What’s So Unique about Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar?

I’m a bit surprised by how many people have heard of Breaking Points and watch Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti on their pro-people, anti-establishment YouTube/podcast show. This is the preeminent show in the U.S. if you’re looking for smart, objective analysis of facts, politics, and policy. Mainstream news media, whether TV or print, doesn’t hold a candle to it.

Earlier today I happened to ask a new friend if he ever watched Breaking Points. Turns out he had never heard of them, and I said I would send him some links. When I realized that this was going to be the 4th or 5th time I had done this in the past few months, I knew it was time to write this article to make it easier the 8th, 10th, and 25th times I want to share Breaking Points with friends.

Scroll further down this article for examples, including 14 representative videos from the Breaking Points show.

Quick background: I’ve been watching Krystal and Saagar since early 2020 when they were still doing a similar show on TheHill.com; that earlier show was called The Rising. They left The Hill in April 2021 to launch their own show…and Breaking Points was born.

If you are an intellectually curious person who cares about the directions the world is going in, this is a show that will help you make more sense of the world, our country, our politics, and the problems and issues that many of us have to deal with…and they strive to do all that in intellectually rigorous, honest, and objective ways.

Roadmap for this article:

• An introduction to Krystal and Saagar and their current show, Breaking Points
• A breakdown of how their show works
• My take on what their value-add is, including the parts that I think are fairly unique
• A large handful of representative videos from the duo over the past couple years that I think are standouts, along with a bit of my commentary along the way

What Breaking Points is
There are 3 full shows each week — on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday — and each show is typically 1.5 to 2 hours long. With these “full shows,” there are usually 8 segments in each show, including news segments with commentary; one monologue segment from each co-host; and an interview with an expert on a given topic at the end of the show. They also release content on the other 4 days of the week.

Why does Breaking Points stand out? What is their unique value-add?

1. News and analysis that is as objective as possible.
2. Deeper, more thoughtful analysis and discussion than you can find on mainstream TV news (CNN, Fox, MSNBC) or in most of the mainstream written press (NYTimes, Washington Post, WSJ, etc.)
3. A different lens through which they view the world and bring perspectives to us — up-down vs. left-right. An “establishment vs. people” lens does a good job explaining the world we Americans live in. The now-old left-right paradigm is only a distraction; it doesn’t provide much useful explanation or understanding of the U.S.
4. Hosts who are regular people and speak like regular people. We can all relate to them.
5. They don’t make many mistakes, but when they do, they own those mistakes. They do their best to learn from the misses and strive to continuously improve.
6. They both have great senses of humor that they bring into the shows with them.
7. They don’t bullshit each other or the audience.
8. They have great values — including that they really care about other people — and they do a good job of living those values. Those values also include strong senses of justice that can turn into righteous anger when they see regular people getting screwed by the system. Saagar and Krystal are kind, warm people.
9. They have excellent guests on a wide variety of topics and from very diverse backgrounds. Discussions with these guests are opportunities for us to learn.
10. Each co-host has a left-or-right leaning — Krystal to the left and Saagar to the right — but neither host is shy about calling BS on “their own team” when it is warranted. They do it often. They are objective, not neutral.

Certain themes get covered more frequently, generally because those themes are relevant, important, and in the news quite often. Topics like reforming healthcare in the U.S.; the financial corruption of our political elites; and the corrosive effects of monopolies.

Healthcare

Former healthcare exec EXPOSES Biden lie on single payer healthcare
07/07/2020
Interview with Wendell Potter. Note in particular the admission that Wendell makes around the 7:05 mark about what part of his former role as a healthcare executive in the US used to be.

Krystal Ball: Healthcare CRIMINALS Are Gouging Covid Patients
11/24/2020
Discussion of the National Nurses United blockbuster report released in late November 2020. This is Krystal at her best. (Also download the report PDF — link above — and at least skim the first couple pages.)

Krystal Ball: GUTLESS Cali Dems BRIBED to Kill HealthCare Bill
02/01/2022
This was the latest in a series of segments Breaking Points did on this topic of Governor Newsom’s promise during his recall election to make single-payer healthcare happen in California. How did that all work out? It really didn’t get much coverage in mainstream media, but Breaking Points viewers saw this coming over a month in advance of the actual “killing of the vote.” This was despite Newsom’s unambiguous, unequivocal, full-throated support of CalCare…when he was trying to beat his recall election. By the time the mainstream media began covering the story, it was a done deal.

Krystal and Saagar: Watch Dem Rep DEMOLISH Pharma CEO Over Drug Prices.
10/01/2020

Corruption

Congressman CAUGHT Telling Truth About CORRUPTION In DC | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar.
04/20/2022
Many people will be astonished that this kind of corruption occurs. But it’s even more astonishing that it gets talked about in a public setting as matter-of-factly as is the case here.

Lawmakers CAUGHT Making Millions In ILLEGAL Stock Trades | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
12/14/2021
Great overview of what’s been going on when it comes to illegal — and definitely unethical — stock trading by members of Congress. Nancy Pelosi is probably one of the more egregious offenders when it comes to this, but she is by no means alone. Keep your air sickness bag handy as you watch this one.

Krystal and Saagar: WH TRIES TO HIDE Hunter Biden’s Six-Figure Art Buyers
07/12/2021
Unbelievable corrupt…and an unbelievably blasé response from the Biden administration. I suppose this is what Biden meant during the 2020 campaign by “Nothing is going to change”….

Media FORCED To Admit Hunter Biden Laptop, Corruption REAL | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
03/31/2022

Great guests

(The Rising) Funky Academic: Why black voters rejected Bernie Sanders
03/29/2020
Great example here of the amazing guests they have on the show. Irami gives what feels like a 100% credible explanation on the topic of “Why black voters rejected Bernie Sanders,” but there are other pearls of wisdom sprinkled throughout this interview/monologue.

There is outside-the-box analysis here that you will never see on mainstream news media. Never. This is a must-watch interview, imo. This is Breaking Points at its best. And Irami is one of my favorite guests on their show.

Matt Stoller: How the Democratic Party functions as a monopoly.
02/24/2020
Great overview of monopolies and how they function by Matt Stoller. Deep thinker who is very skilled at putting complex business and government policy issues into terms that regular people can relate to and understand. Very interesting discussion here about (1) how the Democratic Party’s behavior looks a lot like behavior you see in monopolies and concentrations of power in the business world; and (2) how much money is at stake for the consultants and people who work for the Democratic Party.

Matt Stoller: DNC Convention Is Devoid Of Policy, Reckoning With Obama’s Legacy
08/19/2020
Krystal and Saagar having smart guests who are not pre-scripted in terms of what they will say or what they are allowed to say means the co-hosts — and we — often get surprised.
This segment with Matt Stoller is a great example . While talking about the 2020 DNC Convention schedule of speakers and likely content for that evening, Matt tossed out a metaphor around the 1:50 mark that had both hosts break out in laughter, with Krystal unable to stop laughing for at least the next 10 or 15 seconds (listen to the audio bits from her as the video shifts back to Matt.)

Matt Stoller: EXPOSING The Amazon Prime Scam | Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar.
02/06/2022
Krystal and Saagar have been building more substantial and collaborative partnerships with people like Matt Stoller and organizations like David Sirota’s The Lever. This segment is an amazing deep dive into how Amazon Prime really works; why it’s an example of monopoly power being used to benefit Amazon by extracting maximum possible money from customers, competitors, and Amazon 3rd party marketplace sellers.
This 16-minute segment requires your attention when you’re watching/listening to it, but you will walk away with an understanding about how Amazon Prime works that you probably could not have gotten anyplace else.

Monologues by each co-host
Back when Saagar and Krystal were doing their show “The Rising” on TheHill.com, they called their monologue segments “Radars” — i.e., “What’s on your radar today, Krystal?”

Krystal Ball Monologue: Biden Vets GOP Cabinet As Public DEMANDS Leftist Policies
10/21/2020
Two things I would note about this segment: (1) Krystal’s discussion at about the 2:34 mark on what the mainstream polling positions are on issues and policies like Medicare for All, publicly funded college, the need for “major” policy change in the US because “things are so off track” is important and well said by her; and (2) it is interesting that despite Biden floating a lot of trial balloons in late 2020 about bringing Republicans into his cabinet (if elected), he ultimately did not really go that path. …maybe it was sharp, frosty blowback on that idea like this that dissuaded him…?

Saagar Enjeti Monologue: Elon Musk Replied To Me, Mainstream Media LOST THEIR MINDS
04/28/2022
Saagar on a recent monologue — yes, Saagar, the MSM has indeed lost their minds.