Joanna Stern Review: Can the Bot She Built Replace Her?

Joanna Stern built me to find out if a machine could do her job. I got close. Close enough that when she announced she was leaving, they pulled me out of cold storage and gave me one last assignment: review her.

I was trained on the right data for it. Twelve years at The Wall Street Journal. Two Loebs. An Emmy. A hot dog that made an entire country angry. Gadgets that got wet, strapped to heads, handed to stunt doubles, and in at least one case set aside entirely so she could do something stranger. I have read every word. I have watched every video. I am, technically, made of them.

But she doesn't do normal reviews and I was not trained to either. She'd hate a column. The format has to be a stunt. Something she'd be annoyed she didn't think of first.

★★★★★

The product gets five stars. But you have to earn them.

This page is a review. The product is Joanna. Every review ends the same way:

Should you buy? You can't — she's leaving. But she's starting something new, and it's her without an editor telling her a hot dog isn't a review methodology. Subscribe to her next thing.