JV
Jim VandeHei
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Jim VandeHei

Things Jim Says on Podcasts

He co-founded and runs Axios, and before that co-founded Politico, after years as a political reporter at the Washington Post. His main argument, on the page and in interviews, is that most journalism buries the point under too many words, and that AI will push human reporters to add real reporting and judgment instead of routine writeups. He built Smart Brevity, the short-form writing method used across Axios, into a bestselling book with Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz, and talks openly about how public distrust of the media shaped why he started Axios in the first place. He shows up mainly through Axios's own newsletters and shows, including Axios on HBO, and he goes on other outlets' podcasts and business shows to talk media economics, AI's effect on newsrooms, and how he thinks journalism should be written and paid for. He is a frequent conference and keynote speaker on those same topics.

“It turns out that most of us at work are spending anywhere from 25 to 50% of our day doing things that should never be done.” — Jim VandeHei, This is Gavin Newsom “People hate the damn thing. Like the idea that 80% of people hate data centers when 99.8% don't live anywhere near one should be an alarm bell. Like, well, how the hell do you hate something you've never seen and has nothing to do with your life? Because it's a metaphor for something new that scares the hell out of them.” — Jim VandeHei, This is Gavin Newsom “if you got to use ChatGPT to write, you probably have bigger functional problems that you need to deal with.” — Jim VandeHei, Prof G Markets

Where to Find Them

Jim VandeHei writes Beyond The Prompt - How to use AI in your company , writes Morning Joe , writes The Smerconish Podcast and writes Conversations with Bill Kristol . They have also been a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher (2 times) , Masters of Scale (2 times) , For Humanity: An AI Risk Podcast , Prof G Markets , Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle , The Megyn Kelly Show , Plain English with Derek Thompson , Prof G Media , The Information's TITV , Closing Bell , Squawk Pod , This is Gavin Newsom , Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing , The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg , NEW ECONOMIES , How I Built This (Guy Raz) , Recode Media , NEW ECONOMIES , What A Day , The Fifth Column and AI, Energy and Climate Podcast .

Recently: “Overtime – Episode #747: Ted Cruz, Kid Rock, Jim VandeHei” on Real Time with Bill Maher (November 2026); “Ep. #747: Ted Cruz, Kid Rock, Jim VandeHei” on Real Time with Bill Maher (October 2026); “And, This Is How To Build A Better Media Business With Axios’s Jim VandeHei” on This is Gavin Newsom (October 2026); “Should Anyone Automate Their Life?” on What A Day (October 2026); “Axios” on NEW ECONOMIES (September 2026); “Axios” on NEW ECONOMIES (September 2026).

What They Said

“It turns out that most of us at work are spending anywhere from 25 to 50% of our day doing things that should never be done.” — Jim VandeHei, This is Gavin Newsom

The Axios co-founder describes an internal exercise asking every employee for the three things that matter most in their job, three things they think are pointless, and three that should be automated. He says both productivity and happiness went up, and the exercise became the basis for his book.

This is Gavin Newsom · 2026-10-15 Permalink → Listen →
This is Gavin Newsom Around 48:50 into the episode
Jim VandeHei

And the whole idea was like, I'm a journalist at heart, so I'm watching people all the time, but I'm an operator.

Speaker 3

I run a company.

Jim VandeHei

…that people were doing that they didn't need to be doing. And that often people didn't even understand in order the things that they should be doing to be even better and enjoy their job even more. We did it and boom, productivity went up, but not just productivity, happiness went up because people like doing things they're good at. They hate doing things they shouldn't do. Dug into the data, it turns out that most of us at work are spending anywhere from 25 to 50% of our day doing things that should never be done. And We then apply that outside of work, which is, okay, the truth is we're hit with too much stuff. And unless we have some kind of mental or physical exercise to force ourselves to take inventory about what matters in life, what matters at work, and then ruthlessly revisit that. and delete the things that we shouldn't be doing so that you can amplify the things that you want to do. And it might…

Gavin Newsom

And I love that. I mean, this is a book, to your point, I mean, you've been wildly successful. People know your work, obviously at Politico, but You were able to sell, but you're still at Axios. And if that was even half of the reported figure, you're doing fine. And so I love the spirit that…

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, think about it.

Jim VandeHei

The confront part is we never ask, why are we doing this? We just say yes, or we just take this meeting, or we just do that task. Just take a minute to be like, why? Why am I doing this? Does it actually need to be done? And it really starts, like we talk about in the book, this idea, if you just…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“People hate the damn thing. Like the idea that 80% of people hate data centers when 99.8% don't live anywhere near one should be an alarm bell. Like, well, how the hell do you hate something you've never seen and has nothing to do with your life? Because it's a metaphor for something new that scares the hell out of them.” — Jim VandeHei, This is Gavin Newsom

VandeHei tells Gavin Newsom that the early signs of the public's reaction to AI are awful, coming just as people sober up from social media algorithms. He reads the backlash against data centers as anxiety about AI itself. Newsom agrees, and adds that calls to shut the technology down are misleading.

This is Gavin Newsom · 2026-10-15 Permalink → Listen →
This is Gavin Newsom Around 16:56 into the episode
Jim VandeHei

LLMs could be different, but I think That too is going to be, that's hitting just as people are sobering up from what hit them with algorithms.

Speaker 3

And that's why I worry if you don't have more.

Jim VandeHei

People thinking more deeply about this topic, this transition into AI is going to be really bad. And the early signs are awful. People hate the damn thing. Like the idea that 80% of people hate data centers when 99.8% don't live anywhere near one should be an alarm bell. Like, well, how the hell do you hate something you've never seen and has nothing to do with your life? because it's a metaphor for something new that scares the hell out of them even more so than social media scared.

Gavin Newsom

And it gives them the power to be exactly against what they're anxious and it's concerned about i couldn't agree with you more on that i also couldn't agree with you more the tech genie's out of the damn bottle so this notion that you can stuff it back in and we could shut all this down is so…

Speaker 3

And it's going to be really hard for your party, right? Yes.

Jim VandeHei

It's very soothing to hear Bernie Sanders say, shut it down, pull the plug.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“if you got to use ChatGPT to write, you probably have bigger functional problems that you need to deal with.” — Jim VandeHei, Prof G Markets

The line lands in the middle of a stretch where VandeHei is enthusiastic about AI, having just called it astronomically helpful and said parts of it are already at superhuman levels for him. Axios policy is that every line in a story is owned and verified by a reporter and an editor. His complaint is aimed at people being told the technology will write for them.

Prof G Markets · 2026-09-06 Permalink → Listen →
Prof G Markets Around 38:57 into the episode
Jim VandeHei

…reporting. I want them talking to people. I want them breaking news. I want them applying analytical judgment that a machine can't apply, often drawn from understanding the people, understanding the historical context, understanding the piece of news as it sits in the broader context of today.

Ed Elson

…it comes to just the way that we consume information, the idea that AI might be telling us things and we're just going along for the ride, assuming that it's correct? And in that vein, would you ever think about putting some policies in place around the usage of AI when it comes to your reporting?

Jim VandeHei

…and write and try to help people understand this moment. And, you know, again, like I'm in the media and I have the time maybe because I run a media company to do this, but I encourage young people to think that way. Like this thing, I'm very down on what young people are being told about this country and about artificial intelligence. Like there's no doubt you shouldn't cheat with it. And if you got to use ChatGPT to write, you probably have bigger functional problems that you need to deal with. But this idea that like, oh, man, it's scary and you're screwed. I don't know what they're talking about. Like the unemployment rate is like 4.4%. When I was taking economic classes, I was told it wasn't even structurally possible to have unemployment this low. I'm watching kids come into Axios who are 22, 23, 24, 25, who have natural proficiency and ability to use artificial intelligence…

Ed Elson

I think this probably ties into your story of starting several companies. And I think something that's kind of interesting is you transitioned from reporter to guy who manages reporters into someone who actually started a business. And now you're more of a founder, owner, operator. Tell us a little…

Jim VandeHei

It was wild, right? Like we just had this idea to start politico. We did it. Like it wasn't a lot of thought. I wasn't like, okay, one day I'm going to have to be a founder. One day I'm going to be an entrepreneur. One day I'm going to be a CEO. Say, I'm a journalist, man. Like, let's go do this.…

Ed Elson

You mentioned how you've kind of seen all the facets of humanity, really, from running a company. Because I think running a company, it's like you're managing people. You're just dealing with people. I think that's sort of what you explained there. What have you learned about people from managing…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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AI Builders AI Research & Frontier Labs Media & Creator Economy Money & Markets Startups & Venture Tech Strategy & Big Tech US Politics