On with Kara Swisher

Latest Episodes:

Walter Isaacson Is Writing the Book (Literally) on Elon Musk Mar 13, 2023

Show notes

Does Kara ever get sick of talking about Elon Musk? That’s a question Nayeema asks today, and they both agree: as exhausting as he can be, Elon is a defining force in business, media and innovation. So today we turn to the titan’s biographer: Walter Isaacson. He’s written the book on everyone from Leonardo da Vinci to Steve Jobs, and is now deep in the Elon Files.

Taped in front of a live audience at the New Orleans Book Festival, Kara and Isaacson discuss whether Elon is driven primarily by narcissism or mission (aka the “prick to productivity ratio”), how Elon does and doesn’t compare to Steve Jobs, and how Isaacson approaches his job as a biographer of some of the world's biggest personalities, both alive and dead.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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Jamie Lee Curtis and Donna Langley Take Us Inside Hollywood Mar 09, 2023

Show notes

Today, Kara sits down with Jamie Lee Curtis, who’s nominated for her first Oscar for “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, and Donna Langley, the Universal Film Studio head who greenlit “Cocaine Bear.” Taped in front of a live audience at the Upfront Summit, the trio talks about why the revival of the “Halloween” series became such a box office hit – and how it’s led to a whole new chapter in Curtis’s career. Before the interview, Kara and Nayeema share their Oscar predictions and stay tuned for the end to find out what not-so-funny joke that Chris Wallace played on Kara (no, not that Chris Wallace).

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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Marc Benioff’s Toughest Conversation with Kara Swisher Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

Kara has interviewed Salesforce CEO and co-founder Marc Benioff many times but he says she'd never been as prepared to grill him as she was this time. It’s a showdown between a savvy CEO who is deft at turning the tables…and an interviewer who is unafraid to pin him down. Taped in front of a live audience at the Upfront Summit, the two tackle whether Marc will be able to keep up the victory lap of a surprisingly strong earnings report, his succession plan, their divergent takes on a divisive Elon Musk – and why having activist investors breathing down his neck is “fun” for Benioff.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema

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Is Bing Back? with Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

Is AI going to fall in love with you? Write your term papers? Or help you plan a trip to Belize? The answer to all three is: maybe. How well it does any of those things remains to be seen, but Kara tells Nayeema the fast-developing AI will be more significant than almost anything else she's covered in tech.

To understand the it, we’re joined by Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft, who is in charge of rolling out the new, AI-powered Bing. On the agenda: how the tech works, why the launch demo was buggy, the ethical considerations of a new technology and what Bill Gates has to say about AI.

Thoughts? Questions? Email us on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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How Much Damage Did Trump Do to America’s Standing In the World? Feb 27, 2023

Show notes

A year after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and weeks after the presence of a Chinese spy balloon led U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to put off his Beijing visit, Kara and Nayeema talk about where the U.S. stands in the world and whether President Biden has the global coalition and momentum he claims. These are great questions for our guest today, Richard Haass. The foreign policy expert helms the Council on Foreign Relations and has had a long career in the Carter, Reagan and both Bush administrations as well as beyond working on intractable challenges from Northern Ireland to Iraq. Kara asks him why America’s global standing is on the decline, how Biden should deal with Xi and why his most recent book looks not to the rest of the world, but to our domestic problems.

Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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Will Killing Section 230 Kill the Internet? Feb 23, 2023

Show notes

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

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Welcome to AI Warfare Feb 20, 2023

Show notes

AI isn’t just changing search. It’s changing national security, too. Today, Kara talks to Trae’ Stephens, the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Anduril, about how the growing defense tech industry is using the power of AI and the speed of Silicon Valley to challenge “beltway bandits” like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. They discuss drones in Ukraine, the ethics of “smart walls” along the US-Mexico border and, yes, those balloons.

Thoughts? Questions? Email us on@voxmedia.com or find us Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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Ken Buck Takes On the Big Tech Boogeyman Feb 16, 2023

Show notes

Congressman Ken Buck is a Republican from Colorado who’s decided to take on “Big Tech.” He talks about his proposed TikTok ban, the uphill battle for antitrust legislation and why he’s defending Elon’s “free speech” push.

Thoughts? Questions? Email us on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter (if you can in this new, Elon-centric algorithm) @karaswisher and @nayeema

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Ruben Gallego Is Ready to Take On “Queen MAGA” Kari Lake for Kyrsten Sinema’s Seat Feb 13, 2023

Show notes

After Kara and Nayeema debrief the latest Elon drama (the Congressional hearings in which conservatives failed to prove they’d been “censored” on Twitter), we dive into our interview with Representative Ruben Gallego. The Arizona congressman is the only contender so far in the 2024 race for Kyrsten Sinema’s coveted U.S. Senate seat … though he tells Kara he’d welcome the opportunity to face “Queen MAGA” Kari Lake in the race. And he explains why he’s not worried even if Senator Sinema, who left the Democratic Party in December, runs in a three-way race.

Also, Gallego discusses some of the issues of identity politics and wedge issues that we also heard with last week’s guest Brooke Jenkins. You can listen to that episode here, if you missed it.

Thoughts? Email us on@voxmedia.com or find us Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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"Donald Trump Has Made Democrats Great" (Again) Feb 09, 2023

Show notes

We discuss Biden's State of the Union speech — and the state of the Democratic party — with three of the party's savviest strategists: Bernie Sanders’s 2020 campaign manager Faiz Shakir, former White House Communications Director (and host of The Circus) Jennifer Palmieri, and Tom Bonier, the CEO of TargetSmart.

On the agenda: how Marjorie Taylor Greene's State of the Union heckling made President Biden shine, how Democrats have rallied in response to Trump, whether the party can win the narrative and wedge-issue wars...and, of course, if Biden is running in 2024.

Tell us what you think. Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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