On with Kara Swisher

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Episodes

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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.

Episodes

Why Ben Stiller Made Severance (and Doesn’t Care about What Elon Says About Him)

Ben Stiller knew he needed to make Severance the moment he read an early version of the show in a writing sample its creator, Dan Erickson, submitted to his production company. Now, years later, Severance is a hit, reportedly generating $200 million for Apple TV, and Stiller is the series executive producer and go-to director responsible for some of its most pivotal episodes. Kara talks to Stiller about the most poignant themes of the show, from its commentary on surveillance and technology to i...

Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast

Trump’s J6 Pardons, the Militia Movement, and the Border

President Trumps executive action granting clemency to all of the January 6th insurrectionists violent and non-violent alike has been met with concern by legal experts and people who have been studying and reporting on militia groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys for years. Kara speaks with Dr. Amy Cooter, director of research at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and author of Nostalgia, Nationalism and the US...

Jan 30, 2025•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast

Social Media’s Original Gatekeepers On Moderation’s Rise And Fall

Since the inception of social media, content moderation has been hotly debated by CEOs, politicians, and, of course, among the gatekeepers themselves: the trust and safety officers. And its been a roller coaster ride from an early hands-off approach, to bans and oversight boards, to the current rollback and community notes were seeing from big guns like Meta, X, and YouTube. So how do the folks who wrote the early rules of the road look at whats happening now in content moderation? And what impa...

Jan 27, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast