Today
Encore: Chuck Klosterman on Why Football Owns TV (and Why It Won’t Forever)
(Originally Aired 1/21/26) Football isn’t just the biggest show on TV — at this point, it’s basically the only reason some TV networks exist. So it’s a very worthy subject for Chuck Klosterman, the provocative and prolific writer, to tackle in his new book, which is called… Footb ... Show More
56m 16s
Nov 4
Barry Diller on Big Bets, AI, and Knowing When to Walk Away
Barry Diller is 84, still running the company formerly known as IAC , and still making big bets. This summer, he tried to buy MGM Resorts in an $18 billion deal — then walked away.I sat down with Diller live at Business Insider’s Long Play event to talk about why he wanted MGM, w ... Show More
43m 36s
Apr 2023
Ben Smith on the Turmoil at Buzzfeed, Fox News and Everything In Between
To make sense of a turbulent and important week in media, we turn to Ben Smith who was the founding Editor in Chief of Buzzfeed News (2012 to 2020) and the former New York Times media critic (from 2020 to 2022). On the agenda: the shuttering of Buzzfeed News, the meaning of Murdo ... Show More
1h 4m
Apr 2023
Ben Smith on the Bust of the Digital Media Age
The media world over the last few week has been rocked by major disruptions: Fox ousts Tucker Carlson, CNN fires Don Lemon, BuzzFeed News is shutting down, Twitter has become a less reliable resource, and Vice Media shutters its flagship program “Vice News Tonight.” Over the last ... Show More
35m 5s
Sep 2021
Understanding The Digital Age, Tech In The Pandemic (Podcast)
Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, discusses updated content from his book "Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age." Jennifer Surane, Finance Reporter for Bloomberg News, talks about her story, "Wall Street Limps Into Post-Labor Day Return Derailed by De ... Show More
27m 7s
Mar 2021
Tony Hsieh, Jeff Bezos's Twitter fingers, and Big Tech in Congress (again)
This week, Kara and Scott chat about the Wall Street Journal's deep dive on Tony Hsieh, Jeff Bezo's twitter fingers, and the future of unions. Then, Friend of Pivot Zephyr Teachout joins us to talk about Cuomo Corruption and how monopoly power is "white power."
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56m 5s
Jun 2024
Is the NY Times Just a Gaming Platform?
Even the Grey Lady struggles to profit from the news. This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers are joined by Semafor founder Ben Smith to discuss media profit models, the impact of Google’s AI on the news biz, and the TikTok-ification of information. In the Plus ... Show More
43m 47s
Oct 2022
BONUS #1 🔥 The Inventor of Virality: Jonah Peretti, Buzzfeed Founder & CEO
In our first TBOY interview, we chat with the Founder and CEO of Buzzfeed, Jonah Peretti. Buzzfeed was the first media company built on virality, harnessing the power of the internet to scale humor, joy, news… and a listicle on which Disney princess you are. But before Buzzfeed w ... Show More
48m 38s
Sep 2023
Writers Strike Deal, Betting Against the FTC, and Guest Mathias Döpfner
Kara and Scott discuss the tentative deal between Hollywood writers and studios, and what it means for the future of the industry. They also talk about GOP attacks on misinformation researchers, as well as the hedge fund making billions betting against FTC Chair Lina Khan. Friend ... Show More
1h 13m
Aug 2020
Pivot Schooled #1: Media's Overnight Chaos, with TikTok's Vanessa Pappas and Columbia University's Emily Bell
In this audio version of the first episode of our live video series Pivot Schooled, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway talk about the rapidly changing media industry, President Trump's attempt to force a sale of TikTok's US operations, and what happens when disinformation is coming ... Show More
52m 56s
Oct 2022
Netflix Breaks a Losing Streak, Zuck Swipes at iMessages, and Guest Ben Smith of Semafor
Netflix beat estimates for Q3 and added two million subscribers. Meta has Super-App dreams for WhatsApp, and Mark Zuckerberg is ready to take on iMessage. Plus, Twitter freezes employees' stock accounts, and an activist investor grabs a significant stake in Salesforce. Friend of ... Show More
1h 1m
It’s our first four-way pod, featuring BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti, Gawker founder Nick Denton, and Semafor founder (and former editor-in-chief of the recently shuttered BuzzFeed News) Ben Smith, who wrote a book about them both. Peter Kafka talks to all of them in conjunction with Smith’s new book “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Do ... Show More
<p>In this episode, Eli examines the end of the new media boom of the 2010s. His guest is Ben Smith, co-founder of Semafor and the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Genius-Rivalry-Delusion-Billion-Dollar/dp/0593299752">Traffic</a>.</p><p><br></p><p>Time Stamps: </ ... Show More
