Kara Swisher gives a master class on reporting and interviewing

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.5 • 11.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2017

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before I launched this podcast, I asked Kara Swisher to coffee. Swisher founded the technology news site Recode, hosts the excellent Recode Decode podcast, and runs a legendary conference series. She is among the best interviewers working today. Some of her gets — including the first and only dual interview of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates — have passed nearly into myth. I've used the advice Swisher gave me in every episode of this podcast. But in this conversation, she goes further, offering her tips both for interviewing and reporting. If you want to be a journalist, or you just want to talk to people, you should listen to this. Swisher is also an excellent, hilarious storyteller who has lived an incredible, strange life. You really, really don't want to miss the story of how she became part of a sexual harassment lawsuit against John McLaughlin, and why he thanked her for stabbing him "in the front." You also don't want to miss:-The alternative life she might have led as a CIA analyst-Why she thinks journalism school is a waste of time and what she advises people to do instead-The importance of staying in touch with sources when you're not writing about them-Her thoughts on relative friendliness of reporters and sources on politics versus tech beats-Her advice about interviewing -Why she wants to run for mayor of San Francisco, and what she'd want to do as mayor-What aspects of Trump appeal to her-Why she thinks social media’s bad for the world and probably won’t get betterThis is one of the funnest conversations I've had on this podcast, and it's also perhaps the most useful. Enjoy it. Books:-The Woman at the Washington Zoo by Marjorie Williams-Barbarians at the Gate by John Helyar and Bryan Burrough-Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow-Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies-The audiobook of Hilbilly Elegy by JD Vance -Megyn Kelly’s Settle For More-Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal-When Air Becomes Breath by Paul Kalanithi-A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engel-The Time Machine by Jules Verne-Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel-Time and Again by Jack Finney Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast contains explicit language.
0:16.5	Hello, welcome to another episode of The Asher Client Show. This is a great episode.
0:20.4	Cara Swisher is here. She is the founder of Recode. She is the host of the awesome podcast
0:25.8	Recode Decode. She is herself one of, if not the best interviewer in the game. And she drops a ton
0:32.4	of wisdom in this discussion. I do this at least somewhat professionally and I learned an
0:37.2	enormous amount. Cara is actually one of the people who before I began this podcast, I went to
0:41.1	for advice. We talk about that advice, which I have thought about a lot since she really in this
0:46.8	discussion, I think gives a masterclass in reporting, in interviewing, in thinking about media,
0:51.5	thinking about the business side of media too. And she also is just a badass storyteller. The story
0:58.5	she tells in here from being part of a sexual harassment claim against John McLaughlin,
1:02.4	to why she left DC, to what she told the president Obama before interviewing him so she can maximize
1:07.6	her time. It is just great. It's a great conversation. I enjoyed it tremendously. I really think
1:13.5	you will too. And I think you'll learn a lot. I definitely learned a lot. As always, a couple
1:19.1	of quick requests. Please share the show on social media, on email, tell your friends. It is how we
1:23.6	grow. It is always much appreciated. Please rate us on iTunes. I always enjoy reading those.
1:28.7	Number two, check out my other podcast, The Weeds with Madaglacedis and Sarah Cliff. We are going
1:33.4	deep into policy. And right now there is a ton of policy to go deep into so you will want to be
1:38.4	checking that out. And finally, as always, please send your guest ideas to me at Ezra Klein Show
1:44.1	at box.com. A quick request to there. Something I'm always trying to do on this show and have not
1:50.3	always done as good a job as I should have is make sure we have a diverse guest list across a lot of
1:55.3	dimensions, but particularly on gender and race. I care about that a lot. One thing that I notice
2:00.9	sometimes is that the suggestions I get are overwhelmingly white men. Nothing wrong with that. I am a
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