For what it's worth, I think it was brilliant, but they would know a lot more about the Holmes story than I do.

Let’s hear from Scott again how Maher is disliked by both the left and right and how that makes him so fantastic and how much he respects and admires him.

Just listening to Pivot and they had the Mooch on. Unfortunately his record is now broke

The 10/12/2026 episode of On with Kara Swisher is an interview with Aaron Sorkin & Jeremy Strong about "The Social Reckoning."

During that interview, Kara mentions an article she wrote for the New York Times in 2019 in which she predicted "there's going to be an insurrection based on the stuff on Facebook," and that reps from Facebook called her to complain about the article.

She did write such an article, but it was about Twitter. Facebook is never mentioned once.

I get that Facebook is highly relevant to the concerns stated in that article and how history unfolded. But if you're going to be a journalist, I think it's important to be precise when recounting history.

Does anyone in this sub actually like the show?

He keeps trying to make Israel the good guy. He’s failing at it.

Looking to buy a ticket to see them in Toronto on November 2nd. Does anyone have a ticket to sell?

Kara is re-listening to Sapiens and recommends everyone do it. Her memory of tech people asking if she'd read it: "I did. I went to college, and I paid attention, and you didn't."

I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the Pivot slice for September.

• I Disagree (Jessica Tarlov). Kara: "this is a really great book."
• Frankenstein (Mary Shelley). Scott broke off an analogy to recommend it: "Mary Shelley, I think is a genius."
• Artificial Intimacy (Sherry Turkle). Kara interviewed Turkle and called it "amazing."
• Mattering (Jennifer Breheny Wallace), from the Ina Garten interview in the feed. Wallace is a close friend of hers, and Ina called it "so actionable."

Full list with quotes and episodes: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/pivot

Edit: Podshelf stays free. If you find it useful and want to help with the server and data costs, there's a tip jar: https://buymeacoffee.com/podshelf

Years ago I was drawn to Pivot because of Scott. I used to follow Scott's L2 Inc updates. I found his slides on big tech brands to be spot on. I started following more of his work and discovered Pivot. I became a fervent fan. Wasn't a fan of Kara, I felt like she rambled too much, but this was before I learned of her work. I began affording her some grace, I didn't like how she never had an opinion while having strong feelings and convictions on the issue, with a stutter. Annoying, but I realized it was a delivery issue and a pure journalistic mindset, so I moved on.

Scott, however, was the catch. His analogies were visual. He always made me laugh. I loved how he was pushing positive masculinity, didn't even use those words at the time, just said as a man your job is to protect. This was at a time when a lot of influencers were popping up preaching their own toxic brand of masculinity. I loved how he was calling out elites, while being very transparent about some his trade positions, I know he was just complying by the law.

But something started to change in him. He went from raised by a single mom in California atheist to a Jew. He was very critical of Netanyahu yet very protective of the IDF. I was so confused. I had some Jewish friends growing up, they were so devout. As a Muslim, I understood that. I couldn't understand how someone could be atheist and a Jew.

This is when I discovered that being a Jew is an ethnicity, not religion. You can call me as someone living under a rock, but I genuinely went 35+ years of my life living mostly in North America not knowing this. There's an excellent recent comment in AskHistorians that explains this in detail.

I still went with it. Scott was entertaining. You don't have to agree with everything people believe in. If there's an elite who has their eyes open and willing to admit they are wrong, it is him. Or perhaps its me? I followed Sam Harris for goodness sakes, I read Annaka Harris' book on Consciousness, they went from being sensible and peace loving, to 180-degree crazy.

Sorry, not trying to flex. I'm trying to explain that I follow people I disagree with to understand and empathize with their world view. Yet somehow, the recent coverage has left we flabbergasted. Not perplexed. Flabbergasted. This rant is to get that speechlessness out and to move on.

It started with their discussion of Ed Sheeran and Macklemore. Scott said "Mackle-what's his name?" Followed by laughter about "Poor Ed Sheeran" having to deal with this now. Such a shame now celebrities have to deal with this. This is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world right now, and you are sympathetic that celebrities need to have PR messaging around this?

They were laughing it off. Scott was clear that it was not Macklemore's statement that caused his cancellation, rather, it was his past actions. Wait, I thought you didn't know what's his name? The past? As in from Seattle?

Man this is where my bias comes in I guess. Lived experienced? I used to live in Seattle during those days. I was and am a HUGE Macklemore fan. I think the guy went through a lot of crap and has come out a decent person on the other side and he's still learning and trying. Coincidentally I was at EMP that night. Didn't even know Macklemore was performing or even there. I had tried to catch him on the roof of Dick's earlier, but that didn't quite work out in the crowds. EMP was hosting an exhibit of the souvenirs from the music video Thrift Shop. I lived down the street on Lower Queen Anne. Of course I was going to go. Then man goes up and absolutely rips it. Yes, even I realized he was dressed like an orthodox Jew. He explained it was to not get recognized, ummm ok??? You were so noticeable dude and I didn't see anyone around the museum wearing that, so...

This was followed by Macklemore apologizing. It was all kind of strange. ADL ultimately accepted his apology. Then he dropped a song about daughters one month before I became a dad to a daughter and I forgot about it all again.

Yea, there's bias. I'm trying to be transparent about my bias. It was difficult to listen through that, but I made it to the the other side. Eventually the two switched topics I spoke about how New York was buzzing. Kara gave Zoran Mamdani his flowers and Scott immediately lost it. If anything Eric Adams should deserve credit since policies have a delayed effect. What are you talking about dude? He was indicted for bribery and fraud how would you rather give him credit instead of a hot upcoming young dude that the entire city is behind. That even Jewish New Yorkers are behind?

I was so confused. Then I listened to Raging Moderates episode with El-Sayed and I understood. El-Sayed is a disqualifying candidate because he believes what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. 99% of everything else they agree on, but this is "disqualifying". Ok there buddy.

This is the same Scott who keeps preaching that Democrats have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and come together on things they agree on, not bicker over their disagreements in public. Scott, people listen to you. Why are you in the way of the blue tsunami and trying to make it a wave? Are you not interested in winning back some semblance of normalcy?

Jessica kept pleading El-Sayed to understand the other side, I love that he came out and strongly stated he will not bend the knee. And then for this to be followed up by Jessica's invite to Pivot and her being brandished as bipartisan. Don't make me laugh.

Finally, the hypocrisy of now discussing the media bans by the White House and how they are assaulting the 1st Amendment, yet Robert Kraft can do this, because it is a private venue and its market forces doing what is their legal right. The same private venue that took that took millions in public funds to upgrade infra around the site to help with the stadium build out? I understand that was Massachusetts upgrading the infra and he funded his project privately himself, but if you've been to that stadium, you know it's not possible to get there without the city upgrades.

Billionaires cancelling artists is just as bad as the White House kicking out the press. I understand there's laws for one and the other requires good faith, but I also see the hypocrisy in this. Also the other stadiums that cancelled Macklemore are not privately owned, so...

I have reached my tipping point. I cannot follow Kara and Scott any longer. I also couldn't unfollow them silently. I know they read Reddit posts. I'm hoping they read this.

Good luck Kara and Scott. I hope you open your eyes.

Today (and many times in the past) Scott has repeatedly stated "Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts." That is not the quote. The proper quote (from Lord Acton) is Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Forget the "tends to" qualifier for a moment. What bothers me is Scott flipping the last part. The way Scott says it, he's stating that absolute power will definitely corrupt. There's no measure of how much it will corrupt, just that there will be some corruption. That's not the meaning. The meaning is that absolute power will corrupt one entirely (or absolutely).

Yeah, I know, for the vast majority of listeners, this is probably a minor point. But I like Scott and I want him to get it right when he's quoting others because listeners will quote him. Details matter.

I suspect this will be my kind of crowd and I’ll be solo. Pregame drinks for the fun people? Edit: forgot to say Minneapolis.