From Relay, this is Upgrade, episode 612 for April 20th, 2026.

Today's show is brought to you by Delete Me, Squarespace, Steam Clock, and NerdWollet.

My name is Mike Hurley, and I'm joined by Jason Snow.

Hi, Jason Snow.

Woo!

It's 420, Mike.

You think people in Cupertino are blazing it today?

I think they might be.

All right, so let's set some context.

It's 10 p.m. on Monday night.

I am at home.

This is the first home podcast recording I've done because Tim

Cook has just announced that he is stepping down the CEO of Apple. So here's the thing. We recorded

an entire episode of Upgrade that we will still play for you today. It's a really fun episode,

but there is no way we could let this moment happen

without being here to talk about it. Exactly. We would have preferred it an hour earlier or 24 hours

later. Yes, because then I... Well, yeah, actually, either of those would have been great, but here we are. Jason, could you read from Tim's community letter that he posted to Apple.com? Yeah, so it's really interesting. Apple posted a community letter from Tim and two items which we'll get to that are in the newsroom. And Tim, there's some very nice personal stuff in the letter about how much he thinks this is the best job in the world and all those things.

But to get to the core of it here, he says, today we announced I'm taking the next step in my journey at Apple.

Over the coming months, I will be transitioning to a new role, leaving the CEO job behind in September and becoming Apple's executive chairman. A new

person will be stepping into what I know in my heart is the best job in the world. That leader is

John Ternus, a brilliant engineer and thinker who has spent the last 25 years building the Apple

products our users love so much, obsessed with every detail, focused on every possible way. We can

...