CHAT PERSON

Muckraker of the moment KARA SWISHER has seemingly every power player in Hollywood, media, and tech on speed dial. Now, as she tangles with Elon Musk and churns out podcasts, the ultimate insider is running her own show

- CHARLOTTE KLEIN

KARA SWISHER, rocking aviators, AirPods, and a “Lesbians Who Tech” sweatshirt, rolls into Vox Media’s DC headquarters and gets right to work.

Today’s episode of On with Kara Swisher, a twice-weekly podcast that launched in September, is about the future of the Republican Party after the House Speaker free-for-all, and she’s tapped CNN’s Manu Raju and The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes to make sense of the mess. Once the guests come on camera, Swisher apologizes for wearing sunglasses, explaining that she forgot her prescription pair at home.

“It’s very Dark Brandon,” says Raju.

“I had it before him,” Swisher shoots back. “Let’s be clear on that situation.”

Swisher, as an interviewer, shows little tolerance for bloviating; she gets to the point. About halfway through the episode, she calls for a “lightning round” of House Republicans, asking Sykes to “tell us if the person is a true believer or a phony.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene?

“She is a conspiracy theorist, batshit-crazy bigot, and antisemite, and for some reason that has made her a rock star in the Republican Party,” says Sykes, a Never Trump–style conservative. And? “She’s a believer—it’s bullshit, but she believes in it.”