You’d think thousands of New Yorkers braving an arctic blast to trek to Kings Theatre would be there to catch the latest chart-topper, such as recent headliners PinkPantheress or, say, The Wiggles, rather than to watch a podcast taping. But “Pivot” hosts Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway proved to be a major draw on an unseasonably cold Monday night in Brooklyn, part of a seven-day tour that wraps up Friday in Los Angeles.
The crowd, spanning generations, navigated a spiraling security line, waited at multiple pricey concession stands (cocktails started at $22), and entered the 96-year-old venue’s gold-plated halls to hear the two liberal hosts trade barbs, eviscerate the Trump administration and unpack the loneliness and economic crises besetting the country.
Anticipation for the pair’s “Pivot” tour speaks to their celebrity status among the podcast set and how they’ve parlayed chatting in front of a mic on a range of topics into an eight-figure business. Swisher, a veteran tech journalist, and Galloway, an author and marketing professor, signed a new deal with Vox Media earlier this year that could earn them as much as $70 million, depending on how much revenue their slate of five podcasts brings in, they told the New York Times.
Their success comes at a fortuitous time, with interest in podcasts — the video component in particular — exploding in popularity to the point that Netflix has partnered with Spotify to bring some podcast content to its service, and wants to talk with SiriusXM on an exclusive video podcast deal. The market for podcasts this year is valued at $35.7 billion, according to Future Market Insights.
Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff, holding court at a post-show reception adjacent to the mezzanine, said the event demonstrated how “talent-based franchises” can be “multi-dimensional” businesses.
“Scott and Kara at the pinnacle, but there are so many great ones, that it can be such an individual medium, because you’re watching by yourself or you’re listening by yourself, and then you come out here,” Bankoff said, pointing out the seven-day run sold roughly 11,000 tickets. “It shows the power of the community in real life, and how we all might be listening or watching on our own, but like it’s a shared community. The opportunities for that community are great. You continue to provide value, and there’s a lot of opportunities to grow the franchise, whether it’s live events, whether it’s distribution across other video platforms, whether it’s commerce, whether it’s subscription — these are multifaceted businesses.”
It’s also indicative of how Vox Media’s yearslong commitment to personality-driven content has borne fruit, leading the company to reportedly consider spinning its podcast network into a standalone company separate from its publishing business.
Bankoff told TheWrap he wouldn’t comment on the spinoff “rumor.”
Earlier on Monday night, the community that has grown around these two personalities was eagerly awaiting the two hosts, but not before a hearty introduction by … Curtis Sliwa?
“This is a joy of a lifetime to be able to return here and talk to all of you,” said Sliwa, the Guardian Angels co-founder and, most recently, failed Republican candidate for New York City mayor.
Swisher and Galloway later emerged to thunderous applause. By the end of the hosts’ 25-minute conversation with Silwa, which touched on everything from Trump’s hatred of his cats to how the “political zombie” that is Andrew Cuomo was “slapping fannies and killing grannies” before he ran for mayor, a reference to sexual misconduct claims, which Cuomo has denied, and a COVID-19 nursing home scandal the dogged the former governor.
Some attendees gave Sliwa a standing ovation, a testament to the political gadfly’s appeal even in liberal bastions. “I may be voting for you,” Swisher quipped, before quickly disabusing the crowd of that notion. “I love a person who loves New York.”
In a nearly two-hour conversation, recorded for a Wednesday release, Swisher and Galloway tackled a grab-bag of political topics, tearing into a group of Democratic Senators voting to end the government shutdown (“We f–ked up,” Galloway said, offering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez $100,000 if she announced she’d primary Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer within 48 hours) to Trump’s decision to pardon dozens of people who tried to help him overturn the 2020 election (“I assume Ghislaine Maxwell’s next, that terrible monster,” Swisher said).
The Brooklyn audience ate it up.
Even as the conversation dragged on during the audience Q&A — attendees started trickling out around 9 p.m., 90 minutes into the taping and half an hour before it was scheduled to wrap — Galloway and Swisher remained committed to hearing everyone out, including one woman who flew in from Miami for the show and another who pitched her “transformational” workshop for young men to Galloway, who just published a book on being a man in America.
And, perhaps, they wanted to soak in the adulation. “That’s kind of pathetic, right?” Galloway said. “At my age, I still haven’t reconciled — I’m still desperate for the affirmation.”
That remained true at the post-show open-bar reception, which saw the likes of other top editors of Jay Penske-backed ventures — New York magazine’s David Haskell, Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh — mingling among Swisher and Galloway’s friends and fans. Bankoff toasted the two in front of the reception’s charcuterie spread, commending them for the strong ticket sales, their best-selling books and the longstanding success of “Pivot.”
“These two are machines, and they’re taking over,” he said. “It scares me a bit, but it makes me happy.”
Whether such a takeover will be part of Vox Media or a new, standalone podcast network remains to be seen.
