The Profile's 2025 Year In Review

Good morning, friends!

Exactly one year ago, my husband asked me a simple question: Why don’t you write original profiles for The Profile?

It stopped me in my tracks. After eight years of running this newsletter, I realized I had never done the thing I love most — write original profiles for a newsletter literally called “The Profile.”

So as I reflect on 2025, I’m proud to say that I returned to the foundational reason I started this newsletter in the first place — to write deeply reported, original profiles.

I began the year by diving into financier Anthony Scaramucci’s uncanny ability to bounce back stronger after every implosion. I obtained access to SkyBridge Capital’s returns and learned that more than 57% of its $2.7 billion in hedge fund assets were allocated to cryptocurrencies — a position worth roughly $1.4 billion. Almost no one knew that Scaramucci’s fund had outperformed some of Wall Street’s most iconic names, including Tiger Global, Citadel, Coatue, and Pershing Square.

Then I focused on real estate entrepreneur Ryan Serhant. Online, Ryan was all energy — charismatic, enthusiastic, always “on.” But in person, I could sense a trace of loneliness. When I asked why he started seeing a therapist last year, he told me, “Because I have no one else to talk to.” In this piece, I focused on how success is a double-edged sword. It doesn’t guarantee happiness, fulfillment, or peace. It’s shaped by what you bring to it, and what you’re willing to give up along the way. Before you watch his Netflix show Owning Manhattan, read this, and I think you’ll notice many of the same nuances I did.

Next, I profiled NFL star Saquon Barkley. We all know Barkley as one of the most electrifying running backs in the NFL. But I kept noticing something interesting. He was posting endless photos of him with startup founders. Founders at his Super Bowl party. Founders at NFL training camp. Founders at dinner. He even starred in a Super Bowl ad for Ramp, the $22.5 billion fintech darling. He was interested in equity. What I discovered is that for Barkley, equity is a way to wrest back control from the injuries, draft picks, or franchise decisions that can derail a career overnight. I managed to get his VC returns, and as someone who used to cover venture capital at FORTUNE, I can tell you this portfolio would make even top VCs jealous.

To close out the year, I wrote the definitive profile of Kathryn Wylde, New York City’s ultimate power broker. What drew me to her story is just how unlikely her career trajectory is. She began as a community organizer, leading sit-ins, protests, and marches. She attracted criticism from politicians who labeled her “a communist.” Over time, she evolved from a social activist into an advocate for pro-growth, business-friendly policies. In 2000, Wylde was named CEO of the Partnership for New York City, and became the rare figure who could bridge Wall Street and City Hall. Her journey — from activist to power broker — raises a central question: How does she respond to those who say she went from protesting the establishment to enabling it? That tension sits at the heart of the piece.

As the year comes to a close, I’m proud to say that I followed through on my promise to bring you more original journalism — journalism that once belonged in legacy publications that no longer have the means (or the desire) to fund it.

Why profiles? Because there’s nothing more fulfilling to me than piecing together someone’s outer life with their inner world by trying to understand how they built something from nothing, justified their choices, and crafted the story they tell others.

Because sometimes, to see your own life clearly, you have to understand someone else’s.

Happy New Year to all of you, and thank you for making this work possible. If you’d like, reply to this email and tell me who you think I should profile next.

— Polina

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PROFILES.

— The architects of AI [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The war photographer who can’t walk away
— The self-help author who went dark
— The skier attempting an Olympic comeback
— The tech giant betting $300 billion on AI

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The architects of AI: Jensen Huang went from running a niche chip company to leading the most powerful force in the AI economy, and, increasingly, global politics. In 2025, artificial intelligence became a full-speed race, reshaping markets, geopolitics, labor, and daily life at once. Governments tore down guardrails, tech giants poured hundreds of billions into infrastructure, and the U.S. and China entered an AI arms race with world-changing stakes. The result is a planet racing forward on a technology that promises abundance, concentrates power, and carries risks no one fully understands. (TIME)

“You’re taking over the world, Jensen.”

The war photographer who can’t walk away: In the new documentary Love+War, Pulitzer Prize–winning photographer Lynsey Addario reflects on three decades spent covering conflict zones from Afghanistan to Ukraine while also navigating motherhood at home. Raised in a modest Connecticut household, Addario says that early grounding gave her the ability to connect deeply with soldiers, civilians, and refugees alike. The result is a portrait of a woman constantly balancing two extremes: the front lines of global conflict and the pull of family life. (Bloomberg; alternate link) [Check out my 2022 interview with Lynsey Addario here.]

“When I decided to have a family, that meant living between two very dramatic extremes.”

The self-help author who went dark: In her new memoir, Elizabeth Gilbert dismantles the serene, inspirational persona she built after Eat, Pray, Love, revealing a private descent into addiction, obsession, and moral collapse during her relationship with the dying musician Rayya Elias. Behind a public narrative of love and grace, Gilbert was living through darkness. Elias relapsed into heavy drug use, the relationship turned abusive, and Gilbert herself spiraled so badly that she briefly contemplated killing her partner to escape the ordeal. What an unhinged story this is…..(The New York Times; alternate link)

“I’m the nice lady who wrote ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ and I’m out in the park with fentanyl and morphine and sleeping pills trying to craft a murder.”

The skier attempting an Olympic comeback: At 41, Lindsey Vonn is back with her eyes on the 2026 Olympics. After years of injuries, retirement, and personal loss, she’s attempting something no skier has ever done: return to the top with a partial knee replacement. The comeback about belief, joy, and loving the risk of going 80 mph downhill. Win or lose, Vonn is redefining what’s possible at the edge of human limits. (TIME)

“Believing in myself has always been so important. Now it has probably never rang more true.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

The tech giant betting $300 billion on AI: What began as a cold LinkedIn message turned into the largest cloud-computing deal in history: a roughly $300 billion bet by Oracle to power OpenAI’s AI ambitions. The partnership has vaulted Oracle — long dismissed as a legacy tech company — into the center of the AI boom, but at enormous financial and operational risk. Will OpenAI’s explosive growth justify the biggest infrastructure gamble Silicon Valley has ever seen? (Bloomberg)

“All that needs to happen for Oracle’s bet to pay off is for him to be right.”

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