Vox Media

On with Kara Swisher

Society EN ↓ 407 episodes

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. 

Author

Vox Media

Category

Society

Podcast website

nymag.com

Latest episode

Jul 9, 2026

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Episodes

Peering into the Future with Tony Fadell 05.01.2023

Less screen time: it’s on everyone’s list of new year’s resolutions — or, at least, it’s on ours! Today, Kara and Nayeema discuss the addictiveness of tech and social media, before Kara dives into a conversation about the present and future of tech with a person who’s been around Silicon Valley for decades: engineer and designer Tony Fadell. The “father of the iPod,” as he’s known, helped bring th...

Love, Life & Other Advice from Kara and Nayeema 29.12.2022

For our final episode of 2022, Kara and Nayeema unabashedly dish out advice and answer questions you sent in (and some you didn’t). They tackle dating woes, difficult family dynamics, salary negotiations, choosing between career and travel and even give … fashion tips? In addition to listener questions, we hear from past guests and friends, including Kathy Griffin, John King, Rick Wilson, Mike Bir...

The Legacy of Steve Jobs 26.12.2022

We're sharing Kara’s September 2022 conversation with Tim Cook, Sir Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs on the life and legacy of Steve Jobs. It’s one of Kara’s favorite conversations of the year, and one in which she cried (though she denies it). Kara handpicked this trio to join her for her final Code interview. Cook, the CEO of Apple, worked with Jobs for decades and succeeded him as CEO. Ive, now...

Casey Newton, Kara & Nayeema Talk Tech 22.12.2022

From the high speed train wreck that is Twitter 2.0, to the extradition of a fallen crypto kingpin and AI that can rewrite your dating profile, there’s a lot happening in tech right now. Nayeema Raza moderates a conversation with Kara Swisher and Casey Newton, the founder and editor of Platformer. They break down the biggest stories of 2022 and look at what lies ahead in 2023. Will there be less b...

Piers Morgan On Murdoch, Musk and – yes – Meghan Markle 19.12.2022

What’s more toxic: Tabloids or Twitter? Piers Morgan may know – the outsized personality has been an outsized influence in both spheres for decades, since his start as show business editor at Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun.  In this interview, Morgan discusses his rise – and stumbles – and the return to Murdochland, where he now hosts the Fox Nation show, “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” We tackle characters...

Fox News, Dominion — oh, and Donald Trump 15.12.2022

What’s one way to stop misinformation? It might just be a giant defamation lawsuit. This week, media titan Rupert Murdoch was deposed in a $1.6 billion suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News and Fox Corporation. They allege Fox knowingly and maliciously aired baseless claims accusing Dominion of an election fraud conspiracy. Somewhat surprisingly, instead of settling out of court...

Aging, Death and Other Uplifting Topics with Mike Birbiglia 12.12.2022

Aging, parenting by mortality and dying alone or kinless: these are just some of the uplifting topics Kara and Nayeema tackle today before our interview with Mike Birbiglia. The comedian and writer is deep in his latest Broadway show, “The Old Man and the Pool,” which doesn’t shy away from such heavy topics either. Birbiglia and Kara discuss mortality, parenthood, their last words and finding come...

A Bad Week for Donald Trump? … And Potentially for Gay Marriage? 08.12.2022

It’s been a bad week for Donald Trump. Herschel Walker lost the Georgia Senate runoff and a New York jury found the Trump Organization guilty of criminal tax fraud. But the former President (and current presidential candidate) still has something to look forward to: a busy conservative Supreme Court which has three Trump-appointed justices. Today, Kara and Nayeema discuss two of the cases the cour...

The Man Behind "Sex and the City" and "Emily in Paris" 05.12.2022

Love them or hate them, chances are that you’ve watched at least one Darren Star series. Kara once called them the “hottest trash on TV” but for over 30 years she has devoured shows that Star has created and executive produced, including “Sex and the City,” “Beverly Hills 90210” “Melrose Place,” “Uncoupled” and — most recently — the Netflix hit “Emily in Paris.” In this conversation, Kara and Darr...

Why Twitter’s Former Safety Chief Left Elon Musk 01.12.2022

Elon Musk's Twitter is a spectacle, and the drama and meaning of the last six months is perhaps best unpacked by Yoel Roth. The company’s former head of trust and safety survived the early flood of firings and resignations — in fact, he was ascendant, in the early days of this new Twitter, and he became the face Musk presented to advertisers. Kara asks Roth whether he felt “used” by Musk and why —...

A Nobel Prize Winner on the “Dark Matter of Biology” 28.11.2022

Kara interviews Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi, a Stanford University scientist who, along with Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry earlier this year for developing bioorthogonal chemistry and click chemistry. Bertozzi explains what bioorthogonal chemistry actually is before breaking down how identifying different sugars in the body — which she calls “the dark matter of bi...

Into It: A Portrait of Artist as Taylor Swift 24.11.2022

Today, we’re sharing a special episode of Into It: A Vulture Podcast with Sam Sanders about one of Kara’s favorites: Taylor Swift. What is the meaning of Taylor Swift? She's performed damsel in distress, but represents women’s empowerment. She’s a confessional artist, but is careful about how much she reveals. She's an adult, but is often still viewed as the teenager she used to be. On the eve of...

Where’s the Line in Comedy? Monty Python’s Eric Idle Has an Idea 21.11.2022

Should anything be off-limits in comedy? Kara and Nayeema discuss this question, and the recent Dave Chappelle SNL monologue, before Kara’s interview with our guest today: writer-comedian Eric Idle who is an OG in the craft. When he and his fellow sketch artists launched Monty Python on the BBC in 1969, it was unclear whether anyone would even watch. Now there are generations of Python fans. Today...

Can Chris Licht Turn CNN Around? 17.11.2022

Chris Licht faces an uphill battle at CNN. He got the CEO gig in the midst of a prickly merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery and right after the shocking exit of beloved long-time boss, Jeff Zucker. In his first six months, he’s shut down CNN+, ousted Brian Stelter, and shuffled anchors around, including Don Lemon and Jake Tapper. This week, the network chief held an internal town hall meetin...

Elon Musk: Somebody That I Used to Know 14.11.2022

Elon Musk is a puzzle, but if there’s anyone who can make sense of him it’s Kara Swisher. She’s covered him since the late 90s – back in her early days as a beat reporter at the Wall Street Journal and she’s had many in-depth interviews and exchanges with the tech titan since, perhaps more than any other reporter. She’s also covered Elon’s latest fiefdom, Twitter, before it even was Twitter. So to...

How Donald Trump Helped the Democrats 10.11.2022

After Kara and Nayeema have a chat about — what else? — Elon Musk’s latest moves, we dive into democracy and the midterms. The results are (mostly) in, and the “red wave” that Republicans predicted never came. To understand why, Kara gets deep into political reporting in three key swing states: Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Our guests are three veteran journalists who know their respective st...

How John King Gets Ready for Election Night 07.11.2022

Kara is nervous about the elections — and she should be, control of the House and of the Senate is up for grabs, as are 36 governorships. She and Nayeema discuss the big day ahead, and specifically how social media and misinformation may sway results. They then turn to our guest today — the man who will be sharing those results with us, at least on CNN. John King and Kara talk about how he prepare...

Kara on Elon and John Legend on Kanye (and More!) 03.11.2022

Kara and Nayeema kick off this Thursday’s episode with a feisty discussion about Elon Musk’s Twitter and how he’s “kicking the most active users in the teeth.” They give us the run-down inside Elon’s band of merry advisors and Nayeema gets to the heart of why exactly Kara is so angry with Elon … and so sad. Today’s interview is with John Legend, the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning artist (aka...

Matt Levine on Elon Musk: Chief Twit & “Meme Lord” 31.10.2022

The Twitter deal is done, and Elon Musk is now, officially, “Chief Twit.” Bloomberg Opinion columnist and “MoneyStuff” writer, Matt Levine, has been analyzing the deal (and the drama) over the past seven months. Now, Matt and Kara consider what the future of the social media platform might look like under Musk. They discuss whether Elon’s seemingly genuine belief in the utility of Twitter, paired...

Frank Luntz, Rick Wilson and Sarah Longwell on Donald Trump and the Midterms 27.10.2022

Election Day is less than two weeks away, and Republicans are poised for some major midterm gains. So today, Kara talks to three Republican strategists about midterm predictions and the effect that Donald Trump is having on these elections. Our guests are veteran pollster Frank Luntz, Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, and Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell. All three are long-time Republican o...

Twitter Spaces On: WTF is Happening in the UK and the World 25.10.2022

Today, we’re sharing a bonus episode of Kara’s Twitter Spaces conversation recorded on Monday night. In the first part of the conversation, Kara talks to Jonathan Freedland, a British journalist and columnist for The Guardian, about the fall of Liz Truss, the rise of Rishi Sunak and the role of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in U.K. politics.  In the second part of the episode, Kara and Freedland a...

The Economy Stinks, and Dr. Doom is Not Hopeful 24.10.2022

Nouriel Roubini, a.ka. "Dr. Doom," became famous for predicting the 2008 global financial crisis. Now, he is back with another grim forecast, in his new book, "MegaThreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them." He and Kara discuss the book, his prediction that we’re headed towards a stagflationary debt crisis, and US-China relations. Dr. Roubini also explains why...

Airbnb’s CEO on Nomadic Life, Loneliness… and Cleaning Fees 20.10.2022

Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky took the company public, laid off 25% of its staff and navigated worker demands for flexibility – all during the pandemic. Oh, and his mom moved in (and made him quiche every day). In this conversation with Kara, Brian discusses the challenge of being professionally successful and, sometimes, personally lonely. They talk about how the pandemic may have perman...

Twitter Spaces On: Elon, Elon, Elon … and Trump 19.10.2022

Today, we’re sharing a bonus episode of Kara’s Twitter Spaces conversation that was taped on Monday night. She’s joined by William Cohan, journalist and founding partner of Puck, and Scott Galloway, business professor and co-host of the Pivot podcast. Nayeema pops in with a question at the end — and you can too, if you join our next Twitter Spaces.  Follow us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema t...

The Billionaire Who Took America Online 17.10.2022

Kara and Steve Case go back — way back, to the 1990s. She was a young Washington Post reporter covering a new thing called “the Internet” … and he was a co-founder of the company that became AOL. In this conversation, they take a walk back through time to look at how far the world has come and where tech companies have stumbled or fallen flat. They discuss Case’s new book, “Rise of the Rest,” whic...

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