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Kara Swisher
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Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
When I got a new car, I thought my insurance premium would increase and empty my bank account like if fatween won the lottery. I've invested most of my winnings in chicken tenders because they're bomb. But bro, I bought a house and it's sick, bro, I'm thinking the floor's gonna be all trampoline, bro, with the
Scott Galloway
helipad on the roof.
Kara Swisher
The contractor said it's structurally unsound, but they're just being babies. But switching to GEICO saved me hundreds, so my bank account is safe.
Scott Galloway
It feels good to save some hard earned cash. It feels good to Geico. Turn on your cameras. Are the producers laughing? That's my limitless test. Or do they have their head in their hands?
Kara Swisher
Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York magazine and the Vox Media podcast network. I'm Kara Swisher.
Scott Galloway
Bonsoir.
Kara Swisher
Bonsoir. Bonsoir. How are you? Oh, that's our entire friendship.
Scott Galloway
That's it. We're done. That's it. Peugeot. My mom did Peugeot.
Kara Swisher
Yeah. The French, I think are in for some reason. I feel like. Where are they? I think they were in New York doing. Getting up to all kind of business because of the World Cup. Well, we're here.
Scott Galloway
Oh. The French team's outstanding. I hate to say that the French
Kara Swisher
team is in the United States, I believe, where they were doing all kinds of French things, and we're here doing all kinds of American things. You are far away from me, that we're in the same general area right now. I just got here to Cannes. Cannes.
Scott Galloway
I'm on this wonderful island called Hotel du Cap. Yeah. No, we've been avoiding you. I mean, we can't wait to see you. We can't wait to see you.
Kara Swisher
You're not going to see the kids. They're here, though. They're out and about with the crepes right now, outside in the beach and Cannes and everything. So we just got here by train. I have to tell you, the weather here is lovely. In Paris, it was so hot. Like this sweltering heat dome across Europe is not a little thing. It's crazy. It's like, so hot. I've never experienced anything like it. I have to say.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, Paris in summer isn't a city. It's a convection oven with better architecture. I mean, it just. It starts to heat up.
Kara Swisher
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
And it's. I mean, it's really. It's. It's. There's something about, I don't know, like London. When it's hot, when It's. When it's 78 in. In LA, you think, oh, it's so pleasant, like breeze. When it's 78 in London, it feels like you're in Africa and you could die.
Kara Swisher
Oh, right.
Scott Galloway
For some reason, heat in Europe takes on a different dimension. I don't know if that's because they don't have air conditioning or what.
Kara Swisher
No air conditioning in the apartment we rented. That was nice. That was a lovely little extra part of it. It was a beautiful apartment. But then it was so hot, it was like. It was like an oven. Anyway, now we're here at the beach
Scott Galloway
with you, I'm sick to €54 burgers and pool boy's asking me, what type of lager would you like, Mr. Galloway?
Kara Swisher
Yeah, I know it's expensive where you are. We're staying at a beautiful apartment Vox got for us, which is nice. And we have lots to do. I'm going to be. I'm sorry.
Scott Galloway
V pays for you, but not for me. What's going on here?
Kara Swisher
Because you have to stay at the fanciest places in the world. Would you like to stay in this apartment with me? There's an extra bedroom.
Scott Galloway
Well, I would have liked to have been offered. Now I'm gonna send it. Where's Bangkok? Wait, I'm sending it to the Murdoch guy. I'm sending my Murdoch hotel builder the Murdoch. Okay.
Kara Swisher
All right. You stay at the fanciest places. I do not. I was gonna. We have a lot to do. We have a live pivot here. I've got a live on. Are you doing Prof. G Here or not?
Scott Galloway
Yeah, I just. Raging Myers. We're not doing live Prof. G, though. They're not interested in the markets. They like pivot. And we're doing it at the Adweek house, which I think is in a brothel somewhere outside of Toulouse.
Kara Swisher
Good export, that.
Scott Galloway
In the 10 years I have been here, it's literally like the second invasion of Normandy. The Americans. It used to be the ad agencies. Martin Sorrell and Maurice Levy and John Wren. No one gives a shit about the ad agencies anymore.
Kara Swisher
No, it's creators. Have you noticed? Creators.
Scott Galloway
The creator economy.
Kara Swisher
The creator economy. There's creat. YouTube has a thing. Everyone has the creator economy thing. And there's a lot of creators here. Most of them I don't know. But we are considered a creator, in case you're interested. Finally come round to us, I guess. Finally.
Scott Galloway
So just some data. About 500 YouTube creators are expected at CAN, up from 400 last year with new UTA and Adobe creator beaches. So they're taking over the beach. Can added a creative brand lion at the AI craft for the AI craft category for 2026, signaling creators as a core strategy. And they're attracting an unprecedented amount of ad spend. Creator revenues are set to exceed 21 billion this year, more than doubling from 2022. Interesting. Smaller influencers are attracting advertisers. Nano and micro influencers take 49% of US creator spend more than double their share.
Kara Swisher
Nano, Micro. Is it a tiny person? What is a nano?
Scott Galloway
No, I mean, long tail. It used to be. So podcasting is all about the top 100. A creator, the long tail. And the creator economy is actually doing really well. They get about half the spend, which is unlike other mediums where it all goes to the biggest players. Brand creator spend jumped 23% last year, while traditional TV ad budgets fell 8%. So the creator economy is really booming.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, we will discuss that at the Atweed house. And they understand. Then they will throw money at us. That's our hope, correct?
Scott Galloway
Yeah. But if you look at. I mean, podcasting, it went from. It went from kind of these dramas, like serials and interesting, you know, scripted podcasting. Then it went to the interview, the Rogans of the world. Then it's kind of gone to I think more like the commentators or analysts. And I think the next place is proprietary data sets and interpreting them. Actually, I'm parroting this intelligent woman's comment on a reel. I got to find out who she is in creditor.
Kara Swisher
All right. Okay. All right. Well, you know, we are going to. Our next act is going to be unnatural acts. That's what I think we should do. I think we should do only fans.
Scott Galloway
I'm game. You had me at unnatural acts. I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm in.
Kara Swisher
But we've got a lot to get to today. There's so much going on, including Greenwater gate. Get it? Green water gate. I told you this thing would blow up. President Trump says it will be. He said it will begin fixing the seriously vandalized reflecting pool. Vandalized by him. Trump is claiming, without evidence, he's lying, that vandals cut a 250 foot gash in the pool's new line and poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the water. This is nonsense. There's cameras everywhere in Washington, just so you know. He said multiple people have been arrested tied to the alleged destruction. This is just nonsense. One of them was a former Olympian who was accused by the park police of destroying government property. He says you reach down to touch a strip of peeling paint. I was down there, Scott. It was peeling. Nobody was touching it. Everyone was sort of shocked and amazed by how grotesque it was because, you know, you go down there, I've gone down there quite a bit. And I've never really noticed the sky minus of it. And it really is, it's green. All this paint's peeling off. So he's lying. And Trump, of course, should be accused of vandalizing a lot of Washington, whether it was the East Wing or the grass in front of the White House for his party. You know, it's just ridiculous, but it's taking on a life of its own. It really is. In terms of a metaphorical thing. Or maybe you don't think that.
Scott Galloway
No, I mean, the President is caught between two straits of water. I personally, I think this is kind of a non story. America's turning 250 and we've managed to turn a reflecting pool into a culture war. I just, for God's sakes, just fix it and let's move on. I don't, I kind of, you know, they're lying and saying that it's sabotage and vandalism. It isn't. It's incompetence. It's a Government project turning into another government project. And the Democrats love to talk about. I think we have bigger fish to
Kara Swisher
fry, I would agree, but I don't think it's a bad. I think people get it in a second because it's, again, as I told you, it's a symbol. And it's also the guy who did it is another piece of grift. And it looks incompetent. It looks incompetent. And one of the jokes online was that Washington is now scar after he took over on the Lion King. But there is more to that because then you link it, I think, with Iran, too, which continues to be like a problem. Like, here's, you know, they keep going back and forth. And that is the real problem. It is, but it's symbolic of just complete idiocy. Like really stupid. We'll get to some other stupid things coming up. But talk a little about. I noticed you were talking about a lot online, the MoU, which seems. The Iranians seem to have us by the short hairs. That's what it feels like to me. I don't know about you, but they're not doing anything. They're just dragging us on, I guess, and being rude to J.D. mance, which I completely think they.
Scott Galloway
Trump has delivered on his promise of unconditional surrender. The problem is we're the ones unconditionally surrendering. It is insane. Anyone who can do math, anyone who understands a memo of understanding, anyone who can look at their activities, in my mind, it is just so incredibly clear and tragic what is going on. The IRGC recognizes he's left. The midterms are coming up. It is a very unpopular war. He got no support from the public, from Congress, from other nations. He underestimated the resilience of the missile systems. He has handed them something more powerful than a nuclear weapon, and that is an ability to choke the carotid artery of the global economy. In the Strait of Hormuz, they know we are out, right? And all they have to do is operate in between is delay an obfuscation. It's just delay. Every day that goes back, it's less likely we're going to go back in with military action. So they just have to operate.
Kara Swisher
They really can't.
Scott Galloway
They have to operate between. Humor them. Agree to meet in Switzerland. Don't get a deal done, they have the perfect false flag. Oh, Israel's bombed Lebanon. You're not living up to your part of the agreement. We're out. They have no intention of giving anything back. And the only thing that's going to come out of this. Besides Trump's incompetence and J.D. vance having about as long a presidential run as Senator Gillibrand is that we are going to look back on this and recognize that one of the greatest acts of diplomacy was the jcpoa. Right. Which is manageable.
Kara Swisher
And Obama's saying so. He's doing a lot of press right now around it. By the way, the comparative we had
Scott Galloway
Russia and China sign, they were co signatures of the agreement. We can't get Israel to sign this agreement, much less European nations. We had limits at 3.7 enrichment, they're already at 60. There's no little money. There's no constraints around nuclear enrichment in the agreement. He keeps saying all these bullshit threats will, will open the Strait of Hormuz.
Kara Swisher
We'll get you. We'll get you.
Scott Galloway
I know the Strait of Hormuz would take to keep it open, would take two carrier strike forces, paratroopers and marines on the ground on Iranian soil. That is not going to happen. The net net here is the following. America comes out of this much weaker Iran much stronger. And we're going to look back and realize that the JCPOA was one of the more impressive acts of diplomacy of the last 50 years.
Kara Swisher
Yep. Except they continue to deny it. It's really like it's the same thing with the reflecting pool. And the reason why I harping on it, it's the same thing. It's the same kind of like. No, this is what's happening. You know, you've seen all these communications from the White House and we look, it looks so ridiculous when it's the reflecting pool, but it's the same exact communications. You know, they're blaming the New York Times, they're blaming, you know, for the coverage. They're. He's blaming Obama, he's blaming everybody. And it's the same thing. Oh, it's vandals, it's this, it's that, it's him. He's just a disaster. And again I point to finally someone is starting to write about it. His mental state, which seems demented and we'll get into that a little bit more. But the way he's sort of lashing out in this crazy way when it's all his fault seems. And of course blaming poor J.D. vance. I mean I never feel that sorry for that guy. But I gotta say he's been dragged, he's been penced. I don't know what else to say. He's sort of stuck holding the bag here and having to Defend it. And it's worse than when Kamala Harris even lightly said, I wouldn't change a thing on the View. Right. Sort of the same exact thing. So, I mean, it's disastrous for the Republicans in so many ways because he doesn't have it out. So my worry, because I think he lashes out, like arresting Jeanine Pirro, arresting people for this thing. This is like, let me tell you, Jean, I was down there, I didn't touch the strip of paint, but it was stripping off all by itself. It's gonna be a disaster. These people are soiling themselves in the most ridiculous ways. And in Iran, it's staying with the reflecting pool. It's just stupid. Although costly to us as taxpayers. The thing with the rest of the mess he's making. But in this case, it's disastrous. I mean, really, truly, I don't know how anyone's going to get us out of this because we got two more years of this lunatic, essentially. I don't even know what could happen. He gets sidelined. What? I don't know. Like, he's not going anywhere even if he loses power.
Scott Galloway
Yeah. But I think if Democrats state Congress have the power of subpoena and hopefully if they were to get back Senate at a minimum, there'd be enough power to get in the way of a lot of this stuff.
Kara Swisher
Except that Iran will then develop a nuclear weapon. I feel like he may now. You know what I mean? Like, that's where the worry, that's the only thing we all agree on. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. But wow, we've given him a chance here and then the economy itself. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. We come back resignations, feuds and more and we'll get into all the European political drama.
Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
support for this show comes from Shipstation. There are only so many hours in a day and if you run a business then you can't afford inefficiency, especially when it comes to shipping physical products. If you're looking for an AI to help make the process less of a headache, look no further than shipstation. Shipstation's AI isn't a general purpose tool. It's a highly specialized intelligence that has been trained for decades on real shipping data. With features like inventory syncing across your sales channels, a branded returns portal that helps turn returns into revenue, automatic rate shopping, and integrations with accounting and CRM software, ShipStation eliminates the need for multiple tools in your workflow flow. Shipstation can adapt to your unique business by alerting you when stock is low, recommending the best carrier selections and rates, and automating tasks to save you time so you can stay one step ahead. The sooner you switch, the sooner you start saving time and money. Get started with Shipstation today and get 60 days free@shipstation.com with Code Pivot. That's shipstation.com Code Pivot shipstation.com Code Pivot taxes and fees apply. Scott we're back with big news here in Europe. There's a lot going on. Keir Starmer just announced he's stepping down as Britain's prime minister, giving into mounting pressure from his own party. Starmer said he'll stay in office until the new party leader is selected and likely to be this guy named Andy Burnham, former mayor of Greater Manchester, very popular guy. Trump got ahead of the announcement over the weekend, noting Starmer would step down and saying he had failed badly on immigration and energy policy. Also, a lot of attacks from Elon Musk. By the way, Starmer's resignation comes almost 10 years to the day since the Brexit vote. The UK has had six prime ministers in that time. Talk a little bit about you live there, what has happened here. Obviously, he was going to lose an election and he had won in a landslide in a very short time ago.
Scott Galloway
I think a lot of it comes down to economics. And that is, I mean, it's very strange. Ibiza, Mykonos and Saint Barts in Hawaii are parts of those nations, but they're not. They're islands that have an entirely different culture. I feel that way about London. I think London's essentially an island in the UK because if you look at the UK, 7 out of 10 IPOs in the last 10 years are below the offering price. GDP was supposed to take a 4 to 6% hit from Brexit. That's second greatest known goal in geopolitical history, behind our entry into Iraq. You have now the UK as a whole has a lower average household income than Mississippi. And then there's London, which is essentially where the richest people in the world park capital and have a European lifestyle without actually engaging in the UK economy. I mean, it's just, it's a very strange place since I have moved there after we have a new uk, a new prime minister in several weeks. I've been there four years. This will be my fifth prime minister.
Kara Swisher
Fifth.
Scott Galloway
Right.
Kara Swisher
You entered Conservatives. There was a bunch of, there was a Conservative guy, there was Boris.
Scott Galloway
It's not politics, it's speed dating. It's beginning to feel like a LinkedIn jobs page. It's just so. But without growth, until they figure out a way, I thought they should do backsit, they should reintegrate into the European economy, because without growth, all of this gets harder and harder. And the weird. The quagmire here or not the quagmire the enigma is that the UK has all the underpinnings of a great democracy and economic growth engine. It has incredible universities, rule of law, culture compounds. Everybody in the world wants to or wouldn't mind the idea of living in
Kara Swisher
the UK for a few years. It's delightful when you're there, it's a wonderful place.
Scott Galloway
And yet OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX are going to raise 150 billion in fresh capital. The UK raised a total of 2 billion last year in its entire IPO market. They just can't get out of their own way. And Brexit. And just to go to politics, Since World War II, no individual has done more harm to Britain, in my view, than Nigel Farage, who might be a Prime Minister at some point. So I have stayed woefully ignorant to UK politics. But it is difficult for me to understand how the foundation of success, how they continue to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory here. And I gotta think it's something, it's gotta be a big bold move. Even the non dom thing we kicked out, basically, they chased a lot of billionaires out of the uk and I understand the sentiment. It's let's tickle the middle class censors of people who are angry. But at the same time the Treasury's gone down because a lot of wealthy people are leaving and that reduces your tax base to provide for the NHS and these social services. But this is, I mean, UK politics. And then what do you have? You have the rise of populism. They have had real problems to a certain extent. It's a metaphor for the west or when the west goes wrong. Stagnant wages, housing shortages, immigration anxiety and institutional distrust.
Kara Swisher
You also had a lot of meddling by Elon Musk in terms of backing a bunch of very violent people against him.
Scott Galloway
The American export is political divisiveness.
Kara Swisher
Right? Yeah.
Scott Galloway
It's not helpful.
Kara Swisher
It's Elon himself that's meddling quite a bit.
Scott Galloway
Yeah. But then J.D. vance comes over and lectures them about free speech. It's like, we shouldn't, you know, in my view, Americans should be here saying, you're our greatest ally. How can we help? What can we do together? How do we open more free trade agreements? Instead, Musk shows up and says, rise up, white people. Or I mean, essentially and J.D. vance comes over and waves his finger at him around free speech. And now they've got to figure out a way to basically untangle the technology. Britain's nuclear arsenal runs on American technology and all of a sudden Europe is waking up and going, what the fuck? We have become conservatives.
Kara Swisher
The conservatives aren't popular either. Farage kind of is. It's like nobody's popular. It's a real.
Scott Galloway
It's a very angry nation. But when you don't have growth, people's prosperity goes down and they just get angrier and angrier. So, again, not to talk too much about money, but they have got to figure out a way to get growth going again.
Kara Swisher
How would you.
Scott Galloway
When your growth grows, you have more money, you have more flexibility, you have more power abroad. You can't have a powerful nation that's shrinking its gdp. And again, I was in Cannes when Brexit happened and the pound crashed. It's cost them 8% of their GDP, which is like taking hundreds of billions of pounds into the street and just lighting it on fire.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, they may return to the. I mean, it's interesting because Europe is getting more and more unified. Speaking of which, Trump's latest feud is with one of his pals, basically, his European Marjorie Taylor Greene. Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni. The spat started after Trump. This is so strange. Again, I'm sorry, this guy's lost his mind. After Trump claimed Melania, Meloni begged him for a. Melanie. It was called Melania begged him for a photo of last week's G7 summit in France. Maloney responded with a video on Instagram, which was quite remarkable, calling Trump's claims totally fabricated and saying, italy and I never beg. She also accused Trump of being more accommodating to the enemies of the west than his own allies. Trump then doubled down, saying Meloni is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, which she fired back. My popularity is none of your concern. I suggest you focus on yours. Poor. Pointing to his bad. His lowering. Increasingly lowering popularity. Boy, this woman, even though. Let me just. Let's be clear, she's anti gay marriage, she's anti trans, she's anti immigrant. She's not. She's Marjorie Taylor Greene. Essentially, this is the European version of her. And at the same time, I was like, go, Georgia. Like, it was kind of interesting that he continues. Again, the sign of someone who is having some cognitive problems, it seemed like to me, this is usually.
Scott Galloway
He's always been like this.
Kara Swisher
He's always been an asshole. Not this much of an like. And. And she just took it to him, which I found really interest. I mean, obviously it helps her in Italy because he's not popular there and he's not popular anywhere in Europe now. And they were tight as ticks. If you recall.
Scott Galloway
You know, but this is again, greatness is in the agency of others. And European countries have been our strongest allies. We share same values, same democracies, we've worked together, we've had incredible. The post World War II world was largely shaped by America and European values. And Trump decides again, he's figured out a way to manage to feud with and alienate allies while simultaneously praising adversaries. And we've spent 80 years developing these alliances and Trump treats them like some sort of fantasy football league. And Melania, to her credit, she remains. Her popularity is actually greater than most Western leaders. And then he decides to pick a fight with one of the few European leaders who actually likes him.
Kara Swisher
She went at him on the Pope too. She doesn't much like his comments on the Pope either.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, well, I mean, come on. Criticizing the Pope is like if someone.
Kara Swisher
Not in Italy.
Scott Galloway
In Italy, you just don't do. You don't do that. None of this makes any sense. Kara does make any sense.
Kara Swisher
None of it. I believe her. Believe the woman. I totally believe her.
Scott Galloway
I believe her.
Kara Swisher
He's such a creep. Little pieces of his brains are coming off like the paint on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. But this is interesting. Cause she's a really. Cause she's really. If you actually look at a lot of our policies, they're pretty heinous in terms of how she behaves. But she's sort of shifted. I mean, she used Trump to sort of get there and now she's cutting him loose. Like more than others. Actually, the others haven't been quite as critical of him. Starmer certainly hasn't. Right. Or any of them have. I don't know. The Germans haven't. She's really taken it to the wall anyway. I don't know.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, I think most of them have decided, wait em out. It's a smart move for Melanie. Cause she comes across as a leader and not afraid and, you know, and
Kara Swisher
he's not good for her. It's not good for her. We look terrible once again, by the way. It's really interesting to be in Europe because a lot of people are saying, you don't like Trump, do you? To me, I'm like, no.
Scott Galloway
Really?
Kara Swisher
No. Yeah. A lot of the Europeans sort of test it. When we were in Paris, several different times, like, you're not a fan of Trump? I'm like, hardly. Like, hello, lesbian family. Like, no. And so they asked several Europeans whether there's a tour guide at Eiffel Tower or whatever. We're sort of like poking to see if we liked him, which obviously we look like an ad for not liking Trump. And anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, new details about how Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos tried to cozy up to Trump. This is an interesting story. Support for Pivot comes from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Quick reminder, America started a rebellion.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, we fired a king claiming divine
Kara Swisher
authority and then wrote a constitution with no mention of God, which is a big deal. The whole separation of church and state
Scott Galloway
thing, as you know, and those lines are blurring.
Kara Swisher
You see it in things like America Praise event on May 17 where the government starts uniting with religion, which typically
Scott Galloway
or historically doesn't end well for freedom.
Kara Swisher
And the Freedom From Religion foundation is working to protect that line.
Scott Galloway
So help us protect the First Amendment.
Kara Swisher
Go to FFRF us pivot or text pivot to 511-511 to learn more and join. Remember to text pivot to 511511 because
Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
Scott we're back. President Trump really took frequent jabs at Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos as he tried to build ties with his administration. That's according to a new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, who I'm going to have on the on podcast soon. The president told guests stories about Zuckerberg and Bezos kissing his ass, which they were saying, you not believe the texts I got from these tech guys? I gotta show you among them. Zuckerberg sent Trump a photo of a letter written by one of his young children which said they were looking forward to a Golden Age of America. Trump rally slogan. Bezos, meanwhile, reportedly told Trump that the Washington Post was one of his worst investments and that people there are really terrible. Oh my God. I mean, honestly. And then of course he was showing them to Elon too. They all made fun of them and you know, anyway, it was kind of, I mean, by the way, on the other side, they insult him behind his back too. But what has happened here from your perspective when you were reading sort of this stuff, I'm not surprised by one bit of it whatsoever. But I don't know if they'll get their reputations back. We always thought Trump was a jerk, but this is really kind of obsequious.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, but it represents a flip that is sort of represents something, in my view, kind of dark. And that is politicians used to kiss the ass of billionaires because billionaires had money and politicians wanted to get elected. And it became kind of a pay for play thing because of Citizens United but when you think about this, Bezos and Zuckerberg are worth hundreds of billions of dollars and yet they both still feel compelled to kiss the ass of an 80 year old real estate developer. Capital always chases power. But Silicon Valley spent 20 years telling us government didn't matter. And then everyone started flying to Washington. And what this signals around the dark part is the following. If you're worth a quarter of a trillion dollars and still kissing the ass of the President, this has moved from buying influence to renting protection. This is a transition for a pay for play democracy to something even worse. And that is a mob protection racket where if I want to hold on to my wealth, I got to start paying for protection because anybody that doesn't sign up gets in his crosshairs. And potentially all of these guys, Jamie Dimon is the only one I can tell of all these power crew that hasn't kissed his ass and is actually willing to occasionally say the obvious. And now the government is suing J.P. morgan, right? So it doesn't matter how powerful you are, you gotta pay the mob. And this is, what do you have? You want a democracy where money can't buy influence or can't buy too much, then you move to a democracy, a quote unquote democracy, or a kleptocracy where money buys everything. And now we're, in my opinion, a protection racket where Bezos and Zuckerberg gotta like, gotta kiss the ring here. It's feeling very Russian.
Kara Swisher
But do they gato, do they gotta. I feel like they're more powerful. I don't even understand it. Like I don't, I don't know, I mean they could wait him out. Like they've got so much money, they could do so much damage to him.
Scott Galloway
You're gonna, if, if they, I do think if the Democrats take Congress and we get about 18 or 24 months out, I think you're all of a sudden gonna see, as I say, these guys are gonna grow testicles again. I think you're gonna see a switch. Cause I know they all tell you they. But the smart play, I hate to say it, the smart play is just
Kara Swisher
to kiss his ass, I guess, but it's so gross. You don't have to do it in a grow tent with your kids. Oh my God, like my child wrote this to me. Do you know how much of a loser you look like that you're pimping out your kids and then Bezos just sell the Washington Post if it's one of your worst investments and people are jail.
Scott Galloway
I don't get that. We talked. We've talked that. I still don't understand why.
Kara Swisher
It's not just me who was interested. There was a dozen people wouldn't engage with any of them. I've talked to every one of them. Wouldn't engage, not once. What does he like? I don't know what's happening. If he doesn't like it, if it's his worst investments and people are terrible. And by the way, Jeff, they hate you. Why not just get rid of it? It's so weird.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, I don't get that one.
Kara Swisher
I don't understand because it doesn't give him power. By the way, it did an amazing story on Tulsi Gabbard this week. It's done several amazing stories around the corruption and everything else. I mean, the news parts, the editorial section is such weak sauce now. It's really hard to read. But I agree. I don't understand it. I think. I don't know. When they're sucking up to the normal president, are we going to forgive them or do we care? No, they sort of soiled themselves pretty significantly.
Scott Galloway
I don't know, but it feels very Russian in the sense that doesn't matter how rich you are, you got to send. Put in his vig. And no matter where you are, you might. If you really piss him off, he's going to put a neurotoxin on a doorknob.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, but he's this guy. He wasn't going to do that. That's the thing. It's not like in there. I kind of see it because that's kind of going out a window kind of thing. This is just something else.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, but I think these guys in a capitalist society begin to equate success and ego and influence just with a number. And that is your net worth. And I think they're very smart and they connect all the dots and see the matrix around how to increase their net worth. And they've connected the dots here and say, just kiss his ass. It's a really high ROI activity.
Kara Swisher
They're so gross. They're just gross. Stamping at your kids. It's just gross. Sorry. It's just gross. It's gross. In other Amazon news, this is interesting. Amazon's movie studio is dumping an upcoming film about Sam Altman, saying the project would be better served in another studio. The decision comes as Amazon plans to invest $50 billion in OpenAI this year. The move reportedly stunned the filmmakers. Very good filmmakers, by the way. Andrew Garfield was in it. I am in the script, I don't off very well. I look like I'm too nice to Sam, but I don't care. Since Amazon had already spent about $40 million on the movie, tested it for markets, it was working towards a release date, I don't know. And they can't. This is not getting picked up. Netflix passed. Apparently a couple of different places passed and it's, you know, it's a high level film. I read the script and I didn't like it. I thought it was fictional in a lot of ways. They sort of painted Jeffrey Hint as a party guy, which not in my experience. And they made that one guy who rebelled against Sam into a hero and I don't think he was either. I thought it was kind of broad and didn't. I thought it was not a good script. But there's of course the other ones coming out about Mark Zuckerberg, the sequel, the Social Reckoning, which we previously talked about about Francis Haugen and that whole situation that's coming out. That is coming out with the guy from the bear. But do you feel. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not surprised they got rid of it if they just invested in OpenAI. But it seems kind of dumb spending all that money. It's not much. 40 million, who cares?
Scott Galloway
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but we were well into the development or even production writer's room of our series on Netflix about big tech that got the plug pulled. This has gotten the plug pulled. I think they've just decided that they
Kara Swisher
don't want to be villains.
Scott Galloway
Yeah. And it's not worth the risk. You piss off either powerful people or you piss off the president. All these M and A, all these regulatory concerns and quite frankly the American public seems to have soured on AI. Or it could just be the following. The story of Sam Altman is not interesting. And it seemed more interesting 12 months ago than it is now. So I think they think, well, let's just do season four of Euphoria. I think they've done the math here and decided that stories about big tags,
Kara Swisher
the gay hockey people seems popular.
Scott Galloway
Yeah. Let's do the women's story hockey team this year.
Kara Swisher
Incredibly well. Toy Story 5 is like killing it.
Scott Galloway
It's a huge opening, by the way, to your credit. I meant to tell you, you've been talking about theaters and I've been shitposting them. The best performing media stocks the last 12 months hasn't been meta or it hasn't been. It's Been theaters, Alex. Theaters have made it.
Kara Swisher
Went to the theater. He did. He loved it. He's going again to watch it.
Scott Galloway
IRL is a trend again. But anyways, back to artificial the name of this that they've killed. I think they just do the math and go, okay, this story is not interesting. It's going to piss off potentially a lot of powerful people. Is this worth it? And look, I saw this happen up close and personal and I saw.
Kara Swisher
Tell us more about this plug pulling for you. Tell. Explain to the people what your show was so people understand.
Scott Galloway
So I connected with Rez Media who did the morning show, Incredibly Talented Guy. And then we had an amazing showrunner, Scott Burns from the Bourne Identity. Incredibly Talented Guy. We signed up Rosamund pike to play the lead character based on, loosely based or inspired by Sheryl Sandberg. It got. We. We did our pitch and it got bought in the room, which never happens. And I remember Netflix committed to the entire first season. Wow. Finally. Oh, my God. Finally. After a swing and a miss and being beamed in the face about 10 times, I got something going. Everything's going fine. Everything's going fine. Netflix doesn't like the scripts. The showrunner leaves. Rosenut has some family issues. And just the wheels came off the bus. And what probably happened is Occam's Razor
Kara Swisher
probably just fell apart because Hollywood Stu tends to in.
Scott Galloway
Well, not when you get to this stage.
Kara Swisher
No, I know. I agree with you.
Scott Galloway
I mean, we were scouting locations and then. So I immediately went to. Was there some politics? Because okay. Meanwhile, Netflix is making a bid for Warner Brothers. And so I immediately go, is something else at foot here? And then I talked to that incredibly impressive woman at Netflix who runs all our content, Bella Bajari. She was very straight with me. She said problems with the scripts, family issues for the lead. And this happens. And I believe that. I believe that's what happened. But then you see this thing get the plug pulled. I think the creative community's basically said America is tired of hearing about Big Peck. And there's a ton of second order risk around these stories right now.
Kara Swisher
Right? Yeah, yeah, that could be. It could be that. What's doing well and what's not doing. It'll be interesting to see how the social reckoning does. Right. Although some people say it's a mess of a script with Aaron. I haven't seen it, but it's getting a big. That's getting a big push. And that's the second part of the Facebook story. It's an accompaniment to the Social Network this time. Sorkin and not Fincher is directing, which we'll see how he does. But you're right, it's like, do we want to see more about these assholes? Right. Like that kind of thing, I guess.
Scott Galloway
I still think the story of Big Tech is the biggest story that's never been told. I still think someone's going to produce it. I think. I think Bezos and Musk and Sheryl Sandberg. And what I wanted, and they agreed to in the first season, was I actually think Sheryl Sandberg is one of the more interesting characters in Big Tech. I think she's actually in many ways more interesting than Musk. But when you hear about these people's lives, you just wouldn't believe it unless you knew it was real. I think they're incredibly complex, interesting, strange people, petty, and the stories angry, unhappy. But again, it really is. And no one's told it that well. It's the biggest story that has yet to be told. People are obsessed with succession. News Corps is a pimple on the elephant of Big Tech.
Kara Swisher
Right? You're right.
Scott Galloway
This story really hasn't been told yet.
Kara Swisher
You know what I think it's gonna be? It's gonna be theater and opera like that. I just have this feeling that there's gonna be a theatrical show in that regard. Right. Where it's gonna be told. Because I have a couple ones going, and I don't think they'll ever get made. I just don't think they will. Both my book, my memoir, and then another one with Brad Stone and I that we wrote years ago. We wrote the treatment four years ago, and it's moving, but slowly. And the question is, do people want to watch? Unless you make it really like Succession work. Because it was, like, fantastic cast, fantastic script. You know, rich people fucking things up. I think it might have to wait a step to get to these people, but they will. They'll be gotten. They're amazing characters in a terrible way. Hi. Speaking of things that are crashing to the ground, SpaceX hype is crashing. As we tape on Monday, SpaceX shares are down to $167, down 17%. Valuing the company at 2.2 trillion. Still enormous. The stock is still up 24% from the IPO price, but down over 16% from its peak. A lot of people feel this is going to keep coming down. I don't know, but some people are buying. So will it have the effect on the upcoming IPOs? And let's hear a question from a listener about Elon Share impact on the company and then we can answer all these questions.
Scott Galloway
So if he tried to actually sell or borrow against even a smaller percentage of it tomorrow, what happens to the price if he dies or is incapacitated tonight? What's the stock really worth the next morning?
Kara Swisher
0. 0. Like oh my God, that would be, look out fucking below. But your thoughts?
Scott Galloway
Well, my understanding is there's a lot of nuance there. My understanding is he's agreed to a self lockup of a year. So he hasn't sold, he's not selling any shares.
Kara Swisher
But he could borrow against it.
Scott Galloway
That's exactly right. And he can borrow way more than he could ever spend against it.
Kara Swisher
Explain how rich people do that, Scott, for people that don't understand borrowing against your stock.
Scott Galloway
Okay, so the ultimate wealth accumulation and income inequality strategy is the following. If you're fortunate enough to have equity in a company that does really well, it's called the buy, borrow, die strategy. And that is Jeff Bezos owns $120 billion in Amazon shares. And to fund his lifestyle, he borrows against it at very low interest rates and then he puts a lot of it in trust. And when he dies, there's a step up in valuation so his kids don't have to pay taxes on it. Or when he actually starts selling, he decides he needs to spend more time with his dad in Florida such that he doesn't have to pay back the cost of the infrastructure of the great state of Washington that built his $120 billion in fortune. And the greatest, the greatest distinction between the wealthy and the not wealthy is the following. Are you an earner or are you an owner? And you want to do everything you can, whether it's tax free investment vehicles, getting the money out of your hands, automatic investment every month. You have to get to be an owner. Because the thing about owning stock or houses or assets is they increase in value. Tax deferred. What do I mean by that? If you make $100,000 a year, you're an asset increasing your wealth by 100,000, but you lose 30% of it in tax. Whereas if your stocks go up $100,000, as long as you don't sell, there's no taxable event. Now what should happen is that we need new laws such that when you borrow against your assets, it creates a taxable event on the capital or the asset you're borrowing against. Because what effectively has happened is the owners are just pulling away from the earners. It's never sell your stock, let it keep going up and borrow against it for your Lifestyle needs. And then you can take additional capital and start investing in things and diversifying. And we're going to have the last 20, 30 years in America. We've been obsessed with how to create wealth. Over the next 10 years we're going to have a very important conversation around what do you do and what is expected of wealth.
Kara Swisher
But now what's going to happen with this stock? I mean, because let's assume he's not going to be incapacitated or dead, but he will borrow against it if he needs the money. I mean, how much money does he actually need? If he wants to say fund presidential election, for example,
Scott Galloway
he's worth a trillion dollars. He can go to JP Morgan and say loan me $10 billion and they're not going to ask him what he's doing with it. And he could literally overwhelm the airwaves and social media with his chosen candidates. Is the stock going to go down? Okay, let me just be clear. SpaceX trades at a price to sales ratio. Well, let's do it the other way. Apple trades at 10 and a half times price to sales. Alphabet 11. Tesla 16. Nvidia 39. By the way, all these companies growing faster except for Tesla than SpaceX. SpaceX trades at 131. Meta, an amazing company trades at 7.3. Amazon trades at 3.7.
Kara Swisher
Amazon 3.7.
Scott Galloway
3.7.
Kara Swisher
Oh my God. 10 is usually the thing, right? 10 to 15. Correct. 12.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, those are higher margin companies. Amazon's in a low margin business. I think the only stock in all of these that I would buy right now, now is Amazon. Because what you get is you get a distant number two to SpaceX with the core business of their retail platform. And if you want to talk about AI, the adjacent AI plays to go after industrial robots of which Amazon has two and a half times the total amount of American for FedEx.
Kara Swisher
You have to be worried too. Same thing.
Scott Galloway
If I could go short any category right now, it would be a basket of the secondary AI players. And if I could go long any category, it would be GLP1s. I don't know if you've seen what's coming out of the American Clinical Oncology gathering, but they're now saying that metastatic cancers get cut in half the growth rates when people are on GLP1s.
Kara Swisher
Also these foods, as you said two years ago, the cuts in prices for Doritos and for all that shitty food is really quite significant. There's now not enough cottage cheese around and yogurt and things like you. It's really interesting like in terms of how people's tastes have shift because 1 in 8Americans is on this drug at this point.
Scott Galloway
I think it's going to be 1 and 2.
Kara Swisher
I agree, I agree.
Scott Galloway
You're going to. My prediction is both of us are on GLP1s some form or micro.
Kara Swisher
Oh, I'm going to start. My cardiologist was like, we're going to not have your stroke ever again. We're going to give you a small amount. I'm going to do it. I haven't seen it.
Scott Galloway
They're talking about potential delay of dementia and Alzheimer's. They're finding out.
Kara Swisher
No, my cardiologist was like, absolutely, we're doing it for you.
Scott Galloway
They're just finding out all sorts of, of. There's never been an innovation that appears to have second order effects that are this positive. Usually find externalities that are negative. You know, you get, you blast someone with chemo enough, they get leukemia 20 years later. Right. There's big tech, all sorts of externalities. The externalities of GLP1, you know and there, there are issues around nausea, muscle loss. But the, every time they do more research they keep finding extra out better and better things.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, I think this is the biggest test case. It'll be interesting to see what the neg. There are some negative effects and stuff like that, but it's a little like a statin, you know. But one of the things is people eating whole foods and craving things that are protein, protein related, healthy proteins, which is really interesting. Anyway, we'll see. I would agree with you. You called this one very hard two years ago at least if you recall. I remember this. I remember being struck by it. Anyway, SpaceX shares, Good luck if you buy them. And let's not hope Elon dies or is incapacitated tonight because it is a lookout below for that stock. Correct. I mean, let's just answer his question. If something happens to him, that price. Even though SpaceX is a very fine business. It's not a very fine business. It's just a telco in the sky essentially without.
Scott Galloway
No, the meme. The co leader of the meme cannot. That would be. Yeah, that would be. Yeah, I gotta believe that would be disastrous for Tesla and for SpaceX everything.
Kara Swisher
He's the one, he's the key man. Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails.
Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
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Scott Galloway
It feels good to have support. It feels good to Geico.
Kara Swisher
Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails.
Scott Galloway
My win is tourists in the US for the World Cup. Oh, yeah. I think. I think international fans are leaving the World cup raving about America, our food. I mean, it's just hilarious. We love your Waffle House.
Kara Swisher
I mean, it's just like Boston and this tartan. The Tartan army was delightful.
Scott Galloway
What the world is finding out is in America, at its core, distinctive podcasters like us and Trump.
Kara Swisher
Oh, they like us.
Scott Galloway
America. Americans are generous, interesting, wonderful people, and it's an amazing culture, and they're getting to see that. But we get to see just how wonderful these nations are. And like I said, I think the World cup is doing what the UN initially envisioned it would do. I think it's bringing people together. These viral online videos show fans excited about American food. Our huge portions, Chipotle, Shake Shack, and many more. Visitors to NYC were able to be part of the legendary Knicks parade. The World cup has attracted a projected 10 million visitors. Airbnb searches in host cities jumped 80% year on year. Visitors are staying about 12 days, attending two matches and spending over $400 a day on average. New York City's tourism chief, Julie Coker, likened the boost to hosting as many as eight Super Bowls in six weeks. I just think the World Cup, I think FIFA is one of the most corrupt organizations in sport, but I think the World cup is just incredible.
Kara Swisher
It's the fans. It's the fans. They were just the fans, 100%.
Scott Galloway
But you see people in Kansas welcoming these people from Norway. You see the Japanese. It really is. I think we forget that, generally speaking, these cultures are wonderful. Generally speaking.
Kara Swisher
And we're not Trump.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, generally speaking, people want to get along. Generally, we're not that divided. We just have the most profitable companies in the world trying to divide us,
Kara Swisher
and we have a president who's trying to divide us. It's just like. I mean, I think, you know, what I'm struck by here is you get the feeling, and this is just being in France for a short time is they really want to like us. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I had so many Europeans, like testing to see, oh, are you one of those people? Americans. And you're not. And then they're like, thrilled to have you there. 1. I have to say, everyone's been really lovely everywhere we've gone. And I do think there's a backlash happening, Scott. I do. People are like, I'm tired of being angry at these fuckers. I'm like, listen, just get rid of them. Let's just move along. And like, and you're right, the World Cup, I, I know you don't think as much as the Knicks, but like, it's just, there's a feeling. I think you're absolutely right. I would agree with you. These, and this is, these people want to like us. They want to like us in a lot of ways.
Scott Galloway
So there you go. My fail, and this is indicative of, of social media, is that Poly Market is flooding social media with fake trading videos. There's a great, I think the Wall Street Journal is doing a great job. They did an analysis that found that Polymarket paid dozens of college age creators to post videos of fake trades and fake wins on the platform. So one of the videos, for example, shows a young man saying he won $100,000 on a bet that Trump would say McDonald's in public. But in reality, all of the accounts that made the bet lost money. And to make these clips, Polymarket built copies of its website and then told creators to make quote trades on those sites and hide that they were being paid by Polymarket scammies. By the way, I feel I should disclose that at Profg Markets we have a data partnership with Kalshi. You do so, but we're not doing well anyways. But gambling and gaming for young men is really corrosive and I still can't resolve what to do about it because you don't want to infantilize young people. And it's a tough one. But at a minimum, these companies shouldn't be posting fake social media posts that show someone winning when they didn't. It's just, it's preying on their worst instincts and it's disingenuous.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, it's just do your business if people want to use it. You don't have to trick people and
Scott Galloway
these are great businesses. But Polymarket's audience is 70% male and the most common age demographic is 25 to 34. So again, it's young men and a plural.
Kara Swisher
And guess this can I use a comparison. You know, those two when you were after Robinhood for a while and then the other people that you worked with.
Scott Galloway
Public. Public. Yeah, public dot com.
Kara Swisher
They seem like the Robin Hood people. Polymarket people. I don't know.
Scott Galloway
Well, they're especially aggressive. And I have problems with all of it. I don't. I don't have moral clarity but about all of it, quite frankly, any of it. But the deceptive marketing mostly affects young men and just evidence of who they're targeting. A plurality of polymarket's display ads are on what site? I'll give you a guess. Young men. They're trying to reach young men.
Kara Swisher
Twitter.
Scott Galloway
Pornhub.
Kara Swisher
Pornhub, huh? That makes sense.
Scott Galloway
So this is. And again, I don't know if you can regulate this. They'll say it's free speech, everybody's making money. But this does feel like deceptive market. Anyways, that's my fail.
Kara Swisher
That's a good fail. I agree with you. I think you're. I mean, it is. It's just. Why do you have to trick people? Just. You can't make a good deal.
Scott Galloway
They're great businesses. People love this stuff. They love the prediction markets. The data's interesting. They're addictive.
Kara Swisher
They just stupid. It's just con people. My fail is the way the Republicans are continuing to attack James Talarico over his sexuality, which is. I think it must be Trump mistook word cisgendered for six genders or something. But Stephen Miller is particularly in terms especially. Cause he's such a loathsome creature. It's just. It's grotesque. It's really grotesque and weird and I hope it doesn't work. I fear it might. But this idea of accusing someone of being transgender and this. So it continues. And especially Ted Cruz. I mean, honestly, I hate to say he should know better, but I guess he doesn't. But Miller and Cruz and a lot of them are just grotesque and it's just gross. I've never seen anything like this. And it's really hateful and cruel and you know, and especially. Cause these particular men are particularly loathsome men at the same time. And so I think that's just. I just can't stand it every time I see them do it and they keep doing it. They must be seeing some polling or something. But they're also terrible people. It's just gross. Like I don't even understand. It's a misogynist, it's transphobic. It's definitely all manner of weirdness on these people's part. And just again, a bunch of people I cannot wait to see go away at some point relatively soon and we never have to speak of them again. It's how I feel about a lot of these people. On the positive side, really thrilled to see Toy Story did so well. It's one of my favorite movies franchises. The third one, I lost it at the end of that one. It's about toy and it's about everything. And this one is focused in on empathy, focused in on all the good things we've been talking about in this show. And I haven't seen it yet. I have my kids, my little. I saw the other ones, obviously, with my older kids. Cause it's been so long. This is the fifth one. And sometimes when you get to five, you're like, you gotta be kidding, kids. Or you just want to sell toys. But the reviews for this, and I want to see it in the theater. Speaking of which. And I've downloaded all of them here and I'm hoping to watch all four movies with the little ones and then take them to it. I just feel like what an astonishing franchise it's been. And it's just. I dare you not to cry at almost any of them. I just. I cry and I don't cry. That last. The third one just killed me. Just killed me. And I don't know why. It's just beautiful. And this one's about stuff that's stodden. It's about digital, but it doesn't demonize digital. It just talks about play with kids. And I'm very excited to see it. So I'm really happy for the Pixar people for putting out a great film. And I'm excited to see it.
Scott Galloway
Well, you know what? My.
Kara Swisher
Go ahead. Sorry.
Scott Galloway
You know what my ex wife said when I came home and found her fucking Woody?
Kara Swisher
Oh, no.
Scott Galloway
She said. She looked at me and said. She said, you have a friend in me.
Kara Swisher
Oh, my God. How could you do this to me?
Scott Galloway
Come on. That's easy. No, that's easy.
Kara Swisher
The worst. That is the. I'm not going with you to this movie. You're not getting near my children on
Scott Galloway
this trip to Cannes.
Kara Swisher
Cannes. I'm pronouncing it right can. Anyway. Cannes. Cannes. Thank you for ruining my beautiful, gorgeous moment about children in play and everything else. I truly appreciate it. You are not allowed to go to this movie in any way.
Scott Galloway
You've got a friend in there.
Kara Swisher
All right, stop, stop, Stop right now. Anyway, so, Scott, I'm looking forward to seeing you. I might see you at a party tonight? Maybe I won't see you at a party, but I want to ride a on that Zodiac.
Scott Galloway
You know, Toy Story 6 is about Andy's about.
Kara Swisher
Don't, don't.
Scott Galloway
I'm serious. Toy Story 6 is about Andy's mother's toys, which coincidentally, are also called Woody and Buzz.
Kara Swisher
Oh, my God. All right. You have ruined my win. Those are so bad. Those are so bad. They're so bad and they're so sad.
Scott Galloway
Turn on your cameras. Are the producers laughing? That's my limitless test.
Kara Swisher
No, no, they're. Afterwards, they'll go, scott, do we really wanna do this? And we're going to. So that's the way. That's where Lara goes. Ah, like that. That's the Voice. Anyway, I will see you in person at Live. We're gonna have lots of people there. It'll be fun. I think it is sold out. And I am also doing a live interview with Jim Bankoff and Meredith Levian from the New York Times, which. Oh, staff is.
Scott Galloway
I mean, that sounds really interesting.
Kara Swisher
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
What is NPR hosting that?
Kara Swisher
Yeah, it's gonna be great.
Scott Galloway
We're gonna talk at the Forestry Service.
Kara Swisher
Listen. Dirty, dirty.
Scott Galloway
I'm going to see Team Scotland at the Crane Club pop up on the Palais tomorrow at midnight. Then I'm going to the Spotify party. Who wants to roll with the dog? Who wants to roll with the dog?
Kara Swisher
I will see you in a few days, Scott. And we want to hear from you also, our listeners send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever's on your mind, including Scott's filthy, filthy brain. This week. Go to nymag.com pivot submit a question for the show or call 8555. All right. Elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe, this week on on with Kara Swisher, I talked to Harvey Levin, founder of the celebrity news juggernaut TMZ, who I adore, about its new Washington D.C. bureau and expanded political coverage. Let's listen to a clip.
Scott Galloway
I do wanna just say one thing that, you know, you're referring to this as, you know, politicians being a form of celebrities.
Kara Swisher
Right? Yeah. You can push that.
Scott Galloway
I don't view it that way.
Kara Swisher
Okay.
Scott Galloway
I view it as pop culture.
Kara Swisher
We cover pop culture.
Scott Galloway
And pop culture can be a lot of things. You know, it can be sports, it can be enter. And pop culture is politics because a
Kara Swisher
lot of the things that affect everybody emanates from Washington, D.C. and it emanates
Scott Galloway
from the courts, it emanates from Congress, from the president, and it affects all of us.
Kara Swisher
So they are an integral part of pop culture.
Scott Galloway
So to me, it has never been a stretch.
Kara Swisher
It's a really good interview. They tried for years to do this. He's a great guy. And by the way, they're breaking some stories, I have to say. They really are. They're like when they took those pictures of politicians during the shutdown. Like Lindsey Graham with his bubble wand. Disneyland. I think they're doing an excellent job. Reminds me of the old Washington Post, which used to do this kind of stuff. A mix of things. Anyway, he's great. I've known him for many, many years. I like Harvey a lot. I think he's a really interesting entrepreneur in media. He's one of the OG ones. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Live from can.
Scott Galloway
Today's show was produced by Lara N. Marcus, Taylor Griffin and Todd Wiseman. Ernie and Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Bros, Ms. Barry and Dan Shalon. The Shock Kuros, Vox Media's executive rooster podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from Vox Media. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Go Team Scotland versus Brazil.
Kara Swisher
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Scott Galloway
It feels good to have support. It feels good to geico.
Kara Swisher
Support for this show comes from Fetch pet Insurance. Do you have a pet? Every six seconds, a pet owner in the US gets hit with a vet bill of over $1,000. And it's almost always an unwelcome surprise. That's where Fetch pet insurance comes in. Fetch is the most most complete pet insurance get paid back up to 90% of vet bills. You can use any vet in the US and Canada. All vets are in network. Go to fetchpet. Com Save right now for your free quote. That's fetchpet. Com Save.
Pivot Podcast — Episode Summary
Episode: “Starmer Resigns, Reflecting Pool Fiasco, and Amazon Dumps OpenAI Movie”
Date: June 23, 2026
Hosts: Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway (New York Magazine and Vox Media Podcast Network)
In this packed episode, Kara and Scott broadcast from the French Riviera amid the Cannes Lions festival and the World Cup fever gripping Europe. They dig into headline news from both sides of the Atlantic: the resignation of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the ongoing drama over Washington’s vandalized (and green-tinged) Reflecting Pool, tumultuous relations between Trump and European leaders, the tangled friendships between tech titans and politicians, and why Amazon abruptly abandoned a high-profile OpenAI-themed movie. As always, the hosts serve up zesty banter, trenchant insights, and unfiltered opinions on tech, business, and politics.
On the UK Economy:
“The UK as a whole has a lower average household income than Mississippi. ...This will be my fifth prime minister.” — Scott, [19:10–20:08]
On Big Tech Sycophancy:
“If you're worth a quarter of a trillion dollars and still kissing the ass of the President, this has moved from buying influence to renting protection.” — Scott, [34:18]
On GLP-1 Drugs:
“There’s never been an innovation that appears to have second order effects that are this positive.” — Scott, [49:45]
On Toy Story’s Emotional Impact:
“I dare you not to cry at almost any of them. I just cry and I don’t cry. That last—the third one just killed me.” — Kara, [61:46]
Classic Galloway, Toy Story Edition:
“You know what my ex-wife said when I came home and found her fucking Woody? She said you have a friend in me.” — Scott, [62:54–63:04]
This episode is a tour de force of current events, with Kara and Scott weaving together geopolitics, tech industry intrigue, European populist trends, and culture wars with their signature biting wit and candor. Whether discussing the symbolism of a rotting reflecting pool or the spectacular failures of tech billionaires to maintain dignity in politics, the conversation is both insightful and razor-sharp.
Listeners with an eye on market trends, politics, or simply on the lookout for top-tier media criticism will find plenty to chew on in this episode.