An Exclusive Interview with Tim Cook

Wednesday, April 01, 2026

You've probably seen several stories about Apple this week. That's because the company is celebrating its 50th anniversary. But only one media outlet has an interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Last month, Esquire's Ryan D'Agostino flew to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California to spend time with Cook. They discussed Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, the future according to Apple, and more. It's a rare glimpse into the mind of one of the most powerful and influential people on the planet. You can read it below.

– Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief

Plus:

Tim Cook (Still) Believes in Crazy Ideas

Apple's iconic CEO speaks exclusively with Esquire about fifty years of Apple history—and the future the company is continuing to create.

"It's definitely still his company," Tim Cook, Apple's CEO since shortly before Steve Jobs's death at fifty-six from pancreatic cancer in 2011, says of his relentless predecessor, whose star burned so bright you wonder if he knew it wouldn't last. It's the morning after the Neo unveiling in New York, and Cook is sitting in an open café area at Apple's $5 billion headquarters in Cupertino, California. Only a few fellow employees sit at tables just out of earshot, AirPods in their ears, laptops open, coffee at their elbows. The café is somewhere on the continuum of the grand ring-shaped building, which feels as if it either just landed or is about to take off for its home planet. Outside, through one of the forty-five-foot glass panels that constitute the building's facade—a foundry in Germany had to build a custom oven to make them—drought-resistant indigenous oak trees, selected by Jobs himself, shade jogging trails and lawns.

Jobs was singular in his earnest belief that technology, at least the kind Apple made, should help people express themselves, create great things, and, as he liked to say, change the world. In 1997, the company worked with the ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day to create "Think Different," the advertising campaign credited with changing—elevating—the way consumers thought about Apple. It was a great campaign, and I ask Cook about it in the context of the Trump administration, the likes of which Jobs never had to deal with. He pauses for a moment, then says, "The Trump administration is very accessible."

I want to tell Cook that I know Apple fans who felt kind of gross—betrayed, even—when they saw him standing behind Trump at the president's second inauguration, when Cook had donated $1 million to the inauguration fund. At first it just looked weird. Then came the questions: Is this the Apple we know? Is this the Tim Cook we know?

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Finally, a Dopp Kit with Backbone

If you're still using a Ziploc bag to pack your toiletries—or worse, randomly tossing your toothbrush, comb, and razor in your suitcase and leaving them to fend for themselves—it's about time you invest in a good Dopp kit. Not one of those cheap pouches with busted zippers, made from fabric that can't stand the lightest spray of sink water. When it comes to toiletry bags that are functional and easy to pack, and actually look nice next to the bathroom sink, I've found one that blows all the others out of the water. (I mean, it's literally water-resistant.)

Parallelle's Dopp kit, simply called "the Kit," stood out to me as soon as I saw it; its thick horizontal lines and structural integrity made it seem almost architectural in essence. Aside from simply looking like no other toiletry bag I'd ever seen on the outside, once I opened it up, I saw that the bag's construction was also completely novel.

By Bellamy Richardson

The Best Songs of 2026 (So Far)

Not only did the hits keep coming through the month of March, but the questions kept coming too. Harry Styles's Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally kicked off the month, and its experimental range was impressive. But will it ultimately prove too offbeat for a mass pop audience? The return of BTS came a few weeks later. Following a six-year hiatus while the members performed their mandatory military service, the K-pop group arrived with another media circus. Has enough time passed, or has K-pop grown so much that the group has already been replaced by a new generation?

In the meantime, there was still a lot of good new music in March! Too much to include in one column—so with full respect to such impressive releases as Paul McCartney's vulnerable "Days We Left Behind" and Sturgill Simpson-as-Johnny Blue Skies's country-disco freak-out on Mutiny After Midnight, let's close out Women's History Month with a list that starts with some of March's best new songs released by female artists.

By Alan Light