Scott Galloway

Summary

Blocks w/ Neal Brennan – Episode Summary

Guest: Scott Galloway

Date: December 23, 2025

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Main Theme / Purpose

This episode of "Blocks" dives deep into the emotional and societal blocks that shape our adult lives, focusing on masculinity, economic anxiety, privilege, and the evolving struggles facing young men. Neal Brennan and guest Scott Galloway (NYU professor, entrepreneur, author of "Notes on Being a Man", host of Pivot and Prof G podcasts) engage in an unfiltered, personal, and data-driven conversation about the trajectory of male identity, money addiction, fatherhood, education, generational mobility, and the cultural-structural forces contributing to increasing loneliness and alienation—particularly among young men.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Backstory and Emotional Blocks

• Scott on Childhood & Loss:
  • Grew up with a single immigrant mother, struggled economically, deeply bonded to her—her death left a lasting emotional wound.
  • Quote: "I describe myself as a middle-aged man who's still not over the death of his mother. I've had businesses fail. I've been divorced. And hands down, the thing that set me back...was the loss of my mother." (01:22)
• Impact of Upbringing:
  • Reliance on social programs and public education, benefited from a more equitable era, acknowledges privilege of being born a white male in 1960s California.

2. The Cycle of Wealth, Scarcity, and Addiction

• Wealth Gained & Lost:
  • Scott relays being rich three times, losing it twice, and the emotional fallout—confronting fear, shame, and paternal anxiety especially after the 2008 financial crash.
    • Quote: "I've been rich three times, which means I've lost it twice." (03:39)
    • Quote: "The first thing I felt when I saw my son for the first time was not angels singing... It was fear and shame." (06:08)
• Scarcity Mentality:
  • Childhood instability fueled drive, but prosperity did little to curb an “addiction” to money and affirmation.
    • Quote: "I'm addicted to money... I'll check my stocks eight times a day... I'm having trouble getting off the economic hamster wheel." (13:15)
    • Addiction to affirmation of strangers via social media, sometimes negatively impacts presence with family.
    • Quote: "I'm addicted to the affirmation of strangers. I do a lot... it takes me away from being present." (13:57)

3. The Psychology of Riches and Philanthropy

• Changing Relationship With Money:
  • Galloway began meaningful philanthropy only after he hit his financial "number," sees giving as personally rewarding and a form of self-imposed "tax."
    • Quote: "I started giving away when I hit my number... It makes me feel strong, it makes me feel important, and it makes me feel American." (15:11)
    • On progressive tax: "There's just no reason to be a billionaire." (16:43)
• Economic Policy Critique:
  • He lays out how progressive taxation benefits society ("the least taxing taxes are the best") and highlights severe inequities and loopholes enjoyed by the ultra-wealthy, often at the expense of the middle class.

4. On Education and Socioeconomic Mobility

• Elite Education as a Luxury Brand:
  • Once accessible, higher education now operates as a luxury good for the elite, increasingly exclusionary and supply-constrained.
  • Quote: "Dartmouth has an $8 billion endowment. They let in 1,100 kids… they've decided they're a Chanel bag, not public servants." (24:19)
• Systemic Barriers:
  • Rising tuition, student debt, and admissions gatekeeping make upward mobility far more difficult, especially for young men and lower-income students.
    • Galloway supports policy reform: revoke tax exemptions from schools with large endowments that do not expand access.

5. The Decline of Young Men

• Statistics & Societal Drift:
  • Alarming trends: higher dropout rates for boys, worsening economic prospects, far higher suicide/incarceration/homelessness rates, and declining social/relationship opportunities.
    • Quote: "No group in America has fallen further faster than young men." (57:53)
• Role of Male Mentorship:
  • Importance of male role models due to boys’ emotional fragility; Galloway advocates for more men mentoring boys in schools and through programs like Big Brothers.
    • Quote: "The absence of a male role model really damages a young man's prospects." (40:14)
    • Advice to single mothers: "Do anything you can to get men involved in that boy's life… It's so easy to add value to a boy's life." (45:56)
• Shame, Addiction, Alienation:
  • Comparison of paths for boys vs. girls after childhood trauma; boys often internalize and spiral into self-harm or isolation.

6. Masculinity, Provider Roles, and Social Shifts

• Affirming Masculinity:
  • Attempts to define a healthy masculine "code": provider, protector, procreator.
  • Emphasizes channeling sexual energy into ambition and progress, but condemns conflating masculinity with toxicity.
  • Quote: "There's no such thing as toxic masculinity. There's cruelty, there's abuse of power, there's people who are violent. Those are the most non-masculine things in the world." (74:03)
• Modern Dating, Economic Anxiety:
  • How changing gender dynamics, increased female achievement, and online culture have disrupted traditional markers of male "value" and escalated male loneliness and resentment.
    • Quote: "There are just not that many men women want to mate with right now..." (57:17)
• Impact of Big Tech:
  • Warns about the isolating effects of algorithm-driven online ecosystems, which provide young men with a frictionless but ultimately hollow replacement for real-world skills and relationships.

7. Societal Solutions and Calls to Action

• Policy & Cultural Shifts:
  • Policy: redshirt boys (start school a year later), recruit more male K-12 teachers, restore and expand well-funded vocational programs, mandatory national service, build progressive tax codes supporting youth.
    • Quote: "We need to stop transferring money from young people to old people." (66:15)
• Alignment of Values:
  • Restoring an alliance between men and women; ending the blame rhetoric between genders and generations; move away from “pathologizing” young men.
• Modeling & Parenting:
  • Practical parenting: model respect for women, practice random “garbage time,” encourage athletics/fitness, and demonstrate care without resorting to helicoptering or tiger-parenting.
    • On presence: "The real moments of connection...happen randomly." (87:20)

8. Wealth, Inequality, and Potential Destabilization

• Severity of U.S. Inequality:
  • The “Hunger Games economy”—structural optimization for the 1% has left the 99% as “nutrition and tax” for the elite.
    • Quote: "While being wealthy might be for some people an empty and meaningless experience, trust me...it's pretty fucking good." (96:56)
  • Speculates on historical patterns of correction via revolution, war, or famine if inequity persists.
    • Quote: "If just in terms of self-preservation, at some point your neighbors are going to take your shit away..." (105:32)
• Rich Sequestering from Society:
  • Notes societal dangers of the rich withdrawing into privatized, fortified enclaves—schools, security, bunkers—disconnecting from broader society and civic responsibility.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Scarcity & Motivation:
  "All my friends left my school to go to private school...I had one of those conversations with my mom, we're different, right?...It felt as if there was a ghost following me and my mom around and occasionally whispering in our ears, 'you're not worthy.'" (09:48)
• On Philanthropy:
  "I joke. I spend money like a 50's gangster with ass cancer." (15:58)
• On Progress:
  "For the first time... a 30 year old man or woman isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. That creates rage and shame..." (70:34)
• On Parenting Boys:
  "I have failed on chores...What I have done is from a young age, I had them playing sports...I like the idea, and this is some bias, the only reason I got a job at Morgan Stanley is because I rode crew at UCLA..." (85:23)
• On Revolution:
  "The good news is [inequality] always self corrects. The bad news?...The means of self correction are usually war, famine or revolution." (104:08)
• On Privilege:
  "The reality is I wouldn't have what I have if I had what they [my kids] have...the embers that burned and drove my success...were because I didn't have a lot." (90:48)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:12–03:22 — Scott’s upbringing, pivotal moments, impact of mother’s loss.
• 03:39–08:48 — Cycle of making and losing wealth, financial trauma, lessons on diversification.
• 13:12–15:10 — The psychological addiction to money and affirmation.
• 18:59–22:25 — Tax policy, progressivity, and billionaire mentality.
• 24:19–30:01 — Education as luxury, shutting out “unremarkable” kids, generational mobility.
• 40:14–48:01 — Role of fathers, mentoring, and how boys versus girls handle single-parent homes.
• 53:57–60:34 — Dating dynamics, loneliness, and shifting gender roles.
• 66:15–72:02 — Concrete policy and cultural solutions for boys/young men.
• 74:03–77:23 — Defining masculinity’s “code”: provider, protector, procreator.
• 104:08–109:19 — Social unrest as a correction to inequality, the perils of elite seclusion.

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Final Thoughts

Scott Galloway offers a lucid, provocative diagnosis of America’s growing emotional and social blocks—layering personal vulnerability, hard economic data, and cultural critique. The conversation closes with reflections on the necessity of returning to shared purpose, rebalancing economic outcomes, and rebuilding healthy models of masculinity and community. Both guests warn against complacency in the face of rising social unrest and underscore the need for empathy, sensible policy, and collective engagement as crucial ingredients for repairing a fractured future.

Transcript

[Neal Brennan]

My guest today, guys, is. I guess he's a professor. Is that. That's his number one. I guess it's your first credit. He's got the Pivot Podcast with Kara Swisher, and then he's got a bunch of Prof. G podcasts. Now, I would switch over to the Prof. G Podcast, but I'm afraid Kara will yell at me, so I stick with Pivot. You have a new book coming out about manhood.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. Notes on being a man.

[Neal Brennan]

And you've had other. I wrote a book you wrote called the Four, which is about Amazon, Google, and two other companies. And he's Scott Galloway. He's all over your algorithm. Hi. How are you?

[Scott Galloway]

Good.

[Neal Brennan]

All right, so now the premise of this podcast is we talk about our insecurities, our emotional blocks.

[Scott Galloway]

Now we're gonna need a bigger boat. How long can we get here?

[Neal Brennan]

Well, sometimes people will send me their blocks. Yeah, I don't. You didn't need to. Because I know enough about you to tell people your backstory a little bit in terms of, like, how you were raised and the environment, the emotional environment and the actual environment.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. Raised by a single immigrant mother, lived and died a secretary, lied of my life, only child.

[Neal Brennan]

I connect, really connected to her.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, yeah. I, you know, skipping to the emotional trauma stuff, I describe myself as a middle aged man who's still not over the death of his mother. I've had businesses fail. I've been divorced. And hands down, the thing that set me back and kind of put me in a position of semi paralysis where I just wasn't moving on was the loss of my mother. But I consider myself in terms of. I consider myself a product of big government. I got assisted lunch. I got Pell Grants. I got into UCLA when it had a 74% admissions rate. I was rejected the first time. I was one of the 26% that didn't get in.

[Neal Brennan]

I've never heard. I didn't realize that.

[Scott Galloway]

And then I applied again. Now this year, the admissions rate will be 9%. I came a professional age during the Internet, when middle class households financed this thing called darpa and the Internet and immigrants have built my companies. So I feel as if a lot of my success isn't my fault. And I'm not humble. I think I'm a monster. I'm talented and hardworking, but the life I get to lead is because of the smartest decision I ever made was being born in California in the 60s, a white heterosexual male, where a record amount of prosperity was crammed into one third of the population that looked, smelled, and felt like me. But the irrational passion of my mother for my well being, the vision of the University of California and the regents and incredible technology and investment and, you know, great people gave me a life that is, you know, remarkable. Now I live in London. I.

[Neal Brennan]

My.

[Scott Galloway]

One of my companies went public and I thought that I was done and had the wonderful problem of trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life at the age of 34. And I thought, I want to teach. So I moved to New York and joined the faculty of NYU 23 years ago. And then of course, the dot com implosion happened and I was broke again. But over the last 22 years, I've been teaching and then discovered podcasting, married, two boys, live in London.

[Neal Brennan]

Okay, great. What did it feel like when the companies. Was it gradually and then all at once? Like when you were like, I'm set for life. I'm nowhere near set for life. Like, what was, how long was that period?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I've been rich three times, which means I've lost it twice. And I was fortunate enough to reinvent myself and get economic security again. But, yeah, when you came, I don't know if you're around, I don't know how much you remember about the Internet and saying I was living in San Francisco in the 90s, but it was go all in, borrow against your stock to buy more stock. It was very much like. And I was egocentric enough to think, if I throw myself 110% at it, anything, there's no way it won't be successful. And one of the first lessons I would tell people is that the market is bigger than individual performance. And if things don't work out, a lot of that is not your fault. And also if you're really successful, a lot of that is not your fault either. There's just forces that are bigger than you, no matter how talented you are. And so the thing that would probably epitomize, like the low moment for me, maybe professionally and personally, was in 08, I thought, I'm done again, you know, looking, you know, the total cliche of a douchebag living in New York, looking at jets and then OA can jet.

[Neal Brennan]

You were looking at jets?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

Wow.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. Anyways, see about that.

[Neal Brennan]

That's 150. You gotta have $150 million to look at jets to me.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, on paper, yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

Okay.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, that's interesting. That's. That's exactly the right number. You're clearly looking at jets.

[Neal Brennan]

No I never looked at. No, no, I'll. I've never looked at jets because I know no matter how. How much money I ever think about getting a jet. Here's what I don't like about private jets.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

I've been on less than 10 of them. Never my. I never sponsored it. Yeah, I don't like the. How much you have to socialize with the people that are on the jet with you.

[Scott Galloway]

Not if you're flying alone.

[Neal Brennan]

Well, okay. No.

[Scott Galloway]

But for me, my dad, one of my fondest memories, my father living in Laguna. He used to take me to Orange county, which is now John Wayne Airport. This was back when it was basically a restaurant on a Runway. There was no security back then, and we used to watch planes take off. He'd put his hands over my ears and I could go, that's a 727. That's a DC9. And now I still, instinctively, when I hear a plane look up and I can identify it.

[Neal Brennan]

Autism.

[Scott Galloway]

There you go. But for a lot of reasons, the success, the utility. I've just always been fascinated by planes. And so I've always wanted to own one. But the thing I was going to say that kind of epitomized the low Moment was in 08, when the great financial recession hit. I went from being worth a lot of money to less than zero, because I was that guy that still hadn't diversified, had all tech stocks, had borrowed a little bit on margin. And it all happened about the time my son had the poor judgment to come marching out of my partner. And the first thing I felt when I saw my son for the first time was not angels singing and bright lights and church music. It was fear and shame. Because shame. Well, I think I have very strong, like most men, paternal instincts that my first priority is at that moment, for the first time, was to take care of this child. And going from being economically secure to being very much economically insecure and thinking, it's one thing to fuck up for yourself, it's another thing when you screw up for your kid. Yeah, but that was the first thing I felt. I was so nauseous and upset. And it's a terrible story. You know, I had to sit down. They were more worried about me than the child or the mother. And it wasn't because I was nauseous. It was because just all of a sudden I thought, how could I have screwed up this badly? And now I've screwed up for an entire family. That's probably a little dramatic. I struggle with anger and depression. So when Bad things happen to me. I think sometimes it hits a little harder. But I remember thinking I've already, you know, my first thought as a father was I failed as a dad. Because 08 was very intense for me. Like a lot of people I was kind of levered to the market and. But yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

And you could have just diversified not in tech and been okay, could have.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. I wish we'd had this podcast in 07.

[Neal Brennan]

Oh no. But it is just such as images like I don't know. Just put like a little bit here. Yeah. Like I don't know.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. Thanks Neil. That's great financial advice. But so, but what you're saying is incredible. I just wrote my previous book was the Algebra Wealth. And one of the key attributes that are things that people don't appreciate is just what you said and that's diversity. And the moment you have anything resembling an asset base and you're over the age of 30, you need to start putting money in uncorrelated things and everything's somewhat correlated. But now I never put more than 3% of my net worth in any one thing. And I try.

[Neal Brennan]

No, really three.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. And that way are there that many asset classes?

[Neal Brennan]

That's like how many?

[Scott Galloway]

There's tons of different stocks and you can invest in. I'm in a British aerospace company, I'm in Japanese bonds. I'm not going back because I'm worried I'm not going to be able to figure it out again. So diversity is. In the 80s, a bunch of finance professionals figured out that diversification gives you risk free upside. It's just a smarter investment strategy. But if you're young and dumb and think of yourself as an alpha male, as I did up until the age of 45, I kept going all in on things and that works really well. As long as it's working. Most people get very rich through concentrated assets, but the way you don't get poor is through diversification. And it took me a long time to learn that.

[Neal Brennan]

What was the drive? Obviously. Okay, so is it just like scarcity of, of resources growing up and then it just like, it's just like, okay, well that's the main thing. And now I'm. That's never happening again.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

And once you, I mean from what I know you went to Berkeley and then you got a job at like Smith Barn or one of the Morgan Stanley.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

And then you, you, you just built from there. And were you more driven than your peers?

[Scott Galloway]

I think so. Did you grow up with money?

[Neal Brennan]

My dad was a tax attorney. But I'm the youngest of 10.

[Scott Galloway]

10?

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah. So there was, there was no money. If you have 10 kids, it doesn't matter how much money you have. So. And then like around 15, once they were able to shake everybody else. Yeah, like then there was, I think there was money, but I didn't. But so like, I think the short answer for most of the world is yes. I grew up with money.

[Scott Galloway]

So middle class parents married, dad had a job, a real job, 10k. Wow. I'd like to unpack that at some point. Fine. My mom never made more than $40,000. Money was a real issue. And when my dad left, he went on to have an upper middle class lifestyle. We went on to have a lower middle class lifestyle. We were never hungry. But you know, I remember one of the worst weeks, I remember being a kid was losing two jackets in the same week because jackets cost $30 and we couldn't afford that. And I just don't think people with money can really. I think they can sympathize, but I don't think they can empathize with what it's like to not have money. Growing up and it felt the way I described it. It felt as if there was a ghost following me and my mom around and occasionally whispering in our ears, you're not worthy. Right? Win the baseball game in Little League at nine years old, everyone's going to Farrell's and your mom kind of shuttles you into the car. Cause she's not sure what the money part of it is. There are always these conversations. All my friends left my school to go to private school when they started integrating and busing. And I'm like, oh, I need to go to Windward. There's Tony. Private school. And I had one of those conversations with my mom. We're different, right? Driving school. I had to go to the cheap driving school. And all the other kids went. You just.

[Neal Brennan]

Every day it feels like it's just marginalization.

[Scott Galloway]

You just feel constant reminders that you and your mom, quite frankly, have fucked up. According to our society, which is very driven on money. And I always say my motivation for wanting to make money, I think I've worked harder than most people is women. And one's a good story and one's probably less admirable. My mom got very sick when I was in graduate school. She called and said, you need to come home. She had just gone in for cancer surgery. She had a mastectomy. And because it's expensive to keep people in hospitals and we were underinsured, they Kind of basically booted her out, discharged her early. And she called me and said, you need to come home. I'm in a really bad way. My mom is not a dramatic person. And I walked into a situation that I just didn't know how to handle. And I thought, okay, we need to get a nurse, try and get her back to the hospital. They wouldn't take her. You have to go to county, call an ambulance. That's not an option. Need to get a nurse called. Nursing staffing, $35 an hour. I had $700 in my checking account, so I got 20 hours of nursing. And there's just certain things a son can't do for his mother when she's that violently ill. And I remember just feeling again, that, like, lack of. I don't know, lack of manhood. This person who'd been so good to me, I couldn't take care of her because I wasn't economically viable. So that was very motivating. The other thing is less admirable, and that is, I noticed from an early age the guys who had their shit together economically had a broader selection set of mates. And I wanted that. And so I was always. I always say I worked very hard because. And then having kids really motivates you. But I've always been very driven. I think it's important to do an analysis of your addictions. Right. Things you do, despite the fact they're having negative ramifications on the rest of your life. I'm addicted to two things. I'm addicted to money. I have enough money to be fine now. Unless I really screw up again, I'm fine. But I'll check my stocks eight times a day. If my business isn't going well, it takes me away from my kids. I'm less engaged in all my relationships. I get way too upset. It impacts negatively the rest of my life. I'm having trouble getting off the economic hamster wheel.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah. Because you know rationally that you have enough now.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, yeah, I'm done.

[Neal Brennan]

But it's hard to, like, stop and

[Scott Galloway]

not fear and not think about it all the time. I'm. I'm addicted to money. And the second thing is I'm addicted to the affirmation of strangers. I do a lot as you. As you do. And it all goes on social. Sometimes people like it, sometimes they don't. And I'd like to think the negative comments don't bother me, but sometimes they do. And I'm less engaged with my kids because of some goddamn stranger in his basement or a Bot or. Or a troll farm out of Albania. Because I got on the right list, because I've been wrong list, because I've been taught I'm pro Ukraine, whatever it might be. But it takes me away from being present. Yeah. So. But those are my two addictions.

[Neal Brennan]

What are you doing about. I was explaining to people because there was. There. There was something with the Saudi Arabia comedy festival thing. So a lot of people are like, why would all these people want to go? And I'm like, because, people. But. But the thing that you can speak to this. If you have a chunk of money, there's something about new money that's a little bit more valuable than interest money and savings to me. In my experience, like, it's like, yeah, I have that. But like, some new money that would mean, like a new. A check that I didn't know was coming or a payday that I wasn't. I didn't plan for is, like, worth 15, 20% more than the money you have. That's what I think.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I think when Hank Aaron hit a 714th home run, I bet 7:15 felt still really good. You get used to making money, and you want to make more. And also, quite frankly, the idolatry of the dollar in the U.S. the U.S. has run on money. And okay, maybe you don't need it, but you can give it away. Yeah, you can do awesome things with it, or you can give it. You know, you can just do amazing things.

[Neal Brennan]

Does that feel good?

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, and I want to. Before I go into my virtue signaling here, I was one of the least philanthropic people you'd ever meet. I don't think I gave away a cent until I was 40 or 45. And the only time I ever did anything philanthropic was under the auspices of getting invited to some cool event where I thought I might be interesting people or hot women. It wasn't that I cared about the charity, but I started giving away when I hit my number. My practice is the following. To try and bust that cycle of addiction. I hit my number and I had a number. And then I thought, okay, now everything above that, I meet with my guys at Goldman, and they say, this is how much above that number you are this year. And I either spend it all. I love spending money. I'm really good at spending money. I'm selfish. There's so many amazing things you can do in a capitalist society with money. And anything above that, I give away. And it makes me feel strong, it makes me feel important, it makes me feel American, and also makes me Feel like I can talk about the struggles of young men because I'm giving serious money away to suicide prevention and vocational programming. So I like to think I'm walking the walk. But what I would tell anybody is once you get to your number, and this is a problem of privilege, spend it or give it away and you're going to feel awesome. But I. I joke. I spend money like a 50s gangster with ass cancer. I spend a crazy amount of money. And I also give away a lot of money. Because the reality is. I don't know if you're familiar with Daniel Kahneman. He's this Israeli American psychiatrist or psychologist, but he did a lot of work on money. And once you hit a certain level, you go, no incremental happiness. And where it's taken me is there's just no reason to be a billionaire. And I see no reason why we wouldn't take incremental tax rates to 50, 60, 80%, as we had for the majority of the 20th century, say above 10 million a year, because you want a tax that's less taxing. That's the idea of a tax code. The least taxing taxes are the best. Any money above 10 million, no incremental happiness to you. But if you get an incremental, they

[Neal Brennan]

promise, they change the number.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, you do. As you get older, your number gets bigger. But realistically speaking, if someone makes 10 million or 15 million a year, it's not going to provide them any incremental happiness. Whereas that additional 3 or 4 million in tax revenue spread across 30 families for, say, universal childcare or food benefits. Huge incremental happiness. When you take a household from 40 to 50,000 with 10,000 in social services. So I've become. My Journey with Money has taught me to believe, okay, I believe we should have much more progressive tax structure. And the reality is, in the US Is that there's this myth that the rich don't pay their taxes. Actually, the workhorses who, say, make between 300,000 and a million a year, Dad's a chiropractor, mom's a baller partner in a law firm, they make 1.2 million a year. They probably live in San Francisco or blue state. In a big city, they're paying 52% tax rates. But once you make the jump to lightspeed and you have enough money to invest in stocks or buy and sell assets, your tax rate plummets to likely below 20% if you live in Florida or Texas. So the workhorses pay a disproportionate amount of Money. But the super rich, the top 26 families in America pay an average tax rate of 6%. My tax rate the last, when I was making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, I was paying a tax rate of 40 or 45%. Over the last 10 years, as I've started to make a lot more than that, my tax rate has plummeted below 20%. So we've decided in America, our tax policy is you get the gold medal, you get the silver and the bronze. So I've come to believe we need massive increase in progressive tax rates for the, really, the people making a lot of money. And my self imposed tax rate is. I like to give money away and I think of it as consumption. It makes me feel really strong and good and American.

[Neal Brennan]

Okay, can you empathize? Well, that's the wrong word. But for billionaires, can we not assume that it makes them feel strong and, and having that much money, making that much money, they don't spend it. Cause you can't at a certain level. But whenever I hear you talk about it, I'm like, that's gonna be a tough sell. Cause I know, I don't know many billionaire, I don't know if I know any, but the idea I have of them is they just like being. They like it. They like it.

[Scott Galloway]

Like the billionaire thing?

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, they just like it.

[Scott Galloway]

It fits well.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, they like it. It's like the way I like being a comedian. Like, I like seeing another comedian and being like, yeah, there's a shorthand here. And I think that's the thing with billionaires. It's gonna be hard to. They wouldn't have become billionaires if they had any. If they had mild feelings about money, you know what I mean? If they had a reasonable approach to money, they never would have gotten there.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, there's so many lies we get from luncheon speakers at nyu. And one of the lies, when we bring in really wealthy people or VCs, especially in finances, I never really thought about the money. These guys would sleep with their sisters for a nickel. They are obsessed with money. They can tell you on any given minute of any given day their exact net worth. And then you try and pretend that I'm just so talented that I couldn't help but make tens of millions of dollars. If you're not thinking about, if you're not thinking about, if you're not thinking about money, you're gonna end up with zero. You gotta have some financial literacy no matter how talented you are. But my basic feeling is, look, everyone will Come up with reasons why they should have more and more money. Usually it's up to us as voters to put in place people who understand that we have to reinvest in the middle class. Yeah, that the amount of prosperity. It's like what William Gibson said about technology. Prosperity is here. It's just not evenly divided. And for 90 of the last or 70, the last hundred years, we've had very progressive tax rates. We've said, look, I've been interviewed a lot about this pay package that Elon Musk is proposing where if the stock goes up sevenfold at Tesla, he would make a trillion dollars. And my attitude is, look, capitalism is not meant to have any limits. It's a great incentive for people to think I could be a billionaire. I think that's a good incentive. I just think if you make a billion dollars, we shouldn't have a tax code that figures out a way where you don't have to pay any taxes and that those people should have very. Through the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, the incremental tax rate on people making over a million bucks was 60, 70. At one point it was 80%. And then the other tax. I'm getting into economics here. That is, I think the easiest give would be to lower the estate tax exemption from 30 million to 1 million. If your kid inherits 7 million, not 9, it's not going to make any difference in their life. Whereas I think the government really does need that money. We're spending 7 trillion on 5 trillion in receipts. That means, basically, we're using your and my children's credit card to prop up our current lifestyle. I think it's irresponsible. We just, you know, do we need to cut spending or raise taxes? The answer is yes, we need to do both, but there's just no getting around it. The wealthiest among us have figured out a way to take the tax code from 400 pages to 4,000. And quite frankly, Neil, those 3,600 incremental pages are there to fuck the middle class. They're inch by inch figuring out ways that the super wealthy don't have to pay their fair share.

[Neal Brennan]

When I ask you, just so my listeners and viewers hear, it is your. I don't think it's a philosophy. I think it's true about universities and education and the fact that it's, you know, a Fendi bag, that it's, it's a luxury. Good education.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, as I said earlier in the podcast, when I applied to UCLA, it was a 76. Were you a good student in High school?

[Neal Brennan]

No.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I was pretty mediocre. I had a 3.1 GPA and 1130 on the Sat.

[Neal Brennan]

1070.

[Scott Galloway]

Good to see you. Same thing. Same thing. There you go, right there. Right. And I got rejected from UCLA the first time, but then I got in. And I remember when I wasn't going to go to college because I was going to have to live at home, got applied to one school, didn't get in, and I was installing shelving in Ontario. My dad got me a job installing shelving. And if it was a union job, I made 18 bucks an hour, which I thought was a lot of money at 17, but I was inside a closet all day. And there's nothing wrong with vocational work, but I'd always been told I was smart and funny. And at that time, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a pediatrician. So not getting into college was devastating for me. And I had been working in shelving for about three months. I came home, living with my mom, broke down, very emotional. I'm like, you know, is this it? Is this my life? You know, I really did want more. And she said, well, is there anything you can do? And I found out there was an appeal process, and so I appealed. And the truth has a nice ring to it. I'm installing shelving. I want to be a doctor. And I remember the day I got a phone call and the guy from admissions department said, you're not qualified, but you're a native son of California and we're going to give you a shot. And that I rewarded the generosity of the admissions department with a 2.27 GPA from UCLA. I spent all of my time watching Planet of the Apes and figuring out how to make bongs out of household items.

[Neal Brennan]

Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape.

[Scott Galloway]

Didn't get my shit together. And get this. I got into graduate school at Berkeley with a 2.27 GPA. It was a different time, but then I got my act together. And the generosity and the bet they took on unremarkable young people back then inspired an upward spiral. And this is a flex. But last year, I think I paid 7 million in taxes. So making as many bets on unremarkable people is really good for the economy. And where we've morphed, unfortunately, over the last 40 years is now we've decided that elite schools are really for two types of people, the children of rich people. You're 77 times more likely to get into an elite school if you come from a top 1% income earning household and the freakishly remarkable kids who are captain of the lacrosse team and figured out a way to build wells in Rwanda over the summer. And I can prove to us that 99% of our children are not going to be in the top 1%. And college used to be a place for the kind of the good. You didn't have to be great, you just needed to be good. And the easiest way for universities to increase tuition faster than inflation is to artificially constrain supply. So Dartmouth has an $8 billion endowment. They let in 1100 kids, which is what a good Starbucks serves in a day. They're in the middle of goddamn nowhere. They could let in 5,000 and they have the money, but they've decided they're a Chanel bag, not public servants. So we artificially constrain supply, which to me means we've lost the script. And especially this really has a big impact on young men because young men are 18 to 24 months literally less mature than their female peers because their prefrontal cortex doesn't catch up till. So whereas it used to be 60, 40 male to female because of sexism 40 years ago, it's now 40, 60. And because men drop out at a greater rate in the next five years, we're going to have two women graduate from college for every one male. And so the solve, in my view is again around tax policy. That if you have over a billion dollars in endowment and you're not growing your freshman class faster than population, you should lose your tax free status because you're no longer a public servant, you're a hedge fund with classes. But we have developed this gestalt in higher education of rejectionism, of elitism. Only the best get in. And what happens when the dean of my school announces that we rejected 90% of our applicants? The faculty stand up and applaud, which I would argue is tantamount to the head of a homeless shelter bragging that he or she turned away 90% of their applicants last night. It's bullshit. So there are some people doing good work. The governor of California wants to expand UC enrollment by the size of one campus. Michael Crowe at ASU wants have 200,000 students. Purdue's doing good work. Places like University of North Carolina, huge funding, and 83% of the kids need to come from in state. So it's pretty easy for. It's not easy. It's easier for North Carolina kids. But on the whole, the elite schools have decided that we're in the business of rejectionism.

[Neal Brennan]

It's funny, when you say public service, I was like, I didn't even know that it was supposed to be a public service.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, we're paying for it. You're taxing.

[Neal Brennan]

No, I know once you say it, you're like, oh, yeah, they should. Even the having researched it a tiny amount, I didn't even. It never occurred to me that med schools only have a certain amount of slots because, like, you need a lot of facilities for a med school. You need ORs and cadavers. And they just did. It never occurred. And it's like, yeah, we need to educate more people. And the idea that it's exclusive and so fucking expensive is suicidal.

[Scott Galloway]

The corruption continues. We're a cartel. The top 50 schools let each other know what their admissions rate are, and they raise their tuition and lockstep exactly the same amount, which is illegal in any industry. They restrict supply. So what ends up happening is, look, if you get into Yale, you're fine. I have kids. Call me. That's the number one question I get on my show. Office hours, should I go to school? I'm like, where'd you get in? If they got into elite school, it's worth borrowing the money. It says Yale on your forehead. The rest of your life, people will think you're smarter than you are. Right. Employers want you the rest of your life. But what happens is those schools, because they're in the business of scarcity and think of themselves as luxury brands, a lot of really good kids get arbed down to a tier 2 school that has the same pricing, so they end up buying a Hyundai for a Mercedes price. They end up going into a lot of debt. A lot of kids drop out. A lot of kids just aren't meant for school. Or they end up in professions that don't pay well. And at the age of 23, it's not unusual to find a kid that went to an okay school, not a great school that has $150,000 in debt. And if you don't believe, we aren't fucking young people. One of the only forms of debt that is not dischargeable in bankruptcy is student loan debt. So think about the mental anguish of a 20 year old that went for two years to a school, decided it wasn't for him or her, leaves with no degree but 80 or 100,000 in debt. And that debt's gonna follow them around the rest of their lives at the age of 20. And yet we let businesses and rich people declare bankruptcy where they get a fresh start. But we've decided Young people shouldn't be eligible for a fresh start. And it's an indication of a bigger problem outside of academia, and that is because we have the oldest elected Congress in a western nation and old people have figured out a way to vote themselves more money. Slowly but surely, all of our economic policies basically tilt the economy from young people to old. In terms of resources, the average 70 year old is 72% wealthier than they were 40 years ago. The average person under the age of 40 is 24% less wealthy. And this is in the face of remarkable prosperity.

[Neal Brennan]

My worry is what it took for you to come to all this realization.

[Scott Galloway]

What it took a lot of money. Oh, that's interesting. I think it's data.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah. But I bet you have a more favorable take on data. When you just checked your Goldman account, you're like, we should be a little, we should be more rational about how we're. And I'm not saying, I'm saying, like, I just think about, you know, we don't need to get bogged down in this, but how little persuasion there's been on the part of Democrats. And so when I hear you talk, I'm like, hey man, I'm with you. Yeah, but now it's the actual challenge,

[Scott Galloway]

which is, what do you do?

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, how do you get people to agree with you?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, look, we passed these laws, we had a progressive tax structure for most of the last century. I think, you know, we fuck this up, we can unfuck it, get rid of. I mean, there's specific policy solutions. There should be an alternative minimum tax on corporations which are paying their lowest taxes since 1939. And there should be an alternative minimum tax on anyone making over a million bucks you pay. It's not the tax code. It's not tax rates, it's the tax code. If you make over a certain amount of money as a corporation or as an individual, you should Pay, say an AMT of 40%, meaning fill out your taxes, take all your deductions, and if it's not at least 40% going to the government and being redistributed to the middle class, you're going to pay 40%.

[Neal Brennan]

So I'm with all of it. I'm with all of it.

[Scott Galloway]

You just don't buy it.

[Neal Brennan]

No, no, no. The issue is that thing in you, that scarcity thing. We're just scarcity animals. And so convincing someone they have enough is so hard to do. It's so hard to do. And because I can feel it in myself where I'm like, that thing of, like, yeah, but what if catastrophe. It's like. It's catastrophizing and competition and a bunch of very, very deep human drives that you're up against.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, it's hard to ignore instinct. And when we came up the savannah, there was a lack of salty, sugary, and fatty foods, a lack of free play, a lack of resources, a lack of mating opportunities. Only 40% of men have reproduced. 80% of women are reproduced.

[Neal Brennan]

I know. It's such a funny statistic.

[Scott Galloway]

So men are just taught with every bone in their body to have money and economic viability. And it's not like a switch goes off that says, okay, you're done. Stop now. Because you know, it doesn't.

[Neal Brennan]

You don't. I don't know what your. Whatever. You paid 7 million. Your body didn't think that. Your body doesn't think you paid $7 million. It might, the day you write the check, get like. Oh, you get like, an anger. You don't. You're not proud, probably.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, I engage. I engage in what I'll call they call it tax efficiency, but it's tax avoidance. I'm not going to disarm unilaterally. But what I do at the end of the year to try and. Because I enjoy it, is I give away a lot of money. But I think to expect rich people to pay more on their own, I mean, it all comes down to very boring shit. Citizens United has basically said that money is voice, and Washington has been run over by money. The $40 billion child tax credit gets stripped out of the infrastructure bill because the Democratic senator from Arizona, kyrsten Sinema, gets $700,000 in private equity funds, and it gets stripped out to pay for the tax, the carried interest loophole, and private Equity. Meanwhile, the $120 billion cost of living adjustment in Social Security flies right through. Why? Because Washington has become a cross between the golden girls and the land of the walking dead. And old people vote. And the die in democracy is working too well. When old people vote more than young people, old people get more money. And who doesn't vote? Kids.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

So we're gonna spend more on ice this year than we're gonna spend on kids in this country.

[Neal Brennan]

I love it. Thank you again, sir. Sir. You know who you are. Guys, the holidays are here, which means it's time for comfort, joy, and really good food. Impress your relatives, even the judgy ones, with gourmet holiday meals from Cook Unity. Let their chefs take healthy meal prep off your plate with festive yet Nutritious dishes like old fashioned glazed holiday ham, ultimate holiday turkey dinner, maple whipped sweet potatoes, and their candied yam cake. Okay, so clearly I don't eat ham. I don't eat a lot of turkey. They sound like fake things that people used to eat because I just, you know, vegan, vegetarian, I'm a flex. I'm a flexitarian, so I don't eat any of those in particular. But, you know, I swear by cookunity, because they got a lot of impossible products. They got beyond products. They got tofu's, they got cashew creams. It's all good, dude. They send you basically ready to eat stuff, like very close to ready to eat that are legitimately good. And they're great chefs. So you can see if you like a chef that you've ordered from before, you can see what other stuff they do. Maybe like a steak person or a chicken person or a churros grower, whatever that Brazilian thing is with the meat. No, I think it's Venezuela. You can enjoy culinary masterpieces for way less than restaurants or takeout. And climbing grocery store prices, which it's all a nightmare. Huge variety of options and fresh ingredients to choose from. Choose from a rotating seasonal menu of over 300 meals. Again, pretty crazy. Or let CookUnity's platform provide personalized recommendations like apple pie, bread pudding. I would eat it. Rack of lamb with red wine sauce. Wouldn't do it. Roasted turkey sausage dinner. Can't do it. Pumpkin spice cake jar. Yes. And much more. Cake jar is a sweet thing that's been happening the last 10, 15 years, isn't it? Here's the call to action. This is. Guys, I gotta get my game face on. Taste, comfort, and craftsmanship in every bite. From the award winning chefs behind CookUnity. Go to CookUnity.com Neal or enter code Neal before checkout to get 50% off your first order. That's 50% off your first order by using code Neal or go to CookUnity.com Neal, do it. It's really good ham. Hey, did you get your people some gifts for Christmas? I did pretty good. I did. I did get the kids some good stuff. And I got the ladies some really good stuff. I got it out of the way early. Not like me, you know, guys, every year, billions of dollars are spent on gifts that gather dust. But the greatest gift isn't something you wear or display. It's feeling your best superpower. Helps your loved ones take control of their health so they can feel better, live longer, and have more time with You Superpower is a new kind of health platform, guys, that it helps you finally get answers about what's really happening inside your body. Sometimes you don't want to know, other times you do and what to do about it. One simple lab test measures 100 plus biomarkers. Hormones, metabolism, vitamins, minerals, thyroid, heart, health and more. You'll get a full health report and a personalized action plan built by clinicians, including nutrition supplement and lifestyle guidance for just $199. Every gift membership comes beautifully packaged in a free Superpower gift box. That's a $49 value if I do say so myself. It's ready to wrap and give. It's a thoughtful, life changing gift for your partner, parents, or even yourself. Okay, so what is it? It's basically you take a blood test, right? And you send it in and then they tell you what's happening inside your body based on all your levels. You can do it as often as you want. You do it every month, every couple months, every whatever you want to do, guys, here's the call to action. Give your loved ones something that actually lasts. Better health and more time with you. I like to focus on time with you. Go to superpower.com gift to get a $49 premium gift box with your gifted membership. After you sign up, they'll ask you how you heard about them. Please mention this podcast, would you, to support what we're doing here. Would you do that? How do you like this lens flare? You may recognize this from a certain filmmaker from the late 70s who made movies about extraterrestrials. It's called a lens flare. If you're just watching my young filmmakers out there, quit now. There is no business left. Stop Superpower. Okay, so we've talked a lot about money, talk about the book and men. And I'm also curious about your relationship with your father because it sounds like he wasn't around. And then he was around. He got you. It's great when your dad shows up to get you a job in Ontario.

[Scott Galloway]

Thanks, dad.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, thanks for everything. But what was that like? And did that was there also? That, coupled with the lack of money and feeling like ostracized a little bit subtly, you must have developed a lot of resentment. Spring is in the air, which means

[Scott Galloway]

now is the time to save during spring. Outdoor power deals at the Home Depot make cleanup easier. When you go cordless with the Milwaukee MH string trimmer, designed to deliver more runtime, more speed and maximum performance. Then grab a select Milwaukee fuel attachment like the pole Saw edger or brush cutter included at no extra cost when you buy the Milwaukee M18 String Trimmer Shop. Seven days of spring outdoor power deals at the Home depot now through April 29th. You know, I think I struggle with anger and depression, but I think it's chemical. I don't think I can blame it on my parents. I think it's something in the chemistry or in the batter. But look, my dad, he recently passed at 95. You know, American dream, came to California. My favorite story is came here on a steamship, went to San Diego, you know, eighth grade education. And he was interviewing with a candle. He was interviewing to be a salesperson for a candle company. And the HR person said, you've got to wait here. You know, she said, how long have you been in the country? Two weeks. And he's like. She's like, you got to wait here. And she brought in her boss and said, you have to meet Tom Galloway. He's only been here two weeks and he's already learned the language. He had this thick Scottish accent and she thought that Scottish was a different language. My dad wasn't a very sophisticated man. Some character flaws, but in the 70s, when you were handsome and had a Scottish accent, you could not only think with your dick, you could listen to it. My dad has been married and divorced four times. When he left my mom and I, you know, it was just hard on us. And if you look at the single point of failure from when a boy comes off the tracks, it's when he loses a male role model. What's interesting is that girls in single parent homes, of which we have the most of any country in the world, have similar same outcomes as dual parent homes, same rates of college attendance, same income. It doesn't really impact girls. They become a little bit more promiscuous because they start looking for male attention in the wrong places. But generally speaking, they have the same outcomes. When a boy loses a male role model through death, disease or abandonment, at that moment he becomes more likely to be incarcerated than graduate from college. It ends up that while being physically stronger, boys are neurologically and emotionally much weaker than girls. And the absence of a male role model really damages a young man's prospects. So my dad leaving and moving to Ohio, I do think it had a negative impact on me. I learned in one of the great hacks in life. And I resented him for a long time and would go periods where I'd get angry and I wouldn't speak to him for months at a time. And then as I got older, One of the great unlocks in my life is to say I used to keep a scorecard. We're friends, and you're not being as good a friend to me as I am to you. You're out. An employee isn't adding much value. I'm not enjoying. I spend time with my girlfriend's parents, and my mom comes to town and she didn't spend time with my mom. I'm angry and you're out. Everything was a scorecard. And the problem with the scorecard is you'll always unnaturally inflate your contributions and deflate theirs. And I thought I used to resent being a better son to my dad than he was a father to me when I needed him. And then I decided about 20 years ago to kind of put that bullshit aside and say, all right, what kind of son, what kind of partner, what kind of friend, what kind of boss, what kind of investor do I want to be and behave that way, distinct to what I'm getting back. I'm not going to be abused. I shed relationships all the time. But I thought, I want to be a loving, generous son. I really like my dad. I get along with him. We have a lot of fun together, and I want to be a loving, generous son. And the moment I said, I'm going to put away the scorecard and I'm just going to try and live up to that, it was an enormous unlock for me. And we had a wonderful relationship the last 20 or 30 years because. And as he got older, he mellowed. You know, I don't know about what your dad's like.

[Neal Brennan]

Did he ever try to justify his exit?

[Scott Galloway]

You know, we didn't talk about it a whole lot. I think he realized his shortcomings as he got older. Well, did he? He left his fourth wife when she was two years away from dying from Parkinson's. This is not a high character person. Cautionary tale. And when he passed six months ago, my sister and I decided not to have a service because we thought it would just be the two of us. You know, he didn't have a single friend. So it's a cautionary tale that if you don't invest in relationships, the worst thing that can happen is you die under bright lights surrounded by strangers. And my sister and I were very involved in my dad's life at the end, so that didn't happen to him. But, yeah, I don't think he was a great. On one end, he wasn't a great role model. He wasn't around a lot. But at the same time, I make an extraordinary living doing what you do, communicate. And I think a lot of that is my fault. I inherited it from my father. And as my dad got older, my dad couldn't stop saying, I love you. And I used to think the dark side of me would think, you know, I could have used that when I was 8. Now that I got a lot of people in my life that love me, it's not that helpful. But he did start to say that. And my dad checked what I think is a key instinctual box for men, and that is. He was a much better father to me than his father was to him.

[Neal Brennan]

That's the thing. It's like when you're. You really want to prosecute them to the full extent of the law and then you realize, like, well, he did better than the. Yeah, he thinks he did a good job or as best as he could.

[Scott Galloway]

Do you have a good relationship with your dad?

[Neal Brennan]

No, but. And he died. And I did a Netflix thing and he died. Will he cut me out and just like a whole. It's like the big ending to my Netflix special.

[Scott Galloway]

But he cut you out?

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. That just seems angry and small. Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

And I was.

[Scott Galloway]

Unless you were really awful.

[Neal Brennan]

I wasn't awful. It was just. It was petty.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, that's what it feels like. Feels like angry.

[Neal Brennan]

Feels angry. So he was a very petty guy.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. And. And,

[Neal Brennan]

but I just stopped caring about. I stopped using it as, like a, as a shield and cudgel and a self pity mechanism. I just like, it's. I can't. It's just so.

[Scott Galloway]

It's just boring and it gets exhausting. Do you have a good relationship with your mother?

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

So. So I, I'm. I'm really curious as to what advice you would give to single moms in terms of, you know, not how to keep their son out of incarceration. But what. Is there a way to compensate?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, the first thing I would say is forgive yourself if you're struggling. I think it's really hard for single moms. I think there's something about the lower pitch or the smaller physical size of women where at some point boys kind of stop taking them seriously. And I think the depth of our voice and our size and maybe some scarcity because we're not around as much. But I think boys do listen more to their dads on certain topics, which leads me to the recommendation, do anything you can to get men involved in that boy's life. Whether it's big brothers, whether it's asking People, I think there's a lot of really good men out there in their 30s that maybe don't have a family of their own, or maybe they have and they've recognized some success and they realized how important it was to have male mentorship who are willing to spend time with a boy. And unfortunately, because of some abuse in the Catholic Church and by high profile people, there's this suspicion if you want to be involved in a boy's life and it's really rewarding. I mentor some young men and it's super rewarding. And not only that, there's a belief in. Well, I'm not a CEO. I don't have a degree in psychiatry. I shouldn't do this. It is so easy to add value to a boy's life. They make the stupidest decisions on their own. You just need to. Well, okay, do you really need to move to Alaska right now? You got a good job in Vermont and your parents, your mom's sick. Why you want to move to Alaska? Like, just walk me through this decision, right? You want to be in better shape. Can you just tell me what you ate today? Yeah. I mean, just. It's so easy to add value to a young man. But my piece of advice for a single mom is one, to forgive yourself. It's hard. And two, try and get as many men as possible involved in your son's life. And also, this is a call out to men. If we want better men, we need to be better men. There are three times as many. We're in New York right now. There are three times as many women applying to be big sisters as there are men applying to be big Brothers. And I don't know if it's because of the fear that they'll be suspected of, you know, quite frankly, of being pedophiles. Not true at all. Tons of men out there.

[Neal Brennan]

I was in the Big Brothers, guys. Not so far as I know. I'm not a pedophile. Something to think about.

[Scott Galloway]

So you. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience?

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, it was probably eight, nine years ago. And I was just like the thing that volunteering, it was truly to try to overcome depression. Like, okay, I've heard volunteering is good. Let me try that. And it was really interesting and really rewarding. And, and, and because I didn't. Because I'm the youngest, I didn't have any younger brothers. So it was interesting to. To. I wish the kid had been maybe a little older, but. But in terms of, like, what I could offer him, we just Go see movies pretty much. And so, so, yeah, but it was like, it wasn't hard and it was, it was, it was interesting and, and I think it helped him. You know what I mean? I believe in doing pro social stuff. And I'm like you, I'm like what? I feel like how society, where it ends up is partially my responsibility. I mean, obviously it's egotistical or something, but you have to pitch. I grew up Catholic. It's in me.

[Scott Galloway]

See, above 10 kids. I think you probably underestimate the impact you had because I think a lot of it is just, I think young people, if other people think they're worthwhile, they start believing over time they're worthy. And you show that kid he's worthwhile because you could be doing something else, but you decide to go to the movies with them.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah. I also think life outcomes or lifestyles, access to it is huge. That was the biggest thing my brothers did for me. Or one of the biggest things was like one of my brothers worked at a comedy club. Okay. So I'm in high school and I, the people I'm dealing with, Louis ck, Jon Stewart, Ray Romano, like, literally they're not popular or famous, but like they were shortly thereafter. So it's like, oh, you can, if you go and work somewhere for free

[Scott Galloway]

and I job, you can actually make a living.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, like, and then I go to NYU because I hear about Spike, just like the cascade of, of effect is massive. So I think that's what I, if I, I think that's a thing that men can offer younger men.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, that's mentoring. Yeah, that's. And it's huge. And there's a, there's just not, there's not enough of it. And it's like I said, for a boy, while they're physically stronger, boys are just emotionally. I mean, here's A scary stat. Two 15 year olds both sexually molested. A boy and a girl. Neither crime is less heinous than the other. The boy is ten times more likely to kill himself later in life. Boys are much more sensitive, much weaker. And I think there needs to be a general gestalt or zeitgeist in our society where the moment a boy doesn't have a lot of male mentorship, we move in. And it can be as easy as finding a single mother in your work environment and saying, hey, does your kid want to come to the Arsenal game? I'm living in London with my boys with us. Does your kid want to come over and watch the game? And I'm Telling you, these women are very receptive to this. They get it. The people who've been most supportive of my work, I talk a lot about struggling young men are young men, but a close second is mothers. Yeah, and the kind of email or the conversation goes something like this. I have three kids, two daughters, one son, one daughter's a pen, the other's in PR in Chicago. My son is 26, in the basement playing video games and vaping. I mean, there's. Mothers are the ones.

[Neal Brennan]

I gotta meet this guy,

[Scott Galloway]

that's Rick. We hang out. Mothers see what's going on here. They see the difference between boys and girls. And I see it. I have two boys, but when my 15 year old has a party, the boys are, you know, they're polite, they're nice, but they're dopes. They don't make eye contact. Some of the girls look like they could be the junior senator from Pennsylvania. Hello, Mr. Galloway. What a lovely home you have. I mean, just, they're in a different league from a maturity standpoint. And what's weird, and we don't know why, is the gulf in maturity is broadening between boys and girls. Girls are menstruating earlier and boys testicles are descending later. We don't know if it's pesticides or the environment, but if you have two 17 year old seniors in high school applying to college, this 17 year old girl is basically competing against a 15 and a half year old girl called a boy. They're just. Their prefrontal cortex is 18 months less mature and doesn't catch up until it's 25. And so when we leveled the playing field academically, girls just blew by boys. And like I said, it used to be 40, 60 female to male college enrollment, now it's 60, 40 and it's going to be 2 to 1 graduation rates because boys drop out at a greater rate. Boys are four times more likely to kill themselves than girls, three times more likely to be homeless or addicted, and 12 times more likely to be incarcerated. I mean, we have a homeless and an opiate crisis, but what we really have is a male homeless and a male opiate crisis. So the statistics are just remarkable. There are now, there are three times as many young men who are called neets. And that's neither in education, employment or in training. Literally doing nothing. Only one in three men under vaping. They're vaping, they're vaping Netflix. One in three men under the age of 30 is in a relationship. It's two in three women. And you think, well, that's mathematically impossible. It's not because women are dating older, because they want more economically and emotionally viable men. And so we're producing, I think we're evolving a new species of asocial, asexual males.

[Neal Brennan]

You know, it might be the same problem as the wealthy thing. It's like now it's like, well, I'm sure women will turn over some of the privileges that they've accrued over the last 30 years. It's gonna be. They're not going to. That's again, this is one of these, like, great, I agree. How do we persuade them? Because by the time they realize that it's a problem, they're gonna be 35, 40, and they go, where are all the good men? Well, systematically, they were sort of eliminated.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. So a couple things. One, I don't think it's a zero sum game. I don't think civil rights hurt white people. I don't think gay marriage hurt heteronormative marriage. And I think what the genders have done is a great job of blaming the other gender. So when I know a young man's come off the tracks is when he blames immigrants for his economic problems or he blames women for his romantic problems. But also I think women need, I think saying, you don't have problems, you are the problem is not helpful.

[Neal Brennan]

Oh, I don't think they are the problem. I think they've been given a bunch of.

[Scott Galloway]

No, no women saying that to men.

[Neal Brennan]

Oh, yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

I think it's not helpful when women and Democrats say to young men, act more like women and you don't have problems, you are the problem. And I get why they might, why women might hold you and me responsible for aggregating a disproportionate amount of the spoils. I did. I got unfair advantage. But because of my unfair advantage, do you think it's reasonable, and I'm saying rhetorically, to Democrats and to progressives, does that justify holding a 19 year old male accountable?

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

A 19 year old male right now is arguably biologically, sociologically and economically at a disadvantage. If you think about schools K through 12, 80% of the teachers now in K12 are women. Who are they going to champion? They champion people to remind them of themselves. A boy is twice as likely to be suspended for the exact same behavior as a girl. A black boy, five times as likely. Seven of 10 high school valedictorians are girls. And when it was 40, 60 female to male in college enrollments, we passed Title IX because we said we have to get more women in College. Now it's 60, 40 and men are going like this. There's no such movement.

[Neal Brennan]

That's what I'm saying. That's exactly my point of empathy. It's a tough sell to go. We need to help men. You need to help who?

[Scott Galloway]

You should see my comments feed.

[Neal Brennan]

I mean I didn't see it, I administrate it.

[Scott Galloway]

And I understand the gag reflex because unfortunately when to the right's credit they recognize the problem early. But their solution is to go back to the 50s where women and non whites have less opportunity. That's not right. So they hear some terrible voices, enter the conversation, enter the void and so on the right they conflate masculinity with coarseness and cruelty and say that women's ascent and non whites ascent has taken away opportunity from men. That's bullshit. Our economy would be in tatters if women had not entered the workforce. Right. That's why we won World War II. Arguably was Hitler didn't want women in the factories. We said no, absolutely, they're confident.

[Neal Brennan]

Another thing he was right about.

[Scott Galloway]

There you go. And then. But you know, we have these knock on effects where you just said something really interesting and that is where are the good men? There are a lot of men out there. There are just not that many men women want to mate with right now

[Neal Brennan]

because they're under five, eight. Scott, how can you blame. Why would you ever go on?

[Scott Galloway]

So women made socioeconomically horizontally and up. Men horizontally and down. So as Chris Rock said, Beyonce could work at McDonald's and Mary Jay Z. The opposite is not true. And when the pool of horizontal and up keeps shrinking, there's less household formation. And in married households, when the woman starts making more than the man, the use of erectile dysfunction drugs triples and the likelihood of divorce doubles because society.

[Neal Brennan]

What about dildo use? Do we have any stats on that?

[Scott Galloway]

None so far. Just anecdotal evidence. But society and look and women and men themselves still expect men to be economically viable. And when they aren't, they're seen as failures. And that's not true of every household. There are a lot of households. Figure it out. Good for them. And I'm not suggesting we should do anything to get in the way of women's ascent. But we have to acknowledge no group in America has fallen further faster than young men and the country and women aren't going to continue to flourish if young men are flailing and they are really struggling. One out of three men who hasn't cohabitated. By the time they're 30 or married, someone is going to be a substance abuser. Here's a stat. This freaked me out. 45% of men 18 to 24 have never asked a woman out in person. And you know, they get a lot of mixed signals. No one wants to be that guy that approaches a woman at the bar and it's unwelcome, and he's now that guy. He's a creep. But now what you find is in surveys, 80% of women still say they want the man to initiate romantic interest. And young men have gotten a lot of mixed signals. In addition, they don't have the same economic opportunities. And where do they go to demonstrate excellence? Women are much choosier. You have a room of 100 men, 100 women. If there's alcohol involved, the majority of the men would agree to have sex with the majority of the women. Almost all of the women would have sex with none of the men. Women are choosier. That's the basis of evolution. We're trying to spread our seed to the four corners of the planet. They put up a much finer filter to try and screen out the smartest, fastest, and strongest seed. The way men get there. 80% of couples married longer than 30 years say that initially one person was more interested than the other. It was always the man. How does the man get there? He needs to demonstrate excellence. And where are the venues for demonstrating excellence now? We're not going to church or temple. We're not going into work. Men aren't going to school. And if you talk to these people, World of Warcraft. There you go.

[Neal Brennan]

Call of duty.

[Scott Galloway]

Not a lot of mating on there, boys. Not a lot of mating going on there. But if you talk to these couples who married a long time, they say, yeah, I wasn't interested in him in the beginning, but I like the way he treated his parents. He was so good at what he did. We worked together. I hung out with him. And he was really funny. He made me laugh. I liked the way he smelled. I like his body language. I like the way he danced. Women fall in love. Where does a man demonstrate excellence right now? And also in an economy that's increasingly about how much money you have, and men have fewer economic opportunities because they're not going to college. And a lot of them are going down rabbit holes online. You know, you just have. We're producing. It's almost as if we're planning our own extinction.

[Neal Brennan]

I know. Well, again, I agree with everything you're saying. Now, what Guys, you know, I, I get after it in the gym. I get after it on the stage and in the gym. And one of the things that makes me crazy is dudes on the Internet that are constantly showing you influencers dumb ideas about how to exercise. They don't know what they're talking about. They're just good looking. They got new teeth. They got, and they got the nice matching fit and. Well, that's nice. That's. They got the nice matching outfit. I don't want to use the word fit. It's not appropriate. Doesn't help us for what we're doing here. It's aggravating. And it's also not. You can't like, go on. You can't follow a guy and look up all the, it's just, it's, it's, it's sloppy. And then you got to pick your phone up over. It's just a. Not. It's a nightmare. It's just a, it's a sloppy nightmare. On the other hand, there's an app that your friend Neil uses called fitbod F I T B O D. It's on the phone. I've used it. I used it two days ago, as a matter of fact. And it's got everything you could possibly want in a workout app, right? You've got every possible muscle group, every possible routine, every fitness level you could possibly want. I'm an expert. Doesn't mean you are. That's just who I am, guys. You can. Number of days, types of equipment you have, you could do no equipment. You could do all kinds of machine dumbbells, barbells. It's a legitimately good app that I was using when they weren't advertising on this podcast, guys, because that's how much I believe in the product. Sure, they hurt my feelings when they stopped indoor, when they stopped advertising, but I stuck with them and now they're back. What muscle groups do you work out, Neil? We're going to go butt cheeks. Glutes, as they're called on the street. Well, they're called butt cheeks on the street. Chest. Really? Chest and butt cheeks. My biceps get overly developed. I know that sounds unlikely, but if I do that too much, very little bicep goes a long way with me. I need shoulders, butt cheeks, chest. What my guy used to write with used to call T shirt muscles. Those are what I'm after. So I'll load in what I'm trying to do that day and they'll give me three or four or two or three exercises. Let's be real for each muscle group and I'll cycle through them on the app. There's little videos of how to do it, there's videos sequence to do it, amount to do it and I've had a trainer, guys I have and a good dude but you know, just it's. You got a guy there counting, which is embarrassing. It's humiliating for him. Makes me think like I want to say to him, like, you think I can't count? You know how I get defensive. So I like to keep to myself, do the app, look at what I got to do and listen to my podcasts or videos on YouTube. Here's a call to action. This is when it gets real and I got to read it verbatim. Level up your workout. Join Fitbod today to get your personalized workout plan. Get 25% off your subscription or try the app free for seven days at Fitbod Me Neal that's F I T B O D me Neal fitbod Me Neal man, you can't see anything. Can't see anything. Look at that lens flare though. It's nice. Hey guys, you know I'm really happy to partner with Ground News in today's episode. I know that wasn't a convincing read, but I actually am because I've actually been using them every day for months. Also true. It's one of the only apps that's actually helped me make sense of the chaos of the modern news cycle. Hey, so you know how every story online feels like a political Rorschach test? Two people read the same headline and one's like we're saved and the other one's like we're doomed, man. It's not that one of them is wrong, it's that they're living in different information ecosystems. And that's the problem Ground News is trying to fix. Ground News is an app and website that processes thousands of articles and news sources every day and shows you how each story is being reported across the political spectrum, left, right and center. Take this story. Trump signs executive order launching Genesis mission to accelerate AI driven scientific research. There are over 180 sources covering it. Ground News lines them up so you can see the bias distribution, compare left versus right headlines and check the factuality rating of every outlet. Then there's this feature which I love. I love the Blind Spot feed. It shows you stories that are heavily covered by one side of the political spectrum but but barely mentioned by the other. And then there's also a feature called My News Bias which how dare you which, as the name suggests, shows you your own biases and news consumption habits. Basically, it's your news diet mirror. And yeah, sometimes it hurts to look, but it's crucial to stay informed. So look, if you actually want to see the whole story, not just the part your bubble agrees with. Don't get me wrong, you got a great bubble. Check out Ground News. Go to Ground News, Neal. Or click the link below to get 40% off the vantage plan, which gives you unlimited access to worldwide coverage. Swear to God, Ground News is awesome. Ground News. Don't just read the news, see the whole picture. Ground News. Don't just read the news, see the whole picture. Ooh, that was a nice one.

[Scott Galloway]

Now what? Okay. Series of solutions, ideas and programs. Red shirt kindergartners. Start boys at 6, girls at 5. Recruit more men into K through 12. Boys need male mentorship, more after school programs and sports funding. My male mentors were typically coaches. I played sports growing up. I had my first baseball coach, sensed I didn't have a lot of money and would quietly buy my uniforms and buy my stuff so I could play. You're not growing your freshman class faster than population growth. You lose your tax free status. We need more seats for, you know, more trans kids, more Republicans, more men, more women. We need more seats. We need a tax policy that puts more money in the pockets of young people. We need to stop transferring money from young people to old people. Mandatory national service. The lowest levels of teen depression or young adult depression in the west or in Israel where they spend two to three years, all of them in the idf. And I just hung out with a battalion in the IDF in Israel. A bunch of young beautiful men and women learning how to handle dangerous equipment, learning to count on each other for character and training. Learning, meeting people from different ethnic, different economic, different social, sexual orientation backgrounds. I think young people need to meet other great Americans and realize that they're American before they're specific identity. I think there are vocational programming. 20%, any public university. 20% of their certification should be for non traditional one or two year training. Nursing specialty construction, energy efficient H vac installation. There's a ton of jobs on main street ready for these people. And by the way, that's one of the few things men are better at. Men seem to enjoy working with their hands and outside and not always, but are typically really good at it. And yet where has wood, metal and auto shop gone out? Remember that guy in high school who wasn't going to go to college but he could fix your car? He got A job, but he learned how to fix a car in high school. Those jobs are gone. We've replaced them with computer science, hoping the kid will go to mit, drop out and start the next big platform that's not working for the middle class. So I think there's a total rethink of our tax structure. Two biggest tax deductions, mortgage interest rate and capital gains. Who owns stocks and homes? People our age. Who rents and makes their money through current income? Young people. Why is money more noble than sweat? So almost every economic policy we've had in the last 40 years is nothing but a transfer of wealth from young to old. What's the result? 60% of 30 year olds 40 years ago had a kid, now it's 27%. Is it because people just decided they don't want to have families? No, they can't afford them. And so you have young people who are just economically strapped and then 210 times a day they get a notification on their phone reminding them that they're failing. And if you were going to reverse engineer one statistic to our biggest problem, Neil, I think it would be the following. For the first time in our 275 year history as a nation, six years ago we crossed this terrible threshold. And that is for the first time a 30 year old man or woman isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30. That creates rage and shame across the household because your roommates, because you're probably living at home, your parents are reminding you every day that you're failing. And it's been especially hard on young men because we disproportionately evaluate men based on their economic viability in terms of their attractiveness, their role in society and their self esteem. I think there are var. I think we fuck this up, I think we can un. Fuck it. And the incumbents want to pretend that these problems are unsolvable. No, we need to put more money in young people's pockets, stop stealing from them. We need to have more opportunities for vocational training. We need mandatory national service. We need more men involved in K through 12. And we need to stop pathologizing young men. You know they are. We need to celebrate our young men. We've been celebrating women. Let's continue to do it, but let's celebrate our young men. When you have Russian troops pouring over the border in Ukraine, you want some big dick energy. There's a lot of young men who are wonderful and add a ton of value. They typically make oftentimes better entrepreneurs because they're more risk aggressive. Carnegie Award rewards 80 people a year for risking their own life to save another life. Running into the burning building, 75 of them last year were men. Some of that risk of aggressiveness and reckless recklessness that we criticize, it also translate into valor. It can also translate into patriotism. So I'd like to see what I call a restoration of alliances between our great economic trading partners, between moderate Democrats and Republicans to make some progress. But also we need to restore the alliance between men and women. If you go online, there's too many men blaming women and immigrants for the problems. And there's too many women saying shit like, I don't go on dates because I might be unalived, I might be murdered. If you go on a date with a young man, he is 16 times more likely after that date to go home and hurt himself than hurt you. You are four times more likely to be hurt in a car accident or choking at dinner than that young man hurting you. Young men have become more violent, but mostly they've become more violent on themselves. So stop with the pathologizing of young men. We need men and women to begin to restore their alliance. I have seven and a half billion pieces of evidence that the greatest alliance in history is men and women. Men need to celebrate the progress of their mothers and their sisters. And women need to have, in my opinion, young women a little bit more empathy and realize that if they're constantly criticizing young men, maybe he's not going to want to approach you and ask you out.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, I mean, the issue is. And one of the issues that I think when you're speaking is like, the incentives to. There's more juice in the, like, men are.

[Scott Galloway]

All.

[Neal Brennan]

Men are trash and I'd rather have sex with a bear or whatever that thing was. Like, there's more cultural cachet and like in. In a sort of belittling the opposite sex than there is in going like, no, men are great. Like, even saying men like that testosterone has been transformative for the Earth is like, what? How dare you say that? It's like, it's why there's the bridges and inventions and it is trying to impress women and it's protecting nations. And it's like. But there's no. It's been so stigmatized for the. It's similar to the pedophile thing where priests and fucking priests ruin the Catholic Church. They ruin any sort of interaction with young whatever. And it is a few bad apples. Yeah, of course, but it's the few bad apples thing where it's like, yeah, you think I like violent men? Do you think like men like violence? I like watching violence. I don't like being anywhere near it.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

Which I don't. I think women think we like it or you know what I mean? Like, so it's another thing where it's like turning the tide on the branding. As a branding professor, so called branding professor is the. That's where I go like, dude, this is. That's the hardest part with all this stuff. Taxing the rich, getting women to admit men are mostly great. That's hard. That's the hard part.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, if I'm at a conference and I say women make better doctors and lawyers, they're more nurturing, more observant, better managers because of their maternal instincts or their attention to detail because of instinctual reasons, people nod and clap if I say on average women make better combat soldiers and in many cases make better, better entrepreneurs because they're more risk aggressive. Which isn't to say the same opportunities shouldn't be allowed to everybody. There's a very uncomfortable pause acknowledging men might be better at anything or even

[Neal Brennan]

admitting that women have maternal instincts or

[Scott Galloway]

saying that women are nurturing. You're saying we should be home barefoot and pregnant. I'm like, no. Those translates into being a great doctor and a great lawyer. We're going to have more female doctors and lawyers forever. For a while now. But just turning to my book, I'm trying to figure out a way masculinity has been conflated with toxicity. There's no such thing as toxic masculinity. There's cruelty, there's abuse of power, there's people who are violent. Those are the most non masculine things in the world. I think of the three pillars. I'm trying to figure out a way to develop an aspirational code for masculinity because I think every young person needs a code to help them make decisions. You can get it from the church, you can get it from your parents, you can get it from the military, you can get it, even get it from your workplace. Like a code. This is my code. This is how I make decisions, hard decisions. I'd like to think that masculinity can be presented as an aspirational code. And the three legs of the stool, I think, are our first provider. I think every young man should take economic responsibility for his household. Sometimes that means getting out of the way and being more supportive of your partner who's better at that money thing. My partner worked at Goldman 15 years ago when I Wasn't making very much money. So I tried to pick up the slack at home. That's the right thing to do. That's also masculinity. But you should assume you need to be economically viable. You gotta get certification. You have to work hard, you have to show discipline. You have to be smart about saving or spending less than you make so you can save money. And women are attracted to that. Don't be the douchebag that orders a bottle of Grey Goose at 2 in the morning. You have shit to do in the morning, go home, be disciplined. Demonstrate that you have a plan. You don't have to be rich, but have a plan. I'm going to be able to take care of you and a family because I have a plan. Second is the default operating system for men, I think is to be a protector. If you think about the most masculine jobs, firemen, policemen, military, what do they do? They protect. Your default operating system should be a move to protection always. And this is what disappoints me about many of our male leaders now. I don't think they're in the business of protecting the vulnerable. You may not agree with the trans community, you may not think we need third bathrooms and corporations. You may not think transgender women should be able to compete at the NC2A swim trials, which I believe both those things should not happen. But if you see a community being demonized the way the community is being demonized right now, your move should be to protection. And it's not only. Think about the guys who break up fights at bars. They're usually strong men. The guys who start fights at bars are usually not strong men, emotionally and physically. So. And it's not only physical. You hear people talking shit about someone else behind their back. I think a very masculine attribute is to not participate or to push back. You protect people and the most reward I have. Do you have kids?

[Neal Brennan]

My girl has a 5 year old.

[Scott Galloway]

My whole life has been about more. I want more money, I want more relevance. I want more fame, eyeglasses, I want more glasses, I want more experiences. I want more sex. I want hotter women, better experience, never fucking enough. The only time I ever feel somewhat sated and satisfied is when I know my family is safe, asleep. And I feel like I'm their protector. And I know that sounds very primal. I think that is the most satisfying feeling for a lot of men is that they have translated their prosperity into protection. Protecting your country, protecting your community, protecting vulnerable groups. I think that feels really fucking awesome. And I think that that's a key component of masculinity. And I think it comes somewhat naturally to men. Back to that testosterone. And the final thing, and this gets the most interesting dialogue is procreator. I think we have to stop pathologizing a man's romantic and sexual desires. It's fire and it can be very damaging. If a man spends too much time, especially young men, watching pornography, he's going to start objectifying. Women have unreasonable expectations about what a relationship is. But that sexual desire can be channeled like fire, put into an engine to create progress, to make you want to dress better, better groomer, have a plan, demonstrate excellence, show resilience, approach people, ask them for friendship, express romantic interest while making them feel safe and get used to rejection. Why? Because you want to have sex. There's nothing wrong with that. Wanting to have contact with women, be attractive to women, establish relationships, have a sexual relationship. That mojo should be something that turns you into a better man. When I mentor young men, they always end up at the same place. They first start about talking about the relationships, what's gone wrong. Then they want to talk about how do I make some money? But ultimately, where it always ends up, Neil is I'd really like a girlfriend. And the first thing I ask them is, would you have sex with you? And they kind of objectively. And I say, well, what would it require for women to want to have sex with you? And they outline a series of things that make them better men. So I think to a certain extent we have to embrace that. And also when we have the thing we haven't talked about, young men are up against an indomitable evil force called Big Tech that has godlike technology trying to convince them that they can have a reasonable facsimile of life on a screen with an algorithm. You don't need friends. You got Reddit and discord. Why figure out the pecking order and try and figure out the cafeteria and the hierarchy of friendship. You don't need to put on a tie and apply for jobs and navigate the bullshit of going to an office. You can make money trading crypto or stocks on Coinbase or Robinhood. And why would you go through the expense, the aggravation, the rejection, the humiliation of trying to establish a romantic partnership when you have lifelike porn available 24 by 7. So we have the most well funded companies in the world, representing 40% of the s and P who have connected profitability with sequestering and polarizing young men. So they're up against what I would say is almost an unbeatable foe. And that is, I mean, well, let me ask you this. I often talk about. I barely graduated from ucla. One of the reasons I went on campus is I want to see my buddies. It was fun. And I also like the idea of meeting a strange woman and potentially having a relationship with her that was motivating. If I'd had on demand porn 24 by 7 that was lifelike and had AI reverse engineering figuring out my fetishes, would I have gone on campus as much? I don't know. So men are up against some really challenging things around that attempt to essentially convince them you can have a life alone and we're becoming less mammalia. And if you want to see an animal go crazy, put an orc in a tank alone. The worst thing you can do at a human is solitary confinement. Leave your dog alone and see what happens. And these men, when sequestered from relationships, quite frankly, just come off the tracks and start. Become much more prone to misogynistic content, much more prone to nationalistic content. And some they become shitty citizens. And if they don't go through the. If they don't walk through the coals of trying to get a job or trying to establish a romantic relationship, those are skills that serve them well the rest of their lives. I mean, my guess is, I'm going to guess this is true of you. It was true of me. The only way I could ever navigate and get a date, I was super skinny growing up and I had bad skin. That's not a great rap. That's not the peanut butter and chocolate of Bradley.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, I heard you talk about Accutane the other day. Which Same boat.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, same thing. Yeah. The only time I could ever convince a woman to go on a date with me is if I'd made her laugh a lot. Humor was my secret weapon. But where do men now demonstrate humor? Where do they develop those skills? They're not going to work, they're not going to religious institutions, they're not going to school. They're in their basement. Learning that every relationship is frictionless and that's not the real world. And the most rewarding things in our lives are relationships. And the reason they are so rewarding is they're so fucking hard. That's what real victory is. It's figuring out a way to have friends, figuring out a way to get along with your parents, figuring out a way to be generous with your siblings, figuring out a way to convince someone to be involved in your life romantically. Committing to them, having them commit to you. Putting up with the bullshit of children. Jesus Christ.

[Neal Brennan]

It's hard.

[Scott Galloway]

It's hard. But if you're able to do these things, that's what real victory smells like. And if you believe, you can have those things online. I think a lot of these young men end up 30, anxious, depressed and obese.

[Neal Brennan]

What do you espouse for your sons? How old are your sons?

[Scott Galloway]

15 and 18.

[Neal Brennan]

Money. They have a lot. I'm sure you have a plan in terms of like, I'll give you this or I won't give you that, but like, what are you doing there? Without as much you're willing to share. I'm not looking. I'm genuinely like, what do you. Okay. What are you practicing?

[Scott Galloway]

So I want to be clear. I don't have a playbook on this. And this is kind of do as I say, not as I do. One of my kids struggled with device addiction. I've been studying big tech my whole life. You'd think I would have figured that out. So I get it wrong a lot. I also think having kids has made me a better man because I learned pretty early what you say has very little meaning. It's what you do. So I do think the best thing you can do for young men is try to be really good to their mother. I think they see that. They see that, oh, you're supposed to be kind, you're supposed to be supportive of your partner. I think they register that it's made me. I try to. I try to just model the behavior I would want them to model when they get to be men. And I have these practices. What does a man do? I call it. And I sit them down when we have visitors. A man immediately runs to the car and grabs their luggage and puts it in their room. A man never pours his own water first. And this is one of my favorite stories about my youngest. When he was 10, we were at a restaurant in London and it was just me and him. His mom was gone and there was this big vat of water or a big thing of water, and he wanted to pour his glass and he picked it up and waddled over to this other table across the restaurant and poured their water. Because he thought it meant everybody. Yeah. And I thought. And I was just so proud of him at that moment. But just a series of practices around what men do. I've tried to really emphasize physical fitness. Not for everybody, but I think it's important for. You mentioned testosterone and you have the

[Neal Brennan]

15 year old taking testosterone.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, yeah. Human growth hormone at 11. But I think fitness and speed is really important and. Or let me just.

[Neal Brennan]

Well, okay. Do you foster competition with them? Because I know a lot of the most successful people I know are really competitive.

[Scott Galloway]

I try.

[Neal Brennan]

And some of it's. I think a lot of it's just insecurity manifesting, but fine.

[Scott Galloway]

So the two things that I thought I've heard, okay. Competitive sports, playing on a team and chores. I have failed on chores. My kids are lazy and they don't even make their beds any longer. And I have totally facilitated it because we have a live in. I failed there. Yeah. What I have done is from a very young age, I had them playing sports. They're not great athletes. But the wonderful thing about our sports infrastructure is you don't need to be a great athlete to play. Some kids would rather do something else, but it's got to be something. Chess, dance, whatever it is, you know? But I like the idea, and this is some bias. The only reason I got a job at Morgan Stanley is because I rode crew at ucla and the guy who rode crew, the guy who ran the fixed income department had rode crew and said, every oarsman gets an automatic hire because you're willing to kill yourself. And that's what we like here at Morgan Stanley. So I think competitive sports are really important for building confidence. Young men have this blessing. And this is one of my practices with the kids I mentor. They're born with denser bone structure, more muscle mass, and then you pour on at this amazing substance called testosterone. I think every man under the age of 30 should be able to walk in any room and know if shit got real, they could either outrun everybody or kill them and eat them. And I say that metaphorically. But don't you look, I look back on my 20s.

[Neal Brennan]

What about saying something very sarcastic and mean?

[Scott Galloway]

That too. That too. That's cutting.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

But I think your physical. I think if you work out a lot or run, I think you're going to be kinder, less prone to depression, more attractive to potential mates, and just feel better about yourself. So I think fitness and competitive sports are a big part of what my kids do. But I'm trying to move more to modeling. Also. I'm really trying to lean into this idea of garbage time. And that is, I think the idea of quality time was something invented by rich dudes who didn't want to spend a lot of time with their kids. Like, I can make up for not being with my kids by taking them

[Neal Brennan]

to Disneyland, by going on safari. Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Be the Uber driver. Yeah. Hang out. What are you doing? Let's just. Let's just go. Let's just go grab. Let's go grab dinner. Let's go grab. Because the real moments of connection and you'll find this with your. It's your stepdaughter. Son. Stepson. They happen randomly.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

They happen when you're not.

[Neal Brennan]

Jerry Seinfeld talked about it on this podcast where he's like, it's just garbage. Like, just not. You're eating cereal, it's one in the morning.

[Scott Galloway]

Just.

[Neal Brennan]

That's where you get to. That's true in offices as well. I mean, it's true in a lot of situations.

[Scott Galloway]

So my attitude is, you want to be. You want to be. I mean, it's just presence. It's just figuring out a way to just be there as much as possible. I also find being in their company when they're not looking at you, driving them is really powerful because when they're not looking at you, I find they're more likely just to be quiet. And then, especially for boys, and then blurt something out and you're like, okay, this is a moment. Because you find as a dad, at least with my kids, I would kill for my sons to open up more to me. And if I say, if I start asking them questions like, hey, is there a girl you like at school? And that's a non starter.

[Neal Brennan]

It's the first 48.

[Scott Galloway]

There you go. It's a non starter, but in moments where I'm spending a lot of time with them, just stuff comes out, you know. So do you sell them on status?

[Neal Brennan]

Meaning not sell them, but do you make them aware of status? I think that's a big. I just, I'm. It took me a long time to realize how. I mean, I read the Alain Debiton book Status Anxiety when it came out 2005 or 6. But like, that's a big thing in. In the world.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't know if I don't teach them about it, but I try to take them to environments where they realize they're not just their privilege, just how incredibly fortunate they are. And I try to remind them, have

[Neal Brennan]

you taken them places where they're not? Cause that's. I think that's the.

[Scott Galloway]

Where they're not.

[Neal Brennan]

Where they're not high status, where it's like those who are higher status and the reason why is. And then, you know, the litany of racing.

[Scott Galloway]

Give me an example of that.

[Neal Brennan]

Well, the clearest one is, I heard a long time ago, it's easy to go from economy to business, it's very hard to go from business to. To economy. It's very hard to go back. So. Meaning you're low status here in this situation, and you can get to higher status, but you're going to have to earn it. And I'm wondering if it is something you can teach or something you can demonstrate.

[Scott Galloway]

The honest answer is, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's. I talk so much about fatherhood and masculinity, and I think I come up so short so much of the times, you know, I don't.

[Neal Brennan]

Well, it's impossible to do perfectly. I mean.

[Scott Galloway]

And every book on parenting I've read contradicts the one I read before it.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

You know, look, I do the basics I'm good at. Their mom. Try and get them involved in sports. Try and through actions, know that I love them immensely. And I think they're wonderful. I think something I got from my mom was every day, in subtle ways, explicit and implicit. She just made me feel like I was just wonderful. And I think over time, you start to believe that. So I try to do the same thing with my boys. Even when I'm on the road, I try to FaceTime them every day. I demand they answer or I'll just keep calling them like a jealous boyfriend and just check in. How are you? What's going on?

[Neal Brennan]

If they don't pick up, you leave like a dead animal on the front porch. I get it.

[Scott Galloway]

Picture of me boiling a cat. And I think over time, they're just going to know that I thought they were wonderful. The issue I have, and you're alluding to it, is that the reality is I wouldn't have what I have if I had what they have. A lot of the embers around for me that burned and drove my success and my discipline and my hard work were because I didn't have a lot. The scarcity mindset. My kids don't have that problem. So I wonder where that's going to come from. And I don't have the answer.

[Neal Brennan]

Is it necessary? I was talking to a friend last night about he's about to have a kid. And we're talking about he's Asian. And he was talking about. He's like, I'm gonna try not to be Asian about it. In terms of what? Kind of like, not to be like a tiger parent. Not to be like, you have to become a doctor, a lawyer, or Harvard or Yale or whatever. And I'm betting. Cause I know I feel this way, or I see the Value in just being happy, well adjusted person. And I see the value in being a high status successful person.

[Scott Galloway]

The thing is though that, I mean I like to say find your own road, just as long as you're happy.

[Neal Brennan]

But part of your calendar series. Hang in there.

[Scott Galloway]

Yep, July, you have value. But the reality is I'm not a tiger dad, but I do believe in a capitalist society. I mean, I'm going to my oldest applying to college and I'd like to say no. If you want to take a gap year, wherever you end up is right for you. I'm all over them. I want them to go to an elite school. I know that we tell ourselves a lie that college doesn't matter and where you go doesn't matter. That's a lie. The kid coming out of Dartmouth is going to have more opportunities than the kid coming out of Cal State Northridge. They're going to have more mating opportunities, better health care. That's not to say you can't be a billionaire coming out of Cal State Northridge. It's a great school, but the kids rolling out of Harvard, I will say

[Neal Brennan]

also Cal State Northridge, shockingly nice campus. Have you been?

[Scott Galloway]

And a world class accounting department.

[Neal Brennan]

Incredible campus. I don't even understand why.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, that's where I was going to go to college before I got into ucla, so I don't know why I brought that up. By the way, the Cal State system is the unsung hero of the California system.

[Neal Brennan]

Cal State Long beach has a fucking pyramid gym.

[Scott Galloway]

It's the biggest grantor of Pell Grants in the nation, meaning they educate more low income kids than any other system in the United States. You want to talk about how you solve income inequality, you better fund our great junior colleges and Cal State system. But I'm on that hamster wheel, Neil. I want my kid to go to a great school because I think it matters. And I think we tell ourselves a lie that it doesn't matter. So I'm all over them. Did you study for the ACT today? Do you have your personal essays done?

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

You know, and they have resources, so my guess is they'll end up going to good schools. So I'd like to think I'm that supportive, loving 60s parent or whatever. I'm all over my kids. I'm all over. I want them to be successful and I'm in their face about a lot of stuff. And quite frankly, I needed more of that. When I was a kid, I needed someone telling me, get your shit together.

[Neal Brennan]

You could have used more.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, Yeah, a lot more. I think boys need it.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

I think they need people asking them questions every day.

[Neal Brennan]

I also think, like, not force, but some kind of force or incentive or disincentive. I feel the same way. Cause I was. I ended up just working a lot. Cause I didn't want to be around the house. And I caddied at a golf.

[Scott Galloway]

I was a caddie, too.

[Neal Brennan]

Where's a caddy in Chicago? The place that Bill Murray and his brother's caddy called Indian Hill that the movie's based on.

[Scott Galloway]

How old are you when you caddied?

[Neal Brennan]

11 through 17.

[Scott Galloway]

Did you ever have to do a double bag in the summer?

[Neal Brennan]

Had to.

[Scott Galloway]

I mean, that was literally child abuse. You're out there in the summer, you're like, I don't know about you. I was like, all of 5, 7, 120 pounds.

[Neal Brennan]

I mean, I was tiny when I

[Scott Galloway]

finished carrying two Ram golf bags. Yeah. And by the end of 18 holes, you literally could have expired from heat exhaustion. For what I used to get, maybe 15 or 18 bucks. I forget what I got. I'm older than you. But. But that. That was a great job.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

It taught you there's a little bit of method, a little bit of knowledge, how to get along with people and also how hard work is.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, it's. It's grunt work.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

It's literally grunt work.

[Scott Galloway]

It's physical labor.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah. So I've kind of weirdly developed a better work ethic as I've gotten older, like, almost by the year, where I probably just have a good work ethic. Now in the last three months, where I'm like, no, I really have to. The thing I've been saying is, when you're in school, A students, B students, C students are all kind of treated the same in life. A students are treated way better. Your life is so much better.

[Scott Galloway]

The Delta between, like, when I was in Ohio Academy.

[Neal Brennan]

Explain for the B students what a Delta is.

[Scott Galloway]

So, remember when we were kids? Your dad's boss had a bigger house but was nearby, and we all went to the same kind of church and country club. And he had a Ford Thunderbird or a Cadillac. My dad had a Gran Torino. They were both, like, just reasonably shitty American cars. One had leather, one had cloth. Maybe he got to ride in business class where the seat was this and we had to ride here. But our lives are somewhat similar. The Delta between making a decent living and making a great living has broadened so extraordinarily. It used to be coach or business class. Now it's coach, premium economy, economy comfort business class, first class private air travel, chartering fractional airplanes, small jet, midsize jet, Falcon 900 heavy jet you can get, if you have enough money, you can go to the Met gala, You can

[Neal Brennan]

go to fucking space, dude.

[Scott Galloway]

The difference between this, it used to be the difference was this and this. Now the difference is this and this. So while being wealthy might be for some people an empty and meaningless experience, trust me on this, as far as empty and meaningless experiences go, it's pretty fucking good.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And this country has decided that we are optimized for the top 1%. The bottom 99% are nutrition and tax to make the life exceptional of the top 1%. And this is where our optimism damages us as a country is we all believe our kids are gonna be in the top 1%. So it's like that Simpsons episode where this guy's screaming, lock em up or raise their taxes. You realize we're one of them, right? And he's like, yeah, but once I'm one of those rich guys, wait till you see how I treat me, right? So it's like everybody, people know the lottery's a bad idea, but their ticket's a winner, baby. Right? So I think our optimism, while it's our strength, it's also our Achilles heel. Because we assume our kid is going to get into MIT or start a tech company or figure it out. And the reality is the structural programs in America now have made housing almost impossible for someone in the 80s. We're in New York right now. There are now three types of. I moved to New York right out of ucla. I had two roommates. You could kind of dance between the raindrops. We used to, we all worked at banks. We could pool our per diem's, go out, have a fun time. My rent was $1,900. Three of us, 633 each. You could get a papaya, you could get a slice. You could just figure it out. It wasn't easy, but you could figure it out. The cost. Now in Manhattan, there's only three types of kids in Manhattan now are people. Kids who work for Google or Meta or tech. Kids who work for JPMorgan or Goldman Finance Bros. And kids whose parents are putting them through New York. When I meet somebody who's in a regular job, I know, oh, you have rich parents. There's no way. If a kid's making, and these are kids making good money. If you make $100,000 in New York and you're 24, 25, you probably can't survive without help in New York. A one bedroom apartment in New York is $5,500. That's 66,000. That's your entire hundred grand post tax income. And I'm not suggesting everyone has a birthright to live in New York. But the inflation has essentially made it almost impossible for young people to live in the big cities unless their parents are putting them through big cities. And again, it's easier to talk about the problem. But when I was younger, it seemed like we just loved the unremarkable more. And whereas now it feels like everything's an attempt to optimize. When I got out of business school, we all made good money. A few of us made more than others, but no one was poor. We all made like good money. Now I say to my kids, if I have a class of 180 kids, I'm like, there's two or three billionaires in waiting here. They'll make it through tech or alternative investments. But also probably 10 of you will be living with your parents at some point in the next 10 years. The winners and losers economy. The economy really has transitioned to a Hunger Games. And it's been a conscious effort. We know what's going on. Our optimism has resulted in that we're passive about the notion of that we're okay with billionaires, while one in five homes with children are food insecure. Because unfortunately, we have seemed to have embraced this Hunger Games economy. I think it's gone too far. I think people are finally gagging on it. But we also have to acknowledge it's been a bit of a conscious choice in America. My father, who's an immigrant from Scotland, used to say, America is a terrible place to be stupid. And what I think he meant was, is America is a harsh place. If you're unfortunate, know someone in your life celebrating a birthday, they deserve to feel truly celebrated. That's what 1-800-Flowers has helped people do for 50 years. Turning everyday gestures into meaningful moments of connection. And this april, during their 50th birthday celebration event, when you buy one bouquet, get a second bouquet, 50% off. Celebrate more birthdays with our 50th birthday event all April long at 1-800flowers.com Spotify. Buy one bouquet, get a 2nd bouquet, 50% off at 1-800-flowers.com Spotify Humiliating.

[Neal Brennan]

Poor people are humiliated minute to minute.

[Scott Galloway]

40% of American households have medical debt. Can you imagine as a dad, you have a five year old stepson. Can you imagine, like your kid is in screaming pain. You gotta get Him a root canal. You gotta go into debt, get your kid a root Canal. That's 40% of American households right now. It's just gone. I do believe in winners and losers. Capitalism is about huge rewards for the winners. There's gotta be a floor. And the safety net has become way too porous and in the most prosperous nation in the world to have this sort of. We're the richest nation in the world, but if your wife gets lung cancer, there's a 1 in 3 chance that means you're going bankrupt. I mean, literally, what the fuck? So anyways, we haven't elected enough people who understand and have the backbone to have what I think is a truly progressive tax policy. And I'd like to think that we're going to move back to that. And I'm not talking about. I'm talking about like Reagan and Carter and Nixon. The tax rates are much different than the tax code was. Much different.

[Neal Brennan]

I'm with all of this, but it's the getting there and it's also the balance of all the other stuff we've talked about with achievement and competition and taking care of the vulnerable. Because it just seemed like it's America's. I mean, it's just this pendulum from one extreme to another and like, yo, can we be. Can we just be like sort of just reduce the overton window of the pendulum just. Cause it's fucking crazy.

[Scott Galloway]

There's no middle anymore. The majority of Americans identify and kind of anywhere.

[Neal Brennan]

That's the crazy thing.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, the electoral process is the following. It's been so gerrymandered that the general election no longer matters. It's the primary. And the way you win the primary as a Republican or Democrat is just to say, I'm more fucking crazy than this person. I'm more liberal. I'm more conservative. And so we send a bunch of people to Washington who just have no shared values or experiences. And the tax cuts for the wealthy, in my opinion, at some point it becomes morally bankrupt. It just. When you have one man garnering an increase in wealth equivalent to the GDP of Costa Rica, Larry Ellison's wealth goes up $90 billion in one day. And the only people buying media companies are billionaire kids. Whether it's Sherry Redstone, who's a billionaire kid, selling her company Paramount to another billionaire kid, Larry Ellison. And meanwhile, you know, what is it? 30% of kids are on snap food payments? I mean, come on. It's just gone too far. I know.

[Neal Brennan]

Well, I guess it's just the. How, how harsh is the wake up gonna be. That's, that's again I'm sure you worry about is also like

[Scott Galloway]

I'm, you know,

[Neal Brennan]

this is the craziest time I've ever been alive.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, look, the bad news is we have extraordinary income inequality in our country. The good news is it always self corrects. Let me give you the bad news. The means of self correction are usually war, famine or revolution. Throughout history there's a very basic cycle. The top 1% get there because they're hard working, smart and also very lucky. And then they use their resources to incrementally rationalize weaponizing government to get more and more resources. And then at some point when the top 1% has more income than the bottom half, which it does now, actually Elon Musk now has more net worth than the bottom 50% of American households. At some point the bottom 90 realizes the fastest way to double their income is to kill the 1% or at least take their shit away and tell them they have 48 hours to get out of the country. This has happened over and this is basically the story of Central and Latin America for the last 200 years. At some point the bottom 99 or the bottom 90 gets fed up. And I would argue that you're seeing small instances of revolution. I think the MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements both had righteous components, but they weren't going after the sexual harasser owns a taco truck. They weren't going after middle class executives. They were going after rich white people, which is a form of revolution. So I think, look, I think what I would say to all rich people is just if just in terms of self preservation, at some point your neighbors are going to take your shit away by.

[Neal Brennan]

I don't know what was you saying this, but it's like I don't want to live in a world with armed guards. Do you know what I mean? Like, I don't. I have, I have some really, really wealthy, high status friends and I had a joke I haven't written yet. But it's like I'm so successful I have to be surrounded by ex military at all times. That's I'm so funny. I'm surrounded by a bunch of ex militants. It's like that doesn't seem like a good life. And that's what with all these rich people now it's like you like this.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, one part of it is it's a flex. I went to this party.

[Neal Brennan]

Of course it is.

[Scott Galloway]

I went to this party in Ibiza and this guy I know is wealthy, but he's not that wealthy. And he has a security guard with him. And he's like, oh, no. The new security guard, the new trend in security is not a big guy. It's a hot female former Mossad. And I'm like, okay, so you're doing this. This is like wearing a watch. Yeah. But I just went to one of these Master of the universe conferences where I'd say 20 or 30 of the richest people in the world were there. There was security everywhere. And they are. They're not doing it to show off. They've lost their anonymity and they feel threatened. And I'm sure they get a lot of threats in South Africa, which has enormous income inequality.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah, that's what I mean.

[Scott Galloway]

There's more private security than there are policemen.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And you have some fame. I don't have as much as you, but I have a bit of a footprint. And I'm going on a podcast tour. And since the Charlie Kirk shooting, they've said, do you want security? Do you want metal detectors? I just thought, fuck, that's where we are.

[Neal Brennan]

I know, I know. That's what I mean. Like, I don't. I'm nowhere. I would argue you're more famous than me. We'll do a whole podcast about it. Cause I think people would really like it.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, that sounds.

[Neal Brennan]

But. But yeah, it's like, it's just a weird. I even think about that with the bunkers and Zuckerberg and I'm gonna go to New Zealand and it's kind of like, is that you want that? Like, why not just do what you can to make the world better? Because that seems like entirely self defeating. Having to live in a bunker, like, is that's your end game? Bunker?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, bunker.

[Neal Brennan]

What the fuck did you do to need to create a world that you need a bunker?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, and the idea that these guys instead of. I just think it's insane that someone would spend billions of dollars to try and inhabit space. That's so nihilistic that you think we're going to have to inhabit space. I mean, that's the ultimate go bag. I mean, here's an idea.

[Neal Brennan]

Oh. I mean, my friend Gerard Carmichael did a joke 12 years ago. I'll start worrying about income inequality when rich people start going to space. And then it happened.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. So the question you'd put forward to these guys so obsessed with space, wouldn't your billions be better served trying to make this place a little bit more fucking habitable? I mean, or more habitable?

[Neal Brennan]

Like, here's another Thing the assumption is it's beyond repair.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't know what they're thinking. I don't understand the nihilist. First off, let's just talk about the practicality. I know someone has a bunker in New Zealand and a whole go plan that's Gulf Stream, ready to go at any moment.

[Neal Brennan]

Okay. Very quickly.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

Where are they getting fuel?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, no, no. What I asked is if shit really gets real and I'm your pilot, I'll fly you there and then I'll kill you.

[Neal Brennan]

Yes.

[Scott Galloway]

And then I'll live in your bunker.

[Neal Brennan]

Yes. I hope you make peace with your security. Cuz he's gonna fuck your wife the first opportunity. You might not even need the opportunity, he's just gonna fuck your wife.

[Scott Galloway]

Or the moment that you find out, say there's some sort of global revolution or a nuclear attack and oh wait, we don't have food. Did you hear there's a guy with 100 billion with a of bunch bunker over that hill. I know. Maybe we just go check out what's going over there.

[Neal Brennan]

Hypothetically.

[Scott Galloway]

So I don't. It's like the problem right now. I think we should tax. I'm talking a lot about taxes, private schools, more. Because when parents leave public schools, they're not engaged. What you have is essentially rich people have sequestered themselves from the problems of our society. They're no longer invested. They have their own schools, their own tutors for college, essentially they have their own colleges now they have their own security, their own police force. Right. They have their own health care. They don't mind that maybe health care is working or not working or too expensive.

[Neal Brennan]

They don't even know what you're talking about.

[Scott Galloway]

So they have removed themselves from America. They're living in Elysium. And the problem is when rich people aren't as invested in the success of America, they're not as invested in the success of America.

[Neal Brennan]

Right.

[Scott Galloway]

They don't realize that when we shut down the government, that's 300,000 people who are taking care of veterans, giving them physical therapy, helping them with their emotional trauma, their PTSD getting them.

[Neal Brennan]

Aren't all the veterans working security for rich people? That's how they think. I promise you, that's how they think.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, calm. But the amount of security at this conference, I agree with you. My dad said to me once, he said the ultimate algorithm for happiness. He was always obsessed with money. He's like, is to be rich and anonymous.

[Neal Brennan]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And actually as I look back on it, I think, yeah, he's Right, Yeah. That's the way to go.

[Neal Brennan]

You and I have this thing like, fame, little fame. Have a little fame, little fame touch. But you. You know, the further you go. Fame's great, but there is a thing of, like, if you tip everybody 100 bucks, you're famous, meaning anywhere you go, if they know you. Remember from caddying.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Neal Brennan]

You know who the good I knew the guy was?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, that guy.

[Neal Brennan]

So that's the thing I realized is, like, people would rather meet. People would rather meet Ben Franklin than whatever the fuck you are. Like, they. That's gonna help them long term. But I am. I am fascinated by what this. What this endgame is. Because it's like these super rich guys, like, hey, Zuckerberg, how good are you at Jiu Jitsu? Cause it's. You're gonna test it.

[Scott Galloway]

Can't stop a bullet.

[Neal Brennan]

There you go. Yeah. Like, it's gonna be tested the minute you again. Anything. If you like. You gotta feed your security. You gotta feed the. What are you gonna do? It's gonna be a cult in a weird way. And those have never. Historically, none have ended well.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, no, like I said, war, famine, revolution. And you'd think at some point that they'd recognize that. And anyway, I think that as a country, it just swung way too far. I do believe in winners and losers. I think we should have billionaires. I just think they should be taxed more. Yeah, I think you want the incentive. I think you want guys coming up with crazy and women coming up with crazy ideas that create crazy amounts of wealth, but they should not be able to piece out the taxes or fleet. Florida, when they made all the money in Washington state and benefited from the public schools and the infrastructure and then peace out to. You know, Bezos moved to Florida to spend more time with his dad. Isn't that sweet? And about the time he moved to Florida, he started selling all his stock. I know why he moved to Florida. For tax avoidance. Fine. And states should compete with each other, but maybe we should tax you based on where you accreted that wealth. There's a series of common sense solutions here to solve the deficit and also have a country that acts like it's the wealthiest country in the world.

[Neal Brennan]

We are, but it's nouveau riche. It's just acting like it's tearing down the East. Scott Galloway, ladies and gentlemen. What's the book called again?

[Scott Galloway]

Notes on Being a Man.

[Neal Brennan]

Notes on Being a Man. I'm sure by the time this comes out, it'll be everywhere. And the podcast I'm a pivot guy. But you got Prof. Giving. You got Prop G markets, you got raging moderates, You've got. You got some. You got a newsletter.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. No mercy, no malice.

[Neal Brennan]

He's got a lot happening. There's a lot of ways to consume him. Sky Galloway, thanks for doing it, man.

[Scott Galloway]

Thank you. I really enjoy this. I'm a big fan, man. Yeah. Mommy. All you have to do, open up your hand, Mommy.