#1668 - Krystal Ball & Saagar Enjeti

Joe Rogan (0:19)

I just want to say, I told you, I knew it was gonna work.

Krystal Ball (0:22)

Yeah.

Saagar Enjeti (0:22)

It never would have happened without you.

Joe Rogan (0:24)

I knew it was gonna work. I was like, why are you like, trapped?

Krystal Ball (0:27)

I mean, it really is actually true. We've been thinking about going independent for a while because it's just more consistent with our values. The Hill takes money from all kinds of people that are very contrary to the things that we've been talking about. But, you know, it's scary to, I got kids, I got, you know, bills, I got health insurance, all this stuff.

And so I think especially during COVID, when we couldn't actually directly interact with the audience in person, it's hard to know how real it is. So when we talk to you and we're like, oh, we're thinking about it, we're kind of nervous and you weren't just like, maybe you were like, yes, do this.

It actually really did help us to make the move. So thank you.

Saagar Enjeti (1:06)

No question.

Joe Rogan (1:06)

Terrible person to take advice like that from because I'm always like, jump, fucking jump.

Krystal Ball (1:11)

Well, in this case, it was the right call. So broken block or whatever.

Saagar Enjeti (1:15)

It's really scary.

And it's one of those things where we were telling you this before, where you're like, you don't know if you're like, am I going to miss this? You have these guys, you have the support, like I don't have to deal with all this like administrative stuff and like set design and upload. But honestly, we love it so much. Like we wrapped, I think our second show, so we finally got, and I texted her, I was like, this is amazing. Like we're free. We do it the way that we want. We produce it the way that we want. And just having all the like big stuff out of your mind in terms of like the pressures of corporate media, because to be clear, like The Hill never like directly censored us, right? But and you've talked about this, it's about these outside interests.

Like there's interests that their company has that have nothing to do with us, but could impact their interests based upon what I say.

And I've told this story publicly now about what happened, but like we were doing a segment, this basic segment, I want to be very charitable. And once again, to be clear, The Hill never said anything, they said don't say this or whatever. But we're talking about the seniority system for Democrats in Congress. And I was like, this creates really perverse incentives because you have all these really old people who run Congress, like Maxine Waters, who's like 80 years old. Here's all I said, Maxine Waters will be chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee till the day she dies. That's it.

So I later find out her fucking press secretary called someone at The Hill and said, Sagaar's issuing a death threat against Maxine Waters.

And what do I want to say? I want to say go fuck yourself. I'd be like, literally put me on the phone with them, go fuck yourself, but here's the problem.

And once again, The Hill didn't say anything, but I have to know this in the back of my mind. Hill reporters have to go and talk to Maxine Waters. That's really part of their job. Like she's chairman of the Financial Services Committee. She has a lot of access. One of the most powerful people in Washington. She does other shit with The Hill. And so in the back of my mind, I'm like, can I say whatever the fuck I want about Maxine Waters? I mean, they didn't tell me to say it, but even if it's the back of my mind, like I would be lying if I wasn't saying that that wasn't with me a little bit, right? Like, you're always thinking, you're like, man, you're a human being. They're not going to fuck with me. They're going to try and fuck with your boss.

Joe Rogan (3:25)

But they're putting it out there in the air though, so they're making you think about it. Yeah, that's the whole purpose of it.

Krystal Ball (3:30)

That's exactly right. And there were things too, like I didn't even want, because the whole ethos of our show is we're independent minded, right? We're not carrying water for anyone. We have our views. We're very upfront about those views, but we're not doing partisan cheerleading here. We're not carrying water for any corporation or entity or anything like that.