October 28, 2025
October 28, 2025
Ashlee Vance was quite the handful to manage.
As his editor at IDG News Service many years ago, my response to his abundant scoops was often a mix of joy and sheer terror: Do I trust this rookie to get such a big story right? Should I hit publish?
Ashlee was always right, of course, and that talent is why, today, the author of the definitive Elon Musk biography and veteran of The New York Times and Bloomberg is one of the most respected voices in journalism.
We caught up with him recently to discuss his latest endeavor, Core Memory, and to get his take on the state of the media, PR and the explosion in AI.
You had an amazing run at Bloomberg Businessweek, including the Hello World video series. What compelled you to walk away and start an independent media company?
The Bloomberg job was pretty ideal, which made it extra hard to leave. But I’d gotten a lot more into making documentaries and pursuing scripted projects while still working on my books, and I just wanted the freedom to chase everything without any constraints or conflicts.
I’d been thinking about starting my own company for several years and think I can move a lot faster and do more things on my own, which has proven to be true so far. We’ve launched a podcast, a video series, a Substack, two documentary films and several scripted projects in a matter of months.
My hope is to educate people while we entertain them. I didn’t want to dumb anything down.
I also really wanted a chance to do things exactly how I want to do them. I like to go deep on the science and engineering and wanted to cater less to a totally mainstream audience. My hope is to educate people while we entertain them. I didn’t want to dumb anything down.
You like to cover undiscovered people and companies developing new breakthroughs. How do you know when these early-stage ideas should be taken seriously and are worth your time?
I think it’s just a matter of having done this for a long time. It’s quite possible that I’ve visited more startups around the world than any other human at this point. I tend to have a pretty good feel for who is kinda crazy but onto something and who is just totally nuts. Or, at least, I think I do.
Several reporters have started their own media channels -- Alex Konrad, Taylor Lorenz, Bari Weiss, among others. What does that tell us about the news business, and where does it all lead?
There’s a lot of tension between higher profile reporters and media companies these days. At Bloomberg, I didn’t really have a chance to share in the spoils of the things I created and worked so hard to build. The media companies have also taken a harder line stance over the past few years in terms of controlling the IP on stories and how they’re developed into films and TV shows.
I tended to have more success developing these things into movies and TV shows on my own and often felt that Bloomberg — while well-intentioned — let its bureaucracy get in the way of creating these new projects.
It’s very hard to go out on your own, and I’m not totally sure that many people can make a real business out of it. But there will be a handful of voices who can stand on their own and have more freedom and independence.
You’ve always been a great reporter, winning over sources and breaking stories. How is reporting changing and what does the future look like, especially with AI?
My general belief is that reporters need to get out in the world more instead of sitting at their desks... This belief holds more true for me than ever. You need to get information that does not exist on the internet or in an AI database, and the only way to do this is to speak with people and see things firsthand.
You need to get information that does not exist on the internet or in an AI database, and the only way to do this is to speak with people and see things firsthand.
I’m old and grumbly now, and I get sad when I see reporters who do all their reporting via texts and emails instead of going out in the field. I think a lot of reporters will be too easy to replace.
What does your AI day look like, and how is it different from a day you would have spent researching or reporting, say, five years ago?
I use AI a lot to do deep research on podcast guests and to refresh myself on technical concepts. I also use it to help search through and organize my hundreds or thousands of interviews for book projects.
What’s your take on the state of PR? What have PR pros gotten better at over the years and where is there room for improvement?
Confession, most of my stories come from my network and less from PR.
We do so much video these days, and there’s a real art to the PR folk who are good at handling the shoots. You want someone who helps you make the shoot great and goes out of their way to highlight things you might not know about in terms of cool things to say or interesting people to talk to. But when the PR team gets overbearing and tries to micromanage the shoot, it sucks a lot of energy out of the project and tends to make things too stiff.
There are more and more folks like me these days who do multimedia. I think the PR teams could uplevel their video and podcast skills and be more open to creative ideas.
Core Memory is on Substack, YouTube, a newsletter, a podcast -- if you were forced to choose one platform, which is the most powerful for you and why?
I like doing it all. It’s too hard to decide.
Each platform seems to reach a different audience. We can be smarter and deeper on written stories. We can get really into the weeds on a podcast, and then the videos tend to aim for a more mainstream audience.
We can be smarter and deeper on written stories. We can get really into the weeds on a podcast, and then the videos tend to aim for a more mainstream audience.
You’ve seen a lot of tech hype cycles, what do you make of the current AI wave? World-changing transformation or incremental gains?
This is not an original thought, but it reminds me so much of the dot-com boom. It’s over-hyped and over-spent in the near-term, but it’s clear to me that this technology is very powerful and will reshape the world in the coming years.
What’s the most under-explored story in tech or business right now?
I do not think the U.S. understands what is coming for it with China.
The U.S. is basically just software and science now. It has ceded all forms of hardware and manufacturing to China. And now China is racing ahead on software and science too.
The U.S. will have to get used to the best and most interesting products and new ideas coming out of China in short order. While this gets some attention, I think people underestimate how quick and drastic this shift will be.
What’s one story you would love to tell at the moment if only you had the right sources for it?
I always have the right sources.
