
54 episodes

On with Kara Swisher New York Magazine
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- News
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4.3 • 88 Ratings
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It’s On. Get to the heart of what makes powerful people tick — in interviews that have them sit back, relax and get grilled. Twice a week, Kara Swisher and her executive producer Nayeema Raza invite a guest to be “On with Kara Swisher.”
So why do newsmakers show up? “Smart people,” says Kara, “like difficult questions.” They may even find it fun.
Mondays and Thursdays from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
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Reid Hoffman Talks Trump, Thiel & AI
From AI and the recent launch of GPT-4 to behind-the-scenes pressure on Washington to resolve the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, today’s guest is in the thick of it all. Kara tells Nayeema that Reid Hoffman is “one of the good ones.” Kara has known the billionaire Greylock VC Partner since the 90s, when he was fresh off the sale of PayPal and before he co-founded LinkedIn. Today they discuss Hoffman’s donations to Biden and other Democrats, how his political views have impacted his friendships with Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, and why he is so bullish on AI.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema
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SVB, IG & AI with Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom
After a quick rundown of Kara’s Twitter feud with SVB-enthusiast David Sacks, we turn to an interview with a former Silicon Valley Bank customer: Kevin Systrom. When you found one of the most successful social media apps at 27, it’s tough to figure out where to go with Act Two. But after leaving Facebook (now Meta) in 2018, Systrom is back with an AI-powered news-reader called Artifact which has been dubbed a “Tiktok for Text.” Onstage at SXSW this weekend, as the SVB crisis was playing out, Kara and Kevin discuss his regrets about Instagram, his plans to crack the news business and what’s wrong with tech bros.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema
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Walter Isaacson Is Writing the Book (Literally) on Elon Musk
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
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
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
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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Customer Reviews
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Audie Cornish. Didn't know her but now subscribed to her podcast. Loved this episode!
The interviewer becomes the subject.
Swisher is a great interviewer. Too much of this pod is swisher being interviewed by Raza. The power imbalance between the two is palpable. Swisher as an interviewer is a high energy and smart. Swisher as a subject is low energy and smug verging on arrogant. “On” is such a sad downgrade from the spectacular “Sway”.
The star likes to say she has never feared changing. Put that talent to use Kara and kill this bad show. The final nail for me yo unfollow this show is the Meta back and forth between you a nayeema which is a bad rendition of everything you’ve said about meta and Zuckerberg before.
Great guests … let them speak
I would love to excise the phrase from Swisher’s patter: “just so you know” when a guest is talking. Great guests, great concept. Please let them speak!