Hillary Clinton has rarely been far from the spotlight since her 2016 presidential bid. She has written best-selling books, taught at Columbia University and even tried her hand on Broadway as a producer for the Tony Award-winning musical “Suffs.”
Her next act? Podcaster.
With the midterm elections looming, Mrs. Clinton is preparing to make her voice heard on a new podcast series, called “High Stakes,” alongside the well-known technology journalist Kara Swisher. Starting Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Swisher will break down the race to control the House and the Senate in weekly episodes that run through mid-November.
“I don’t think the stakes for the country and the world could be any higher,” Mrs. Clinton said in an interview with The New York Times last week. “If we don’t reverse this chaos and corruption and cruelty that is being visited upon us by this administration, we won’t recognize our country.”
The podcast is launched with Vox Media, which also produces, distributes and sells advertising for two other podcasts that Ms. Swisher hosts: “Pivot” and “On With Kara Swisher.” “High Stakes” will be distributed through the same feed of Ms. Swisher’s “On” podcast. Ms. Swisher, Mrs. Clinton and Vox Media will share advertising revenue from the episodes.
The idea for the podcast came this spring at the sprawling home of former Atlantic owner David Bradley in Washington’s upscale Kalorama neighborhood. Ms. Swisher turned up to the soireé, which was being held for Mrs. Clinton, wearing a T-shirt and jeans and began peppering the former secretary of state with questions about a variety of topics — from the upcoming midterm elections to the continuing war in Ukraine.
Ms. Swisher said she thought Mrs. Clinton’s answers were concise and intelligible, and Ms. Swisher wondered why Mrs. Clinton had not taken another swing at podcasting after her solo interview show, “You and Me Both With Hillary Clinton,” ended in 2023.
The two got a test-run when Mrs. Clinton filled in for Ms. Swisher’s regular “Pivot” co-host, Scott Galloway, in August. Ms. Swisher wanted to give listeners the version of Mrs. Clinton she saw that evening, and persuaded her to team up.
“There’s a thing about the secretary, where it’s like, ‘Oh, if you knew her in the room, she’s so funny,’” Ms. Swisher said, adding, “We’re going to try to show you that room.”
Political podcasts can be a tough sell for advertisers, who sometimes are reluctant to market their products alongside discussions of partisan issues. But Jim Bankoff, the chief executive of Vox Media, said that “High Stakes” would be able to build on an audience of listeners obsessed with politics who are already subscribed to Ms. Swisher’s feed.
“The way the media business works is, you have audience, you have buzz, you do quality work, and you’ll have a successful offering,” Mr. Bankoff said. “And we have all those elements here.”
Mr. Bankoff said that Vox Media had sent Mrs. Clinton equipment to record the video podcast from a table at her home in Chappaqua, N.Y. If the podcast draws a big enough audience, Mrs. Clinton might consider continuing it after the midterms, she said. Mrs. Clinton said she was willing to read her own ads, with some limits. “I’m not going to sell, you know, gold cellphones,” she said, an apparent reference to Trump Mobile, the wireless network pushed by the Trump family.
Many voters are disenchanted with the Democratic establishment, which Mrs. Clinton still represents in many Americans’ minds. In light of that association, will Ms. Swisher’s audience want to hear from Mrs. Clinton?
“Well, the first thing I’d say is, I’ve been called worse than ‘establishment,’” Mrs. Clinton joked. She added that many Democrats in contested races were now calling upon her to help campaign for votes and raise money. They are also asking her for ideas, she said.
“One of the things people try to do is split the Democratic Party, and that’s fine,” Mrs. Clinton said. “It’s fine to have differences, and it’s fine to argue. Nobody’s afraid of the argument.”
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