Godammit. I really loved Muhammad Ali. My all-time greatest hero. A great athlete, funny as shit, and a giant of a man because he gave a shit about something other than himself. He stood up for what he believed in, and he shone a light on all kinds of injustice. Rest in peace Ali.
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.
23 responses to “R.I.P. Muhammad Ali”
As a dark guy, I’m a bit confused about the furore over Ali.
Didn’t he join the Nation of Islam? Didn’t he support the KKK and say that whites should stick with whites and blacks with blacks? Didn’t he speak out in favour of segregation?
Didn’t he say that white people came from space or something? And were the devil?
Didn’t he stab Frazier in the back and insult him in ways that would be seen as obscenely racist today?
How is he revered as a hero? Or did I just get the above from various misinformed sources?
What is a “dark guy”?
There is nothing wrong with the Nation of Islam.
He never supported the KKK…that makes zero sense the klan wants to murder all blacks.
He supported segregation because he grew up in a time where white people were lynching blacks for sport and he wanted no part of it. A reasonable mindset to have after seeing such atrocities.
Don’t know what you are referring to about Frazier but a black man can’t be “racist” to another black man.
How is he revered as a hero? He was the greatest boxing legend of all time and stood up for what he believed in during a time that would’ve easily gotten him killed. He stood up against racist whites, that stupid war, and retired to become a global ambassador. You got the above from various racist sources that hate celebrating black achievement is all.
Good day sir.
Yeah, what is a ‘dark guy’?
Ali wan’t perfect by any means. Yeah, he said and esposed some extreme positions. But as the grandson of a slave, and a product of the Jim Crow south, many of his views about whites and race relations are understandable and rational. Read Alex Haley’s great ‘autobiography’ of Malcolm X, which explains things like converting to Islam, rejecting slave names, and espousing a back-to-Africa philosophy. In the context of the times, these ideas are completely understandable. The fact that he stood up to the establishment, took a stand, against racial injustivce and the Vietnam War, sacrificing his career and wealth and fame, was extraordinary, principled, brave and amazing. I would love to be as courageous — that’s why he’s a hero.
Leander obviously you’re an Unsaved Leftist Liberal who rejects the Bible, Jesus Christ and truth. It’s your Choice if you Reject Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you’ll spend an Eternity in Hell !!!
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And you’re obviously an idiot. There’s no hell nor heaven save of our own making. Anyone who has studied the bible will known it’s full of contradictions and cannot be ‘rejected’. It’s a bit like saying you reject the phone book.
If there were to be a heaven I’d imagine it would be packed with Leftist Liberals rather than Reactionary Rightwingers.
If you die with that attitude you’ll find out and believe me, you won’t like it. Why are Leftist Liberals so Allergic to Truth and so Hypocritical ? I already knew what you were just by reading some of your comments. You have a Big Ego, The Bible says – “God Resisteth the Proud, but giveth Grace to the Humble.”
But the fact is sir, don’t be a Hypocrite !!! Blacks like Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Eric Holder, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey are some of the Biggest Racist in the United States. Don’t kid and lie to yourself, you know what I’m saying it true, you seem like a Total Hypocrite. You need to Repent and turn to the Biblical Jesus Christ or you’ll end up losing your Soul in Hell for Eternity !!!
“You need to Repent and turn to the Biblical Jesus Christ”
How many Jesus Christs are there, besides the Biblical one?
Obviously, you never studied the Bible or False Cults or you would know.
It is all media revised history garbage. The guy was a great fighter but otherwise a scumbag but the media wants a black hero instead so that is the narrative we get.
Yea the narrative of a great man that stood up for his people.
What does it have anything to do with Cultofmac
It has nothing to do with the website per se, but as it happened today and the author (as well as founder) wanted to post something to remember his hero, I have no issue with the post at all
You’d think he’d know how to spell his “hero”‘s first name.
Pay your respects
I was inspired by Apple, actually. Sometimes Apple devotes the home page to it’s heroes, like on Martin Luther King Day.
Like I said you’re a Leftist Liberal who’s allergic to Truth !!!
Hi Leander
Agree with you in all respects, but please correct spelling to ‘Muhammad’.
Spelling! Never one of my strong points. Thanks. Fixed.
Could you also take out all the profanity. That is not a sign of good journalism.
The Nation of Islam (or the Black Muslim Movement) was a Satanic Racist Cult the “Klan with a Tan”. I hope Ali repented of his Rebellion and Received the Biblical Jesus Christ as his Personal Saviour, if he didn’t he’s in Hell right now.
Wow, some really beautiful members of the human race leaving comments here and some good old hatred wearing the mask of Christianity, as usual, being as unlike Jesus as you can imagine, Ali wasn’t perfect, but he was great, he changed his industry just like Apple did, he was a pioneer just like Steve Jobs, and the world is poorer for his passing.
If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything.