WIRED: Heyyyy.
Katie: Hey…?
WIRED: It’s us. The collective consciousness of the WIRED editorial team, helping you talk about The Big Interview series.
Katie: Is this AI?
WIRED: Katie, what is 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 seem to make up the collective consciousness of WIRED – care about, find interesting, and who in some way shapes our collective future. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is a technology executive or a world-renowned scientist; these conversations encompass everything WIRED covers.
WIRED: Like what?
Katie: Are not You WIRED? You know that already? The tech industry and academia, of course, but also internet culture, politics, digital security, celebrity, innovation in all its many forms. We cover it all, and love getting to know the freaks and geeks and weirdos and rock stars – literally and figuratively – who are at the forefront of it all.
WIRED: The collective consciousness of WIRED would like to remind you that we do not do PR for famous people.
Katie: These interviews are not PR. They are not controversial, by definition. And we are not trying to get anyone to say something stupid or something newsworthy—though I can’t stop them if they do either or both! I like to think that WIRED is a pretty thoughtful place, and these are meant to be thoughtful conversations between two smart people who make sense as a pair. We want people to feel like they really knowledge the subject of the interview, their hopes and dreams, their deepest fears, what they had for breakfast, and whether they ever hallucinate prolonged interactions with their coworkers after taking laughing gas at the dentist.
WIRED: Everything okay, boss?
Katie: It’s been a long year.
WIRED: When we talk about the existential stress that comes with running a media company these days, does anyone even know read more? Why do we publish a lot of interviews when everyone is watching TikToks these days?
Katie: Some people still read, yes. Good for them. But we’re no longer publishing the Big Interview series just as text (as we’ve been doing since 2022). We’re also publishing many of these conversations as episodes of a new YouTube series. And we’re hosting a day-long event called The Big Interview this December in San Francisco. Mira Murati will be there. Jensen Huang, too. And Olympic gold medalist Phil Wizard.
WIRED: Oh, these are all big things.
Katie: I know.
WIRED: So, what important interviews will follow here and on YouTube?
Katie: Didn’t one of you commission and edit these interviews?
WIRED: Try to play along, Katie, we’re having fun here.
Katie: Well, OK. We talked to a lot of great people. We talked to Mark Cuban about his new pharmaceutical “disruption.” We talked to Josh Johnson, from The daily showabout politics and the future of comedy. We talked to Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, about surveillance and AI. It’s a great topic. We even talked to Secretary of State Antony Blinken about cybersecurity. And there’s a lot more in the works. We’re even doing a special print edition.
WIRED: How exciting. We look forward to chatting with you again in a few months and hearing how it all went.
Katie: Will we … talk to each other again?
WIRED: Your next dental cleaning is scheduled for mid-February. We assume that you will then indulge in the laughing gas from the dentist’s feel-good menu again?
Katie: After this interaction, I’m honestly not so sure anymore.
WIRED: Happy editing, boss. See you again.
