Winners, Losers & WTF Moments: A Look Back at 2025’s Top Tech Stories

On with Kara Swisher

New York Magazine

Society & Culture

4.2 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From an unenforced TikTok ban and a chatbot calling itself MechaHitler to mounting fears that we’re in an AI bubble, 2025 was another messy year for the tech industry. We watched billionaire CEOs fully align themselves with President Trump, Nvidia become the first $5 trillion company, and Elon Musk’s popularity tank, thanks to his DOGE antics (and yet he could still become the world’s first trillionaire). Kara breaks down the biggest tech stories of 2025 with four journalists: Bill Cohan, a longtime financial journalist, author, and Puck co-founder who covers Wall Street; Casey Newton, founder and editor of the tech newsletter Platformer and host of The New York Times podcast “Hard Fork”; Joanna Stern, senior personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal and author of a forthcoming book about how she surrendered her life to A.I. for a year; and Charlie Warzel, staff writer at The Atlantic and host of the tech and culture podcast “Galaxy Brain.” (Please note, this conversation was recorded before news broke that TikTok had signed a deal to spin off its U.S. business to a group of American investors, the Justice Department released a trove of documents tied to investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, and Waymo halted service in San Francisco because of power outages in the area.) Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I am the only one among us probably that has done it. I mean, I'm not sure.
0:03.1	How did it go?
0:03.9	I had it on camera. I hated it. It made you feel isolated and alone and paranoid, and I understand him.
0:08.8	You did it on camera?
0:10.0	Yeah.
0:25.4	Hi, everyone from the New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
0:28.0	This is on with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher.
0:31.0	2025 was dominated by stories about tech.
0:35.2	We watched the industry's billionaire CEOs align themselves with President Donald Trump.
0:40.1	Chinese AI firm DeepSeek released what looked like a major threat to U.S. competitors,
0:44.6	and the Trump administration helped TikTok skirt a national ban on the app store,
0:46.7	and that was just January.
0:51.3	So we got four journalists with us today to talk through all the major tech stories of the year,
0:55.3	from Grok's Mechah Hitler meltdown to the mounting fears that an AI bubble is about to bring down the global economy. Bill Cohen is a financial journalist, author,
1:00.8	and Pup co-founder who covers Wall Street. Casey Newton is the founder of the tech newsletter
1:05.7	platformer, the co-host of the New York Times' podcast Hard Fork and my former tenant. Joanna Stern is a senior
1:13.3	personal technology columns for the Wall Street Journal. She's writing a book about how she turned
1:17.8	her whole life over to AI for a year. And Charlie Wurtsill is a staff writer at The Atlantic
1:23.7	where he writes about tech and culture. He also hosts Galaxy Brain, a new podcast from
1:28.5	the Atlantic, about the internet. We're going to look back at all the crazy things that happen in
1:32.8	tech this year, and we'll also look forward to where those stories are headed in the new year.
1:37.2	All right, let's get into my conversation with Bill, Casey, Joanna, and Charlie. It's going to be
	...

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