Kara on Elon and John Legend on Kanye (and More!)

On with Kara Swisher

Kara and Nayeema kick off this Thursday’s episode with a feisty discussion about Elon Musk’s Twitter and how he’s “kicking the most active users in the teeth.” They give us the run-down inside Elon’s band of merry advisors and Nayeema gets to the heart of why exactly Kara is so angry with Elon … and so sad.

Today’s interview is with John Legend, the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning artist (aka EGOT) who famously moonlights as a social justice activist. But before he was John Legend, he was John Roger Stephens: born to a socially conservative family, sent to an Ivy League university at age 16, and dabbling as a nerdy strategy consultant before his big break. In fact, the first person to credit him as “John Legend” was Kanye West. In this conversation, Kara and John speak about Kanye’s descent into antisemitism and how he makes sense of a friend he’s long last touch with. They also discuss how TikTok has changed the music business, and why John is so hyper-focused on politics and down-ballot midterm races (no, the artist has no plans to run for political office – he’s just downright worried about the country).

Trigger warning: Kara does not hold back on her anger about Twitter and Elon these days, especially at the very end – so make sure you stay tuned for her final choice words ... or, as she calls it, her “rant!”

Disclosure: John Legend is on the board of directors at Vox Media. This did not change the nature of our interview. In fact, Kara started with what were probably the hardest questions for him.

You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema.

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