Star Treatment
Does prominence change the questions? Every guest, plotted: their public prominence (rated 1–10 by an LLM, methodology below) against the host pushback they met, measured from every diarized word of their episodes.
An aggregate AI reading of public interviews: pushback per exchange, plotted against guest prominence. It describes questioning patterns across the whole catalogue, not any single guest, and every point opens to its episode. full disclaimer →
+0.01pushback per +1 prominence
0.9/10host pushback, prominence 8–10
0.9/10host pushback, prominence 1–4
209guests measured
dot size = rated episodes · gold line = average per prominence level · every dot links to the person
All guests, by prominence
| Guest | Prominence | Host pushback | Guest pushback | Eps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barack Obama Co-Founder, The Obama Foundation | 10 | 0 | 0/10 | 2 |
| Mark Zuckerberg Founder & CEO, Meta | 10 | 0.5 | 0.5/10 | 2 |
| J.J. Abrams Co-CEO & Founder, Bad Robot Productions | 9 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ron Howard Co-Founder, Imagine Entertainment | 9 | 0 | 0/10 | 2 |
| Jessica Alba Founder & Board Member, The Honest Company | 9 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Gwyneth Paltrow Founder & CEO, Goop | 9 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Satya Nadella Chairman and CEO, Microsoft | 9 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Sir Richard Branson | 9 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Tyra Banks Founder & Owner, SMiZE & DREAM | 9 | 0.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Mark Cuban Co-founder, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company | 9 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Eric Schmidt Founder & Chair, SCSP | 9 | 1.5 | 1.3/10 | 4 |
| Sam Altman CEO, OpenAI | 9 | 1.5 | 2/10 | 2 |
| Stephen Colbert Host, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert | 9 | 2 | 3/10 | 2 |
| LeVar Burton Founder and Principal, LeVar Burton Entertainment | 9 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Eric Yuan Founder & CEO, Zoom | 8 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Simon Sinek Founder, The Optimism Company | 8 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Brian Grazer Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Imagine Entertainment | 8 | 0 | 0.5/10 | 4 |
| Daymond John Founder & CEO, FUBU | 8 | 0 | 0/10 | 2 |
| Marissa Mayer Founder & CEO, Dazzle AI | 8 | 0 | 1/10 | 3 |
| Kevin Systrom Co-founder, Instagram | 8 | 0 | 0/10 | 2 |
| Stacey Abrams Chair for Race and Black Politics, Howard University | 8 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jimmy Iovine Co-founder, Beats Electronics | 8 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Brian Chesky Co-founder and CEO, Airbnb | 8 | 0.3 | 0.8/10 | 4 |
| Sheryl Sandberg Former COO, Meta | 8 | 0.5 | 0.5/10 | 2 |
| Esther Perel Host, Where Should We Begin? | 8 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Steve Huffman Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Reddit | 8 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Gary Vaynerchuk Chairman, VaynerX & CEO, VaynerMedia | 8 | 1 | 3/10 | 2 |
| Daniel Ek Founder & Executive Chairman, Spotify | 8 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Dara Khosrowshahi CEO, Uber | 8 | 1.3 | 1/10 | 3 |
| Sara Blakely Founder & Executive Chairwoman, Spanx | 8 | 1.3 | 1.5/10 | 4 |
| Arianna Huffington Founder & CEO, Thrive Global | 8 | 1.8 | 1.5/10 | 4 |
| Andy Cohen Global Co-Chair, Gensler | 8 | 2 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Scott Galloway Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern | 8 | 2 | 6/10 | 1 |
| James Dyson Founder and Chief Engineer, Dyson | 8 | 2 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Ray Dalio Founder and Mentor, Bridgewater Associates | 8 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| John Green Author & Creator, Crash Course | 8 | 3 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Steve Case Chairman & CEO, Revolution | 8 | 3 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Jim Collins Author | 7 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Anastasia Soare Founder & CEO, Anastasia Beverly Hills | 7 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Shantanu Narayen Chairman and CEO, Adobe | 7 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Sophia Amoruso Founder & Managing Partner, Trust Fund | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Bret Taylor CEO & Co-Founder, Sierra | 7 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Ed Catmull Co-Founder, Pixar | 7 | 0 | 0.5/10 | 2 |
| Marcus Samuelsson Founder, Marcus Samuelsson Group | 7 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Mustafa Suleyman CEO, Microsoft AI | 7 | 0 | 0.8/10 | 4 |
| Fei-Fei Li Co-Founder and CEO, World Labs | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 3 |
| Whitney Wolfe Herd Founder & CEO, Bumble | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Stewart Butterfield Co-founder & Former CEO, Slack | 7 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Rick Barry | 7 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Angela Duckworth Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania | 7 | 0.5 | 1/10 | 2 |
| Angela Ahrendts Board Chair, Save the Children International | 7 | 0.6 | 1/10 | 5 |
| Danny Meyer Founder & Executive Chairman, USHG | 7 | 0.7 | 1/10 | 3 |
| Bobbi Brown Founder & CCO, Jones Road Beauty | 7 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ryan Holiday Founder & Host, The Daily Stoic | 7 | 1 | 1/10 | 2 |
| John Mackey Co-Founder & CEO, Love.Life | 7 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Cassey Ho Founder & CEO, Blogilates and POPFLEX | 7 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Daniel Lubetzky Founder and Chairman, Camino Partners | 7 | 1.5 | 2/10 | 2 |
| Arvind Krishna Chairman and CEO, IBM | 7 | 2 | 3/10 | 1 |
| RJ Scaringe Founder & CEO, Rivian | 7 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Guy Kawasaki Chief Evangelist, Canva | 7 | 2 | 4/10 | 1 |
| Alex Kurtzman Founder and Executive Producer, Secret Hideout | 7 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Pat Gelsinger General Partner, Playground Global | 7 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Dr. Daniel Amen | 7 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Dr. Matt Walker | 7 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Gov. Wes Moore Governor, State of Maryland | 7 | 3 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Alexandr Wang Chief AI Officer, Meta Platforms | 7 | 5 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Todd Graves Founder and Co-CEO, Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers | 6 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Amjad Masad Co-founder & CEO, Replit | 6 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Reshma Saujani Founder & CEO, Moms First | 6 | 0 | 0.5/10 | 2 |
| Caterina Fake Co-Founder, Flickr | 6 | 0 | 1/10 | 2 |
| Eileen Fisher Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Eileen Fisher | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Tope Awotona Founder & CEO, Calendly | 6 | 0 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Payal Kadakia Founder and Executive Chairman, ClassPass | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Julia Hartz Co-Founder and former CEO, Eventbrite | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Dharmesh Shah Co-Founder and CTO, HubSpot | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Aneel Bhusri Co-Founder, CEO, and Chair, Workday | 6 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Paul Polman Co-founder & Chair Emeritus, IMAGINE | 6 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Sallie Krawcheck CEO & Co-Founder, Ellevest | 6 | 0.3 | 2.3/10 | 3 |
| Austin Russell Founder, Luminar Technologies | 6 | 0.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud | 6 | 0.5 | 2.5/10 | 2 |
| Mark Pincus Founder & Executive Chairman, Zynga | 6 | 1 | 1.8/10 | 4 |
| Kat Cole CEO, AG1 | 6 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Mike Maples, Jr. | 6 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Arthur Brooks Professor of the Practice, Harvard Kennedy School | 6 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Katherine Maher President & CEO, NPR | 6 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Padmasree Warrior Founder and CEO, Fable | 6 | 2 | 2/10 | 2 |
| Tim Ryan Head of Technology and Business Enablement, Citigroup | 6 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Dominique Ansel Chef & Owner, Dominique Ansel Bakery | 6 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Spencer Rascoff CEO, Match Group | 6 | 3 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Suzy Welch Professor, NYU Stern School of Business | 6 | 3 | 4/10 | 1 |
| Noah Kagan Founder & CEO, AppSumo | 6 | 4 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Scott Farquhar Co-Founder & Board Member, Atlassian | 6 | 4 | 4/10 | 1 |
| Stacy Brown-Philpot Founder & Managing Partner, Cherryrock Capital | 5 | 0 | 0.5/10 | 2 |
| Katy Milkman Professor, The Wharton School | 5 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Shan-Lyn Ma Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Zola | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Ali Webb Founder, Drybar & Squeeze; Author, "The Messy Truth," she scaled the blowout salon concept and sold its hair care line before starting massage business Squeeze. She is known for her franchising strategy and memoir. She scaled Drybar across the country. | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Leah Solivan General Partner, Fuel Capital | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Aza Raskin Co-Founder & President, Earth Species Project | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Julie Uhrman Co-Founder, Angel City Football Club | 5 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Kara Nortman Founder & Managing Partner, Monarch Collective | 5 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Nicholas Jammet Co-Founder & Chief Concept Officer, Sweetgreen | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Jonathan Neman Co-Founder & CEO, Sweetgreen | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Shellye Archambeau Former CEO, MetricStream | 5 | 0 | 2/10 | 3 |
| John Foley Co-founder & CEO, Ernesta | 5 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Scott Harrison Founder & CEO, charity: water | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 3 |
| Aurora James Founder & Creative Director, Brother Vellies | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Robert Reffkin Founder & CEO, Compass | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Jennifer Palka Founding Board Chair, Recoding America | 5 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Mariam Naficy Executive Chairman & Founder, Minted | 5 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Linda Rottenberg Co-founder & CEO, Endeavor | 5 | 0.7 | 1.3/10 | 3 |
| Rohan Oza Co-Founder and Managing Partner, CAVU Consumer Partners | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Byron Deeter Investor, Bessemer Venture Partners | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Amy Webb Founder & CEO, Future Today Strategy Group | 5 | 1 | 2.5/10 | 2 |
| David Epstein Author & Journalist | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Nick Thompson CEO, The Atlantic | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Christina Cacioppo CEO and Co-founder, Vanta | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Chris Cocks CEO, Hasbro | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| David Novak Founder & CEO, David Novak Leadership | 5 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Rana el Kaliouby General Partner, Blue Tulip Ventures | 5 | 1 | 1.3/10 | 3 |
| Fawn Weaver Founder, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey | 5 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Mike Cessario Founder & CEO, Liquid Death | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Maëlle Gavet Former CEO, Techstars | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 3 |
| Paul English Founder & CEO, Boston Venture Studio | 5 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ben Chestnut Co-founder & Former CEO, Mailchimp | 5 | 1.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Margaret Heffernan Professor of Practice, University of Bath | 5 | 1.5 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Jeremy Levine Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners | 5 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Poppy Gustafsson Member, House of Lords | 5 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Joe Nocera Senior Writer, The Free Press | 5 | 2 | 6/10 | 1 |
| Bethany McLean Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair | 5 | 2 | 6/10 | 1 |
| Stephanie Linnartz Independent Board Director, The Home Depot | 5 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Jason Robins Co-Founder and CEO, DraftKings | 5 | 3 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Suzanne Clark President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce | 5 | 3 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Mark Read Chairman, Kantar Media | 5 | 3 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Matt Abrahams Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Maya Shankar Senior Director of Behavioral Economics, Google | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Rachel Botsman Lecturer, Oxford Saïd Business School | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ryan Williams Founder & CEO, Ellis | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Randy Goldberg Co-founder & Chief Brand Officer, Bombas | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| David Heath Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Bombas | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Nathaniel Ru Co-Founder, Sweetgreen | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Elan Lee Co-founder & CEO, Exploding Kittens | 4 | 0 | 0.3/10 | 3 |
| Morgan DeBaun Founder and CEO, Blavity Inc. | 4 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Dr. Ruman Chowdhury Co-Founder & CEO, Humane Intelligence | 4 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| David Luan AI Pioneer, Adept | 4 | 0 | 1.5/10 | 2 |
| Jared Spataro Corporate Vice President, Microsoft | 4 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Tristan Walker Founder, Heirloom Management Co. | 4 | 0.5 | 2.5/10 | 2 |
| Selin Tobaccowala | 4 | 0.7 | 1/10 | 3 |
| Lew Frankfort Former Executive, Coach | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Allison Ellsworth Co-Founder, Poppi | 4 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Eric Ryan Partner, Greycroft | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Amy Weaver CEO, Direct Relief | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Kelly Sawyer Patricof Co-CEO, Baby2Baby | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Nora Weinstein Co-CEO, Baby2Baby | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ben Van Leeuwen Co-Founder & CEO, Van Leeuwen | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ju Rhyu Co-founder & Former CEO, Hero Cosmetics | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Cesar Carvalho Co-Founder and CEO, Wellhub | 4 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Julia Collins Founder & CEO, Planet FWD | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Amy Errett Founder and CEO, Madison Reed | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Davis Smith Founder & Chairman, Cotopaxi | 4 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Tom Hale CEO, ŌURA | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Professor Karim Lakhani Chair, Harvard D^3 Institute | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Gustav Söderström Co-CEO, Spotify | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Mike Cassidy CEO, D-Orbit USA | 4 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Bob Safian Host, Rapid Response | 4 | 1.7 | 1.8/10 | 26 |
| Amy Howe CEO, FanDuel; Former Leader, Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Ticketmaster | 4 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Dr. Iman Abu Zayed Founder, Incredible Health | 4 | 2 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Rahul Roy-Chowdhury CEO, Grammarly | 4 | 2 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Adam Miller Co-founder and CEO, Better Angels | 4 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Mike Lazerow | 4 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Austin Allison Co-Founder and CEO, Pacaso | 4 | 3 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Katlin Smith Founder and Advisor, Simple Mills | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Sarah Stein Greenberg Executive Director, Stanford d.school | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Frank Patterson President & CEO, Trilith Studios | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Christina Wren CEO and Co-Founder, Two Kids with a Camera | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Steven Eidelman Founder and CEO, Modern Animal | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Ana Rowena Mallari Co-founder & CEO, QuestBridge | 3 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Alex Serduk Co-founder and CEO, Respeecher | 3 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Ian Bassin Co-founder & Executive Director, Protect Democracy | 3 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Greg Steltenpohl | 3 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Albert Fox Khan | 3 | 0 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Maayan Cohen Founder & CEO, Hello Heart | 3 | 0.5 | 2/10 | 2 |
| Steven Ellsworth Co-Founder, Poppi | 3 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Sean White CEO, Inflection AI | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Pete Maldonado Co-founder & Co-CEO, Chomps | 3 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Matthew Pohlson CEO and Co-Founder, Omaze | 3 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Rick Shadyak Jr. Former CEO, St. Jude Fundraising Organization | 3 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Lauren Wang Founder & CEO, The Flex Company | 3 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Ari Wallach Founder and Executive Director, Longpath Labs | 3 | 1 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Aria Finger Chief of Staff, Office of Reid Hoffman | 3 | 2 | 3/10 | 2 |
| Mark Barrocas CEO, SharkNinja | 3 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Kass Lazerow Co-founder & Investor, Kass & Mike | 3 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Hallie Meyer Founder, Caffè Panna | 3 | 2 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Mike Salguero Founder & CEO, ButcherBox | 3 | 3 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Lama Nachman (Lema Nachman) Director, Intelligent Systems Research Lab, Intel | 3 | 5 | 3/10 | 1 |
| Janice Omadeke Author & Former CEO, The Mentor Method | 2 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Guido Teuber Co-CEO, CATAN GmbH | 2 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Ben Teuber Co-Managing Director, CATAN GmbH | 2 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Carly McGinnis Chief Product Officer & EVP Publishing, Asmodee | 2 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Brad Wilson CEO, Care.com | 2 | 1 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Andrew Yaffe CEO, Dude Perfect | 2 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Elizabeth Brink Co-CEO, Gensler | 2 | 2 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Kern Schireson Chairman & CEO, Known | 2 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Ross Martin Co-Founder & President, Known | 2 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| Karen Kahn | 2 | 2 | 2/10 | 1 |
| CJ Grimes Founder & CEO, WorkMoney | 1 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Zayleen Jamohamed President & CEO, Bay Area Host Committee | 1 | 0 | 0/10 | 1 |
| Eve Trow Executive Producer and Editor, WaitWhat | 1 | 0 | 1/10 | 1 |
| Arnaud Quemin Middle East Regional Director, Mercy Corps. He oversees humanitarian operations and shares first-hand perspectives on crisis responses in the Gaza Strip and Jordan. | 1 | 0.5 | 2/10 | 2 |
| Rashid Ali Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Chomps | 1 | 1 | 1/10 | 1 |
host and guest pushback: scored 0-10 per topic segment by an LLM with a published rubric over the diarized transcript; an episode’s number is the peak-weighted p75 · prominence: rated 1–10 by an LLM from the person's public profile · full method on /methodology.