On with Kara Swisher

OpenAI CTO Mira Murati on ScarJo Controversy, Sam Altman & Disinfo Fears

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kara interviews Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI, and one of the most powerful people in tech. Murati has helped the company skyrocket ...

Abortion Politics in 2024 with Cecile Richards, former Planned Parenthood President

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Abortion will be a key issue in the election this fall and it's also the focus of two Supreme Court rulings expected later this month. This week, Kar...

AOC on Trump vs. Biden, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tech, Gaza & More

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kara sits down to talk with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The social media-savvy congresswoman from the Bronx is a member of the bipartisan...

Making Parenthood and Politics Sexy with Comedian Ilana Glazer

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Broad City co-creator Ilana Glazer’s new friendship flick Babes is a no-holds-barred comedy about pregnancy, parenthood and the losses that come wit...

Bill Maher Won't Back Down (But He Might Shock You)

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to political comedy, Bill Maher is practically an institution — he’s been hosting a late-night political talk show since 1993 (with ...

“Possible” by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger featuring Kara Swisher

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we’re sharing Kara’s recent appearance on Possible, a podcast hosted by Aria Finger and Reid Hoffman from Wonder Media Network. We’ll be ...

Are Elon’s Best Days Behind Him? with Kirsten Grind, Tim Higgins & Becky Peterson

23 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla is bleeding execs, and it appears to be reaching a crisis point; over at Twitter/X, new reporting shows that Elon uses the platform to cozy up t...

On Journalism, Activism and Hope with Nicholas Kristof

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has been reporting on protests, wars and conflicts for more than 40 years, and he’s used his platform to h...

War in Gaza, Ukraine & Space, plus Biden vs. Trump with David Ignatius

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

David Ignatius, a foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Post and the author of twelve novels, is also a noted expert on Middle East politics, o...

Walt Mossberg & MKBHD Break Down The Art of the Tech Review

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

To savvy tech consumers, Walt Mossberg and Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, need no introduction. Before he retired in 2017, Walt was the undisputed dean ...

Radical Self-Acceptance, Cancel Culture, and Forgiveness with Writer Anne Lamott

09 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Author Anne Lamott has penned novels, but is most famous for her confessional memoirs about sobriety, raising her son as a single mother (Operating In...

Can Chipotle Founder Steve Ells Strike "Fast-Casual" Gold Again?

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Thirty-one years after founding Chipotle, Steve Ells is back with what he hopes will be another fast-casual dining revolution: the highly-automated, p...

Wrestling with America’s (Racist) History with Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In her latest play, Sally & Tom, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks tackles what is, arguably, one of the most complicated and persona...

Time for a Data Privacy Bill + the TikTok Crackdown with Senator Maria Cantwell

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Kara first met Senator Maria Cantwell in the 90s, she was a tech executive at an early player in the streaming media industry called RealNetworks...

How to Prevent War with China with Dmitri Alperovitch and Chris Krebs

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kara discusses the “pacing threat” that is China – from TikTok to cyberattacks to semiconductors and Taiwan – with two cybersecurity experts: ...

Is the Fight Over Abortion Rights Enough to Beat Trump? with Shefali Luthra, Sarah McCammon and Mary Jo Pitzl

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Despite a recent uptick, President Biden’s approval rating and his poll numbers against Donald Trump are far from stellar. And with inflation remain...

Kids and Phones: Moral Panic or Time to Panic? with Jonathan Haidt

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is Gen Z’s mental health in decline because their “phone-based childhood” has flooded them with anxiety and ruined their sleep? Or is there a mo...

Can Yahoo Bring Back the "Good Internet"?

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Yahoo, the one-time "oracle of the internet", has had many iterations in its 30 year history - and private equity is betting that Yahoo CEO and digita...

Will Disinformation Doom Our Democracy? with Nina Jankowicz, Sasha Issenberg & Barbara McQuade

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“Flood the zone with shit.” It’s a zinger and a strategic imperative, from the oh-so-eloquent Steve Bannon, being expertly executed by Donald ...

Lessons Learned From Hitler’s Rise To Power

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There are a lot of Trump/Hitler comparisons being thrown around these days. So we went to the source, as chronicled by historian Timothy Ryback in his...

Can Food Save The World? with Joan Nathan

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Joan Nathan, the “doyenne of Jewish-American food” and a pillar of the DC dinner party scene, joins us to talk about her memoir, “My Life in Rec...

"Food, Feminism, and Fury" with Geraldine DeRuiter

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Author Geraldine DeRuiter a.k.a. The Everywhereist joins Kara to talk about her new book If You Can’t Take the Heat: Tales of Food, Feminism, and Fu...

Life Lessons from Tech Titans (Kara in conversation with Brené Brown)

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kara sits down with Brené Brown, researcher, author, and vulnerability expert, in this edition of the Burn Book book tour. Brené tries to bring out ...

Much Ado About TikTok

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The effort to ban TikTok in the US is back in the spotlight as a new bill has passed through the House and is now in the Senate. Today, we have a live...

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on the IPO

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Reddit has been around for 19 years, but today the social media platform goes public and starts a new chapter. Its listing on the New York Stock E...

Margrethe Vestager Shows Tech Gatekeepers The Door

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For the past decade, the European Commission has taken on Big Tech under the leadership of Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, inspiring fear...

"Burn Book" Takes SxSW, with "Mensch" Mark Cuban

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're continuing book tour week in this bonus episode of “On.” Kara takes the SXSW stage with Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur turned "Shark Tank" sta...

More Burn Book with Ted Sarandos

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We continue Kara's tour of her memoir Burn Book: a Tech Love Story as she gets candid with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos about the nonsensical nature of...

How did Kara Scoop OpenAI, and More on Burn Book (with Sam Altman)

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we join Kara on tour as she speaks with some of the most influential names in tech about her memoir Burn Book: a Tech Love Story. Today's s...

Why Reed Jobs is Betting on Cancer Innovations

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In high school, Reed Jobs was a summer intern in oncology labs while his dad, the late Apple co-founder and tech icon Steve Jobs, was battling pancrea...

David Chalian Makes the Call

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday - the nation's biggest primary vote - and hundreds of delegates are up for grabs. But what impact do primaries have when the...

The Burn Book Kick-Off with Don Lemon

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week marks the release of Kara’s memoir, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story and the launch of her national book tour. At events from New York to Seat...

Roberta Kaplan Will See You In Court

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Renowned litigator Roberta (Robbie) Kaplan says she’s a born fighter. In January she won one of those fights when a jury ordered Donald Trump to pay...

Paul Giamatti Is Good With Words

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Actor Paul Giamatti seems to have perfected the hyper-articulate, slightly depressed curmudgeon – and this year, it might land him an Oscar. Kara an...

Brooke Shields on Surviving Hollywood

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we’re replaying a conversation that Kara taped last spring with none other than Brooke Shields. Shields became a teenage superstar through he...

Cord Jefferson on Making American Fiction

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and director Cord Jefferson’s first feature film, American Fiction, has been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Adapt...

Tracy Chapman's Timeless Earworms

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More than 35 years after its release, Tracy Chapman’s eponymous debut album – and the single Fast Car – hit #1 on the charts last week, fueled b...

Ambassador Rahm Emanuel on the New Japan, Contending With China, and Biden’s Calm

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rahm Emanuel is the ultimate political insider: He’s worked closely with three presidents, he’s been mayor of the nation’s third largest city (C...

Is the Apple Vision Pro All That?

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kara got a sneak peek of the Apple Vision Pro, and sat down before the official launch with tech reporters Joanna Stern, Nilay Patel and Mark Gurman t...

How Ava DuVernay Made a Hit with ‘Origin,’ and Without Big Studio Backing

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, our guest is acclaimed director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay, known for the Oscar-nominated films “Selma” and “13th.” Her latest film ...

Judy Woodruff on Polarization, Politics, and the Media

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How does someone with more than five decades of political reporting under her belt assess the current state of the union? For the past year, former PB...

PA Governor Josh Shapiro’s “Get Sh*t Done” Attitude

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, Josh Shapiro successfully defended the state election process in 2020 against suits brought by former President ...

Hope for American Democracy, According to Heather Cox Richardson

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump is an American figure decades in the making. That’s the argument historian and professor Heather Cox Richardson makes in her latest boo...

Psychedelics with Joe Green

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From therapeutic-assisted MDMA to decriminalized psilocybin and microdosing, movements to legalize psychedelics are everywhere. California-based Joe G...

Fei-Fei Li and a Humane Approach to AI

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Before the OpenAI Drama which pit AI enthusiasts (accelerationists) against doomers (decelerationists) we had a conversation with Stanford computer sc...

A Close Read of Trump’s 2024 Strategy

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump’s back. Today, we go to a panel of experts to discuss his 2024 legal woes, dangerously escalating rhetoric, and what he might do if he retakes...

COVID Lessons Learned with Donald G McNeil Jr.

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Four years after the start of the global pandemic, COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency, but in the U.S., every week, the virus is still ho...

OpenAI Drama to Trump to Elon Musk: What It Means for 2024

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kara and Nayeema look forward to the characters and moments that may define 2024 by looking back at the coverage of the last year. We unpack the drama...

Stay Tuned with Preet: The Many Lies of George Santos

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On is off for the holidays, so today we have an episode of friend-of-the-pod Preet Bharara's podcast Stay Tuned with Preet. In this episode, Preet is ...

The Man Taunting Mike Johnson, Ron DeSantis and George Santos

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Randy Rainbow is a four-time Emmy and Grammy-nominated musical comedy sensation famous for his viral taunts of anti-LGBTQ+ politicians, hateful celebr...

Will Big Bets to Solve Climate Change Pay Off? With Rajiv Shah

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are world hunger, pandemics and climate change “fixable” – or is mitigating their impacts the best we can hope for? Is there any point in making...

God, Money and Trump with Tim Alberta

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Alberta is a fantastic reporter whose profiles of 2024 hopeful Nikki Haley and former CNN boss Chris Licht proved illuminating and impactful (Lich...

Mark Esper on Gaza, Iran, China and (of course) Trump

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper details the threats and dangers we face. On the agenda: hot wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, a cold war wit...

Is Liz Cheney the GOP Cassandra?

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney is on a mission to defeat Donald Trump - and says she’ll do “whatever it takes” to prevent him and his “...

Washington’s Top China Hawk Talks TikTok, Taiwan & Trump

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin is on a mission to raise the alarm bell on the Chinese Communist Party and rethink America’s approach to China. As ...

Martina Navratilova on Transgender Athletes, Pay Equity and Trump

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova is no stranger to controversy. But the battle she’s picked these days, which has pit her against inclusion of tran...

Olympian Caster Semenya on Fighting to Run

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Who gets to compete as a woman? And who decides whether someone is “woman enough”? When it comes to South African runner Caster Semenya, it could ...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on the OpenAI Debacle

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the swirl of drama around Sam Altman’s exit from OpenAI, one company seems to be the winner: Microsoft. It has both a significant partnership wit...

The Fox News ‘Lying Tax,’ Tucker and More with Brian Stelter

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why did Fox News knowingly air unhinged conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic and then fire Tucker Carlson, its most popula...

Dan Doctoroff on Living with ALS and Building the Future

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Doctoroff had a storied career as Deputy Mayor of New York City during the first two Bloomberg administrations. In six years, Doctoroff helped reb...

Adam Grant on Your Potential, Gen Z and — oops — Elon

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are tech bros successful because of some innate talent, or could any of us be like them? Organizational psychologist and Wharton School professor Adam...

Can Mike Johnson Survive As House Speaker?

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After three incredibly chaotic weeks, the House Republican Conference elected a relatively unknown (and startlingly retrograde) Louisiana congressman,...

The Twitter Fantasy from Land of the Giants

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we’re playing you an episode of Land of the Giants that takes a walk down memory lane to the early days of Twitter and how the platform became...

How Elon Broke Twitter — and Twitter Broke Elon — with Ben Mezrich

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What does a dramatic narrative nonfiction account of a dramatic tech CEO look like? To find out, we turn to Ben Mezrich, the author whose books have b...

Uber’s Profit, Power and Problems with CEO Dara K

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Uber: hard to live with it, or without it. In this episode Kara grills CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on the company’s sky-high prices, high take rate, treat...

Alexis Ohanian and Deb Roy on Big Tech’s Effects on Democracy

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Democracy is challenged, at home and abroad, and at least some of this blame falls on “Big Tech.” Kara talks to Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder ...

The Fog of War: Navigating Disinformation Now

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Social media has been inundated with disinformation about the Israel-Hamas war — from a flood of graphic visual content, to unsubstantiated claims a...

Christiane Amanpour on Covering This War

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the fog of war, we’re joined by CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour. She’s covered the Middle East for decades and brings her si...

Why Fei-Fei Li is Still Hopeful About AI (… and Elon)

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What are the most immediate, and potentially catastrophic, risks posed by AI? According to pioneering AI researcher, Dr. Fei-Fei Li, they include disi...

The Politics of Disagreement with Steve Inskeep

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a time of a divided House (and divided GOP) — not to mention polarized social media — how can you engage through disagreement? Abraham Lincoln ...

Martha, Martha, Martha (ICYMI)

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we’re replaying you a summer episode where Kara and Nayeema took a field trip to Martha Stewart’s 156-acre estate for an interview with the ...

Jon Lovett Talks Trump, Biden & the Podcasting Biz

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After Kara and Nayeema discuss the defenestration of Kevin McCarthy, we turn to podcaster and political savant Jon Lovett of Crooked Media fame. Kara ...

Do Never Trumpers Matter? We Asked Adam Kinzinger

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After Kara and Nayeema discuss Dianne Feinstein’s death and her legacy as a leader, we turn to Kara's interview with Adam Kinzinger. The former Repu...

The Yoel Roth-Linda Yaccarino Showdown

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Wednesday, two Twitter-related interviews rocked the stage at the 2023 Code Conference. Kara interviewed the former head of trust and safety at Twi...

Sheila Johnson Talks BET, Entrepreneurship and Why She Doesn’t Love Being Called “America’s First Black Female Billionaire”

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sheila Johnson is best known for co-founding BET, a network she launched with her ex-husband, Bob Johnson, and which they eventually sold to Viacom fo...

Is Biden the Best Democrats Can Do?

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Biden’s poll numbers are atrocious, and in recent columns from The Washington Post to The New York Times and The National Journal, the punditocracy ...

The Walter Isaacson-Kara Swisher Showdown

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Walter Isaacson and Kara are friends — but that doesn’t mean she’s going to go easy on him as they discuss Isaacson’s new hit biography: Elon ...

How Twitter Took Alex Edelman to IRL White Supremacists

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A Jewish comedian walks into an apartment in Queens to meet a group of white supremacists … This isn’t the setup to a bad joke — it’s the inc...

Conan O'Brien Talks to His Accountant

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Late-night legend and podcasting impresario Conan O’Brien joins Kara to talk about the decline of late night, the writers’ strike, his $150 millio...

What Naomi Klein Found Down the Steve Bannon Rabbit Hole

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For years, Naomi Klein has had a problem: the author and Guardian columnist has been chronically confused with Naomi Wolf, a conspiracy theorist and f...

Elon Musk: Somebody That I Used to Know

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This Labor Day, we are re airing a fan-favorite episode about, who else, Elon Musk and Kara Swisher. Nayeema interviews Kara — who’s covered Musk ...

Barry Diller on Biden, AI and the Hollywood Shutdown

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Billionaire mogul and power broker Barry Diller doesn’t hold back (at all) as he takes us inside Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood. The legen...

WTF Can We Do About Deadly Wildfires?

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the tragedy in Hawaii — which has left at least 115 dead, and over a thousand more missing, making it the deadliest blaze in the last century o...

Why We Can’t Quit Elon with Ronan Farrow & William Cohan

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We’re talking about Elon – again – but this time we're looking at the big picture: the tech titan’s “unprecedented power” over our the fed...

Ron DeSantis Won’t Stop Imani Rupert Gordon

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today after Kara and Nayeema take a quick walk down Rudy Giuliani memory lane, we turn to our guest: Imani Rupert-Gordon, Executive Director of the Na...

Big Companies Are Scared of These Lawyers

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kara and Nayeema are back with a fresh episode, and this time they’re tackling the DOJ’s antitrust efforts. Our guests are Jonathan Kanter, Assist...

Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel: Friendship — My Reliable Gift

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we’re sharing an episode of Where Should We Begin?, a Vox Media podcast hosted by the iconic psychotherapist Esther Perel. Listen in as real ...

Aging, Death and other Uplifting Topics with Mike Birbiglia

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we’re re-airing one of Blakeney Schick’s favorite episodes: an interview with her former yoga student, comedian and writer, Mike Birbiglia....

Esther Perel on Grief — In Memory of Blakeney Schick

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kara & Nayeema are joined by Esther Perel in a tribute to our colleague and friend, senior producer Blakeney Schick, and a conversation about how to l...

Is Chris Christie Really the Anti-Trump?

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we turn to Chris Christie. The former governor of New Jersey and Trump sidekick is running to be president (again). His most avid supporters? F...

Vinod Khosla’s View of the Future, From AI to China

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After Kara and Nayeema discuss Senators Warren and Graham’s unlikely alliance on tech regulation, we turn to today’s guest: longtime venture capit...

Barbie & Oppenheimer & Strikes, Oh My

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hollywood is still shut down by its historic dual strike, but this weekend the industry saw its most explosive box office numbers of the year. So far,...

The Rewards of Stepping Out of Line: A Commencement Address from Kara

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This May, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art invited Kara to deliver its commencement address. Today, we’d like to share her sp...

Fran Drescher on the SAG Strike and Hollywood’s "Fat Cats”

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today, a conversation with one of the most impassioned leaders of Hollywood’s historic double strike: Fran Drescher, star of The Nanny turned SAG-AF...

The Crypto Founder Who Won a “Landmark Victory” Against the SEC

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hollywood may be shut down, but one industry seems to be enjoying a surprising upswing: crypto. Kara interviewed Ripple co-founder and Executive Chair...

The Fox News Love Triangle: Tucker, Murdoch and Trump

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fox News and social media are two arenas that will define the next presidential race. Today, after Kara and Nayeema discuss the implications of the re...

Jake Tapper on Trust, Trump and CNN

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When political spectacles abound, how can the media focus on the substance and avoid the clickbait? And is there a market left for nonpartisan cable n...

Oliver Stone on Nuclear Energy, Putin and the Path to Conspiracies

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After a quick rundown of the summer’s hottest films, Nayeema and Kara turn to our guest today: acclaimed (and controversial) filmmaker Oliver Stone....

Mark Zuckerberg: Oops! I Did It Again (Again)

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After a review of the last 6 months of “Meta” a.k.a. Facebook (including a looming Elon-Zuck cage fight and the VR hit from the Apple Vision Pro),...

Sarah Jessica Parker Talks Show Business, Shoe Business and More Business

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After Kara and Nayeema debate the future of Hollywood (including the ongoing WGA strike and the soon expiring deal between SAG-AFTRA and the studios),...