Joanna Stern is not a robot, but she lived with them

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Business, Technology

4.2 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My guest today is longtime friend of the show Joanna Stern. You all know Joanna: she is the former senior personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, a former Decoder guest host, one of my co-founders at The Verge, and also just one of my very closest friends. Joanna just left that lofty perch at the Journal to start her own media company called New Things, and she’s starting with her new book about AI called I Am Not a Robot, which is out this week on May 12th. So we had Joanna on to talk about all of that, especially what she learned going all in on automation. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: I Am Not a Robot | Harper Collins It’s time. Meet my New Thing | Joanna Stern Why I left My prestigious job to make YouTube videos | Joanna Stern / YouTube Signing off from this column after 12 years. Here’s what’s changed in tech | WSJ I tried the robot that’s coming to live with you. It’s still par human | WSJ The people do not yearn for automation | Decoder Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:18.6	Hello and welcome to Decoder. I'm Nealai Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems.
1:24.5	Today I'm talking to longtime friend of the show Joanna Stern.
1:48.4	You all know Joanna. She's the former senior personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, a former Decoder guest host, one of my co-founders here at The Verge, and also just one of my very closest friends. I mentioned all that because Joanna just left that lofty perch at the journal to start her own media company called New Things. She's also got a new book out about AI called I'm Not a Robot, which is out this week on May 12th.
1:54.3	You'll hear us reference the fact that she and I have been talking about her big move to go independent for ages now.
1:57.3	It's something she's wanted to do and wrestled with for years.
2:00.9	And she has a long list of interesting reasons about why now is the time.
2:06.0	And also about how she structured her adventure in partnership with NBC, to keep her in front of a big mainstream audience. It was also important that I proved to Joanna that I actually
	...

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