Breaking Points

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar (or simply Breaking Points) is an American political news and opinion series created and hosted by Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti. It was launched in June 2021 by Ball and Enjeti, both former hosts of The Hill's Rising web series. They publish an audio-only podcast, and the video program is available on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, IHeartRadio and Spotify (with the podcast version being published by IHeart Podcasts.) Its format includes one left-wing populist anchor (Ball) and one right-wing populist anchor (Enjeti), who provide news and commentary from an independent platform, separate from the mainstream media.^[4][5][6]

Breaking Points
Presentation
Hosted by	Krystal Ball Saagar Enjeti Ryan Grim (2022–present) Emily Jashinsky (2022–present)
Genre	Political news and commentary
Format	Video audio
Language	English
Length	60 minutes
Publication
Original release	June 7, 2021 (2021-06-07) – present
Related
YouTube information
Channel	Breaking Points
Subscribers	1.42 million[1][2]
Views	813.9 million [1][2]
Creator Awards 1,000,000 subscribers 2023[3]
Last updated: April 4, 2025

Format

Breaking Points features commentary and analysis of political news and current events, in-studio interviews with journalists, politicians, and other political or cultural figures.^[4][7] Ball and Enjeti, the primary hosts, usually publish on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

The hosts have editorial control over the shows, which focuses on the look and immediacy of live news broadcasting but with independent, populist messaging.^[4][8] Unlike working at The Hill, which required a full-time staff of thirty, Breaking Points has a small crew of mainly part-time hourly contractors.^[4] The majority of the show's revenue comes from premium subscribers, with some additional revenues from YouTube and podcast ads.^[4][8] In 2022, their expenses were said to be around one million dollars a year.^[4]

History

On May 28, 2021, Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti announced their departure from The Hill's Rising.^[7][9] The Breaking Points program and channel launched at YouTube on Monday, June 7, 2021, and reached 285,000 channel subscribers by Friday of that week.^[9] Ball and Enjeti spoke about the subtle pressure they experienced working under The Hill's corporate umbrella and their dislike of working in a corporate bureaucracy.^[4][7]

In September 2022, former Rising hosts Grim (who expresses liberal views) and Jashinsky (who expresses conservative views) joined Breaking Points. They serve as replacement hosts when Ball and Enjeti are unavailable for an episode and host their own show Counter Points on Fridays.^[10]