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- [00:00]
Scott Galloway
Support for the show comes from BetterHelp. Most of us spend a big chunk of our lives working, and if that work stresses you out, it's going to have an impact on your overall well being. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp makes it easier to find a professional to talk about work stress. You can join a session at the click of a button and you can switch therapists at any time. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Our listeners get 10% off their first month@betterhelp.com pivot that's betterhelp.com pivot Blockchain is.
- [00:37]
Kara Swisher
Reshaping every aspect of society, starting with finance. It's happening across industries, across sectors and across the world. And it's happening with Ripple.
- [00:47]
Scott Galloway
With more than a decade of blockchain.
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Kara Swisher
Experience, over 60 licenses, and strong institutional trust, Ripple provides financial institutions with blockchain and crypto powered solutions across payment and digital custody applications. This means secure 24. 7 transactions moving value across the world faster. Find out more@ripple.com.
- [01:15]
Scott Galloway
Support for Pivot comes from Intuit QuickBooks Intuit QuickBooks and Mailchimp are celebrating three small businesses who are doing big things for their communities. Perry's Joint Cafe in Pasadena, California the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz, California and BJ's Nevada Barbecue in Sparks, Nevada. These three businesses are the latest winners of the Intuit QuickBooks and Mailchimp Small Business Hero program. If you know a small business doing big things, you can nominate them to win $20,000 in resources for the business through the program. Visit intuit.com pivot to learn more about the winners and nominate a local hero in your neighborhood. No purchase necessary 50 USDC 18 and over. See rules@intuit.com HeroProgram Enter by May 15, 2026.
- [02:01]
Kara Swisher
Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
- [02:05]
Scott Galloway
And I'm Scott Galloway.
- [02:07]
Kara Swisher
So get excited Scott, because it's a special show with Pivot listeners calling in and asking us their questions on all sorts of topics. We love talking to the people, Scott. I think it's really fun, largely because our Pivot listeners are really smart, 2 because it gives us questions we didn't think of, and three because it forces us to to be social. Let's jump right in and get to our first listener call. Hello caller, we hear you have a fun stat about your Pivot listening. Who are we talking to? Where are you calling From. And what's your question?
- [02:37]
Scott Galloway
Hey there, Karen Scott. How you doing?
- [02:38]
Kara Swisher
Good. How are you doing? I'm well, yes. My name is Felipe, and my stat is that since I am a nomadic designer, have been for about three and a half years, meaning that I work pretty much everywhere in the world. I have listened to you guys while exploring 27 different countries. Whoa. Okay. All right, so where are you now? Where are you calling from? Yes, yes, I am now currently in Bangkok, is just past midnight, so. Oh, my God. How's. I love Thailand so much. One of my favorite places. Yeah. All right, what is your question? So my question is, is that so. Well, a little bit of a. This could get a little philosophical, but that's okay. We can have it. It seems like the general excitement around new technologies and product launches have kind of faded in two decades. I mean, I remember being on the literal edge of my seat when watching the keynotes for the first iPhone, the MacBook Air, when Steve took it out of the manila Envelope, the Model 3 launch, and so on. So nowadays it seems like we watch these new product announcements with either skepticism or just straight up indifference. Almost like we've seen so much new tech so frequently for so long that we're a little desensitized to it. So my question is, do you think that it's possible, either at an individual level or collectively, for us to get back to that childlike wonderment and enthusiasm for new technology that seems to have deflated over time? That's a great question. I'll start. Because I was at all those events physically, which was also exciting to go to them, let me say. It was like a party, especially the Apple ones. Microsofts were less fun, I'll be honest with you. And Bill Gates wasn't as good on stage, but Steve Jobs presenting was just. It was magical. It really was. And it was really fun. It was a sense of theater, a sense of show. The products were always cool and you hadn't thought of them. They managed to keep everything under wraps, too. That was part of it is you didn't know what was he was gonna pull out of his pocket or pull out of a manila envelope. And so the sense of theatricality and the slowness of development, I think in the social media age, when everybody knows everything that's gonna happen before it happens, you don't get excited about it. And so I think it's really hard, even if you're unveiling an invisibility cloak or something like crazy, that people don't feel that same sense of wonder. About this stuff and they' less magicians than they are. Just they want to make a lot of money kind of stuff. And so I can't think of a recent product launch that I've been like, oh my God, I can't believe it. You know, I don't know. Scott, what about you?
- [05:06]
Scott Galloway
I'm just waiting for the product release of AirPods that cost $300 and lose themselves automatically. That's the product I'm waiting for.
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Kara Swisher
Yeah.
- [05:17]
Scott Galloway
Every day's new product introduction for me based on what my kid tries to convince me to buy him. But I don't. I've never really. The thing that always struck me, I was a consultant for a long time and I stole basically the. It struck me that Apple basically decided they were a luxury brand and took a page out of the book of fashion shows for high end couture brands. And basically I saw Apple product launches not as product launches, but as fashion shows. And they had hot people highly choreographed in a beautiful environment. And fashion shows are basically 8 to 12 minutes and exceptionally choreographed. And that's how I thought of that. Apple basically decided they were going high end with vertical distribution and fashion shows for marketing.
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Kara Swisher
What's been magical for you, Scott?
- [06:04]
Scott Galloway
It's been magical.
- [06:05]
Kara Swisher
Well, something that was released and you were like, wow.
- [06:07]
Scott Galloway
The new AI products, the video products, production products from Google I thought were pretty interesting. The Gemini stuff, that to me seemed pretty. The AI stuff is pretty dramatic. Well, I, it's funny. The one place I think that there could be more magic and he hasn't done it actually it's a missing piece from OpenAI. You know, the only thing I've seen is, is him and Jony, I've about to blow each other. I mean, talking about their new acquisition, their new partnership, it strikes me that Sam Altman should be throwing a crazy event to, to just highlight all the unbelievable things that you can do with AI. That'll be the. I bet that's the next arms race in terms of events.
- [06:47]
Kara Swisher
Interesting. I, I don't know if anyone has the style of Steve Jobs. I mean, what do you. What do you think, Philippe? What have you been really excited when you see. You just know about it before everything comes out. So there's no wonder. There's no. Literally, when Steve Jobs flew out, you didn't know what the fuck they were gonna pull out of their pockets. Right? What have you been excited about? Yeah, no, that's true. I mean when Steve took out the ipod Nano from his coin pocket, that was just like, I remember gasping Audibly in my university when I watched that and people did there. Absolutely. But I mean you are right with social media and leaks and we always have so many Photoshop renders, et cetera before it comes out. So when finally does it's like, okay, okay. But it could also be a plateau of technology like the last many iPhones have just been slightly faster, slightly better cameras and whatnot. But I think that Scott is right in that Johnny might actually bring some of that magic to OpenAI. At least I hope. One of the things that was hard for Tim Cook after Steve Jobs when he did those shows, he was just the one and he'd bring out Coldplay or whoever the heck he hired, whatever celebrity he hired along with it and there'd always be a celebrity with him. But then they sort of with Tim. Cause he's not nearly as charming. They brought out all of them. Right. And it sort of loses its. Yeah. The ensemble thing. And none of them are particularly interesting. Right. And so I went to one recently and I have to say I was like checking my phone. It wasn't as like a wow kind of thing. They still are very good on the movies and the way it looked. I can't think of any product that maybe movies today. Maybe. I don't know.
- [08:29]
Scott Galloway
Yeah, it's funny. I think movie premieres and car. Like I think of auto. The auto show was the kind of original big product release. And then I have been to a product back in the 90s when I was running Red Envelope and the only place you could sell products. You're too young for this, Felipe. Cara can tell you about this because she's much, much older than you or me. But the AOL had these big events back in D.C. and I remember Steve Case and Bob Pittman announcing like you know, their new browser, whatever. And then they announced chat rooms where, you know, much middle aged accounts could pretend their name was Chad and they were surfers or something. But that was the last product kind of thing I went to. And it was fun, it was nice.
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Kara Swisher
I don't know. We'll have to see if there's something. I think a lot of the theatrics have gone to politics now. Right. And even that's getting tired. But I don't know. Anyway, we really appreciate your call, Felipe. It's a great question. When you think about it, it takes me down. Mem and you know, used to be more fun. Life used to be more fun. Let's hope we can get back to it at some point. Thank you guys so much. It was great meeting you. Thank you. Thank you for keep listening to us across the world. We appreciate it. Of course. Will do.
- [09:40]
Scott Galloway
Yeah. Thanks, Felipe.
- [09:41]
Kara Swisher
Bye, guys. Okay, Scott, let's move on to our next caller. This is a question about parenting. How to navigate conversations around porn. Scott, I'm sick of talking to you about your porn use. Hello, Carrie from Maine. Let's hear your question and welcome. Hi, thanks so much for taking my question. Yeah, I was just curious how you both navigated conversations in your family with your kids about pornography. I've got two young boys, we're kind of in the pre adolescent phase. And my husband and I are trying to figure out how to. How to talk with them about it. Porn is just so much more ubiquitous than it was when, you know, when we were younger. And yeah, I'm just really curious how you guys navigate those conversations. I can start again. As I said, I say, Scott, put down the phone. But, you know, I think it's difficult. I had him. I have two boys, older boys. The three year old is not at that point yet, but I did talk to him about it. I was like, it's everywhere. I'd rather not go through your phones and figure out what you're doing. That's one way of doing it, is monitoring it and putting different strictures on it. So you can do that through all kinds of. Verizon has a thing. I was mostly with time was the thing I was monitoring more and actually stopping them from using it as much time. And of course, porn takes time apparently. But one of the things I did is I just flat out talked about it. I was like, look, there's a ton of porn on here. I get. And not just from just porn sites. Kids sending each other stuff. That was one of the things. I was much more concerned. A girl sent Louis something and I was sort of shocked. I was, you know, I was like, I can't. He showed it to me and I was like, oh, dear, that's not. And it wasn't porny. It just was not what I would want my daughter sending, that's for sure. And so I had long talks with him about it and about the usage of it. And I was trying not to be sex negative, but I definitely was like, this is more addictive. It takes your time. It's desensitizing. It's not good for your relationships over a long time. So I just faced it head on. I don't know, Scott, you're in the right age area now for that issue.
- [11:46]
Scott Galloway
Yeah. So, Carrie, I navigated the Conversation around the important topic of porn, the way the Hindenburg navigated its way into landing in New Jersey. And so the truth is, when I string to it, my. My partner demanded that I have the sex talk with my then 14 or 15 year old son. So I took him to the beach and thought I was gonna have this very, like, Hallmark moment. And I said, it's time to have the sex talk and I want to talk about porn. And before I even got the words out, he screamed louder than I've ever heard him scream.
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Kara Swisher
No.
- [12:19]
Scott Galloway
Like, he's like, no, I. No, no, no, no, no, no. And I'm like, it's okay. We can talk about this stuff. And he's like, do we have to? I really don't want. He seemed traumatized by the idea of the conversation. So my entire approach to talking to my sons about sex is I make them watch all eight seasons of Game of Thrones with me. It's got everything. It's literally got everything. It's got gay people, it's got threesomes, it's got sex, it's got good relationships, bad relationships, bondage, oh my goodness, really aspirational gay characters, Prince of Dorne, Pedro Pascal. And then around porn. What I've tried to couch it in other things. I talk about the notion that you don't. You want to. That you have only a certain amount of mojo. I say you have only a certain amount of energy and you don't want to waste it on bad calories. You have only a certain amount of focus, time, and attention. You want to spend it on the two or three things that are most important in terms of your studying. And then I also try and slip in. And also you want to be able to. I said this, I said, the reason I met your mom, who is much more attractive and much more higher character than me, was I really wanted to meet a woman and I was willing to take risks. And I tell them, I told my oldest son, if I'd had porn, I'm not sure I would have had that same mojo and fire to want to meet women. And that anything that reduces your mojo and your fire is a courage killer. And what I've said to my boys a bunch of time is that porn is a courage killer because it's on demand. And what Kara says about it being, you know, a terrible facsimile of or of what you're supposed to expect in relationships. And I say to my boys, and this sort of embarrassed Sam saying, it's good to be horny, channeling your Sexual desire to making you a better man. Wanting to make you stronger, dress better, smell good, shower, develop a wrap, endure rejection. I'm worried that men are looking for low risk way to engage in what they see as a relationship with porn and AI. So I try to position it to my boys. You only have a limited amount of time with your boys. You gotta keep it consistent and crisp. I find because they tune me out at least.
- [14:36]
Kara Swisher
Yeah. One of the things that's important to think about. Look, it's been around since time immemorial. Whether it was magazines and then it was Skinemax, which is Scott's in my favorite station or whatever videotapes. Everyone has tried to get or going to places, right? Cause there were physical places people went. It's not something you can stop. It's sort of the same thing. Don't try drink, don't drink at all. It's just not gonna happen. And you yourself, if you've done it, you can't say don't do it. It's very. You know, everybody experiments and does stuff like that. I think the very difference is one, it's much more addictive, it's much more accessible and it's much more. Right. You can get anything right. And so it moves people down a highway of something basic, you know, chalk, van straw porn versus something really sick. Right. And that's really the problem is that it can start to get very dark very quickly and very accessible. And I think that's the way I more did it was I restricted their time, right? Like you could only be on the phone this much time. And one of the things my. And it was the time suck is that I thought about more than anything else. And of course porn is like that. Whether you. And we make jokes. I watch on threads or Instagram. I watch something called food porn, which is like. Ha ha ha. Like we do porn everything and they just show different restaurant settings and doing cool things. And I watch it. It's like quite addictive. It's not the same thing. But the other thing is encouraging them to do things outside of the phone. Like again, put down the phone. One of my sons himself, he bought one of those timer boxes that he put the phone in and locked it. And it wouldn't open for five hours or whatever it was, which I. This is something Alex did. I thought that was great. Cause he wasn't getting his work done. Cause it was so easy to fall. So time is the way I did it versus everyone's gonna look at porn. But it is much darker. And I would not. I don't know what I'm gonna do with Saul. I honestly don't. It's gonna be a much different world than my older kids. Carrie, are you gonna talk to them soon or is there an age that you. Or do you split it between you and your husband?
- [16:44]
Scott Galloway
I mean, my 10 year old and.
- [16:45]
Kara Swisher
I have been very open. We've had lots of talks about, you know, I've tried to just be really open with him about lots of different.
- [16:53]
Scott Galloway
Things, including sex at 10.
- [16:55]
Kara Swisher
Well, I mean, yeah, they're way ahead even. They're getting exposed to things so, so early on the bus on kids who have phones. So I'm trying just to be really.
- [17:07]
Scott Galloway
Preemptive about it and just having those.
- [17:09]
Kara Swisher
Conversations be really open and flexible. Yeah, it's tough.
- [17:12]
Scott Galloway
True story. The other day my son stole his phone. I knew what he was doing. He steal. I'm not. He steals his phone to go into the bathroom to be on TikTok. Because we don't like him on TikTok. So I started banging on the door and screaming start masturbating.
- [17:25]
Kara Swisher
Anyways, I'm sure that worked really well. Anyway, Carrie, we really appreciate it. Good luck. But both you and your husband should be involved. It shouldn't just be the guy. All right, Carrie, thank you so much as always. Thank you.
- [17:36]
Scott Galloway
Thanks, Carrie.
- [17:36]
Kara Swisher
Bye.
- [17:42]
Scott Galloway
Support for Pivot comes from ZOC Doc. It would take an entire episode of this podcast to go over the list of excuses you after not going to see your doctor. And to be honest, we only have one minute in this ad break. So just check out zocdoc. They can help make finding a doctor and scheduling appointments easy. So it actually does feel like a walk in the park. ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in network doctors and click instantly to book an appointment. Appointments made through the app can happen fast, typically within just 72 hours of booking. You can even book same day appointments to take some of that stress up. Once you find the right doctor, you can see their actual appointments openings and choose a time slot that works for you. Plus you can filter for doctors who take your insurance are located nearby, might be a good fit for any medical need you have and are highly rated by verified patients. You can stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to Zocdoc.com pivot to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's Zocdoc.com pivot Zocdoc.com pivot Pivot.
- [18:43]
Kara Swisher
Support for pivot comes from Life 360. You may not be able to proof everything in your day to day lives, but with Life360 you can family proof your family Life360 is a location sharing app that makes family life easier. Knowing where everyone is at any given time makes coordinating daily routines and activities a breeze. Plus you can attach Life360's tile trackers to all your family's important stuff, especially those pesky things that tend to go missing and track them them within the right app. I lose things all the time and I use these trackers all the time and I always enjoy where some of my things are. Even today when I can't get them back. I've gotten to try them out a lot. I put them in luggage, I put them in my bags, I put them on important items, I put them on things I can't lose. And I actually really like about the tile trackers is they're all different shapes so you can do different things. I don't follow my family around though. Maybe I should slip one in one of my son's pockets to see what he's up to. But I do think it's important, especially when you have luggage and things like that, that it's helpful to know where everybody is and to track them in a way everybody knows about so you're not sneaking around. This year you can stay connected with location sharing and stay coordinated with place alert notifications when someone arrives or leaves a given location. You can family proof your family with Life360. Visit life360.com or download the app today and use the code Pivot to get 15% off. That's life360.com CodePivot Support for Pivot comes from IBM. Bigger isn't always better, especially with AI. Super sized models can drain your budget fast. Smaller ones are smart and can help cut AI cost up to 90% right size your models@IBM.com the AI built for business IBM Scott we're back with our special call in show taking questions from our listeners. Let's go to our next caller. This question is about AI and career choices. Hi Jessica, Tell us about yourself and what your question is. Hi, I live in Houston, Texas. I am a veterinarian and small business owner and my husband is an engineer for NASA. We have two teenage sons ages 15 and 13 so they're just starting to think about college and career paths and we keep hearing how AI and increasing automation is just going to eliminate whole sectors of work and broad swaths of especially Entry level positions. I was just curious what advice you guys have for young people who want engaging and fulfilling careers, but careers that are not going to disappear as they move into them. Them, yes, it's definitely a fear, including current careers. Scott, why don't you start?
- [21:24]
Scott Galloway
Yeah, I don't. I think you want your kids to have a decent grounding in communications and the sciences and history and the same old stuff. Now, do you unnaturally push them towards computer science as a lot of people were doing, knowing that a lot of those jobs are probably going to go away unless they're naturally drawn to it? Sure, but I don't think we can. I think it's unhealthy to try and predict the future and push your kids one way or the other. I remember in private schools in New York when everyone was trying to. When everyone was forcing their kids to take Mandarin, thinking that China was taking over. And I think removing one of the biggest mistakes we did in public schools was removing civics and wood shop and auto shop and metal shop and replacing it with computer science. And you end up with Mark Zuckerberg and less patriotism and also less young people, specifically young men who have the skills to go get vocational work. But I think what you do is you just encourage your kids to find stuff they're interested in, make sure they have a good grounding or some grounding and reading, writing, arithmetic, all that stuff. But I think trying to predict the future around what jobs will be there and which ones won't, I think it's a fool's errand. I think you're just as likely to be wrong. And also, we like to think of ourselves as parents, as engineers, that we engineer the sheep. And we're not, we're shepherds. We can decide where they graze, we can point them in one direction, we kind of get some influence on what they eat, but they come to you out of nowhere. My son's interested in biology and my other son's interested in technology and I had nothing to do with either of those things. So I think you're just super supportive. Introduce them to a bunch of stuff, but for God's sake, who knows?
- [23:06]
Kara Swisher
I would agree. One of the things that's interesting is, you know, I have two very different older sons. The younger ones are not going to have a job for a while, but one of the things was encouraging them to get wide range of study. The one that was more interested in technology. I kind of insisted we both did that he take focus on English, focus on language, whatever, sports, other things. That weren't necessarily when he was applying for colleges, he applied to a lot of technology oriented ones. And we were like, well, think larger that you have other offer. Cause he liked to do glass art, for example. He does amazing other things. He's taking a linguistics course. He's at Michigan, which I was very happy for him to go there. Cause he had a lot of choice. He was doing a thing where he built these really cool floats. But it was a lot of technology, but it was artistic because he had an artistic bent. And so one of the things was sort of not shoving them into anything. Now in his case, interestingly, he was very aware of the AI issues well before I was. He's like, AI is going to replace all of computer programming and therefore. And he's much more job focused in a great way. But he's like, I'm going to do mechanical engineering because that's something that can't be replaced. So that was him doing it on his his own energy essentially. But one of the things we tried is to get them a wide range of things. Even if he tended towards technology and my other son tended towards English and history, we wanted him to do more math, like to experience a lot of things. And again, you're right, Scott's right. You don't know what's gonna be like. I was one of those parents that were like, he should learn Mandarin. I'm like, why? He's not like. But it was a big pressure. Like they're in Mandarin, they're in whatever. I just think if he likes languages, if he likes Chinese, learn Chinese. But otherw not for a job. Cause you don't know what people will do. I do think we don't know what jobs are gonna be affected. But I did tend to push them more into jobs that I did know weren't gonna be affected. Like if you like cooking, that's really not gonna be subsumed or vocational. If they happen to like that, that would be interesting. And so I just think the more you give them a broad base of learning, the better you are. And then they'll sort of self sort into things. But I would say I wouldn't be a radiologist if they're like, I desperately want to be a radiologist. No, just from veterinary medicine, if that field's going to be Right, right. Oh, veterinary medicine, sure. But that said, it means there's going to be vets using that who do better and fewer vets, I guess, if that makes sense. And so I do encourage them to use AI and try it and employ it. Familiar with it. Yeah, absolutely. And figure out what it means for. Because one thing Scott always says which I think is important is there's gonna be fewer lawyers. But the lawyers that are there are gonna do better because they use this technology. It's sort of like not using the Internet.
- [26:00]
Scott Galloway
The one skill. If I could give my kids any one skill and what I push them towards at every chance I get is, I do think, the skill that if I had to pick one thing that will persevere and always be important. In terms of your ability to advance professionally, it's communication, or specifically the ability to tell stories, create an arc. And I think it starts with a written word, and that is the ability to express yourself and organize your thoughts. And so I make my kids take English and advanced English. And also, one of the things I loved about the school they're in, they make them stand up and speak in front of other people. Because when I look at. I think for the last 50 years, and I think probably for the next 50 years, the difference between someone who does well and someone who does exceptionally well well is their ability to capture people's attention and take data and create an arc and tell stories and compel people to action through either the written word. And there's so many different mediums now for storytelling, Whether it's substack or the written word or writing books or in person. But great communicators. I mean, there isn't. It's very difficult if you want to have an outsized, disproportionate amount of influence or disproportionate amount of economic opportunity or, quite frankly, a disproportionate amount of unearned mating opportunities. It's, quite frankly, how good your rap is, your ability to engage people. So developing those skills early. I used to make my sons. I used to have this thing, and I stopped it because it got too painful with one of my sons. But I used to say, when we go out, you can't come back in the house until you speak to a stranger. And one had no problem with it, another did have problems with it. And it would be like, just go pet their dog. Ask them what type of dog it is. But you're. Your ability to engage people, look them in the eye, establish conversation. I think that's kind of sort of the building blocks of all of it.
- [27:52]
Kara Swisher
Yeah. One of the other things I would say he's absolutely right about communication, but creativity, too. Try, like, creative stuff really does help you, Whatever it happens to be, Whether it's cooking or glass art, whatever. Just something that's not. That's physical. One of the things, sports too. That's teamwork. That's physical stuff. It's out of your head. Cause these kids are so much in their head and so much on the screen. And so just not like insistent but like, put down the phone, go kick a ball. Go kick a. Like, that was the thing. Now, I was lucky. Cause both my kids liked sports, but, like, to whatever it happens with my daughter, she likes dancing. Like, she's gonna go to like dance, do whatever. My other son, I have a feeling is headed towards martial arts at this point. Cause he likes to kick things. So I'm like, okay, then we're gonna do something with physicality, I think is something that is under sung, that is critically important. The other thing Scott does a lot, which I think is I do a lot in a different way, is taking them to things like theater or sporting events, like where lots of people are. And that's another thing that I think you learn a lot by that. And the last thing I would say is a job. I think kids should work. I just do. I think my son did so well working at a. She worked at a store, a grocery store. Essentially. It was a sort of specialty foods. And I think he learned how to show up on time, show up for a job, finish things, clean up things, and give them that responsibility. It's more engagement, like Scott was saying, more engagement with just the general public and. Right. Or figuring out a job, Figuring out, like a workplace. Yeah. Yeah. My son has an internship this summer. And he's always calling me. He's like, this happened. I'm like, oh, that's an interesting. You know what I mean? You have to. And they have. I think in a lot of ways, I think kids should work at a relatively early age. I did, but I don't know. They'll be fine. You'll be surprised. Everything as Scott says, you just don't know. You can't second guess it. Anyway, we really appreciate it, Jessica. Thank you so much. Thank you guys so much. I enjoy the show.
- [29:54]
Scott Galloway
Thanks, Jessica.
- [29:55]
Kara Swisher
Bye.
- [30:00]
Scott Galloway
Hey, it's Scott Galloway. In today's marketing landscape, if you're not evolving, you're getting left behind. In some ways, it's easier than ever to reach your customers. But cutting through the noise has never been harder. So we're going to talk about it on a special Propg Office hour series. We'll be answering questions from C Suite execs and business leaders about how to market efficiently and effectively. In today's chaotic world. So tune in to propg Office Hours special series brought to you by Adobe Express. You can find it on the propg feed wherever you get your podcasts. Foreign.
- [30:34]
Kara Swisher
I'm Julia Longoria and this week on Unexplainable, things get a little personal with morning sickness. What I saw in television shows and movies, people saying, ha ha ha, she's pregnant. She's been barfing for an hour. When I woke up, I ran to the bathroom and I sort of laughed after thinking this is morning sickness. Aha. But within a week, I realized that it was not very funny and it got bad really fast. I just was like, okay, I have to work on this because there's nothing out there and I need the answers. Follow Unexplainable for new episodes every Monday and Wednesday. 2025 marks 50 years since a trailblazer named Jan Todd decided to go to the gym with her little boyfriend. I had started going with Terry to the gym just because, you know, he's your cute boyfriend and you love him and like you want to spend all your time together not thinking about being an athlete at all, Jan told WHYY in Philadelphia. There were no other women at that gym. It wasn't considered appropriate for ladies to lift weights. Some gyms even banned it. The idea of a woman having muscles was seen as somehow being somewhat transgressive.
- [32:01]
Scott Galloway
There must be something wrong with you if you want to have muscles.
- [32:04]
Kara Swisher
Anyway, feeling spicy that day, Jan squatted down and deadlifted 225 pounds, which is a lot of pounds. She went on to lift more weights, set a bunch of records, model in magazine and inspire other women to lift weights. More recently, millions of women have started but why now? Answers on Today explained every weekday in youn Feed. Scott, we're back. Up next we have someone with a question about BYD and China. Tell us your name, where you're from and your question. Hi, my name is Kelvin. I live in the Bronx. My question so I've been thinking a lot about US China dynamics, especially with tech and automobiles and you guys have praised BYD's EVs and said that how it will be great if they could enter the US Market. But also over the years you guys expressed concerns about the CCP's influence, especially with TikTok. What was it about a year ago we had the balloon over the Midwest. So my question is if we are worried about China's social media apps spying on Americans, why would we welcome a tech filled Chinese vehicle onto US streets? Could this possibly Be a way of being like a Trojan horse for data collection and surveillance in America. That is an excellent question. You know what? I hadn't even thought about that. In terms of data collection, the reason why we talk about BYD is because they're really good cars. And what's really depressing, I think, to me, at least, and I don't know about Scott, is how incredibly innovative of these cars are and how cool and adorable. And we wish there was more innovation with US Carmakers around now. There have been. There's been like, the Volkswagen. They're not a US Carmaker, but Volkswagen id. Some of the GM cars are great, some of the Ford cars are great. But it feels like the whole area needs innovation. And so rather than just copying, BYD is innovating with cars. And so that's, I think, what we're in admiration of. But you're right, these things collect a lot of data. They'll have a lot of questions about our movement. Always will have. China's always in a surveillance mode, as far as I can tell. That said, so is Facebook. So is Tesla, so are the rest of them. But you're right, it's a diff. I think it's a little different experience knowing where people are going in their cars. Is that as much with TikTok, you're more worried about propaganda, about messaging and things like that over where people physically are. But I suppose you're right. That is something that they could. They could track. I just don't think it's TikTok. I worry more about it as a propaganda more than a surveillance vehicle. I was thinking, like, you know, by a car, you could tell the size of a family what podcasts they're listening to. Could there even be technology to record conversations? So, yes. Yep, I agree with you. I hadn't even thought about that. Is a surveillance like a surveillance vehicle? It certainly is that. Scott, what do you think?
- [35:05]
Scott Galloway
Maybe I should be more worried, but I'm not.
- [35:07]
Kara Swisher
Not.
- [35:08]
Scott Galloway
I think that we should have the technology to figure out if there's some sort of remote transmission or data storage technology that gets somehow ends up in the wrong hands. And also the surveillance horse is already out of the barn. I think most people or most organizations, if they're really committed to understanding where you are, the relationships you have, your travel patterns. I just can't imagine they couldn't get most of that information probably from hacking Uber or going onto the dark web or hacking, or not even hacking, but just looking at your movements on Meta. And I think there's a bigger difference between take worst case scenario understanding a family size and movements as opposed to training an entire emerging generation of Americans to have sympathy for Hamas. And that's where I see the threat of TikTok. I think the propaganda threat of raising a generation of civic, business and nonprofit leaders that are anti American, which is what I think TikTok. If I were controlling TikTok's algorithm or had influence over it, that's where I be. That's the scale I would be putting my thumb on. I just think cars are less of a security risk. And also I like the idea of young people having access to great cars for 18 or 20 grand. I want to see. Yeah, they're incredible. I would love to see. I think tariffs are terrible. I'd love to see a global trade agreement. Our trade complexion with China is asymmetric. There's a lot to be done there. But I think ultimately we want to put pressure on all global auto manufacturers to give our households the best cars for the lowest price possible. And that's right. And I think BYD is that now, should they be providing more access to our grade manufactured goods? Yes. Should they have paid some sort of tax for the IP theft from Tesla and auto automobile? I mean, it gets complicated fast. But I. And maybe I'm being naive. I'm not worried. I'm much more worried about ByteDance than I am about BYD.
- [37:06]
Kara Swisher
Yeah. So one of the things also is that at some what BYD is doing is they're invading other countries. Europe. You see them. I saw them all over Europe on my last trip. I had not seen BYD cars until recently. One they're delightful. They Absolutely. One I asked to look at. One they're cars I wish I could own. I know it sounds crazy. I don't think about China as a car manufacturer, but they're making enormous inroads into other countries across the world, as China is in lots of things. And the idea that China is just a stealer of information. They absolutely are. They absolutely do steal ip, but they also are innovators at this point. They've started to switch, flip the script. And they're very innovative. And you can see that by. They couldn't accomplish what they're doing at BYD by just stealing things because there's nothing to steal. Like the Tesla hasn't changed its look in quite a while. I don't know. It looks like the same car as five years ago, ten years ago. The price hasn't come down. They haven't offered Tesla's missed the boat on offering a cheap car. Right. They were supposed to and then they didn't. Same thing with all of them. As Scott said, young people don't have a chance to buy these things and they would proliferate if our car manufacturers didn't just stick up to the top wealthy people and bring it down. So obviously it seems like you should compete on quality and everything else, but it demands that our own manufacturers do the same thing, which I think they have a difficulty doing. And especially with the Trump administration openly hostile to EVs. Now, I think this new bill is going to remove all the subsidies or encouraging and they're going to be very fossil fuel oriented. And so that's again our country sort of shooting itself in the foot on the emerging technology that is critical, which is EVs. But you're right, interesting question, but I'm also not that as worried as Scott. I'm more worried about a propaganda vehicle than anything else. So any other thoughts, Kelvin? No, no, I just was really interested in you guys conversation about that. Yeah, it's a really interesting question. But it doesn't matter. They're winning all over the world. I have to say. They're everywhere. And so that's the real opportunity for our manufacturers to get all over the world and be innovative. But we're not taking it and now our government doesn't want to help that happen. Happen. Anyway, thank you so much. And we hear you're getting married this month. Congratulations.
- [39:38]
Scott Galloway
Congratulations.
- [39:39]
Kara Swisher
Actually Saturday. Oh my God. My husband and I, we are getting married this Saturday. We're excited. It's going to be at our home. So I want to send a shout out to him, Ori and then also our family in Israel. They were planning to be here but unfortunately they cannot make it for obvious reasons. So you know, our hearts are with them and we'll just maybe find time to celebrate in Tel Aviv whenever all of this is over next year in Jerusalem. Yeah, right, right. Yeah. Well, congratulations. We really appreciate you calling in.
- [40:12]
Scott Galloway
Thank you.
- [40:12]
Kara Swisher
Thank you. A pleasure speaking with you both. Bye. What do President Biden's two senior most national security advisors think of the US Strikes on Iran? The longer tale of the threat from.
- [40:28]
Scott Galloway
Iran remains and will have to be taken seriously.
- [40:30]
Kara Swisher
I'm Preet Bharara and this week Jake Sullivan and John Feiner join me on my podcast Stay Tuned with Preet to discuss the US Military action in Iran and what comes next for the Middle East. The episode is out now. Search and follow Stay Tuned with Preet wherever you get your podcasts.
- [40:49]
Scott Galloway
Roy told me about using AI to cruise his way through every assignment.
- [40:53]
Kara Swisher
I had to stop him and say, like, why would you go through so.
- [40:57]
Scott Galloway
Much effort to get into an elite school like Columbia and then just not do the work? And he said, I'm here to find.
- [41:04]
Kara Swisher
A co founder and a wife.
- [41:06]
Scott Galloway
This week on the Gray Area is.
- [41:08]
Kara Swisher
AI changing the college experience? Listen to the Gray Area with me, Sean Iling.
- [41:14]
Scott Galloway
New episodes every Monday, available everywhere. This week on Net Worth and Chill, I'm joined by Bobby Burke, the interior design mogul and Queer Eye star who transformed, transformed his passion for home design into a multimillion dollar empire. From starting with nothing and sleeping on friends couches to building his own furniture line, opening multiple retail stores and landing his breakthrough TV role. Bobby shares how he turned personal struggles into entrepreneurial gold.
- [41:41]
Kara Swisher
Stay within your budget. You know, if you have to pivot because prices have went up for tariffs, if you don't have the money to increase your budget, don't listen wherever you.
- [41:51]
Scott Galloway
Get your pop podcasts or watch on YouTube.com YourRichBFF.
- [41:59]
Kara Swisher
Okay, Scott, we're back. Next up, we have a caller with a question about time travel. Hello, caller, Tell us who you are and what your question is. Hey, thank you so much for having me. Check one off the bucket list. I'm on with the big dog and the jungle cat. I'm Erica. I live near Philadelphia with my family. I work in the energy industry. And my question for the two of you is if you had to pick one timeline to go back to in history, what would you choose as that timeline and why? Oh, wow. I think about time travel a lot, actually. I am an HG Wells fan. I love that book the Time Machine. And of course, A Time and Again was one of my favorite books as a kid. I love Jean Claude Van Damme in Time Cop. I love time, all the time things and, and I just find Ray Bradbury, obviously with the butterfly on his foot and stuff like that. So I'm a big, I think about time travel a lot and I think it would be pretty cool to go back and the question is, would you do anything and change anything, you know, God, so many different choices. I would like to meet Cleopatra. I gotta say, I kind of have a lot of questions. And so if I had to pick a historic figure, that time period, although I'd probably be killed immediately as a witch or something like that, but if I could be invisible or not know what I know now and go back, then I think that would be kind of cool. I think probably I feel like she was greatest ruler for a long, long time and the richest person in the world. And since I know so many richest people in the world, it would be kind of interesting to see that era. I think that would be pretty cool. I probably would go back to see my dad when he was living. That would be the other one. But then would I be my age I was or the age I am now? So if I could know what I'm like now, now, then that would be cool. What about you, Scott?
- [43:52]
Scott Galloway
Yeah, it's an interesting question. I have no desire to go back very far because I've sort of gotten fond of this whole Novocain and Netflix age we're in. And I think people wax nostalgic for no reason. I think we're literally, this is the best day ever in the history of the planet on a risk adjusted basis until tomorrow. I do think things just get better and people don't because we live in a society where algorithms want to convince you that your life is terrible and people aren't happy. It's not true. On almost every major metric, things get better every day. So I don't feel like I need to go back. Where I go to is I'm not interested in going to a different time. I'm interested in going back to certain scenarios in my life. I would love to go back and spend some time when I had little kids in the house that was really magical and I kind of knew it at the time, but I was working so hard that I didn't get to spend as much time with him as I would have liked. So I would love to go back and be with, you know, four and seven year old boys instead of 14 and 17. So that's how I think of time travel. I don't think I'm going back to. Based on an era. I think of going back to different points in my life because I want to, you know, I want to remember what that I want to feel that I want to feel those moments again, but I don't have any desire.
- [45:09]
Kara Swisher
You can do it. I. You could have more kids.
- [45:11]
Scott Galloway
Yeah. I think I'm close for business, Gara. I would need to get divorced and go younger, which could happen.
- [45:16]
Kara Swisher
I'm just saying you can experience it all over again.
- [45:20]
Scott Galloway
No, I'm gonna rent Saul next.
- [45:21]
Kara Swisher
Okay. Okay. Good luck with that. Let's see. You know, there's a great film about that also, speaking of time travel films, it's called About Time and it's with Christopher Reeve. No, it's. Well, that oh, there's time. That's time. And Jane Seymour, that's somewhere in time. Then he goes back and he sees the page. That's an amazing movie. But there's another one called About Time and it's with Bill Nighy. They can go back and redo things over and over again, and Rachel McAdams is in it and they can go back and they meet for the first time. He fucks it up and he goes back and redo it and redo it until he gets it right. Which is kind of cool to be able to do that.
- [45:57]
Scott Galloway
There was a similar movie called Sliding Doors with the best. In my opinion, the best modern day movie about time travel was Loose Cooper with Bruce Willis and get the kid's name.
- [46:07]
Kara Swisher
Joseph Gordon Lovett.
- [46:08]
Scott Galloway
Joseph Gordon Levitt. Thank you very much. How about you? What would you.
- [46:13]
Kara Swisher
Where would you go? Yeah, where would you go? So watching Stranger Things on Netflix has made me a little nostalgic for the 1980s, so.
- [46:22]
Scott Galloway
Best era ever.
- [46:23]
Kara Swisher
That's why I was. Oh, so you picked one. You just gave me an answer.
- [46:27]
Scott Galloway
I agree. No, if I could be. Were you, and I don't know if you're the same age as me. If I could be. If I just wanted to have fun, I would go back to UCLA in the 80s. I mean, that was hard to beat. Yeah, I bet.
- [46:38]
Kara Swisher
Yeah.
- [46:39]
Scott Galloway
And you know, I could, you know, oh my gosh, I gotta have a good time. I'd finally hang up the condom I never used anyways. Yeah, the 80s. Tom Petty. Tom Petty and Tom Petty.
- [46:50]
Kara Swisher
Yeah. And hair. You had hair.
- [46:51]
Scott Galloway
A ponytail. I didn't just have hair, I had a ponytail.
- [46:54]
Kara Swisher
You had a ponytail. Why the 80s for you, Eric? Why the 80s? Why the 80s? Like I said, I said I was. Been watching Stranger Things all the seasons and it's like, it's almost like that ET Vibe a little bit, you know, I was a kid on a dirt bike roaming around neighborhoods. There was a sense of, like, freedom and. And fun, you know, it wasn't just being a kid, but, like, there's a lot different than being a kid now. So. Yeah.
- [47:19]
Scott Galloway
Where'd you grow up, Eric?
- [47:20]
Kara Swisher
In Washington. In D.C. in Washington, D.C. in Northwest.
- [47:23]
Scott Galloway
Yeah.
- [47:24]
Kara Swisher
Yeah. It's a different time. Although maybe it isn't for the kids. Right. They may think this is the best time of their lives. They probably do. My kids are carefree in a different way, so we don't know. It'd be interesting to go back with your current personality and knowledge to when you were a kid. That would be kind of cool. Exactly. You know. Shit. You know what I mean? Like, it would be. That, to me, would be cool. I don't know. Still, I'm sticking with Cleopatra.
- [47:51]
Scott Galloway
I'd start a search engine and marry Lauren Sanchez. That's what I do.
- [47:58]
Kara Swisher
Oh, my God. Anyway, thank you, Eric. What a great question. What a thoughtful question. Again, we didn't even say we'd go back and kill Hitler, did we? That's the old go to. Hey, you're welcome. Thanks for having me on, both of you. I love the show. It keeps getting better. Just listen every week. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.
- [48:15]
Scott Galloway
Thanks, Eric.
- [48:16]
Kara Swisher
Okay, Scott, that's the show. As always, our listeners are so much smarter than we are. They really are, don't you think? Is that all you have to say?
- [48:23]
Scott Galloway
Yeah. No, I love it. I love our fans, but I love our advertisers more because they pay for that big back fucking boat that I'm going to crash that Bezos Sanchez wedding at.
- [48:32]
Kara Swisher
They're not having you. They're not.
- [48:33]
Scott Galloway
I'm rolling in. I'm rolling live.
- [48:35]
Kara Swisher
We'll be back on Friday with more Pivot. Read us out, Scott.
- [48:40]
Scott Galloway
Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin and Kevin Oliver. Ernie and her tight engineer this episode. Thanks also to Dubrow's Ms. Vera and Dan Shalon. Vishak Kuro is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine@nymag.com pod we'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business.