The Talk Show With John Gruber
The director’s commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Episodes
451: ‘Taking Drugs to Get Fat’, With John Moltz
The great John Moltz returns to the show. Topics include Apple’s hardware price hikes in response to the global RAM/SSD shortage, and some spitballing on what we like about the UI changes in the MacOS 27 Golden Gate beta.
450: ‘Perp Walk for Selfies’, With Jason Snell
Jason Snell returns to the show for a look back at WWDC 2026, and a look ahead to “Designed in California”, his and Myke Hurley’s upcoming 50-episode Apple history podcast.
449: ‘Live From WWDC 2026’, With Joanna Stern and Nilay Patel
Recorded in front of a live audience at The California Theatre in San Jose on Tuesday 9 June 2026, special guests Joanna Stern and Nilay Patel join John Gruber to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2026.
448: ‘Twins Named John’, With Stephen Hackett
Stephen Hackett returns to the show to help me make sense of a problem that is hard even to describe, let alone solve, regarding Apple One, family sharing, a separate Media & Purchasing account, and iCloud storage space. Also: what we're expecting from WWDC 2026.
447: ‘A Sociopathic Father’, With Adam Lisagor
Adam Lisagor returns to the show to talk about Hovercraft, his new virtual presentation camera app for Mac, and how he's developing it with AI coding tools. Also, delicious Japanese spite sandwich cookies.
446: ‘Food and Beverage Director’, With MG Siegler
MG Siegler returns to the show to discuss Apple’s announcement that Tim Cook is stepping aside (into the role of executive chairman) and John Ternus will become CEO.
445: ‘Apple at 50’, With John Siracusa
Who better to join the show to commemorate Apple’s 50th anniversary than John Siracusa?
444: ‘You’re Going to Have the Niggles’, With Christina Warren
Christina Warren returns to the show to discuss Apple’s big month of product announcements — in particular, the iPhone 17e and MacBook Neo. And we pour one out for the Mac Pro.
443: ‘The Pogue Feature’, With David Pogue
Special guest David Pogue discusses his excellent, entertaining, and amazingly comprehensive new book, “Apple: The First 50 Years”.
442: ‘Bad Dates’, With Jason Snell
Jason Snell returns to the show to discuss the 2025 Six Colors Apple Report Card, MacOS 26 Tahoe, Apple Creator Studio, along with what we expect/hope for in next week’s Apple product announcements.
441: ‘Serious Opinionators’, With Adam Engst
Adam Engst returns to the show to talk, in detail, about certain of the UI changes in iOS 26 and Apple's version 26 OSes overall. In particular, the new Unified view in the Phone app, and the Filter pop-up menu in both the Phone and Messages apps. Also: a shoutout to Balloon Help.
440: ‘Flush a Radar’, With Brent Simmons
Brent Simmons returns to the show. Topics include NetNewsWire 7, MacOS 26 Tahoe, and I guess, some other stuff.
439: ‘A Mitigated Disaster’, With Daniel Jalkut
Daniel Jalkut returns to the show so we can both vent about MacOS 26 Tahoe.
438: ‘2025 Year in Review’, With Rene Ritchie
A look back at Apple’s 2025, with special guest Rene Ritchie.
437: ‘A Naughty Citizen’, With Quinn Nelson
Special guest Quinn Nelson returns for a two-part holiday spectacular: the iPad in the wake of iPadOS 26, and Apple's executive changes as Tim Cook seemingly nears the end of his time as CEO.
436: ‘Financial Boner’, With Tyler Hayes
Special guest: Tyler Hayes. Topics include how to get a small phone today, which way foldables should fold, the state of Apple TV (including its new “sonic logo”), and some holiday gift gadget recommendations.
435: ‘Lincoln Bio Services’, With Stephen Robles
Special guest Stephen Robles joins the show. Topics include indie media and YouTube, Shortcuts and automation, and the state of podcasting.
434: ‘Knee-Jerk Contrarian’, With Dan Frommer
Special guest Dan Frommer returns to the show. Topics include the indie media business, the iPhone Pocket, the iPhone Air (including rumors about the second generation model), AI “personalities”, and five years of Apple Silicon Macs. Also, six years of Dan’s site, The New Consumer.
433: ‘Meat Bags’, With Brian Mueller
Special guest Brian Mueller, developer of Carrot Weather, joins the show to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his utterly ridiculous but totally serious weather app.
432: ‘You and Frank Sinatra’, With Dan Moren
Dan Moren returns to the show. Topics include Atlas, ChatGPT's new web browser (or anti-web browser) for the Mac; Apple's loss in a "landmark" regulatory lawsuit in the UK regarding App Store commission rates; multiple reports of poor sales for the iPhone Air; and Apple's M5 product announcements: MacBook Pro, iPads Pro, and Vision Pro.
431: ‘Iconic Pig Lipstick’, With John Moltz
John Moltz returns to the show to talk about the iPhone 17 lineup: the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, iPhone 17, and the no-number iPhone Air. Not one word about baseball, but some *Star Wars* talk may or may not have snuck in.
430: ‘Ersatz PopSocket’, With Andru Edwards
Special guest Andru Edwards joins the show. Topics include Google’s Pixel 10 event and the Pixel 10 family of devices, AI’s effect on computational photography, foldable phones, and some speculation on Apple’s September 9 “Awe Dropping” event.
429: ‘Weird Turtle Fake Out’, With Matthew Panzarino
Matthew Panzarino returns to the show. Topics include 007 logo creator Joe Caroff’s death at 103, Google’s weird “Made by Google” event hosted by Jimmy Fallon, the UK supposedly dropping its demand for an iCloud encryption backdoor, and Apple’s workaround for the Apple Watch blood oxygen sensor patent stalemate.
428: ‘Michigan-Starred Fine Dining’, With Louie Mantia
Special guest Louie Mantia joins the show to talk about Liquid Glass, the various OS 26 updates, and the worrisome state of Apple's UI design overall. Also: sandwiches.
427: ‘The Shift-2 Crowd’, With Jason Snell
Jason Snell returns to the show to talk about the early PC platform rivalries of the 1980s, iOS 26 leaks (and Apple suing YouTuber Jon Prosser), the various Apple OS 26 public betas and the state of Liquid Glass, and more. (Where by “more” I mean a little baseball and keyboard nerdery.)
426: ‘The Cutting Edge Latest Supermodel’, With David Smith
Special guest David Smith returns to the show for a developer's perspective look at WWDC 2025.
425: ‘Through the Wall Like Kool-Aid Man’, With Chance Miller
Chance Miller returns to the show to discuss the news and announcements from WWDC 2025.
424: ‘Live From WWDC 2025’, With Joanna Stern and Nilay Patel
Recorded in front of a live audience at The California Theatre in San Jose Tuesday evening, special guests Joanna Stern and Nilay Patel join me to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2025.
423: ‘Sewing Machine Repair Shop’, With Patrick McGee
Patrick McGee joins the show to discuss his must-read new book, *Apple in China* -- one of the best books about Apple anyone has ever written.
422: ‘A Monkey on a Rock’, With Stephen Hackett
Stephen Hackett, proprietor of 512 Pixels and co-founder of Relay (purveyor of many fine podcasts), joins the show. Topics include: IO (or if you will, io), the new joint venture of OpenAI and Jony Ive’s LoveFrom; the sheer fantasy of “Made in America” iPhones; and Fortnite’s return to the US App Store.
421: ‘The Ratchet of Flippancy’, With Craig Mod
Craig Mod returns to the show to discuss his splendid new book, *Things Become Other Things*. Other topics include creating with AI tools (including programming), social media permanence vs. ephemerality, and more.
420: ‘The Best Hatched Plan’, With Glenn Fleishman
Special guest Glenn Fleishman returns to the show for episode 420 on 4/20, but everyone’s sober, I swear. Topics include Trump’s dumb tariffs and Glenn’s smart new edition of his book “Six Centuries of Type & Printing”.
419: ‘Podcasting Technology Cadence’, With MG Siegler
MG Siegler returns to the show to talk about the drama surrounding Siri and Apple Intelligence.
418: ‘Putting a Stink on the Letter X’, With Craig Hockenberry
Craig Hockenberry returns to the show. Topics include Apple’s new hardware this week — M3 iPad Airs, A16 regular iPads, M4 MacBook Airs, and the M4 Max and surprising M3 Ultra Mac Studios. And we go deep on The Iconfactory’s years-in-the-making new app, [Tapestry](https://usetapestry.com/) — a universal timeline for the Internet.
417: ‘Nothing Is Possible’, With Paul Kafasis
Special guest: Paul Kafasis. Special topics: Siri/Super Bowl nonsense, “Gulf of Mexico/America” nonsense, the iPhone 16e gets announced, and a veritable Bond villain buys the rights to the James Bond movie franchise.
416: ‘A Professional Internet User’, With Vlad Prelovac
Kagi founder and CEO Vlad Prelovac joins the show to talk about the business of web search, the thinking behind Kagi’s own amazing search engine, and their upstart WebKit-based browser Orion.
415: ‘A Good Duck Butt’, With Allen Pike
Special guest Allen Pike joins the show to talk about the state of generative AI and how Apple Intelligence measures up (so far). Also: some speculation on Apple’s pending acquisition of the ever-difficult-to-pronounce Pixelmator.
414: ‘Annoying Friendliness’, With Joanna Stern
Joanna Stern returns to the show to talk about our new best friends, AI chatbots, and I chime in with how the Voight-Kampff test got it all wrong.
413: ‘Holiday Party 2024’, With Merlin Mann
This again. Jiminy. Well, once more, let's talk *around* another election, and try, by doing so, to maybe express something *about* it.
412: ‘His Most Pro Shirt’, With Dan Moren
Dan Moren returns to the show to discuss this week’s introductions of the first M4 Macs: iMac, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pros.
411: ‘An Acoustic Nightmare’, With Tyler Stalman
Tyler Stalman joins the show to discuss the iPhone 16 lineup’s cameras, and the state of iPhone photography.
410: ‘Shipping vs. Shipping’, With Jason Snell
Jason Snell returns to the show to discuss Apple's September product announcements, and Meta's Orion prototype AR glasses.
409: ‘The Dynamic Paradox’, With Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel returns to the show to consider the iPhones 16.
408: ‘Good Enough to Be Pesky’, With Taegan Goddard
Special guest Taegan Goddard, longtime writer and founder of Political Wire, joins the show to talk about the past, present, and future of independent media.
407: ‘Pinkie Swear’, With Chance Miller
Chance Miller, ace reporter (and editor-in-chief) for 9to5Mac, joins the show to talk about the latest changes to Apple's DMA compliance plans with iOS, expectations for the September Apple event, and more.
406: ‘Hock TUAW’, With Christina Warren
Christina Warren (a.k.a. “Mary Brown”) returns to the show. Topics include Apple’s new iOS 18.1 and MacOS 15.1 betas (featuring Apple Intelligence), a little reminiscing about Gil Amelio and Steve Jobs, and the bizarre saga of TUAW, resurrected as a zombie AI slopsite.
405: ‘Chutes and Ladders’, With Hunter Hillegas
Special guest Hunter Hillegas, author of the excellent Vegas Mate app, joins the show to discuss euphemistic emoji, the CrowdStrike fiasco, and the closing of the iconic Mirage resort in Las Vegas.
404: ‘Curiously Short Episodes’, With John Moltz
John Moltz returns to the show for a holiday-week look at the best of recent prestige streaming content, particularly Apple TV+. And, yes, a bit on the latest Apple/EU/DMA drama.
403: ‘150 Million Calculator Apps’, With Quinn Nelson
Quinn Nelson, renowned host of [Snazzy Labs](https://www.youtube.com/@snazzy), returns to the show to recap the highlights of WWDC: Apple Intelligence, platform updates, and the latest salvos from the EC regarding Apple’s compliance with the DMA.
402: ‘Live From WWDC 2024’, With John Giannandrea, Craig Federighi, and Greg Joswiak
Recorded in front of a live (and lively) audience at The California Theatre in San Jose Tuesday evening, special guests John Giannandrea, Craig Federighi, and Greg Joswiak join me to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2024.
401: ‘Chockdingus’, With Craig Hockenberry
Craig Hockenberry returns to the show. Topics include the upcoming Daylight DC-1 monochrome “e-paper” tablet, more thoughts on the new iPad Pros, and what we expect/hope for from Apple at WWDC. Also: a one-button keyboard.
400: ‘Canadian Girlfriend Vibes’, With M.G. Siegler
Special guest M.G. Siegler returns to the show to talk about the new iPad Pros, the iPadOS/MacOS functional gulf, the OpenAI/Scarlett Johansson controversy, and M.G.'s new blog Spyglass.
399: ‘I Decapitated the MacBook Air’, With Federico Viticci
Federico Viticci returns to the show to discuss MacStories’s 15th anniversary, Apple’s upcoming “Let Loose” keynote for new iPad hardware, and more.
398: ‘You’ve Never Seen Email Like This Before’, With John Moltz
The one and only John Moltz returns to the show to talk about the relative dearth of original content for Vision Pro, WWDC rumors and guesses, and, yes, a wee bit about Apple's regulatory/antitrust tribulations.
397: ‘Less Space Than a Nomad? Lame’, With Jason Snell
Jason Snell returns to the show to talk about the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple. And sports gambling.
396: ‘The Essence of Stealing’, With David Barnard
Special guest David Barnard joins the show. Topics include the App Store — past, present, and post-DMA future — and the excellent new update to his app Weather Up.
395: ‘I’m a Real-World Man’, With Adam Lisagor
Adam Lisagor returns to the show to discuss, while wearing, Apple Vision Pro.
394: ‘An Impossible Balcony’, With Matthew Panzarino
Matthew Panzarino -- proprietor of the excellent new website/newsletter [The Obsessor](https://www.theobsessor.com/) -- returns to the show to talk about -- what else? -- the Vision Pro.
393: ‘An Asterisk on the Bento Box’, With Marco Arment
Marco Arment returns to the show. Topics include the Apple-Masimo patent dispute over Apple Watch blood oxygen sensors, the new External Payment Links entitlement for the App Store, and more.
392: ‘Halos and Harps’, With Casey Liss
Apple’s 2023 year in review, with Casey Liss.
391: ‘Error -37’, With John Siracusa
Special holiday guest: John Siracusa. Special holiday topics: the Apple/Masimo patent dispute over the blood oxygen sensors in Apple Watches, the ongoing Beeper Mini/iMessage saga, iOS 17.3’s upcoming Stolen Device Protection feature, Apple’s new Journal app. Also, an ode to big-ass tower desktops.
390: ‘The Blurry Edge of Acceptable’, With Nilay Patel
Nilay Patel returns to the show. Topics include the iPhones 15, journalism in the age of AI, and what it’s like to have Barack Obama on your podcast.
389: ‘Two-Legged Stool’, With Gabe Rivera
Special guest Gabe Rivera, founder of the indispensable news aggregator Techmeme, joins the show to talk about the state of news and social media.
388: ‘What the Actual’, With Christina Warren
Christina Warren joins the show to talk about Apple’s “Scary Fast” event, introducing the new M3 MacBook Pros and 24-inch iMac.
387: ‘Are There Ever Too Many Love Songs?’, With Sebastiaan de With and Ben Sandofsky
Special guests Sebastiaan de With and Ben Sandofsky, co-founders of Lux, join the show to talk about their apps (Halide, Spectre, and Orion) and speculate about next week’s “Scary Fast” Apple event.
386: ‘Gate Number Two’, With John Moltz
Special guest John Moltz joins the show to discuss the various iPhone 15 “-gates”, rumors of Jony Ive working with OpenAI on an “AI device”, and more.
385: ‘Who’s Heef?’, With Matthew Panzarino
Matthew Panzarino returns to the show to talk about the new iPhones 15.
384: ‘Pleading the Fifth’, With Michael Simmons
Flexibits co-founder Michael Simmons returns to the show to talk about his experience at Apple’s developer lab for Vision Pro, and his enthusiasm for the future of spatial computing.
383: ‘A Photocopy of a Fax’, With Jason Snell
Jason Snell, come on down. You’re the next contestent on The Talk Show. Special topics: John Warnock and Adobe, Disney and Apple, the iMac’s 25th anniversary, and more.
382: ‘What’s Happening‽’, With Craig Hockenberry
Craig Hockenberry, the special guest with the special fleshy palms, returns to the show. Topics include Twitter/X, foldable phones, and our favorite features in iOS 17 now that it’s in public beta.
381: ‘Tape Deck Dongle’, With Joanna Stern
Joanna Stern returns to the show. Topics include the launch of Threads, Apple’s Vision Pro, and iPhone/iCloud device security. Also, some accidental car talk.
380: ‘The M Is for Magnificent’, With Matthew Panzarino
Matthew Panzarino returns to the show for a post-WWDC discussion about Vision Pro and VisionOS.
379: ‘An Extra Kick in the Nuts’, With Christian Selig
Christian Selig, developer of the excellent apps Apollo and Pixel Pals, joins the show to talk about Reddit's Twitter-fication, along with highlights from WWDC 2023.
378: ‘Live From WWDC 2023’, With John Ternus, Mike Rockwell, Craig Federighi, and Greg Joswiak
Back in San Jose's historic California Theatre for the first time since 2019, special guests John Ternus, Mike Rockwell, Craig Federighi, and Greg Joswiak join me to discuss the news and announcements from WWDC 2023.
377: ‘guyenglish.zip’, With Guy English
Guy English returns to the show to talk about the live show from WWDC, Mac Pros past and future, Marathon and Mac gaming, and Apple’s seemingly imminent XR headset. And definitely *not* to talk about *Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker*.
376: ‘One True HIG’, With Neil Jhaveri
Neil Jhaveri, founder and lead developer of Mimestream, the terrific new native Mac email client for Gmail, joins the show to talk about email, Mac apps, and indie software development.
375: ‘No False Humidity’, With Jason Snell
Special guest: Jason Snell. Topics: Headset, headseat, headset. And no baseball talk other than how games might look in VR. Also: Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad, and GM's dumb decision to drop CarPlay.
374: ‘The Paul McCartney of Car Salesmen’, With John Moltz
John Moltz, ace reporter from The Daily Planet, returns to the show. Topics include Apple pushing ads through its own built-in apps, car shopping, and the burgeoning Twitter alternative Bluesky.
373: ‘This Guy Reads a Lot Better’, With Quinn Nelson
Special guest Quinn Nelson joins the show to talk about Apple’s rumored AR/VR headset, Apple silicon, and more.
372: ‘$8 Billion in Late Fees’, With Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie returns to the show to discuss generative AI (and what Apple might soon do with it), iPhone passcodes and iCloud device security, HBO Max turning into just plain Max, and *Make Something Wonderful* — one more thing from Steve Jobs.
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