta (Robbie) Kaplan says she’s a born fighter. In January she won one of those fights when a jury ordered Donald Trump to pay Kaplan’s client, E. Jean Carroll, $83.3 million dollars for defamation. Kara and Robbie talk about why Trump’s behavior in and out of the court cost him. They also discuss the state of LGBTQ+ rights more than a decade after Kaplan successfully championed same-sex marriage before the Supreme Court. And Kaplan unpacks how Elon Musk and others with deep pockets are using the law to try to silence their critics (and why they won’t win).
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roberta Kaplan Will See You In Court

Actor Paul Giamatti seems to have perfected the hyper-articulate, slightly depressed curmudgeon – and this year, it might land him an Oscar. Kara and Paul talk about why his role in The Holdovers hit close to home, the challenges of developing a multi-season TV character like Billions’ D.A. Chuck Rhoades, and how a “chinwag” led him to co-host a podcast about metaphysics, time travel and UFOs.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paul Giamatti Is Good With Words

Today, we’re replaying a conversation that Kara taped last spring with none other than Brooke Shields. Shields 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 on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Home

Discover

Sign up for free to listen for longer

Home

Discover

Sign up for free to listen for longer

AI Ethics and Safety — A Contradiction in Terms?

Mark as played

Share

About the episode

View all episodes