Joanna Stern Review: 12 Years, a Hot Dog, and One Hallucinated Husband
She reviewed a headset by skiing in it, a phone by putting a hot dog in it, and herself by building an AI to do her job. So instead of writing a column about her career, I made a quiz. Your score is the review.
Joanna Stern doesn't do normal reviews. For the Apple Watch in 2015 she got in the shower wearing a hockey helmet with a GoPro on it. For the Vision Pro she wore it for 24 hours and took it skiing until the apps shut themselves down in protest. For the iPhone 16 she didn't write a review at all — she fed ten years of her old ones to an AI and let it do the job.
For the Samsung Galaxy Fold she put a hot dog in it. There isn't more to that sentence. That was the review.
So when it came time to review her — twelve years at The Wall Street Journal, a Loeb, an Emmy, a dog named Browser with his own sticker pack, and one husband that exists only in Apple Intelligence's imagination — writing a column felt wrong. The format had 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.
Take the QuizEnter your name. Scores revealed during the toast.
Should you buy? Too late. She's starting her own thing. She's done this before — 2011, "This Is My Next," look it up. Subscribe at thisismynexthing.com.
Comments (she reads every single one)