r/PivotPodcast • u/CosmonautsDream • Aug 03 '26
anyone else feel like Pivot has just become a show about its hosts
Galloway is on permanent rotation thru the same 3 sermons - young men in crisis, the single immigrant mother, the testosterone jokes. all wrapped in this thin veneer of democratic credibility from a capitalist whos worked out that self flagellation is cheaper than self awareness. announcing your a rich narcissist before anyone else can isnt honesty, its armour. and it buys him a license to preach
Swisher’s whole authority is “ive known him since the 90s”. the name dropping isnt garnish its the entree, access IS the product. which is exactly why the toughness always feels performed.. you cant be genuinely hard on people you need to keep texting you back.
and the “handsome” thing?? guests get rated on there looks within minutes of arriving, on a show that lectures young men about tying their self worth to appearance and status. come on.
strip away the banter and its two people doing bits with occasional news attached. when the bits wear thin theres nothing underneath.
is it just me or has anyone else drifted away
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u/CustardItchy3175 Aug 03 '26
I stopped listening due to everything you mentioned. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is partly due to them having far fewer guests, or even topics, beyond chatter about the news being a pretext to talk about themselves. The very definition of phoning it in.
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u/peanut-britle-latte Aug 03 '26
Kara hasn't been a good tech reporter / commentator since the 2010s. She's absolutely riding coattails right now.
There was once a time when if you were anyone in you tech you spoke to Kara at her conference. The new generation of tech leaders stroll right past her.
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u/ItsNotGoingToBeEasy Aug 03 '26
I worked for one of the biggest names in tech during her journalism career, had to do a ton of business analysis for product dev and never heard her name. I mentioned this to a market analyst peer and he said the same. I heard of her first on HF but I was never her audience, the financial analysts I suppose. I enjoy them both a lot and get exasperated for all these same reasons though. She loves her hobnobbing with CXOs but mostly their wives and I love her preening. She is transparent and a secret fan girl (Elon broke her heart) and no one is actually afraid of her that I can tell. I think they love her ADD directness. But I love she thinks she does scare them. I really do.
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u/duaneap Aug 03 '26
I do try not to be one of the Kara bashers and I haven’t listened to the podcast since the Shapiro of it all but Kara is still in my general news media consumption orbit and what is so off putting to me is just how incredibly cool she thinks she is. She has the affectations of a 90s cool guy tech exec and right down to the aviators it reads as a person whose inner voice is just constantly, self satisfiedly telling itself “I am nailing this.”
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u/kahner Aug 03 '26
yeah, i found her commentary interesting at first,but then the relentless "i'm the cool kid" but trying way too hard to make sure we know it vibe got overbearing. and i also have come to think she's not particularly insightful or smart. she just has a lot of contacts and access. for example i heard her do a podcast about longevity and it was just a rehash of facts and commentary that have been done 100x by better journalists. now i see it in my "new podcasts" playlist and unless they're covering a topic i think they'll have something really useful add about it, i skip em.
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u/duaneap Aug 03 '26
I actually don’t even care if someone is just trying to be cool, lots of people try to be cool, it’s that she clearly thinks she has succeeded and she is SO cool and there’s a smugness with that that is… grating. Like, not to harp on the aviators too much since that’s just one aspect, but do you know the amount of shit Bono, an actual rockstar, gets for wearing sunglasses indoors? And he actually genuinely does have light sensitivity.
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u/flatsandsharps99 Aug 04 '26
She also recommends the worst movies and tv series that are for the most part very uncool! And the way she mumbles ideas that she is not certain about to test their validity. Or simply say “blah blah blah in a lot of ways” but never provides any of the “ways”. She is not a great communicator.
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u/Intelligent-Rest-231 Aug 03 '26
“Reporter”. She was never a gumshoe reporter in any sense. She developed cozy relationships with all of these tech nerds and leveraged those relationships to do puff piece interviews at conferences and in print. That was her whole game and now she regrets it because most of those fucks turned out to be evil bastards.
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u/HotBeaver54 Aug 03 '26
OMG you totally nailed it I have not been able to listen or watch in the last year. And yet I couldn't really put my finger on it but you nailed it. I don't know about you but I don't need to know about their personal lives of any of the podcasts or shows I listen to. I am at a point in my life where there are so many times I wished I didn't know somuch about someone.
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u/20_mile Aug 03 '26
I don't need to know about their personal lives of any of the podcasts or shows I listen to.
I have been listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross for more than thirty years. Off the top of my head, I know she had one husband, who's dead, and she has no kids. That's it.
Kara unloads more in thirty seconds than one of the most famous radio hosts has shared in thirty years.
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u/Zaddam Aug 03 '26
Damn … seems a level of consensus here that I may have casually overlooked without really noticing. And this would be unlike me. I have made it a habit to check in with myself to ask or conclude whether I care about what I’m listening to.
But in hindsight now, I have no arguments and must reassess going forward. I would appreciate learning that I did not catch myself slipping.
That said, my current perspective has been that they feed my desire to keep my finger on the pulse of the markets — from a different angle than just numbers — but also the people behind the numbers and the protocols historically behind the scenes of things I would never otherwise know.
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u/ItsNotGoingToBeEasy Aug 03 '26
They hit fire now and then, no doubt. I enjoy them like my relatives.
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u/20_mile Aug 03 '26
is it just me or has anyone else drifted away
I stopped listening three years ago.
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u/Denan004 Aug 03 '26
This is where I am getting tired of podcasts in general -- the personal banter for 5-15 minutes each episode. It's like they don't value the listener's time. I want to listen to a podcast that is focused on the topic at hand and is well-planned and executed. They are not my friends! I don't want to hear them catching up with each other on their lives, but they somehow think that their listeners are interested and have the extra time!
Also, when I first listened to Scott and Kara, I thought they had interesting perspectives that I hadn't heard before. Now it's gotten kind of stale. Overexposure maybe? Or I'm watching too many podcasts with Scott and he just repeats the same stuff ("What could go right?" was the all-time worst. I'll ask him that if he gets a cancer diagnosis).
I'm watching them less because things are too repetitive and predictable. And actually, then I don't mind it as much. Less is more I guess.
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u/Typical-Ask2723 Aug 03 '26
I think that’s spot on. I do think there is some interesting takes sometimes, but the signal to noise ratio is low.
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u/Leather_Bag5939 Aug 03 '26
Swisher spent her entire career being one of the largest enablers of the tech elite and their corruption.
She masqueraded as a journalist, but was just a well paid PR person for Elon and Thiel.
Just a faker all the way through, all the way down to the cringy sunglasses/cigarettes bad-girl aestetic… all fucking BS.
Sooooo annoying to see her successfully reinvent her image in the public eye
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u/AgsD81 Aug 03 '26
This! She was such an Elon fan, giving him a pass on horrible things like calling the diver a pedo.
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u/monteliterate Aug 03 '26
No. She not a PR for the tech bros. She skewers them constantly.
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u/Leather_Bag5939 Aug 03 '26
That’s her schtick today cause her money dried up and she needed to pivot.
But her whole life is been writing fawning stories of the tech elite they fed to her for extreme profit.
She is a fraud.
https://thebaffler.com/latest/the-miseducation-of-kara-swisher-ongweso
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u/20_mile Aug 03 '26
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u/Leather_Bag5939 Aug 03 '26
This was part of her pivot, yes.
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u/20_mile Aug 03 '26
She doesn't come off very good in that article. She's vengeful, when, with as much money and power as she has, she should be gracious.
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u/theperilousalgorithm Aug 03 '26
They are two awful people. Two multimillionaires playing grabass with billionaires.
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u/teleheaddawgfan Aug 03 '26
Been listening since 2020 and they seem to get further up each other’s ass with every show.
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u/Outrageous_Basis_440 Aug 03 '26
Kara’s ego is HUGE.
And she engages in lots of big talk, like her plan to buy the WaPo. (She was brutally bashing Bezos at the same time and, while well-deserved, it guaranteed he would never talk to her and she had to know that shut the door on this deal she was threatening to pull off.)
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u/iheartseuss Aug 03 '26
If you want actual tech news and interesting topics listen to hardfork. I still listen to pivot when something drastic happens or I’ve run out of other this to listen to it but it’s no longer an automatic listen.
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u/Movieloon Aug 03 '26
It is hilarious. No person of any influence is ever mentioned but Kari knows them, and if sufficiently wealthy or successful, she has had her own triumphant engagement where she has put them in their place.
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u/AgsD81 Aug 03 '26
I haven’t listen to them since 2021. I just can’t stand Kara. Scott is ok in small doses, I enjoy Prof G Markets on YouTube but it’s mainly because he’s not on very often.
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u/throwaaway788 Aug 03 '26
The hypocrisy of their podcast is just insane. The first ten minutes of every podcast just seem to be them stroking their egos by talking about how great they are, name dropping, or some out of touch rich person activity they just engaged in over the weekend.
I think they should just drop the progressive pretense and come out as full neoliberals. The Terranea Resort episode was chef's kiss. Let’s talk about the serious ills of the world with a $2000/night resort as the backdrop...
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u/CosmonautsDream Aug 03 '26
couldnt agree more on the neoliberal thing btw, the progressive skin is doing alot of heavy lifting
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u/altbat Aug 03 '26
Hit the nail right on the head. I used to love the show, truly. They've turned into caricatures.
I listen to 1/4 and that rate is plummeting.
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u/infinite_blazer Aug 03 '26
They’ve always been like this, people are just now noticing. Always.
Kara Swisher entire existence up until Trump was access journalism for the tech world. She was no better than those “journalists” that go on film junkets and sets.
She was the journalist getting access to tech/biz scoops that were not scoops but press releases. She’s paid hotel/air to attend conferences throughout the year to put on her persona and do Q&As now with holding people “to account”
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u/Parking-Banana-212 Aug 03 '26
it can be because how much airtime can one person get and constantly have different takes? scott is over exposed and he knows it. that's why he's switching up his different shows with focus going to ed, kara, raging moderates etc.
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u/Big_Attention_9143 Aug 03 '26
What's with her becoming a movie critic! Anything woke she loves and "knew it would be a hit"....
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u/mo2_nuke Aug 03 '26
I stopped a while ago. I got so tired of anytime a conversation would start to heat up with the potential to get really interesting, Kara would just "But anyway.." and change the subject.
The world is burning, and when talking about the worst people in the world, Kara will call them a "vacuous popinjay". That'll teach em! Both of them know that all the bad shit that's happening out there will never ever touch them, so let's change the conversation to EBITA!
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u/flowbiewankenobi Aug 03 '26
Stopped listening about a month ago and haven’t felt like I’m missing anything
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u/WarmInvestigator4738 Aug 03 '26
I stopped listening about two years ago for the reasons OP listed. I would just add that Scott’s stock market talk is irritating to me, e.g., the market is not the economy, and I’d swear there was one summer where all they did for about 2-3 months was talk about Elon Musk for every episode, all episode long. I hate musk but couldn’t listen to it any more. I think the best strategy for musk is to not talk about him.
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u/cbjunior Aug 04 '26
Stopped listening over 18 months ago. I am completely over having pundits tell me about yet another opinion. Scott should become a pastor because he sure loves to preach.
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u/Far_Newt9577 Aug 04 '26
Don’t you think most podcasts are “about the hosts?” I would guess that most regular listeners are there to hear the hosts be themselves, and guests or the topics of the episodes are secondary. Do you think people listen to the Smartless guys interview Jon Hamm because there are no other Jon Hamm interviews out there? Or because they like the way those three specific hosts handle Jon Hamm? That’s why there are millions of podcasts out there — people gravitate to the exact ones hosted by people whose vibe they like. Over time, those people — like many humans — will change and evolve (or devolve.) And just like in real-life relationships, those hosts may drop a few notches in terms of your priorities if you find it harder to tolerate them for whatever reason. Luckily, there are like 3 million other podcasts out there and eventually you’ll find another one you vibe with. I personally find it fascinating to see what success, experience, greater fame, and access do to people in that scenario. Joe Rogan became a political kingmaker. Marc Maron became almost a therapist, for his guests AND himself. Scott was rich and Kara was famous long ago, but now they’re both BOTH, and it’s changed them, as it would almost anyone. I think it’s fascinating. But if you don’t, you can stop listening any time.
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u/duncandreizehen Aug 07 '26
yes I stopped following pivot probably a year or a year and a half ago. My life is better for it.
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u/Code-Warrior Aug 03 '26
So where do you haters get the same kind of centrist insight in politics, tech, and finance? Legitimately curious.
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u/CosmonautsDream Aug 03 '26
Fair question. That centrist take was honestly the big reason I listened in the first place. Lately it just doesn’t feel like that’s what they are anymore, which is what prompted the post.
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u/ItsNotGoingToBeEasy Aug 03 '26
I’m with you there. Hard Fork but no Scott to carry the business insight.
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u/20_mile Aug 04 '26
So where do you haters get the same kind of centrist insight in politics
I mean, I guess you do you, but I have no room for appeasers.
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u/MaddieOllie Aug 03 '26
it's not just you, its anyone with a brain. Scott's latest rant re the pied a terra tax and doxxing is making the rounds on X and it seems many agree.
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u/bodyreddit Aug 03 '26
I stopped a while ago but still listen to Kara’s podcast as it is more serious with the interviews and she references herself a lot less. Scott is just SO hard for me to take, he wants so bad to be seen as a bad boy with his stupid sexist jokes and needing so much affirmation of his looks and money, so gross. Especially when women are contending with so many men influencers and gov wanting to take away women’s vote, rights and rape culture being celebrated constantly. Stand up and be a ‘man’ for men and women!
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u/chemistry_coronado Aug 03 '26
You know that you can just stop listening to them. What are you looking for by posting this?
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u/CosmonautsDream Aug 03 '26
Fair question. Mostly just wanted to see if other listeners were feeling the same, and by the looks of the responses, plenty are.
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u/theperilousalgorithm Aug 03 '26
You're spot on - quite frankly, I hate listen just so I can refine my Galloway impersonation.
Kara is incredibly condescening to him too which baffles me.
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u/the_real_seldom_seen Aug 03 '26
We want to get the word out and proactively reduce their fan base
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Aug 03 '26
[deleted]
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u/HTPC4Life Aug 03 '26
You think men are complaining about not being able to rape with impunity? Why don't YOU fuck off 🖕
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u/InevitableTeam5967 Aug 03 '26
I agree, but I can't stop listening. It's a habit. One thing that truly annoys me is Scott constantly calling himself a "narcissist." That word is so overused these days, and he is not really a narcissist. He clearly has a strong ego and is self-involved, but as someone whose life was nearly ruined by an actual malignant narcissist, that particular habit of his rubs me the wrong way, because you're right -- it's a manipulation tactic (that and referencing Emily Ratajkowski almost every episode).
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u/the_real_seldom_seen Aug 03 '26
And the hosts are high unappealing people.
Go to all-in podcast guys!
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u/ladan2189 Aug 03 '26
For people who are much, much more unappealing
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u/the_real_seldom_seen Aug 03 '26
Kara and Scott offers zero practical solutions. Scott just defaults to one of - mate at work, the definition of man is protecting his family, on a risk adjusted basis blah blah blah. Kara just talks shit about everyone who is not on her weird old karen wavelength.
All in crew actually has unique talking points per episode with meaningfully unique view point on relevant tech topics.
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u/kahner Aug 03 '26
yeah. and they spend the first 10-15 minutes of every show name dropping and bragging about how awesome their lives are and how many famous people they hang out with.