The New York Times‘ Bay Citizen website has published more remarks from Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak on the subject of Mike Daisey’s controversial one man show.
As previously reported, Woz was moved to tears by “The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” a monologue about Apple and Foxconn, the company’s largest supplier in Asia that saw a rash of worker suicides last year.
Wozniak says he found the play deeply upsetting. He urges Tim Cook, Apple’s COO and current acting CEO, to go see the one-man show besucase the issues it discusses could hurt Apple financially in the future:
Tim should know about this very soon, so that he knows what’s in more and more people’s heads. The emotions and understanding and moral feelings that Mike brings out are very strong and could be a threat to Apple’s future, even though they are only simmering now.
The Bay Citizen: Apple Co-Founder Responds to ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs’
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
26 responses to “Steve Wozniak Urges Tim Cook To See Play About Foxconn Factories”
Has anyone noticed Wired Magazines cover? http://bit.ly/eqxiZZ
anyone notice how woz’s comments could sound like Steve Jobs is already gone? Kinda eery, sad…
Way a go Woz. If anyone can make the Apple higher ups take notice its you.
You think he knows something we don’t?
Someone please keep the WOZ away from the Apple campus.
Shopping at my local supermarket, I have no more say in the hourly wage or working conditions of the cashiers than does Donald Duck…..no more than Apple does at Foxcon. It none of our business and we need to stay out of other peoples affairs.
Hi…
The suicide rate at Foxconn is lower than ALL 50 United States. Wyoming has a rate 4 times as high… WYOMING! New York is double and California nearly so. Even within China, the suicide rate at Foxconn is much lower than their national average. Not to trivialize human suffering but the media is doing a great disservice by misrepresenting and confusing the issues. It makes any rational dialog impossible.
Mr. Wozniak is obviously a very compassionate human being and I agree with him. Right or wrong, this is a brewing PR storm than needs to be addressed before public ignorance and apathy get out of hand.
Doesn’t Steve Wozniak ever do anything privately? Or is it always on a public platform.
Thank you for helping put this in perspective. I’m an American living in China and know first hand that this story is grossly exaggerated. Mike Daisy is an opportunist who has taken a handful of disgruntled workers and attempted to paint an entire nation in a horrible light. A nation and a people that have struggled through great obstacles. A people that have rise from the ashes of the devastation of the cultural revolution and the horrible tragedy of the great famine of the 1950’s when 10’s of millions died. It undermines the progress made by a determined people since the opening up of China. And it is the arrogance of a pampered culture that has no clue what goes on in the rest of the world that is crying foul. China is going through the same growing pains that our nation went through in our own industrial revolution. But one need realize that China is still a nation of nearly 800 million peasant farmers, and these factory workers are by and large happy to have these jobs. The Foxconn factories in question are modern facilities and employ hundreds of thousands of workers in just one location – it is a midsize US city. The workers in question are provided lodging, meals, recreation facilities, health insurance and a living wage. These workers are still able to save and send money home to their families to help improve their lives. Yes the jobs may be hard and the hours long, and they may be separated from their families and friends, but progress has been, and continues to be made rapidly in this country. We need to quit trying to judge other countries through our own rose colored glasses without real understanding of the people, their culture, the real economic situation, where they have come from and where they are going. Aren’t there enough problems in the US that need to be fixed that maybe we should be looking inward instead of outward?
“Mike Daisy is an opportunist who has taken a handful of disgruntled workers and attempted to paint an entire nation in a horrible light.”
Have you actually seen the play, then? I haven’t, so I can’t make any sweeping statements about what he says or doesn’t say. If you’ve genuinely seen the play for yourself, and aren’t simply voicing a knee-jerk reaction to what you think he must be saying based on the subject matter alone, then by all means let’s have your review.
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yea after he left apple he actually was a fifth grade teacher for a number of years and stayed out of the media
Media always misrepresents and confuses issues to make a story something other than what it is. Knowing that, its understandable why the general population trust the media at the same level of trust as politicians and lawyers.
estragon don’t bother with freerange. The dude is a fascist and a waste of time. The only person he probably gives a damn about in this world is himself and the only thing he cares about is whatever money he can screw from others. Just leave the greedy little idiot be and maybe he will finally go away.
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If it’s such a great place to work go get a job there assembling electronics you dumb asshole.