In this episode of Cyber Space, Kara Swisher, the prominent technology journalist for the New York Times and co-founder of Recode, joins host John Carlin to breakdown the dangers of social media, the challenge of maintaining privacy, and whether dominant tech companies like Facebook and Twitter are too big. Swisher also discusses the role of government in tech, opens up about using TikTok on a burner phone, and argues for more voices like Senator Elizabeth Warren’s on Capitol Hill.
Cyber Space is the newest podcast for members of CAFE Insider. Every other Friday, Carlin, who led the Justice Department’s National Security Division, explores issues at the intersection of technology, policy, and law with leaders who’ve made an impact in the world of cybersecurity.
Cyber Space is produced by CAFE Studios.
Executive Producer: Tamara Sepper; Senior Editorial Producer: Adam Waller; Audio Producer: Nat Weiner; Editorial Producer: Noa Azulai.
John Carlin: From CAFE, welcome to Cyber Space. I’m your host, John Carlin. Every other Friday, I explore issues at the intersection of tech, law and policy with guests who’ve made an impact in the world of cybersecurity. My guest this week is Kara Swisher. She’s the editor-at-large of Recode, the host of the Recode Decode Podcast and the newly launched Sway Podcast from the New York Times, where she is also a contributing opinion writer. As one of the Silicon Valley’s most respected journalists, she’s seen it all, from the dawn of the information superhighway to the dot com bubble to the current tech landscape dominated by a handful of companies that possess both an ever expanding amount of power and an ever growing amount of our personal information.
Great to have you joining us today. I’ll admit when I was early in this space and still in law schools when I read your book on AOL, which seems like a little bit of time ago.
Kara Swisher: Yeah, yeah, I forget. I haven’t read it, but I’m about to write another book. I don’t like writing books, but I wrote two actually. One was about the beginnings of AOL. The other was many years later when they bought Time Warner and then the debacle happened. So, there was a sequel.
John Carlin: Read them both. Actually, I may have done in reverse order. With the sequel, I’m curious, in the beginning, it was the story of how Steve Case triumphed over Microsoft. By the sequel, not so much.
