How is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pushing back against the Trump/Musk “co-presidents” wreaking havoc in Washington?

Speaking to Kara at SXSW, Warren talks about what Musk has to gain by shutting down watchdogs like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other DOGE antics; why a crypto reserve would be bad for Americans and the cryptocurrency industry; and what Democrats are doing to fight back against this hostile government takeover. Plus: will Warren make another run for president again in 2028?

This interview was recorded Saturday, March 8th, on the Vox Media Podcast Stage at SXSW, presented by Smartsheet. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram, TikTok and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher.

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On May 27, 2019, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, best-selling author (and Kara’s friend) Tony Horwitz was on book tour for his latest work, Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide, when he died suddenly. He left behind two sons and his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks, whose books include March and Horse. 

Dealing with Tony’s death, taking time to grieve his passing and remembering their life together are at the center of Brooks’ latest memoir, Memorial Days. Brooks and Kara reminisce about Tony’s life, reflect on the challenge of grieving in a culture that is “averse to sad,” and ponder how Tony would have continued his “barstool democracy”  — an attempt to span the political divide already shaking the nation — under Trump 2.0. They also discuss her latest project, a chapter in Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service, edited by acclaimed author Michael Lewis, which will be released on March 18th. 

This interview was recorded live at Sixth & I, a center for arts, entertainment, ideas, and Jewish life in Washington, D.C., and hosted in partnership with Politics and Prose Bookstore,

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher.

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For months, Kara has been assembling a group of investors to buy The Washington Post. Although it's not actually for sale, an ongoing exodus of journalistic talent, combined with Bezos's decision to kill an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris days before the 2024 presidential election, made it both plausible that Bezos might entertain a bid and crucial that someone step forward. Now, after watching Bezos remake the opinion section in ways that seem designed to curry favor with President Trump, the chances of persuading him to sell seem increasingly remote.

Nonetheless, Kara’s quixotic quest continues, and in this episode, she talks to some of the people she’s turned to for advice, including: Cameron Barr, a former senior managing editor at the Post who resigned in the wake of the new changes; Tina Brown, a pioneering journalist and media executive who has led multiple publications, including Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Newsweek, and The Daily Beast; Oliver Darcy, a former CNN senior media reporter and currently the founder and lead author of Status.news; Sally Quinn, the first woman to anchor a CBS News morning show, and a best-selling author, and longtime Post columnist who was married to the late Ben Bradlee, a legendary executive editor at the Post; and Amanda Katz, a writer, editor and translator who worked as a senior assignment editor for the opinion section of the Post until she resigned last year (and wife to Kara Swisher).  

And make sure to watch "Becoming Katharine Graham," a new documentary about the former Post publisher's extraordinary life and journalistic courage (now streaming, ironically enough, on Amazon Prime).

CORRECTION: In the intro, Kara incorrectly stated that Jeff Bezos hired Marty Baron. In fact, Baron became the executive editor of The Washington Post in January 2013, and Bezos completed his purchase of the newspaper in October 2013. We apologize for the error.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram, TikTok and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher

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For years, Wall Street veterans have been saying that a market correction is around the corner, and last week's jitters have only intensified concerns. To find out if the party is ending sooner rather than later — and what role Trump’s policies will play — Kara talks to the Dean of Valuation, Aswath Damodaran. 

Damodaran teaches corporate finance and valuation at the Stern School of Business at New York University, and he is the author of over ten books. His latest is The Corporate Life Cycle: Business, Investment, and Management Implications. He and Kara discuss valuations, DOGE, tariffs, mass deportation, and tech stocks and much more. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram, TikTok and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher

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Emmy Award-winning comedian and actor Ronny Chieng is a self-described grumpy Malaysian who get to tell it like it is to Americans as aco-host and correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

Kara talks to Ronny about creating political satire during Trump 2.0; how his law degree helps him write pithy cerebral jokes, including for his latest (third!) Netflix special, Love to Hate It; his latest acting role playing Fatty Choi in Hulu’s Interior Chinatown; and why people still think Jon Stewart is the only host of The Daily Show.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram, TikTok and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher

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After a three-year stint in Japan, Ambassador Rahm Emanuel is back in the States. And now that he's freed from diplomatic constraints, Rahm is bluntly telling fellow Democrats where they went wrong in 2024 and what they need now to do to salvage the brand. 

Kara and Rahm talk about Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government; how Democrats should use legal challenges and procedural tactics to block President Trump’s agenda; and how they can rebuild their reputation by pivoting thematically to issues around education, quality of life, and the American Dream. They close with a rapid-fire assessment on global hotspots: China, Ukraine, and Gaza. 

This interview was recorded on Tuesday, February 18th. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram, TikTok and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher

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Last week, President Trump signed a memorandum calling for reciprocal tariffs on countries that charge fees on US exports and called his 25% tariff order on all steel and aluminum imports “the beginning of making America rich again.” But is it? We turn to three brilliant economists for their takes (and disagreements) on the real impact Trumponomics will have on the U.S. economy. Kara leads a spirited and insightful conversation about industrial policy, the efficacy of Trump’s tariffs, how worried we should really be about the U.S. 's trade deficit, the odds of an AI bubble and bail out, and, of course, DOGE. Featuring: 

Oren Cass, the founder and chief economist of American Compass, a conservative think tank, and a contributing opinion writer for the Financial Times and the New York Times. 

Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who writes a newsletter on Substack, teaches at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and recently retired his New York Times Opinion column after writing it from 2000 to 2025.

And Mariana Mazzucato, a professor of economics at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose and author of the hugely influential book, The Entrepreneurial State.

This episode was recorded on Monday, February 10.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher

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In just a few weeks, President Trump has flooded the zone with executive orders, which have been met with dozens of lawsuits by state attorneys general, unions and non-profits and complaints by Democrats in Congress. Some of the orders have been blocked in court. But last weekend, Vice President JD Vance posted a tweet implying that a judge can’t tell the executive what to do. So what recourse do the courts, Congress or states have if the administration were to just ignore judicial rulings against them? Kara discusses the strength of our constitutional “checks and balances” and whether we are in or on the brink of a “constitutional crisis” with former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara (host of the Vox Media Podcast Network’s Stay Tuned with Preet); lawyer and outspoken anti-Trump conservative George Conway; CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel; and former Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter. 

Note: This episode was taped the morning of 2/11/2025, before President Trump said in response to a reporter’s question in the Oval Office that he intended to abide by court rulings and appeal if his orders are blocked.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher

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Is it strange that Wicked, a film about a marginalized person discovering her magic and rising up to fight against government oppression, has been a box office success under Trump 2.0 – or does the movie's message actually meet the moment? Wicked has been nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Actress in a Leading Role for Cynthia Erivo, who already has Grammy, Emmy and Tony awards under her belt. This week, Kara talks with Erivo about why, as a queer, Black woman, the role of Elphaba was especially meaningful and how she made it her own; what she thinks about the current attack on diversity programs and the LGBTQ+ community; which projects she wants to lend her voice and other talents to going forward; and what becoming the youngest EGOT winner (if she wins the Oscar) would mean to her.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher

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Elon Musk and a band of young DOGE engineers are taking control of key government infrastructure. The scale and speed with which they’re hijacking control of the federal government is shocking, and even President Donald Trump appears not to know all that Musk is doing. 

In order to analyze what’s actually happening and understand how and why other tech billionaires are also cozying up to Trump, we’re joined by Anne Applebaum, Eoin Higgins & Ryan Mac. Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and author of the recently released Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run The World. Higgins is a reporter for the IT Brew and author of Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left. And Mac covers corporate accountability across the global technology industry for the New York Times, and he is the co-author of Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter. This episode was recorded on Monday February 3rd. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher

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Ben Stiller knew he needed to make Severance the moment he read an early version of the show in a writing sample its creator, Dan Erickson, submitted to his production company. Now, years later, Severance is a hit, reportedly generating $200 million for Apple TV, and Stiller is the series’ executive producer and go-to director responsible for some of its most pivotal episodes.

Kara talks to Stiller about the most poignant themes of the show, from its commentary on surveillance and technology to its meditations on trauma and identity. Plus, they chat politics — including Stiller’s reaction to an angry post about him by Elon Musk and his view on making political art now. 

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Instagram and TikTok @onwithkaraswisher

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