From 2015 to 2024, Apple executives regularly appeared on John Gruber’s The Talk Show for special WWDC episodes. Notable guests last year included Apple’s software engineering chief Craig Federighi, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, and AI researcher John Giannandrea.
This long-standing tradition ended abruptly when Apple declined Gruber’s invitation to participate in this year’s episode.
Earlier this year, Gruber criticized Apple in a blog post regarding WWDC 2024. He accused the company of promoting a misleading story about an advanced, personalized Siri feature that was not ready and has since been delayed. He argued this damaged Apple’s credibility and hinted at deeper internal issues.
Apple reportedly found Gruber’s critique unfair and was displeased with the post.
In a recent episode of the Channels podcast, Gruber told Business Insider’s Peter Kafka that Apple’s refusal to join the podcast was “not happy” but saw this as a positive development for himself.
“I’m not trying to lack humility here — but I feel them deciding not to do my show this year is a total win for me and was a huge loss for them,” he said. Gruber added that this decision reinforces his independence and, more than bolstering his image, it reflects poorly on Apple.
For the WWDC 2025 episode, Gruber interviewed journalists Joanna Stern from The Wall Street Journal and Nilay Patel from The Verge.