Kara Swisher | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
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Visiting faculty

Kara Swisher

Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Policymaker in Residence

Kara Swisher is an editor-at-large of New York Media, host of the On With Kara Swisher podcast and co-host of its Pivot podcast. She is also a contributing writer for New York Magazine and a regular CNN contributor. Her latest book, “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story,” is a memoir of her years covering Silicon Valley and was published in February of 2024. The updated paperback version was released in March of 2025.

Swisher was previously the host of the Sway podcast for the New York Times and was a contributing columnist for its Opinion section. She was also the host and executive producer of Vox Media’s Code conference, which has been the top gathering of tech and media luminaries.

Previous to that, Swisher was also the host of the Recode Decode podcast, co-founded Recode and Code owner Revere Digital and, before that, co-produced and co-hosted The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital,” with Walt Mossberg. It was the major high-tech conference with interviewees such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and many other leading players in the tech and media industries. She and Mossberg were also the co-executive editors of a tech and media Web site, AllThingsD.com.

Swisher worked in The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau. For many years, she wrote the column, “BoomTown,” which appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and also on The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com. Previously, Swisher covered breaking news about the Web’s major players and Internet policy issues and also wrote feature articles on technology for the paper. She has also written a weekly column for the Personal Journal on home issues called “Home Economics.”

Previously, Swisher worked as a reporter at the Washington Post and as an editor at the City Paper of Washington, D.C. She received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and her graduate degree at Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

Swisher is also the author of “aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web,” published by Times Business Books in July 1998. The sequel, “There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future,” was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Books.