It's on. Twice a week, award-winning journalist Kara Swisher gets to the heart of the story through no-holds-barred interviews with power players across business, tech, media, politics and beyond. So why do her guests show up? “Smart people,” says Kara, “like difficult questions.”
Mondays and Thursdays from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
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Joy Reid was an early social media adopter — which didn’t always go over well with her former bosses at MSNBC. But after her primetime show, The ReidOut , was canceled as part of MSNBC’s shakeup, this past February, Reid quickly used social media platforms to successfully pivot to independent media. Kara and Reid discuss the evolving landscape of cable news, how her Substack, " Joy's House ", and her YouTube channel, " The Joy Reid Show ”, allow her to cover topics like the war in Gaza and polit...
How do artists hold the powerful to account? Graphic novelist Alison Bechdel and editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes have been grappling with that question for decades, in their own very different ways. Bechdel is the creator of the seminal comic strip, “Dykes to Watch out For,” which she self-syndicated for 25 years. She’s also the author and illustrator of four graphic novels, including “Fun Home,” which was adapted into a five-time Tony-winning Broadway musical. She is a professor at Yale, and h...
Tariffs are up, but inflation is still holding steady. Job numbers are down, but the stock market is booming. Meanwhile, President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and he’s pushing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates (he’s also calling for Fed governor Lisa Cook to resign, but that began after our taping). MSNBC economic analyst Steven Rattner joins Kara to break down the contradictory and confusing economic news of late. Rattner is the chairman and C...
As federal troops patrol the capital and masked men whisk away immigrants in unmarked cars, it’s reasonable to ask: is President Trump a fascist? According to Jason Stanley, the answer is a resounding yes. Stanley is a philosopher and the author of seven books, including How Propaganda Works , How Fascism Works , and Erasing History . He’ll be teaching at the University of Toronto this fall, after leaving Yale and the United States for Canada. He describes his self-imposed exile as an expressive...
Are boys and men in crisis? Kara tackles the "male malaise" head-on with Richard Reeves, founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men and author of " Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why it Matters and What to Do About It ." Kara and Richard explore the challenges they face and their implications for society at large. Those challenges include the political vacuum allowing right-wing voices to dominate the conversation, the loss of male role models in education...
More than 25 years after his tragic death, John F. Kennedy Jr. remains one of the most captivating figures in American public life. He was handsome, charming, and born into political royalty — and when he died in a plane crash in 1999, he was fighting to save George, his glossy political magazine, and weighing a run for New York governor. Ryan Murphy is producing American Love Story, a new series about John and his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy; some QAnon conspiracy theorists believe JFK Jr. is...
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2022, more than one in three U.S. adolescents between the ages of 18 and 25 had some form of mental health disorder, including anxiety and depression. There’s also a loneliness epidemic: Teens and adults are more connected than ever, yet, somehow, more alone. Kara and three panelists explore how much blame should be placed on technology like smartphones, the impact of social media, whether the adolescent brain is inhe...
Democrats have abandoned the working class, according to former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, leading working people to fall for President Trump’s hollow and hateful cultural populism. But he argues that an economic populist message that exposes how corporations and wealthy people abuse their power could turn the tide. Kara and Reich discuss how that would work in practice, why Democrats have repeatedly sided with Wall Street, how Americans should fight back against Trump’s fascist tendencies, a...
Legacy media isn’t dead, but journalists are leaving traditional outlets in swarms to launch their own newsletters, podcasts and social media ventures, and they may be forcing a reboot. As one of the early media entrepreneurs (and a trusted advisor to many of those who aspire to follow in her footsteps), Kara sits down to discuss the current landscape with Oliver Darcy, founder of the “must-read” media newsletter “ Status ”; Katie Drummond, Wired’s global editorial director; and Dave Jorgenson, ...
Ever since Trump was re-elected in 2024, his MAGA base has been eagerly awaiting the release of the Epstein files. So it came as a shock when, in July, a Justice Department memo said they had reviewed the matter and determined that there was “no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials,” that the rumored “client list” did not exist, and that there was no evidence Epstein “blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.” Suddenly, key pillars of the conspiracy theory were knoc...
What happens when artificial intelligence collides with family, morality and the need for justice? Author and University of Virginia professor Bruce Holsinger joins Kara to talk about his new novel, Culpability , a family drama that examines how AI is reshaping our lives and our sense of accountability. Who is responsible when AI technology causes harm? How do we define culpability in the age of algorithms? And how is generative AI impacting academia, students and creative literature? Our expert...
Social media algorithms are leading to the creation of new words, new accents, and even new identities. And while using the apps may seem like a fun, trivial way to waste time, they’re actually having a profound impact on how we communicate — and on our our democracy. To find out more, Kara talks to Adam Aleksic, a 24-year-old Harvard-educated linguist and social media influencer, and the author of Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language . They discuss the way new word...
“Not my type” is what President Donald Trump said about writer and former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman. Despite his denials, in 2023, a jury found Trump liable for assault and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million. After he continued to defame her — leading his supporters to launch an avalanche of threats against her — a second jury in 2024 awarded Carroll $83.3 million in damages. Kara talks to Carro...
How skeptical should we be about the bill of goods (often marketed as needs) sold to us by Silicon Valley? Very, says Adam Becker, an astrophysicist and author of the new book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity. From colonizing Mars to building god-like AIs, Becker argues that the fantasies propagated by tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos and Marc Andreessen aren’t just far-fetched...
Rep. Robert Garcia was recently elected as the ranking member of the powerful House Oversight Committee by his fellow House Democrats. He won a top job that usually goes to a senior lawmaker who has spent many years (sometimes decades) in line, dutifully waiting for a turn. And his win might be a sign that the unofficial seniority system of congress is eroding under the weight of young Democrats itching for a bigger seat at the table. This is only his second term in Congress, but Rep. Garcia, wh...
Despite the chaos of January 6th, 34 felony convictions, and his party’s underperformance in the 2022 midterms, Donald J. Trump is once again president. How did he defy political gravity to win again? Why did former President Joe Biden run despite overwhelming evidence that voters didn’t want him to? Was there a coverup to conceal his decline, as Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, “Original Sin” alleges? Why did former Vice President Harris run such a cautious campaign and refuse to distance ...
President Trump and other Republicans keep throwing around the C-word — Communist — to smear anyone slightly progressive, including Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s new Democratic mayoral candidate. But right-wing fearmongering isn’t the only reason it feels like McCarthyism is on the rise again. So, just in time for the 4th of July, Kara speaks to New York Times reporter and author Clay Risen about his latest book, Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America . They unpack...
Kara Swisher sits down with Emmy-winning comedian Jerrod Carmichael for a raw and revealing conversation about truth, family, faith — and the art of standup. They dig into Carmichael’s work, including his deeply personal special “Rothaniel,” his genre-bending documentary “The Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show” (which he describes as a sitcom), and his latest special, “ Don’t Be Gay .” The two of them talk about class in America, the fears that kept him closeted, the role of religion and spiritualit...
President Trump’s decision to bomb Iran shocked much of the world — but America’s involvement was over almost as soon as it began, and so far, it hasn’t sparked a broader war, like so many feared. So how did we get here? Was the bombing a success? Will the ceasefire between Israel and Iran hold? Is the regime in Iran any closer to collapsing — and if it did, would that be good? Finally, what’s the long term solution to the nuclear issue? Kara gathers a trio of experts to grapple with these quest...
Molly Jong-Fast is best known as a writer and political commentator. But before she became the host of Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast , a regular on MSNBC, and a novelist and memoirist, she was the daughter of Erica Jong. Jong catapulted to literary stardom with her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The bold — and, at the time — shocking story of a married woman looking for casual sex made her a literary icon of second-wave feminism. And although Jong-Fast was an only child, she grew up sharing her...
As President Trump considers striking Iran, Kara talks to Nicolle Wallace — host of MSNBC’S Deadline: White House and the new podcast The Best People. They unpack President Trump’s mixed messaging on Iran and his growing credibility gap with the American public, the political calculus behind his domestic shows of force, and the disturbing rise of political violence in America. Plus, a look back at the 2008 presidential campaign and a candid conversation about how journalists can remain relevant ...
“Democrats in disarray” is more than just a trope — after last year’s disastrous elections, Democrats are openly fretting about how to pull the party out of its crisis. Kara speaks to a panel of millennial leaders about how to rejuvenate it; what role the generational divide plays in policy and agenda setting; and what Democrats need to do to win back younger voters (and older ones, too). Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) was first elected to Congress in 2022. He is the chair of the Congressional Progressi...
Kara Swisher and a panel of experts unpack the recent spat between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. They discuss the reasons behind the falling out, who holds more leverage, the potential consequences for tech and politics, and the implications for Elon Musk's business interests and political ambitions, including the legacy of Project Doge and the risk to SpaceX contracts.
For the past five decades, every Republican president except Gerald Ford has tried to cut funding for public media. But NPR and PBS have never dealt with a moment like this, where the Trump administration is attacking them from every possible angle. A recent executive order demanded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (or CPB) and executive agencies halt all funding for NPR and PBS; the FCC is investigating their corporate underwriting; and this week, the House is expected to take up a resci...
From media moguls to tech billionaires, Oscar-nominated and Emmy award-winning writer, producer and director Jesse Armstrong knows how to tap into the psyche of the rich and powerful. In the “Succession” creator’s new HBO movie, “ Mountainhead, ” a tech-bro poker weekend turns into a life-or-death battle over who will control the future — in both business and the real world. From their isolated lair in Utah, four millionaire/billionaire friends (played by Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Mi...
Jeffrey Goldberg has been a thorn in President Donald Trump’s side since the real-estate developer–turned reality-show host first ran for office in 2016. Back then — ten months before he took over as editor-in-chief of The Atlantic — Goldberg wrote a piece headlined “A Brief Exercise Meant to Illuminate the Prejudices of Donald Trump.” The magazine has continued its unsparing criticism of Trump ever since, and Goldberg’s recent Signalgate story was just the latest in a series of blockbuster scoo...
As the One Big Beautiful Bill Act lumbers through Congress, President Trump lobs threats at Russian President Vladimir Putin on Truth Social, and the administration continues its war against Harvard, we’re bringing back New York Times reporter and de facto Trump chronicler Maggie Haberman to weigh in on the president’s state of mind. Kara and Maggie talk about the startling scale of disinformation coming out of the White House, Trump’s ambivalent relationship to Supreme Court rulings and democra...
Last year, AI and machine learning startups raked in about half of all VC funding in North America. And so far this year, AI is still leading the pack. But a huge chunk of the money in the Q1 — $40 billion — went to one player: OpenAI. So is there still room for smaller, more focused startups in the AI gold rush? Or will it be a case of “winner takes all?” In this live conversation at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center's inaugural Discovery Series, Kara speaks with Gary Rivlin, author...
Few technological advances have made the kind of splash –– and had the potential long-term impact –– that ChatGPT did in November 2022. It made a nonprofit called OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, household names around the world. Today, ChatGPT is still the world’s most popular AI Chatbot; OpenAI recently closed a $40 billion funding deal, the largest private tech deal on record. But who is Sam Altman? And was it inevitable that OpenAI would become such a huge player in the AI space? Kara speaks ...
Barry Diller’s fingerprints are all over pop culture. From inventing the Movie of the Week and pioneering the television mini-series to launching the FOX broadcast network, redefining home shopping channels, and popularizing dating apps — Diller has had a hand in shaping the American experience for decades. His memoir, Who Knew , takes readers from his difficult childhood through his meteoric rise in Hollywood and finally, his reinvention as a groundbreaking internet entrepreneur. And although m...
