# Dithering (Ben Thompson & John Gruber)

> Dithering is a subscription-only podcast hosted by Ben Thompson, founder of the Stratechery business-strategy newsletter, and John Gruber, the writer behind the Apple-focused blog Daring Fireball. Each episode runs exactly 15 minutes, twice a week, with two of the most influential voices in technology commentary trading takes on Apple, the tech industry, media, and whatever else is on their minds. It is a paid show built on Thompson's own membership infrastructure, included in the Stratechery Plus bundle.

- **Role:** Co-hosted podcast by Ben Thompson (Stratechery) and John Gruber (Daring Fireball)
- **Organizations:** Stratechery, Daring Fireball, Stratechery Plus
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS, Political Science (Ben Thompson), University of Wisconsin-Madison, MBA & Master of Engineering Management (Ben Thompson), Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management), BS, Computer Science (John Gruber), Drexel University
- **Known for:** Dithering built a loyal, low-churn paying subscriber base with no advertising, Ben Thompson pioneered the paid newsletter model and inspired Substack's founders, Thompson ranked No. 3 on Fortune's inaugural Creator 25 list (2021)

## Career timeline

- **2002** — John Gruber launches Daring Fireball, his Apple-focused weblog
- **2004** — Gruber co-creates the Markdown markup language with Aaron Swartz
- **2007** — Gruber begins The Talk Show podcast
- **2013** — Ben Thompson founds Stratechery while at Microsoft
- **2014** — Thompson leaves Automattic to run Stratechery full-time
- **2015** — Thompson publishes 'Aggregation Theory,' his signature framework
- **2020** — Thompson and Gruber launch Dithering as a subscription podcast
- **2025** — Thompson relocates from Taiwan back to the United States; Dithering gains free-episode capability via Passport CMS

## Achievements

- Dithering built a loyal, low-churn paying subscriber base with no advertising
- Ben Thompson pioneered the paid newsletter model and inspired Substack's founders
- Thompson ranked No. 3 on Fortune's inaugural Creator 25 list (2021)
- Gruber created Markdown, now a near-universal plain-text writing format
- Daring Fireball described as 'the world's most powerful one-man media company'
- Both hosts run independent, subscriber-funded media empires

## Latest updates

- **2025-12** — Dithering's CMS (Passport) added the ability to make select episodes free to listen to on the website
- **2025-01** — Ben Thompson relocated from Taiwan back to the United States

## Links

- Website: https://dithering.fm
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminjthompson
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/benthompson
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gruber.foo

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dithering-ben-thompson-john-gruber
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-04