On with Kara Swisher

Latest Episodes:

Geraldine Brooks On the Art of Grieving and Spanning the Political Divide Mar 06, 2025

Show notes

On May 27, 2019, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, best-selling author (and Kara’s friend) Tony Horwitz was on book tour for his latest work, Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide, when he died suddenly. He left behind two sons and his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks, whose books include March and Horse.

Dealing with Tony’s death, taking time to grieve his passing and remembering their life together are at the center of Brooks’ latest memoir, Memorial Days. Brooks and Kara reminisce about Tony’s life, reflect on the challenge of grieving in a culture that is “averse to sad,” and ponder how Tony would have continued his “barstool democracy” — an attempt to span the political divide already shaking the nation — under Trump 2.0. They also discuss her latest project, a chapter in Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, edited by acclaimed author Michael Lewis, which will be released on March 18th.

This interview was recorded live at Sixth & I, a center for arts, entertainment, ideas, and Jewish life in Washington, D.C., and hosted in partnership with Politics and Prose Bookstore,

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

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Can Kara Save The Washington Post From Jeff Bezos? Mar 03, 2025

Show notes

For months, Kara has been assembling a group of investors to buy The Washington Post. Although it's not actually for sale, an ongoing exodus of journalistic talent, combined with Bezos's decision to kill an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris days before the 2024 presidential election, made it both plausible that Bezos might entertain a bid and crucial that someone step forward. Now, after watching Bezos remake the opinion section in ways that seem designed to curry favor with President Trump, the chances of persuading him to sell seem increasingly remote.

Nonetheless, Kara’s quixotic quest continues, and in this episode, she talks to some of the people she’s turned to for advice, including: Cameron Barr, a former senior managing editor at the Post who resigned in the wake of the new changes; Tina Brown, a pioneering journalist and media executive who has led multiple publications, including Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Newsweek, and The Daily Beast; Oliver Darcy, a former CNN senior media reporter and currently the founder and lead author of Status.news; Sally Quinn, the first woman to anchor a CBS News morning show, and a best-selling author, and longtime Post columnist who was married to the late Ben Bradlee, a legendary executive editor at the Post; and Amanda Katz, a writer, editor and translator who worked as a senior assignment editor for the opinion section of the Post until she resigned last year (and wife to Kara Swisher).

And make sure to watch "Becoming Katharine Graham," a new documentary about the former Post publisher's extraordinary life and journalistic courage (now streaming, ironically enough, on Amazon Prime).

CORRECTION: In the intro, Kara incorrectly stated that Jeff Bezos hired Marty Baron. In fact, Baron became the executive editor of The Washington Post in January 2013, and Bezos completed his purchase of the newspaper in October 2013. We apologize for the error.

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

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How Trump's Policies Will Shape the Stock Market with Aswath Damodaran Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

For years, Wall Street veterans have been saying that a market correction is around the corner, and last week's jitters have only intensified concerns. To find out if the party is ending sooner rather than later — and what role Trump’s policies will play — Kara talks to the Dean of Valuation, Aswath Damodaran.

Damodaran teaches corporate finance and valuation at the Stern School of Business at New York University, and he is the author of over ten books. His latest is The Corporate Life Cycle: Business, Investment, and Management Implications. He and Kara discuss valuations, DOGE, tariffs, mass deportation, and tech stocks and much more.

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

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Comedian Ronny Chieng on Political Satire, Trolling Algorithms and Cerebral Dick Jokes Feb 24, 2025

Show notes

Emmy Award-winning comedian and actor Ronny Chieng is a self-described grumpy Malaysian who get to tell it like it is to Americans as aco-host and correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

Kara talks to Ronny about creating political satire during Trump 2.0; how his law degree helps him write pithy cerebral jokes, including for his latest (third!) Netflix special, Love to Hate It; his latest acting role playing Fatty Choi in Hulu’s Interior Chinatown; and why people still think Jon Stewart is the only host of The Daily Show.

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

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Rahm Emanuel’s Tough Love Intervention for the Democratic Party Feb 20, 2025

Show notes

After a three-year stint in Japan, Ambassador Rahm Emanuel is back in the States. And now that he's freed from diplomatic constraints, Rahm is bluntly telling fellow Democrats where they went wrong in 2024 and what they need now to do to salvage the brand.

Kara and Rahm talk about Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government; how Democrats should use legal challenges and procedural tactics to block President Trump’s agenda; and how they can rebuild their reputation by pivoting thematically to issues around education, quality of life, and the American Dream. They close with a rapid-fire assessment on global hotspots: China, Ukraine, and Gaza.

This interview was recorded on Tuesday, February 18th.

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

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Oren Cass, Paul Krugman & Mariana Mazzucato on Trumponomics Feb 17, 2025

Show notes

Last week, President Trump signed a memorandum calling for reciprocal tariffs on countries that charge fees on US exports and called his 25% tariff order on all steel and aluminum imports “the beginning of making America rich again.” But is it? We turn to three brilliant economists for their takes (and disagreements) on the real impact Trumponomics will have on the U.S. economy. Kara leads a spirited and insightful conversation about industrial policy, the efficacy of Trump’s tariffs, how worried we should really be about the U.S. 's trade deficit, the odds of an AI bubble and bail out, and, of course, DOGE. Featuring:

Oren Cass, the founder and chief economist of American Compass, a conservative think tank, and a contributing opinion writer for the Financial Times and the New York Times.

Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who writes a newsletter on Substack, teaches at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and recently retired his New York Times Opinion column after writing it from 2000 to 2025.

And Mariana Mazzucato, a professor of economics at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose and author of the hugely influential book, The Entrepreneurial State.

This episode was recorded on Monday, February 10.