The Big Interview Gets Even Bigger

August 29, 2024:

WIRED: Hey.

Katie: Hey … ?

WIRED: It’s us. The collective consciousness of the WIRED editorial staff, here to help you talk about The Big Interview series.

Katie: Is this AI?

WIRED: Katie, what’s a Big Interview?

Katie: Is it weird that I’m being interviewed by my own publication?

WIRED: Hey, you created this monster. Answer the question.

Katie: It’s a conversation with someone we—me, and you, who are apparently the collective consciousness of WIRED—care about, think is interesting, and who is in some way shaping our shared future. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a technology executive or a world-famous scientist; these conversations span everything WIRED covers.

WIRED: Like what?

Katie: Aren’t you WIRED? Don’t you know that already? Like the tech industry and science, sure, but also internet culture, politics, digital security, celebrity, innovation in its many forms. We cover all of that, and we love getting to know the freaks and geeks and weirdos and rock stars—literal and figurative—who are at the vanguard of creating it.

WIRED: The collective consciousness of WIRED would like to remind you that we don’t do PR for famous people.

Katie: These interviews aren’t PR. They’re also not adversarial by definition. And we’re not trying to trick anyone into saying something stupid or something newsworthy—although I can’t stop them if they do one or both of those things! I like to think WIRED is a pretty thoughtful place, and these are meant to be thoughtful conversations between two smart people who make sense as a pairing. We want people to come away feeling like they really know the subject of the interview, their hopes and dreams, their deepest fears, what they had for breakfast, and whether they ever hallucinate extended interactions with their employees after taking nitrous oxide at the dentist’s office.

WIRED: You OK, boss?

Katie: It’s been a long year.

WIRED: Speaking of the existential stress inherent in running a media business these days, does anybody even read anymore? Why are we publishing a bunch of interviews when everybody’s watching TikToks these days?

Katie: Some people still read, yes. Good for them. But we’re not just publishing the Big Interview series in text anymore (as we’ve been doing since 2022). We’re also releasing a bunch of these conversations as episodes of a new YouTube series. And we’re hosting an entire daylong event, called The Big Interview, in San Francisco this December. Mira Murati is going to be there. So is Jensen Huang. And gold-medal-winning Olympian Phil Wizard.

WIRED: Oh, they’re all big deals.

Katie: I know.

WIRED: So what kind of big-deal interviews are coming up here and on YouTube, anyway?

Katie: Didn’t one of you commission and edit these interviews?

WIRED: Try to play along, Katie, we’re having fun here.

Katie: Right, OK. We talked to a bunch of amazing people. We talked to Mark Cuban about his new pharmaceutical “disruption.” We talked to Josh Johnson, from The Daily Show, about politics and the future of comedy. We talked to Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, about surveillance and AI. That’s a great one. We even talked to Secretary of State Antony Blinken about cybersecurity. And there’s a bunch more in the works. We’re even putting out a special print issue.

WIRED: How exciting. We’re looking forward to chatting again in a few months to hear how it all went.

Katie: Will we be … speaking again?

WIRED: Your next dental cleaning is in mid-February. We assume you’ll once again be indulging in the nitrous oxide from the dentist’s office comfort menu?

Katie: After this interaction I’m honestly not so sure.

WIRED: Happy editing, boss. Until we meet again.

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