Kara Swisher, long known as a sharp chronicler of Silicon Valley excess, is now positioning herself as a power broker in national politics at a moment when podcasts are increasingly supplanting traditional media as a primary stage for ambitious candidates.
According to Breitbart, the 63-year-old Swisher has become nearly impossible to avoid in the media ecosystem. She is filling in for Joy Behar on ABCs The View, appearing alongside Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada 2, starring in a CNN documentary, preparing a national tour, and still managing to produce four podcasts most weeks, built around long-form interviews and commentary. This omnipresence is the culmination of more than three decades covering the technology industry with what she has long described as a studied indifference to power, a posture that helped elevate her into the rarefied realm of journalism celebrity.
Swisher leveraged that reputation to pull off feats few reporters could match, persuading bitter rivals Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to share a stage and grilling Mark Zuckerberg so relentlessly that he visibly perspired under questioning. She once had Elon Musks cellphone number the two are not currently on speaking terms and she still frequently texts tech and business leaders, using those backchannel relationships to shape conversations that now extend far beyond Silicon Valley.
Her wager today is that the clout she built in the tech world can be converted into political influence, as candidates increasingly bypass legacy outlets in favor of long, unfiltered podcast appearances. During President Donald Trumps second Republican term, a parade of potential Democratic presidential hopefuls including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel have all made their way onto Swishers shows, and she makes clear she expects that list to grow. We get called by all the presidential candidates, Swisher said in an interview at her home in a leafy corner of Washington, where her trademark high self-regard was on full display. Were going to get to all of them.
She is hardly alone in using podcasts to talk politics, and in raw audience numbers she trails several prominent conservative and liberal hosts. Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson on the right, and the former Barack Obama aides behind Pod Save America on the left, all command larger followings, and all of them are dwarfed by Joe Rogans massive reach. Yet Swisher, who has evolved from traditional print reporter to media entrepreneur and podcast impresario, occupies a niche few can match: deep technology expertise combined with a knack for tying those insights to the broader political and cultural debate.
When I first went on her podcast when I just got into Congress in 2017, she was very well respected in tech circles, said Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat whose district includes Silicon Valley. But now shes emerged as a larger cultural force, especially at a time where theres such anger at the tech billionaires and tech arrogance. That anger, often stoked by progressive rhetoric against Big Tech, has created fertile ground for a figure like Swisher, who can both criticize and court the industrys elite while offering Democrats a friendly venue to vent about capitalisms winners.
When she is not traveling, Swisher typically records from a basement studio in the Washington home she shares with her wife, children, and a cat named Lovely. Her flagship interview podcast, On with Kara Swisher, often feeds into Pivot, the twice-weekly show she co-hosts with entrepreneur and NYU professor Scott Galloway, where their conversations about tech, business, and politics are cross-pollinated and amplified.
Those interviews frequently produce revealing, and sometimes uncomfortable, moments for her guests. When Newsom filled in for Galloway on Pivot, Swisher chastised him for going too soft on Steve Bannon when the longtime Trump adviser appeared on Newsoms own podcast. You had an opportunity to engage, Swisher pressed. Why not engage?
The usually unflappable Newsom admitted he had fallen short. Im not the pro that some of these others are, but I appreciate the insight, he conceded, acknowledging that Swishers confrontational style exposed his own reluctance to challenge a high-profile conservative guest.
Swisher also pressed Buttigieg on why he waited so long to say that President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat, should not have sought reelection, a question that cut to the heart of Democratic leaderships reluctance to confront its own aging standard-bearer. Buttigieg tried to deflect by saying he had not been consulted on the decision. Sure, but you have eyes, Swisher responded, a retort that underscored the obviousness of Bidens political liabilities to anyone willing to look honestly.
Her interview with Harris showcased what Swisher described as the former vice presidents more combative side, as Harris lashed out at policies from Trumps Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., calling them f up. Harris added gravely that she cant laugh about such matters, presenting herself as deadly serious about the stakes, though Swisher later noted on another podcast that the two women had been joking about Kennedy backstage. Be the person backstage because thats the person who gave a great answer, Swisher said in the later podcast, suggesting that the unguarded, off-camera Harris was more compelling than the carefully scripted public version.
Newsom, in a separate interview, acknowledged that Swishers willingness to challenge him is part of her appeal. Swisher, he said, calls out my bulls-. Shell send me missives unsolicited, he added. Shes usually right, and it drives me crazy.
Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat who has known Swisher for years, agreed that facing her questions is no easy task. Being interviewed by Swisher is not a layup, Warner said, a telling admission from a seasoned politician who is accustomed to friendly treatment from much of the mainstream press.
Even Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, one of the few Republicans to appear on her show, said the experience was worthwhile despite being pressed on whether his criticisms of the Trump White House only became vocal after he decided not to seek reelection. If youre a politician, you should be able to walk up anywhere and hold your own, Tillis said. Do the prep, get on the show. You may end up having an opportunity, like in my experience, to give a completely different perspective.
When Pivot launched in 2018, reshaping the political conversation was not the explicit goal. Galloway, who also hosts the Prof G and Raging Moderates podcasts, recalled that the original concept was to focus on the intersection of technology and business, a space where both he and Swisher had long operated.
That remains the shows core, but the biggest stories in tech and business from the initial public offering of Musks SpaceX to the rapid advance of artificial intelligence are now inseparable from politics and regulation. Show me a big business or tech story, and Im going to show you a political overlay, Galloway said, capturing the reality that Washingtons reach into the private sector has grown dramatically, often to the detriment of market freedom and innovation.
This expansion into politics coincides with a growing sense of urgency among Democrats that they must be more aggressive on digital platforms, where younger and more engaged audiences increasingly reside. The single most important quality that every candidate needs to have is the ability to talk and the ability to talk anywhere, said Teddy Goff, co-founder of Precision Strategies and digital director for Obamas 2012 presidential campaign. That might mean a two-hour podcast interview. It might mean a 15-second digital video.
Democrats are still smarting from Rogans nearly three-hour interview with Trump in the final weeks of the 2024 campaign, a marathon conversation that reached millions outside the traditional media filter. Rogan, who insists he is not a journalist, has said Harris campaign refused his terms for an appearance, and Harris has publicly complained about being rebuffed by Rogan, a rare instance of a Democrat admitting they need access to a non-liberal audience.
Swisher agrees that Democrats should embrace podcasts as a key battleground but rejects the notion that she is a left-leaning counterweight to Rogans freewheeling show. You cant manufacture this stuff, she said. It just doesnt work, right? The kids like what the kids like.
Regardless of how she labels herself, the numbers suggest her podcasts have translated into both influence and substantial financial success. Galloway said Pivot, structured as a joint venture between himself, Swisher, and Vox Media, is on track to be a $15 million to $20 million business this year, a remarkable figure in an industry otherwise beset by layoffs and consolidation.
With a staff of just five, Pivot is a lean operation generating outsized returns at a time when legacy media outlets are being buffeted by mergers, acquisitions, and collapsing ad revenue. Vox Media itself has been effectively reborn after a recent acquisition by James Murdoch, who consolidated New York magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network, and the Vox editorial brand into a single company where podcasts are the fastest-growing segment.
Podcasts are the NBA, Galloway said. Theres a small amount of people making a lot of money. That analogy underscores the stratification of the podcast world, where a handful of star hosts many of them with clear ideological leanings dominate the conversation and the revenue, while smaller voices struggle for attention.
Although Swishers guest list skews heavily Democratic, she has recently made a point of bringing on more conservative or Republican voices. In addition to Tillis, she has interviewed Scott Jennings, a conservative CNN commentator, and she says she is actively trying to book more figures from the right, including California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, whom she sought to reach by texting his wife, a former Google executive, shortly after he advanced in the race.
What were going for is to be popular among the entire populace, she said. So that people who dont feel they want to be in a constant state of anger, whether its on the left or the right, can have a place to go. That aspiration, however, may be difficult to reconcile with her frequent barbed comments about Trump and other Republicans, which have helped cement her status as a trusted voice for the left but could alienate conservatives wary of yet another media platform tilted against them.
Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, said shows like Swishers often blur the line between journalism and opinion-driven entertainment. Such programs can butt right up against the type of podcasts that I would not consider journalism, McBride observed, raising questions about how audiences should interpret the mix of reporting, commentary, and personality-driven banter.
The way you separate them out is that the intention and the system surrounding the podcast is engineered in a way to create fact-based information, she said. Swisher herself describes her work as reported analysis, citing tech writer Om Malik, who died last week, as an inspiration for her blend of sourcing, skepticism, and unapologetic point of view.
As for the tone of her shows, Swisher insists that the sharp edges are part of the authenticity that underpins her brand. Beyond their takes on the days news, she and Galloway have cultivated a distinctive chemistry in which his frequent vulgarities and bombast can make her seem almost restrained and highbrow by comparison, even as both indulge in the kind of irreverence that traditional news anchors avoid.
We dont shy away from our faults, she said. We dont shy away from our biases. You know, we dont shy away from things that most people try to. That candor, coupled with her clear ideological leanings and close ties to Democratic power brokers, ensures that as Swishers influence grows, so too will the debate over whether her expanding political footprint represents a new form of journalism, a sophisticated extension of partisan media, or simply another example of celebrity-driven commentary filling the vacuum left by a declining press.
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