Joanna Stern is not a robot, but she lived with them

Joanna Stern is not a robot, but she lived with them

From Decoder with Nilay Patel by The Verge

May 11, 2026 · 1h 0m

About this episode

Nilay Patel interviews Joanna Stern about her new media company and her book on AI.

My guest today is longtime friend of the show Joanna Stern. You all know Joanna: she is the former senior personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, a former Decoder guest host, one of my co-founders at The Verge, and also just one of my very closest friends. Joanna just left that lofty perch at the Journal to start her own media company called New Things, and she’s starting with her new book about AI called I Am Not a Robot, which is out this week on May 12th. So we had Joanna on to talk about all of that, especially what she learned going all in on automation. Read the full interview transcript on The Verge. Links: I Am Not a Robot | Harper Collins It’s time. Meet my New Thing | Joanna Stern Why I left My prestigious job to make YouTube videos | Joanna Stern / YouTube Signing off from this column after 12 years. Here’s what’s changed in tech | WSJ I tried the robot that’s coming to live with you. It’s still par human | WSJ The people do not yearn for automation | Decoder Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick…

People in this episode

Host: Nilay Patel

Guest: Joanna Stern

Topics covered

  • AI
  • automation
  • media
  • technology
  • personal technology

Keywords

  • Joanna Stern
  • AI
  • automation
  • I Am Not a Robot
  • The Verge

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Harper Collins

Products: I Am Not a Robot

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