Democrats Divided, Market Rollercoaster, and Southwest Airlines

Summary

Pivot Podcast Episode Summary Title: Democrats Divided, Market Rollercoaster, and Southwest Airlines
Host/Authors: Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway
Release Date: March 18, 2025

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1. Democrats' Internal Struggles: Leadership and Strategy

In this episode, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway delve into the recent fractures within the Democratic Party. The core issue revolves around Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's controversial decision to align with Republicans, preventing a government shutdown. This move has sparked outrage among prominent Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who advocated for a government shutdown to protest Trump's administration and its policies.

Notable Quotes:

• Scott Galloway [06:52]: "A shutdown would shut down all government agencies... it would be up to Trump and Doge and Musk what to open again."
• Kara Swisher [06:47]: "How did you get in the fucking situation, Chuck?"

Galloway criticizes Schumer as a "weak leader" who prioritizes being right over being effective, suggesting that his decisions have weakened the party's stance against Republican measures. Both hosts express frustration over the lack of strong, decisive leadership within the Democrats, emphasizing the need for new voices like AOC to step up and challenge the current strategy.

2. Economic Turmoil and Market Fluctuations

The discussion shifts to the volatile state of the economy, highlighting the S&P 500's significant decline and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen's attempts to downplay the correction as "healthy." Galloway points out that despite the market's downturn, major indices remain elevated over the past year but acknowledge persistent issues like stubborn inflation and low consumer sentiment.

Notable Quotes:

• Scott Galloway [17:29]: "The stock markets haven't crashed. They've corrected. They have not crashed or they've not even corrected."
• Kara Swisher [14:47]: "Mr. Trump's agenda is carried out almost exclusively through executive power."

Galloway underscores the opportunity for Democrats to capitalize on Trump's narrow voter mandate by presenting themselves as the party of ideas rather than indignation. Swisher reinforces this by citing Kristen Saltis Anderson's analysis, which suggests that public opinion is increasingly unfavorable toward Trump's economic handling, presenting a strategic opening for Democratic messaging.

3. Trump Administration's Agency Cuts and Soft Power

A significant portion of the conversation focuses on President Trump's executive orders aimed at reducing government agencies, including the controversial cuts to Voice of America (VOA). Swisher and Galloway debate the ramifications of these cuts on America's global influence and soft power.

Notable Quotes:

• Scott Galloway [29:36]: "The whole point... soft power is the hardest power in the world because you don't even know what wars don't break out."
• Kara Swisher [29:59]: "It's a good spending of money... It's the best way to say, here's America. We're still here."

Galloway argues that dismantling agencies like VOA undermines America's ability to maintain positive international relationships and brand perception. Swisher concurs, emphasizing the importance of maintaining soft power to counteract misinformation from adversaries like Russia and China. They lament the Trump administration's approach, which they believe erodes long-standing avenues of diplomatic influence established post-World War II.

4. Branding and Market Strategies: Cathie Wood vs. Warren Buffett

The hosts touch upon the contrasting investment strategies and public perceptions of two prominent financial figures: Warren Buffett and Cathie Wood. An animated comparison highlights Buffett's resilience and consistent performance against Wood's volatile approach.

Notable Quotes:

• Scott Galloway [24:55]: "It's the power of branding. She talks about things like hash rates with her big chunky glasses and says, send me a billion dollars and I will turn it into 220 million."
• Kara Swisher [24:53]: "I just love Warren Buffett. Look, he's super old. He's not gonna last that long, but man, does he."

Galloway criticizes Wood's branding tactics, suggesting that her image overshadows her investment performance. Swisher praises Buffett's enduring reputation and strategic prowess, contrasting it with Wood's fluctuating success. This segment underscores the significance of personal branding in influencing market perceptions and investor confidence.

5. Southwest Airlines' Policy Shifts and Brand Impact

A critical analysis is presented on Southwest Airlines' decision to eliminate free checked bags, a long-standing hallmark of their customer-friendly image. Galloway contends that this move erodes one of the few differentiators in an otherwise commoditized airline industry.

Notable Quotes:

• Scott Galloway [43:06]: "They're trading off short-term profits and financial engineering to make a quick buck and lose one of the few precious scarce forms of differentiation."
• Kara Swisher [46:50]: "I don't fly Southwest anymore... It was always cheaper. It was always more flexible."

Galloway laments that removing free bags compromises Southwest's brand identity as a low-cost, flexible airline, ultimately leading to diminished customer loyalty. Swisher echoes this sentiment, noting her personal shift away from Southwest due to the policy change. They discuss the broader implications for the airline's market position and long-term profitability.

6. Personal Insights and Light-Hearted Banter

Throughout the episode, Kara and Scott intersperse their discussion with personal anecdotes and humorous exchanges. From moving a family member into assisted living to jokes about Halloween costumes, these segments provide a relatable and entertaining break from the heavy political and economic discourse.

Notable Quotes:

• Scott Galloway [40:07]: "I'm the Southwest Airlines of men. Baggage is free. My baggage is free."
• Kara Swisher [23:24]: "Shut the fuck up."

While these moments add a layer of personality to the podcast, they are strategically placed to maintain engagement and balance the analytical segments.

7. Wins and Fails: Highlighting Effective and Ineffective Strategies

In a segment dedicated to "Wins and Fails," Swisher and Galloway highlight notable successes and missteps within the political and business landscapes.

Wins:

• Kara Swisher: Praises the Apple show "Severance" for its depth and entertainment value.
• Scott Galloway: Acknowledges the European Union's economic resilience and potential to fill the leadership void left by the US.

Fails:

• Kara Swisher: Criticizes Chuck Schumer's ineffective leadership and Trump's distracting antics.
• Scott Galloway: Echoes concerns over Democratic Party's lack of strong leadership and strategic direction.

8. Concluding Thoughts: The Path Forward for Democrats and American Influence

Wrapping up, Swisher and Galloway emphasize the urgent need for the Democratic Party to invigorate its leadership and present clear, actionable policies. Galloway is optimistic about Europe's role in countering authoritarian threats, while both hosts agree that maintaining and enhancing America's soft power is crucial for global stability and prosperity.

Final Notable Quote:

• Scott Galloway [65:58]: "We need to be the party of ideas, not indignance."

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Conclusion

This episode of Pivot provides a comprehensive analysis of the current political tensions within the Democratic Party, the impacts of Trump’s economic policies, and the strategic branding challenges faced by Southwest Airlines. Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway combine sharp insights with engaging dialogue, offering listeners a nuanced understanding of these pivotal issues shaping the tech, business, and political landscapes.

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For more detailed discussions and insights, listen to the full episode of Pivot available on Vox Media Podcast Network.

Transcript

[Kara Swisher]

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[Scott Galloway]

Sometimes a single performance can define an artist's legacy. Think about Hendrix's fiery Woodstock national anthem or Beyonce's homecoming at Coachella. Coming up on Switched On Pop, we're exploring artists who've had recent transformative live shows. First is Missy Elliott, who recently put.

[Kara Swisher]

On her first world tour, where she.

[Scott Galloway]

Taught everybody to get the freak on.

[Kara Swisher]

And then there's her collaborator, Timbaland, who.

[Scott Galloway]

Recently evolved from beat maker to orchestra conductor at the songwriter Hollo of fame.

[Kara Swisher]

And then Lady Gaga, whose Chromatica Ball.

[Scott Galloway]

Featured a theatrical museum of brutality revealing the darker side of Gaga's mayhem.

[Kara Swisher]

Listen to these live moments on Switched On Pop.

[Scott Galloway]

Wherever you get podcasts brought to you by Defender. I just can't wait till I'm single again and I dress up for Halloween. I'm going to dress up as Southwest Airlines and fuck a bunch of people.

[Kara Swisher]

Hi, everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara swisher. Happy belated St Patrick's Day, Scott Galloway. Even though you're Scottish.

[Scott Galloway]

So I went out and got fucked up, went into the Ural and the guy next to me says, wow. He said, circumcised. I'm like, nope. That's just the wear and tear.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, my God.

[Scott Galloway]

So I got back last night from Mexico.

[Kara Swisher]

We're not going to say where you went, but you went to an exciting wedding.

[Scott Galloway]

I went to a wonderful wedding.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

How was was lovely. It was a mix of really Meaningful. They're both really lovely people and lovely friends. Everyone was very happy and, of course, fabulous. It was a beautiful setting, beautiful people. We had a really nice time. I had a. Oh, nice. Yeah, it was great.

[Kara Swisher]

Anything exciting happen? Did you, you know, do anything embarrassing for the. For the team here?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, come on. That's Scott Galloway, and I'm doing things embarrassing. That's redundant. I think that's part of the reason people invite me, though.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

You know what the best gift is? I'm being very serious. The best gift. The best gift you can give anyone for their wedding, in my view, is to get a little too fucked up and have an amazing time. And I do both those things.

[Kara Swisher]

Good. Did you do a toast?

[Scott Galloway]

No, I'm not in the A circle.

[Kara Swisher]

No. Okay. What are you, like, D list?

[Scott Galloway]

I don't know if this says anything, but on my wedding invitation, it said seat filler.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Everybody knows. Everybody knows. Everybody knows I'll get fucked up and be on the dance floor. And they know I'll bring some. And they know I'll bring someone. And they know I'll bring someone hot. So.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay. You did those things.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. So I.

[Kara Swisher]

Your lovely wife, I assume.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm a seat filler.

[Kara Swisher]

Good, good. I'm glad. I'm glad you had a good time. Sorry I wasn't there. I was moving my mom into assisted living, which was not quite as glamorous.

[Scott Galloway]

Although that sounds close.

[Kara Swisher]

Although it's a nice place. It's really lovely and the people are wonderful and they're in D.C. and I have to say, they handle everything. There's so much stuff to do and they handle. And let me just tell you something. Amazingly, the food at this fucking place is so good. I don't even know what to say. I, like, would go. I would go there every night. The food is so good. Like, not a little good. I'm gonna take you there, Scott. Because everyone's like, no, you're not.

[Scott Galloway]

No, I mean, you're gonna take me there in about 20 years now.

[Kara Swisher]

I understand. But it's a beautiful place. It's one of these high end ones and I. Literally, everyone's like, the food can't be good. I bring it back to Amanda and she's like, that's fucking delicious. It's like, I want to eat there. It's, like, so good. So anyway, I was pretty pleased.

[Scott Galloway]

Let me just give everyone a quick fly on the wall excerpt from my weekend versus your weekend. Well, what the fuck? Run Tulum. Sure. I'll do X. That was me and an excerpt from your you've always been a disappointment to me.

[Kara Swisher]

Actually it's going better than I thought. I ordered my mom the New York Times and the New York Post to be delivered here so that's a good sign. So she can have her daily intake of crap and good news, good well done news. But any she has a beautiful place. It worked out as best as it could and we brought her to the house for dinner and it's working.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm glad it went well. That's nice.

[Kara Swisher]

It's going to be a lot for Kara Swisher. This is the third try for Lucky and it's going to stick. Let me just tell you. It's going to stick anyway. Otherwise I was moving into my house too. So it's been a really glamorous meet unpacking, lots of stuff.

[Scott Galloway]

You got a lot going on.

[Kara Swisher]

I do. I just this morning I was like oh, I dropped Claire off then went and got candy cakes from my mom. Do you know those peanut butter things from Tasty Cake? Got those I don't and brought her her I bought a series of like National Enquirer. She likes people National Enquirer in touch. I was embarrassed at the giant food to buy those things but I did and then visited her and then came here.

[Scott Galloway]

Well you know it's 30ft long and smells like piss.

[Kara Swisher]

What?

[Scott Galloway]

The line dance at a senior's home.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh my God. That's terrible. Don't. You know what Scott? It's coming for all of us. Let's just say coming diapers depends be coming for you.

[Scott Galloway]

Sometimes we come into and leave this world in diapers.

[Kara Swisher]

It's true. It's true. Anyway. Anyh. So it's going really well and I think she's having a relatively good time for her anyway. Today we'll talk about the economy as the S and P tries to recover from correction territory as well as the effects of the latest round of Trump's executive orders. But first, big cracks are showing in the Democratic Party after 10 Senate Democrats voted with Republicans to avoid a government shutdown this past week. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer infuriated fellow party members by crossing the aisle to pass the president Trump's approved stopgap measure. Prominent Dems such as Alexandria Ocasio Cortez wanted to force a shutdown of protests Trump and Elon Musk's federal spending cuts. Schumer defended his decision to Lulu Garcia Navarro of the New York Times on Sunday. Here's what he said. Let me explain. A shutdown would shut down all government agencies. And it would solely be up to Trump and Doge and Musk what to open again because they could determine what was essential.

[Scott Galloway]

So their goal of shutting down, of.

[Kara Swisher]

Decimating the whole federal government, of cutting agency after agency after agency, would occur under a shutdown.

[Scott Galloway]

It would be devastating.

[Kara Swisher]

Two days from now on a shutdown, they could say, well, snap. Food stamps for kids is not essential. It's gone. All veterans offices in rural areas are gone. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, they're not essential. We're cutting them back. That is his excuse. Although. How did you get in the fucking situation, Chuck? That's one of the things I would say. He's not really a terrific leader. At the same time, he has a point. At the same time, they're cutting down the government. They are anyway, slowly. This is a quicker way to do it. So talk about this lesser of two evils thing. I've been talking to both. I think the Republicans got them in a jam is what they did. There's rumors that Democrats are urging AOC to primary Schumer. So talk a little bit about this because I think it's two choices of despair with one of the Democrats talking about it. And there's a real shift of let them shut it down then and let's see what people think. There are others of, oh, no, they're going to shut it down trying to protect all your marbles. So any thoughts?

[Scott Galloway]

There's always a good excuse for failure. How did the Democratic leadership put us in a position of bad choices? Between bad choices and shutting down the government? I mean, Senate Leader Schumer or Minority Leader Schumer always has a good excuse for failure.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, he does.

[Scott Galloway]

And, you know, shutting down the government. Yeah. What does that mean? Shutting down what is now an operating system for bypassing the courts and bypassing Congress. At some point, we have to be the party of not fucking around, not the reasonable party that's thoughtful and always is on the wrong end of every strategic move. We absolutely, in my view, should have said, fine Republican states. Republicans need to see that if the government is now an operating system for your march towards autocracy, we're not down and we're shutting down the government. I don't believe Democrats would have got the blame here. I think if 58 days post whatever it is, inauguration, the government is shut down, I think the majority of it would have stuck to Trump. I think that a lot of Republicans who voted for Trump would have been hurt and seen that, okay, this is what you voted for. And there's also. It's not binary. There was a mid step. If they had been more coordinated, they could have probably run an effective filibuster and at least gotten some of the things they wanted. Instead, they have passed a spending deal which essentially gives Doge and Trump carte blanche to continue to do what they're doing.

[Kara Swisher]

Right.

[Scott Galloway]

So this is. I believe that AOC is going to be the junior senator from New York in 2028. I think Senator Schumer has consistently been played by the other side. I think he is a weak leader, and I think he embodies the absolute definition of what it means to be a Democrat or the Democratic Party right now. And that is, they have not discerned the difference between being right and being effective.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. Which you talked about. I mean, though, Fetterman was also on the side. We don't shut the government down. Now, Ted Cruz tried to do this with Obamacare. Remember, he pushed that shutdown. And I know the Republicans suffered for it in a similar jam. The Republicans were in a jam for years. Right. They had this kind of situation.

[Scott Galloway]

But Obamacare was popular. People wanted Obamacare. People don't want this.

[Kara Swisher]

Right, Right. Well, that's the argument is that whoever initiates the shutdown is the. Holds the bag of essentially.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, but they're. Okay, They're. They're in control.

[Kara Swisher]

So I think Obama was in control then, too.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't think they would. I don't think that the way this is going, they're essentially trying to shut down the government slowly and pick which parts of government they want to shut down. So I think you could absolutely say, I'm sorry, who's shutting down government? They're the ones firing everyone with any. Without any sort of. Of congressional oversight. Yeah, they're the ones who have decided, okay, they're gonna. They're not gonna make. This isn't about efficiency or an audit. This is about political decisions with no constitutional oversight. And most frightening. I know we're gonna talk about this. They've now decided that the other branch of government that all of us were hoping would be the backstop, the courts, They're. They're basically ignoring court orders. So, okay, if the government is now an operating system and a purse for a move towards autocracy, sorry, we're just gonna shut it down.

[Kara Swisher]

I agree with you. I think we were right when we said that in Austin. Like, let them do it. Let the chips fall where they may. And I don't think they have a choice because this is gonna be a playbook for the Republicans the whole time. Like put them in a jam. Put them in a jam. Put the. And use Elon Musk as the boogeyman. Well, let him be a boogeyman then. Right? Just let him. Let him look ridiculous, rich, over privileged, cutting people. And yes, they can cut all this stuff. And I get that. It's just when you're always playing defense and you're always trying to catch all the balls and stop all the eruptions, you are the loser in that game. Because they can just. They're acting like they're in the minority in a weird way, even though they're in the majority. Right. They're doing the bomb throwing the blowing things up, everything else, which is really interesting to me.

[Scott Galloway]

I think that Americans will vote for policies they don't agree on as long as they sense strength and resolve. And right now the Democratic Party appears to lack all of those.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, no, I think AOC has, seems to have very articulate on this. Like, here's what we do. Like she seems to have a plan in that way. And Schumer's is sort of like, well, we don't want them to shut down the government faster. I'm like, well, they're doing it slower. What's the fucking difference? Like they're gonna do what they're gonna do. Because until you win elections, that's pretty much it. Right? Correct.

[Scott Galloway]

Senate Minority Leader Schumer perfectly embodies the Democratic Party. Weak, feckless. And believing that right is more important than effective. He's a terrible leader and he embodies everything that's bad about the Democratic Party. Like a series.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, they gotta go.

[Scott Galloway]

A series of mealy mouthed weak. This is why I'm doing this. And meanwhile. Oh, and I listened to that New York Times interview. Jesus Christ. You want to talk about a weak leader? Listen to the constant excuses.

[Kara Swisher]

I agree.

[Scott Galloway]

And just the incredible denial. We're winning.

[Kara Swisher]

What are we going to do?

[Scott Galloway]

Our message is getting out there and it's resonating with people and it's like, are you drunk, stupid or both?

[Kara Swisher]

Correct.

[Scott Galloway]

The sad part about it is this is like watching Steve Young sit on the bench. If Joe Montana had been. I don't know. I can't name a bad quarterback. We have a fantastic bench here. We have Richie Torres. I don't agree with their politics, but I think AOC is.

[Kara Swisher]

Hakeem Jeffries kind of dissed Sumer, which was interesting. He was trying to get something going in the House on this topic and voted again.

[Scott Galloway]

And then why doesn't he and I know we all want to like Hakeem, but quite frankly, he, for him to sit in the back and just act sullen, that doesn't do us any fucking good.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, he did hold those group, that group group together to vote against it. It's just that all the Republicans stayed together. They weren't expecting the Republicans. It was only one no vote. So he did hold those guys together. Right. There could have been some peel offs among the Trump areas, the people that are in those mixed areas, but he held them all together and Toomer did not and obviously worked behind the scenes to get 10 people to do what he wanted them to do, which they're all old.

[Scott Galloway]

I bet in every war there is a nonviolence movement. We should practice nonviolence. And it's like, well, okay, good luck with that. I understand it in theory, but good luck with that. And I feel like let them do.

[Kara Swisher]

It and then let the media write about it and let people freak the fuck out and move the story back to Trump cutting government in half. Right, that's what I say. So let's get to polls. It's interesting this is on the economy, but there's larger polls here. Cause I do think there's real opportunity now. This new NBC poll shows that while Trump has his best approval rating ever, the majority of voters disapprove of how he's handled the economy so far. There's so much weakness there. We'll talk about the market collection, but I'm gonna read from Kristen Saltis Anderson, who I really do trust. She's a conservative pollster and she said that everything's mixed all over the place and he thinks he has a mandate. He thinks he can do all this stuff cuz he believes he has the latitude to go big and bold, to create some turbulence and cause some prices to ride in the charge of him as he asserts himself. But as I dug into Mr. Trump's polling data, it looked increasingly that American voters mandate to the president was more narrow than he sees it. After prolong period of inflation, with a Biden administration that told Americans not to believe their lying wallets, voters clearly wanted the next president to stabilize the economy and make their cost of living more manageable. And so she's putting out that this is a very big opportunity for Democrats, you know what I mean? That they don't think what he's doing is great. But this is a dangerous gamble. Mr. Trump's agenda is carried out almost exclusively through executive power. And public opinion gives government control back to his opponents. The Affordable Care act proved too difficult for Republicans to uproot because it is enshrined by law by Congress, and many support it, while Mr. Trump's actions are products of pen and phone alone. So the number one issue of America remains the number one issue and their real political risk to the strategy that asked voters to grin and bear it at the checkout line today for a promise of something better tomorrow. That's what they're doing. The Trump administration, the S and P closed 10% below recent highs. It's now trailing major markets in Europe and China. As you've discussed, it's down about 6%. The inauguration and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen, who sounds like a maggot, now, called the correction healthy. Also, by the way, he has a $22 million house. While he was saying just suck it up to people, he was saying that the aftershocks are normal for a correction and you need to grin and bear it. That's essentially what Scott Bessen said. There's a question of what it does to the dollar. The New York Times pointed out over the weekend that Trump's trade war is leading to retaliatory tariffs that specifically target Trump voters. Nearly 8 million Americans work in industries targeted by levies and the majority are Trump voters. A New York Times analysis show they include corn carmakers, poultry, steel mills and more. Consumer sentiment hit nearly a two and a half year low in March. Inflation's expectations have served. So talk about this because this is a huge opportunity that the Democrats are not taking in any way.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, okay, there's the markets and there's messaging and the markets, to be fair, if you try to stay, have fidelity to the data, the markets have lost about six months of gains, but they're still up for 12 months. They're still up dramatically and they're still quite frankly, very expensive. So he could be doing everything that all economists agree with. And the markets just might be letting off some steam from what are what I would call historic overvalued highs, something we've been talking about a long time and I'm patting myself on the back here, but I said In November of 24 we were going to see a 15 year reversal in the flows of capital out of the US Into Europe and non US Markets. That reversal of the largest river of the world and that is capital flowing into US Growth stocks. That has happened. We are seeing a reversal in capital flows out of the US and this might have been the catalyst for it. But the reality is the stock markets haven't crashed. They've corrected. They have not corrected, crashed or they've not even corrected. They've had a bad few months. Unemployment is still pretty low. Inflation is being stubborn. But we haven't seen these dramatic upticks in inflation people are worried about could still happen. But the talking points here are such a missed opportunity. One, we are going to continue to fund for $60 billion or 8% of our military budget, push back on a murderous autocracy that is good for democracy. We're going to continue to support democratic values and the majority of that revenue will return to America, including the majority of which will go to red states. We are going to control the deficit. We are going to look at, we're going to not only not have a tax cut, we're going to have an alternative minimum tax for the wealthy and corporations. Your tax rates are not going up, but we're going to make sure everybody just pays what they're supposed to pay. And we're going to get responsible about the deficit. We need a massive leveling up of young people and of the middle class who should, if both people work, should have a reasonable lifestyle. We are going to raise minimum wage to $25 an hour. We are going to build 7 million homes, manufactured homes which cost 30 to 50% less than a home built on site. And we are going to bring down the cost of people's housing. We have so many opportunities to say we're the party of getting shit done. We're the party and at the same time push back on the notion. No, we're not gonna give it to a murderous autocrat. We're going to maintain 80 year alliances, economic alliances that bring down the cost of everything from tomatoes to lumber to cars. And we're proposing these things and let them go down in Congress, let them be voted against. Let America say, does it make sense to have fantastic trading relationships that will bring down the cost of our products? Does it make sense to have corporations and the wealth at least pay 30% of their profits, which they are not doing right now? Does it make sense to not have an explosion in the deficit? Instead we're just running around responding to everything that we think is outrageous, waiting for the rest of the public to get outraged when they're busy just trying to get by with their second and third jobs. So the messaging here has been terrible. The Democratic Party has shown no leadership other than their shock, their outrage. If people are not more outraged. Again, and this is my call sign here, we need to be the party of ideas, not indignance.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, that's Correct. So one of the things, though, I thought Besant, I was watching him this weekend, I thought he did so badly from a messaging point. Speaking of messaging, I thought he looked rich. He looked like Scrooge McDuck. I don't know why. Like a gay Scrooge McDuck. But it was really gay. Has nothing to do with it. Nonetheless, that's what he looked like to me. But it was bad messaging. Like, you don't have any right to Chinese flat screens. American. I'm like, you don't fucking. It's none of your business what I have a right to. It was so snotty. I thought. I was sort of surprised by that messaging. And I thought he did a bad job on all the programs he appeared on. He looks like he's a rich guy telling poor people to suck it up. You'll appreciate later once we get through this. But I'm like, there's no pain for you anywhere along this route whatsoever. I don't know if that's resonant, but I was offended by him and I got some money. Right? I was like, wow, you're really obnoxious kind of personality. I think Wall street was quite disturbed by him because they thought he was sort of the reasonable guy.

[Scott Galloway]

But again, this was him sticking his chin out. But there's no fist to stone from the fucking Democratic Party.

[Kara Swisher]

That's correct. Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

He said, America is not about cheaper things. That was an opportunity to go for a Democrat to say, let's be honest, America is an operating system that has created more prosperity than any nation in history. And prosperity means you get to work hard and you get to live really well. Which quite frankly, Mr. Bessette, that is the reason you are here. And once you're a billionaire, fine. It's easy for you to say you're going to pay more for a flat screen tv. But there's a lot of Americans that do expect to be able to send their kids to college, do expect to be able to take a nice vacation, do expect to be able to buy their kids a new pair of Nikes that makes them feel good about themselves and about America. So, yeah, it is about prosperity. What it's also about is an operating system to ensure that the least fortunate among us have a certain level of dignity because they know they are protected in terms of right to choose. They know they are protected to ensure that a bus, even if it's funded by the government, will pick them up and take them to a decent school. See above the Department of Education. This was A huge opportunity to weigh in and say, boss, regarding prosperity. Shut the fuck up.

[Kara Swisher]

Shut the fuck up. I was like, why is anyone saying just shut the fuck up? Cause I was saying it to the TV screen. I'm like, mind business. What I want to buy. I want to buy plastic toys for my kids till the end of time.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, easy for you to say from St. Barts as you're shoving up diamond glass dildos up your ass. I mean, for God's sakes, there's no diamond.

[Kara Swisher]

Don't do. I hope you didn't do that this weekend, Scott.

[Scott Galloway]

I would have tried. I would have tried.

[Kara Swisher]

I know you would have tried.

[Scott Galloway]

I was there. I was ready.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, last thing on the economy. I saw the best animation over the weekend comparing Warren Buffett and Cathie Wood's strategies over the past four years. Warren Buffett's kicked some fucking ass. This guy, he likes value stocks. Kathy likes, I guess, growth, I don't know, quite.

[Scott Galloway]

She's up 67. She's down 63.

[Kara Swisher]

Like, it's crazy. He's had his ups and downs, but hers just kept going down. Why do people listen to her? Did you see that?

[Scott Galloway]

I was like, literally the best thing we could do is to have the CIA plant her and Chamath as Russian asset managers and we would bankrupt the country.

[Kara Swisher]

Honestly, I just love Warren Buffett. Look, he's super old. He's not gonna last that long, but man, does he. The fucking goat. I'm just saying. I just love that animation. Cathie Wood. I just was. I love a visual. I love a visual because you're like, see what I'm saying? Kind of stuff.

[Scott Galloway]

It's the power of branding. She talks about things like hash rates with her big chunky glasses and says, send me a billion dollars and I will turn it into 220 million. But look how cool my big chunky glasses are. And CNBC keeps bringing me on because I have a price target of $10,000 on.

[Kara Swisher]

I know.

[Scott Galloway]

Enable them to sell more opioid induced constipation ads despite the fact I have very few people. It is literally the lesson. I am going to have a class on branding. How branding can supersede actual performance on Cathie Wood.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, my God, I'm so glad you're gonna teach again. You should. That would be a really good class. Anyway. Okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. We come back, more agency cuts by the Trump administration.

[Scott Galloway]

Support for Pivot comes from Vanta. Trust isn't just earned, it's demanded Whether you're a startup founder navigating your first audit or a seasoned security professional scaling your GRC program, proving your commitment to security has never been more critical or more complex. That's where Vanta comes in. Businesses use Vanta to establish trust by automating compliance needs across over 35 frameworks, including SoC2, ISO 27001, centralized security workflows, complete questionnaires up to five times faster, and proactively manage vendor risk. Vanta not only saves you time, it can also save you money. A new IDC white paper found that Vanta customers achieve $535,000 per year in benefits and that the platform pays for itself in just three months. You can join over 9,000 global companies, including Atlassian, Quora and Factory. If you use Vanta to manage risks, can improve security in real time. For a limited time, Our audience gets $1,000 off [e-mail] pivot that's V A N T A dot com pivot for $1,000 off support for Pivot comes from the NPR podcast Up First. Your time is too valuable to spend doom scrolling all day long. Reading terrible, anxiety inducing news all day just isn't productive. Imagine how much time you could save if you limited your news consumption to just 15 minutes a day. You'd suddenly have the freedom to call a friend or learn to play the harmonica, or just take a breath and be able to appreciate that you're not frying your nerves with more awful news. If you'd like to reclaim your attention without falling out of the loop, you might want to listen to the NPR podcast Up First. Up first is a daily show that covers the three most important stories of the day in just 15 minutes so you can learn what you need to know and then move on with your day. Every episode gives you what you need to be informed about without compromising your sanity. Episodes touch on the essential stories you need to know and cover topics including international conflict, the new administration, and so much more. I listened to a recent episode about Ukraine and I found it actually quite even handed. If you're looking for more news and less noise, you can listen to the Up First Podcast podcast from NPR today. Support for Pivot comes from select quote from personal finances to the global economy, from turmoil abroad to turmoil between siblings in the back of the minivan, there's no shortage of things to stress out about. And while a lot of those things might be out of your control, there is one thing you can take control of and mark off your to do list. Finding the Right life insurance plan. Selectquote says they're here to help you protect your family's financial future with a life insurance policy found just for you by their licensed insurance agents. Selectquote is one of America's leading insurance brokers with nearly 40 years of experience helping over 2 million customers find over $700 billion in coverage since 1985. They say they partner with carriers that provide policies for a variety of health conditions. So if you have preconditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, even heart disease, Select Quote partners with carriers that can cover those conditions and other get the right life insurance for you for [e-mail] pivot go to selectquote.com pivot today to get started. That's selectquote.com pivot.

[Kara Swisher]

Scott we're back. President Trump has placed another round of agency on the chopping block, including the Voice of America, or voa. It's kind of a screw you to Kari Lake, but that's another issue. I'm perfectly happy with that. The VOA, run by the U.S. agency for Global Media, broadcasts United States domestic news to hundreds of millions around the world to extend US Influence and to combat authoritarianism. Carrie Lake, who Trump chose to run voa, she was the one who keeps losing in Arizona. The loud, nasty lady who keeps losing in Arizona was planning to transform the outlet to fight in information war. The cuts made in an executive order also targeted agencies which address homelessness, fund libraries and promote economic development for minority and low income communities. So basically everybody but the rich people. I don't know if the BOA cut matters. What do you think of this Voice of America cut? No big deal. Big deal.

[Scott Galloway]

I mean, what is really, really staggering is there was an analysis done of how many deaths are going to happen this year. Unnecessary deaths from things like malaria, hunger, from this cut of $75 billion of USAID. And they're estimating just this year alone there's gonna be 3 million deaths. And people say, okay. There's some powerful memes online saying what other nation taxes their people and sends money to us? And the answer is, okay. The whole point, one of the basic tenets of a Post World War II America, starting with what is arguably the most visionary act in economic political history, is we said, okay, Germany and Japan treated us really poorly. They were our enemy. But this is what we're going to do do. We're going to, in an act of extraordinary vision and generosity, we're going to pay for the reconstruction of their societies. And overnight, not overnight, over a decade, we Turned to formidable, unbelievable cultures that were incredibly formidable enemies into incredible allies. And it has really held the Post World War II Peace and Prosperity is that these two, the kind of the number two and number three economies around the world until China were our allies and they realized through this act of generosity. And we recognize that soft power is the hardest power in the world because you don't even know what wars don't break out. You don't even know what individual in an African country with a strong anti American contingent refuses to work with them and cooperate because they think, you know what, they're actually good people. Maybe we don't agree with them, we.

[Kara Swisher]

Need to be there.

[Scott Galloway]

Maybe they make bad decisions, but at the end of the day they try to do the right things. They're trying to stop AIDS in our country, they're trying to stop hunger, they're willing to send aircraft, they're willing to send people in, put their boots on the ground when they sense there's actual genocide. That soft power for about 1% of our deficit creates margin power and, and goodwill that affects millions of decisions made every week around whether to help, work with, want to send your best and brightest to this nation. This is like these are investments in, for lack of a better term, brand building where people think, I want to go to the U.S. i want to work with U.S. companies. I don't want to take an American tourist hostage or kill them because they're nice people and their memory is long and their reach is far. Let's not fuck with them, let's work with them. And so this withdrawal, withdrawal of soft power, when you look at the actual return we have gotten on this soft power is extraordinary and something like the voice of America. And I want to be clear, I believe as an educator the Department of Education should probably be smaller than it is. Universal testing nationally was a good idea. It hasn't worked. The 500 people of the 4,000 that work for the Department of Education should probably lose their job. I'm not against reducing the size of government, but when you just start cutting everything, including things that are working really well and making people feel good about America and creating prosperity and margin power and it's going to take decades to rebuild once we realized it was a bad idea to do away with it. So Carrie Lake, it's fun. Kari Lake is a fucking distraction. That's a distraction. The question is, should we be spending a little bit of money to have our viewpoints transmitted in a thoughtful, well produced way around the world?

[Kara Swisher]

I think it's such a Good spending of money. And by the way, guess who's running into the space? The Russians and the Chinese.

[Scott Galloway]

100%.

[Kara Swisher]

That's the thing. It's the smallest amount of money to spend one to keep it away. We have a better story and we're good at it.

[Scott Galloway]

We're good at media.

[Kara Swisher]

And by the way, the media is good. It's actually very clear. They're like, oh, they're anti Trump. This is the whole thing, obsessing them. But if you're in, listen, Carrie Lake, who, I'm sorry, is a village idiot, he was gonna transform the outlet to fight and information war. Yes, Carrie, that's what you need to do, but not in your trumped up, ridiculous way. It's giving people good information about the United States and what we're doing here. It shows we're present. It shows we care. It's like, even if it's. It's just very solid. I have listened to Voice of America elsewhere and we also fund things like radio for Europe, et cetera. I know there's some things, and I do think about this a lot that are of a different era. Era and we shouldn't do anymore. Like sometimes we have to change and things. But this is money well spent. Especially when the Chinese and the Russians and other people are putting out all kinds of misinformation around the world and information about themselves. Right? Not just misinformation, but look at us, look what we're doing and stuff like that. And I just think it's just the best way to say, here's America. We're still here. We still are. Great. And I just. The only thing that I get pleasure in is she doesn't really have a job. But that's fine. Like, that's just my personal pleasure. But the cuts they're making are so targeted to things that make us better as a nation that it's really. It's just sort of a fend for yourself kind of thing that's happening, which I think is not the picture America has of itself, or maybe they do now.

[Scott Galloway]

Carrie Lake is a physical embodiment of AI right now. And that is. She put herself out of business. I love that she said on a campaign trail as if it was a future, not a bug, that I'm going to be the media's worst nightmare. Well, she. Okay, she got herself fired. She's right. She's the worst thing that happened to media, including the Voice of America. And now she's out of work. It's just.

[Kara Swisher]

And she wanted to bring all her skills as a newscast, she was on a local news station. Carrie, sorry, I don't find you to be the top level media thinker of our generation.

[Scott Galloway]

You know who's playing the long game right now. So it's the Gulf Al Jazeera or funding quote unquote, Middle Eastern studies department. Slowly but surely across universities across America.

[Kara Swisher]

You should do America. You should do that. All they're getting rid of all these democracy organizations. You know, there's a million democracy organizations.

[Scott Galloway]

Do you think these, what a lot of people believe, including myself, these anti Semitic protests on campus just happened overnight? No. They took a lot of thoughtful long term investing. Do you think that empathy towards whatever you want, you know, different viewpoints out of the Gulf just happened overnight? Al Jazeera. Do you think that when my son on the way to sushi asks me, says, dad, when did we take their land away? Do you think that opened overnight? No. The Chinese are playing. The Chinese in the Gulf are playing the long game. And we used to think about this. We used to think about, okay, how can soft power slowly but surely get people to our viewpoint such that every decision, every action, every economic, every military. We have 700 military bases in like 70 or 80 countries. Do you realize how many decisions and a view of our country and most of these people making these decisions have never been to America.

[Kara Swisher]

Nope.

[Scott Galloway]

So your, your brand, your people's perception of you. I'm just not inclined to do business with a company from Afghanistan. I've never been there. I don't know them any Afghanis. It is an unfair snap decision, but it's based on the impression I have the perceptions of their country.

[Kara Swisher]

This is such a marketing opportunity missed.

[Scott Galloway]

If somebody comes from New Zealand, I'm like, I like them, I'd like to hire them.

[Kara Swisher]

Why do I like the New Zealand lamb?

[Scott Galloway]

If they start rounding up Jews, I'm shoving bitcoin up my ass and I'm heading to New Zealand. New Zealand. And I'm going to spend more money there. All of these brand perceptions are. So they are more important than the actual, in many ways, the actual activities, 100%. And we are pulling back on all of our brand building activities and our.

[Kara Swisher]

Polling is going to go down. Carrie Lake. But mostly because of you anyway. President Trump also visited the Justice Department speaking of ruining something that had a very good reputation to give an hour long speech focused mostly on criticizing those who investigated him. What a tiny minded person is. Presidents do not typically speak at the Justice Department for good reason. Some of the things Trump said he Proclaimed himself the chief law enforcement officer in our country, which usually is the Attorney General. He also suggested it's illegal for networks to cover him in what he sees as an overly negative light. He said the classified documents case against him was bullshit. When the speech ended, YMCA played and he did his signature dance on stage. Oh, my God, it's there. How are we losing to this person? This is marketing. Give me a marketing thing here. Because obviously this is all such nonsense. He shouldn't have been there. This is a line we should never cross. And he does it constantly, back and forth and again. In an ideal world, what should Democrats be doing in response to this?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, look, there is such a void here of Democratic leadership for someone just to stand up and say, this is bullshit. More importantly, and I know this is going to drive you crazy, I have literally, I'm about to be indoctrinated into the woke. I'm about to become an apostle, a cardinal. They are burning white smoke in the ballots because I am now doing a live podcast with my other side piece. Basically, she's you, but younger, which is what I like to do. What I'll do with my third and fourth wife. I am speaking at the 92nd Street Y and all I can think about. All I can think about is when they introduce me standing up and screaming out, young men, there's no need to feel down. I said, young man.

[Kara Swisher]

You'Re going there with Tarlov. You're doing a Tarlov event.

[Scott Galloway]

Me and Jessica Tarlov were invited.

[Kara Swisher]

I literally have to pull fucking teeth. We have been offered 10 of these and you've turned them all down. You know that like at Aspen.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, but I'm trying to impress the new wife.

[Kara Swisher]

Honestly, literally, we're not doing France because you won't do it. We're not doing.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, my God, we're not doing France. When did we get invited to France?

[Kara Swisher]

We were invited. We got invited to France. You're busy doing something else and expensive.

[Scott Galloway]

To Le Web or something like that.

[Kara Swisher]

Something, whatever. Anytime I try to get one of these going, which people are desperate for, you say no and you say yes to her. I just.

[Scott Galloway]

Unless there's hot people or a ton of Benjamins for daddy and it's for the 92nd Street.

[Kara Swisher]

Why? It's not like anything really big. No, not the France one would have been fun. We would have enjoyed ourselves. But no, the one in Aspen you won't do. I'm just saying. Just saying, just saying.

[Scott Galloway]

No, I gotta pretend to be young and hip with the new wife.

[Kara Swisher]

I cannot get you to take me out to dinner, Scott. God.

[Scott Galloway]

There you go.

[Kara Swisher]

Anyway, that will be very nice for you to. I'm going to move on now. I'm going to move on the Democrats. You have a huge wide hole you could drive a truck through. And you are not driving it. You're driving it into a wall. Chuck Schumer. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. We come back. Southwest Airlines is no longer offering free bags. Let's be real. Owning a second home is a dream. But who's got the time for the maintenance, the stress, or the full price tag of your dream vacation home? That's where Pacaso comes in. Pacaso makes luxury second home ownership easy. You co own a stunning vacation home with a small group of vetted buyers, and Pacaso takes care of everything. That means no upkeep, no hassles, just the best parts of ownership. Juan da Ski chalet in Aspen, a beachfront villa in Cabo, or a vineyard retreat in Napa, Pacaso has incredible homes in the top vacation destinations in the US and abroad. So if you've been waiting for the right time to own a second home, this is it. Go to pacaso.com served to explore listings and see how easy it is to own your dream home. That's P A C-A-S-O.com served.

[Scott Galloway]

Daredevil is born again on Disney Plus. My name is Matthew Murdoch. I'm a lawyer. Exactly what kind of a lawyer are you?

[Kara Swisher]

A really good one.

[Scott Galloway]

Critics everywhere agree it's the best Marvel television series. Gritty, intense and elevated, it's Daredevil at his best. If you step out of line, I will be there. Marvel Television's Daredevil born again, now streaming only on Disney. Hi, this is Jevon, your blinds.com design consultant.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, wow, a real person.

[Scott Galloway]

Yep. I'm here to help with everything from selecting the perfect window treatments to.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, I've got a complicated project.

[Scott Galloway]

No problem. I can even help schedule a professional measuring install. We can also send you samples fast and free.

[Kara Swisher]

Hmm.

[Scott Galloway]

I just might have to do more.

[Kara Swisher]

Whatever you need. So the first room we're looking at is for shopblinds.com now and save up to 45%. Site wide rules and restrictions may apply. Scott, we're back. Southwest Airlines will soon end its policy of allowing free checked bags. Bags fly free has long been what Southwest is known for. Along with having no assigned seating, which the airline will also eliminate this year, frequent flyers and credit card holders still be allowed one free Bag. But the move has been met with with criticism Online activist and Metro Elliott management has been increasing pressure on the airline to raise profits. Obviously it's expensive to do this. Meanwhile, Spirit Airlines is fresh out of bankruptcy and the CEO said it's ready to take on competitors. We'll take advantage of the time it takes Southwest to find its new footing with the new rules. Brand assessment. This is what Southwest was actually a good version of a cheap airline, right?

[Scott Galloway]

Look, until about 10 years ago, Southwest Airlines had a greater market capitalization than the rest of the US industry combined. And while and what Southwest was able to do was build an amazing brand sort of around freedom. And that was we don't charge you owners cancellation fees. It's very flexible. You can sort of get up and go. Even being located in the Southwest, we were all about low cost. They always had 737s to try and create operational efficiency. They implemented a great culture that was sort of fun and quirky. And the idea was if things aren't going well for you, you want to take a vacation or quite frankly you want to peace out and move to Vegas. Vegas. Southwest is about freedom. It had this amazing brand and when you look at an industry where it is near impossible to establish differentiation, think about it. They're all flying to the same place, they're all flying the same goddamn equipment. They're all hiring effectively the same people. How do you maintain any sort of differentiation that creates an industry that is non commoditized and results in shareholder value? And Southwest was able to do that. And one of the key components of their brand was, was we don't rip you off or nickel and dime you by charging you for bags. And I see this, by the way, I think Elliot are some of the smartest people in investment disclosure. I've worked with them, I like them. They've been very generous with me. I think this is the wrong move. I think this is straight trading off short term profits and financial engineering to make a quick buck and then basically lose one of the few, one of the few precious scarce forms of differentiation in an industry that has been totally commoditized. And so then the question is, if you take away these few things that differentiate Southwest, what is their differentiation exactly? It just becomes a search on Expedia for who is the lowest price. Who do I go to first? So I see this as a pure example of short term juicing of profits. The stock will probably go up, it will substantially increase their ebitda. Elliott will sell their stake and Southwest further melds into this giant amorphous bubble of all airlines with no differentiation. This, again is another lesson. Branding is like working out the next day. It hurts, it sucks. It requires discipline. But if you're disciplined about it and willing to make the consistent investments in working out, everything gets a little bit easier. You get a little bit stronger, it's easier to go up the stairs. People want to hang out with you. You're less likely to have bouts of depression. Brand building, and this is brand building. The free battle is working out every day. And what they've decided to do is like, I'm done. I want the profits. I think this is a bad move. I think this is trading off brand equity for a short term hit in ebitda.

[Kara Swisher]

Yep. I would agree with you. I think you're correct on all these things. I just, this is. I. I don't know why I would take. I used to take Southwest a lot because of these things. Like, it was always cheaper. It was always more flexible. Now I'm like, well, if I have to pay, I might as well, like have the things I like and then collect, you know, I don't know if you know this, Scott. I'm a global services on United. I am.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't even know what that means.

[Kara Swisher]

The top tier, they have a secret.

[Scott Galloway]

Room that's a sign that your relationships are struggling and your life sucks.

[Kara Swisher]

I know, but I'm still very happy. I'm very happy. I have to say. I like the separate entrances anyway.

[Scott Galloway]

They have separate entrances?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, they do. Separate little rooms. They give you a little food. You walk in, you go through security. There's a separate security entrance, too. It's not even the special TSA Whatever. Clear line. It's an even better line. It's really nice. I have to say, I just can't.

[Scott Galloway]

Wait till I'm single again and I dress up for Halloween. I'm going to dress up as Southwest Airlines and fuck a bunch of people.

[Kara Swisher]

Anyway. I don't fly Southwest anymore. And I used to fly it a lot. And it was. And the bag was an attraction. It was, it was, it was different. It was like the cheap airline that was decent, if that makes the sense. Like if I had all the kids at once. And it was just ridiculously. It was always the cheap airline that you always had a good experience on, if that makes sense, that you always, always like it was. You felt. It didn't make you feel like spirit, which always made you feel like they're going to stick you in a box and shove you in or Russian Air or something like that. And you're right, it's a short term solution to it.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, the bottom line is the airline industry is a terrible industry because for investors, because about 30 years ago the Gulf, who are very smart and have a tremendous amount of capital, said we need a coming out party. And instead of having the Olympics, they built an overfunded. The world's best airlines in the world because they did the math and they said people's brand impression of you is based on first and foremost the airline that brought you there and back and to the airports. And so Singapore and then UAE basically said the best investment we could make as a halo for our entire nation would be to build these extraordinary airlines. And essentially Singapore and then Emirates Airlines and the Qatar built by far the best airlines in the world. And when you buy a ticket on Emirates Airlines, if you're spending a thousand bucks, you're getting $1,400 in service. And the American Airlines and every other long haul airline in the world just can't compete. They can't afford to compete with a company with an airline that is offering.

[Kara Swisher]

Did you see the ads for Penelope Cruz on the Emirates, the premium economy seat that looks like a, like a beautiful seat. It's this, these ads that are on. And she looks at.

[Scott Galloway]

You had me at Penelope Cruz, she goes, premium economy.

[Kara Swisher]

And it's like such a good ad. Like, let me just say I was like that. First of all I went, Penelope Cruz. And secondly, I went, that's a fucking nice seat there. In premium economy, I would fly on that. That's the two things worked. Penelope Cruz and the seat. Go ahead. Sorry.

[Scott Galloway]

The airlines, the domestic carriers across the economies that demand that the airlines not be subsidized by the government, which you can argue for, for just can't compete with Singapore, Emirates and Qatar Airlines domestically. I think I want to say of the big three, Delta does the best job. By far the best. The best operator in the domestic market is JetBlue. Mint seats two, aisles two and four, where you get your own pod. Obviously fly a lot, but everything else is a distant second to the Gulf Airlines and quite frankly to JetBlue. Domestically. It is a shitty airline. Consumers have said that they will endure absolute atrocious service just to get from point A to point B less expensively. That industry is an example of just, I think just this last year, airlines, since kind of the inception of commercial aviation are finally starting in aggregate to turn a profit. It is, as Warren Buffett, your hero, said, if we could, if we had a time machine, we would go back and murder the Wright brothers. It has been a terrible place to invest. I've been flying. I've been molesting the earth for the last 30 years. I can break down almost every airline, good and bad. Worst airline in Europe, klm. By the way, there's just such a range of good to bad. By the way, the best new first class is Lufthansa's First Class and also the apartment, the apartment from Singapore Airlines. But anyways, I think a lot, a lot about flying.

[Kara Swisher]

I love, I love. I do like flying, though.

[Scott Galloway]

Just a quick shout out.

[Kara Swisher]

Sure.

[Scott Galloway]

To all the single ladies out there. I am the Southwest Airlines of men. Baggage is free. My baggage is free.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, no.

[Scott Galloway]

A lot of baggage.

[Kara Swisher]

This is literally like four bad jokes. What is happening?

[Scott Galloway]

Daddy's bringing erectile dysfunction. Daddy is bringing self hate. Daddy is bringing a little bit of alcohol abuse.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay. All right. One more quick break and we'll be back for wins and fails. Obviously fails are four penis jokes in a row. This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. It's tax season and we're all a bit tired of knowing, but here's one you need to hear. $16.5 billion. That's how much the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Now here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed. Save up to 40% your first [e-mail]. podcast terms apply. So I'll tell you. Like, I'll tell you a story this.

[Scott Galloway]

Week on Unexplainable, a story about researchers.

[Kara Swisher]

Building and the system says, well, this is a great view. This is awesome. And I was like, oh, crap.

[Scott Galloway]

Researchers who watch their experiments go horribly wrong. Wait a second.

[Kara Swisher]

Like, what's even going on here?

[Scott Galloway]

Only to realize the answer has been staring at them in the mirror.

[Kara Swisher]

Humans are just suckers for anything that looks human.

[Scott Galloway]

Good Robot, a four part series on the stories we tell about AI from Julia Longoria and Unexplainable. And if you want more new episodes of the show, follow Unexplainable wherever you listen. Hey, this is Peter Kafka, the host of Channels, a show about what happens when tech smashes into media. And this week, I'm talking about Twitch. Not the thing my eye does when I don't get enough sleep, but the pioneering live streaming service that Amazon bought for a billion dollars back in 2014. Twitch is still a big deal in live streaming, but so are Lots of other places. So how is Twitch CEO Dan Clancy going to deal with that competition? And why exactly do I want to watch people talk live on the Internet anyway? How do you ask Dan Clancy all about that and more on this week's channels from the Vox Media podcast network.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. I shall go first. I shall go first. Let me say a win. I know you were with him this weekend, but severance is so fucking good. Ben Stiller.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, it's really good.

[Kara Swisher]

I love you, Ben Stiller. Let me just say, both Amanda and I, it's so incredibly dense, but also utterly fascinating. And you think about it all week. It is one of those shows. And I gotta say, I was like, I like a lot. I love the Sopranos. I like the Bear. This one has me thinking and thinking and thinking about all kinds of issues around identity, everything else. But it's also really gripping at the same time and entertaining. People love it, and let me just say, I don't. And I always can say, oh, that's gonna happen next. When I watch White Lotus, as much as I like it, I get. I know exactly what's gonna happen. Essentially. I don't know what's gonna happen in this fucking. They're so inventive. I have to say, Patricia Arquette, they're all good on this show. There's not a person that's not good. The guy who plays Mr. Milchek, he's amazing. But I love this show. And Ben, kudos. And it's like doing incredibly well for Apple. It's like one of the audience is growing week to week, and it's not one of those small audiences that is like, everyone's talking about. It's a big audience for Apple. It's making a ton of money. Kudos, Kudos, kudos. These are people at the top of their game. I have to say. I think about it all the time. So that is my win, my fail. Well, obviously Chuck Schumer, because by the way, his book tour events were postponed after the backlash. He has a new book out called Antisemitism in a warning that's been postponed for security reasons, apparently. But that's not my loss.

[Scott Galloway]

I heard the original title, where are my Testicles? That they changed.

[Kara Swisher]

Where are my testicles? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I would say this ridiculous. Trump is always doing a ridiculous thing and a distracting thing. But his statement this weekend about Biden's pardons are void and vague because of the auto pen. There's no power to undo A pardon in the Constitution or case law if he wants to do all his stupid parts. I'm not a fan of the pardon system by presidents in any way whatsoever. I think they should get three and that's it. And they can't get paid for it. But just like, stop with this fucking ridiculousness. You can't. And the way he does it, he goes, hereby declared in capital letters, void vacant and no further force and effect because they were done by the auto pen. Fuck you. Honestly, this was, even for him was a ridiculous, stupid thing to do. And he has a list of stupid things. So look, if we're going to keep these dumb pardons, just stop acting like this is what occupies your brain. Good. Maybe. I suppose so. I was really irritated by that for some reason. Anyway, that's my positive and negative severance. Fantastic. Negative trump as usual. Distraction, distraction, distraction. And it's working.

[Scott Galloway]

Unfortunately, we share the same fail. There's always a good excuse for failure. And the Democratic Party has a total lack of leadership. I would like to see who do.

[Kara Swisher]

You like in the Democrats? Can I ask you to pick someone? Chris Murphy, as being kind of spicy.

[Scott Galloway]

Aoc, I think he's been fantastic. I think, you know, I wish. I'm a huge fan of obviously Senators Benedict Warner, I think. Aoc, I appreciate. I think Representative Crockett. Is that Crockett.

[Kara Swisher]

Jasmine Crockett.

[Scott Galloway]

I mean, at least they're getting out there and they're saying shit. My favorites are. I really like Representative Torres. I just love that he comes out with moderate policies and the far left just does not how to deal with the intersectionality of a black Latino, gay man saying these moderate things. I just love that he's driving everyone crazy. Governor West Moore, who in a State of the Union address said his administration was going to focus on the struggles of young men. I thought that was a very brave thing to do in a blue state.

[Kara Swisher]

He's the one the Republicans are nervous about, I can tell you.

[Scott Galloway]

So what I would say is anyone who's willing to come out right now and say the Democratic Party lacks leadership and take an aggressive stand against this slide into autocracy. And I will give money to right now for your campaign. I just. Just. We are desperate for someone to go a little bit gangster and have a strong voice here. I think this is. We are literally the party of eunuchs right now.

[Kara Swisher]

Eunuchs. It's a word you don't use very often. I like that word.

[Scott Galloway]

That's my favorite character in Game of Thrones is the Eunuch. Is that my favorite character? That's a tough one. I like the Prince of Dorne, A bisexual who drinks a lot and kills people. That's pretty. That guy's so fucking. By the way, just so you know, people kept asking me why I was dancing around on stage with my shirt off at south by Southwest.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And what they don't realize is that we had to bargain for our south by Southwest spot. And they said, okay, but if we come to you and ask you for a favor, you have to accept. And I said, yes. And before us, I don't know if you know this, this is a true story, Was the last of us cast, and Pedro Pascal went on stage, and all the women were literally going fucking crazy. And they said, okay, Scott, we need you to go out there, cool down the women.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay, that's good.

[Scott Galloway]

That's good.

[Kara Swisher]

I love him. I have.

[Scott Galloway]

I have a hot. Who doesn't love that guy? Who doesn't love that guy? Anyways, where the fuck were we?

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, you're winning. Fail. Oh, your fail. Fail. Is the Democrats like, we.

[Scott Galloway]

We have got to find our footing here. There is a.

[Kara Swisher]

The.

[Scott Galloway]

The bad news is our leadership brightens up a room by leaving it. They are living. Literally. They're just so ineffective. They've just acquiesced. They've basically given now the Republicans carte blanche to do whatever they want. And it's just so incredibly discouraging. The good news is we have a fantastic bench. And what I would say to this bench is, command the space you occupy. Get out there. Be fearless. Push back on this. What's going on here? There's an enormous voice void for the new generation of Democratic leadership to step into. So my fail is, Senator Schumer, I think it is time for you to move on. I think you are just not up to the job, quite frankly. My win is, I think Europe is a union again. It's a $19 trillion economy. They are figuring out that with the resolve and the capital, the latter of which they have in spades, the former of which we have to decide in 1939 or 1940. My mother was sleeping and her family were sleeping in tube stations and passing out gas masks in the shape of Disney characters. The real fulcrum here is that, to be fair, Russia has shown tremendous resolve. Russia is willing to send 600 young men to their death by, quite frankly, offering money to these families and small villages in Russia. But you got to give it. I mean, you got to acknowledge the core competence of Russia is resolve. And the willingness to sacrifice. The EU nations are a 20 trillion or $19 trillion economy. Russia is an economy that's 2 trillion, that's smaller than Canada. They have the capital, they have better weapons, they have better ip. Their AI and drone technology will be far superior. The question is, do they have the resolve? If they do, then let Trump bluster about pretending he gets to decide the terms of this surrender. He doesn' If Europe wants to decide to come up and fill the void of leadership and capital and resolve that the US has abdicated from, they can absolutely, as they did in 1939, push back against a murderous autocrat. And I think we're beginning to see signs of it. I think these two meetings, one in England, one in Brussels, are showing that Starmer, Holtz and Macron are feeling that void. So I'm hopeful my win is that the European Union is going to begin to push back and fill the void of American leadership. I also believe, and I've said this before, it could inspire a dramatic upward spiral in the economy through the technology spillover and the stimulus of increased military spending and greater coordination and cutting the red tape. And we're already seeing that in the stock market.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. Can I put something out there? So they interviewed Politico Chris Lecavita, who was one of the campaign managers of Donald Trump, and he was saying how stupid Europeans are. I'd love you to answer this. He goes, we basically subsidized Europe for the last 50 years, 60 years of post World War II. And of course, we did the rebuilding. We've done all those things. We're able to create these social paradises where the government paid for everything they didn't have to pay for was their national defense. At some point in time, the gravy trains got to end. Well, the gravy train's ending now. The Cold War's over. The balance of power shifts. All these things have changed. Politicians in Europe don't want to change. They sure don't want to change at the pace that's being forced on them to change, how they go about spending. So it's going to create a new level of angst. And then he said, at the same time, they're arrogant as hell. They've spent time in Europe in the last couple years. They still don't get it. They don't understand there's a new sheriff in town, and he's a very, very set ways and pins about America. First means we're first, you're second. I think this guy's a fucking idiot. Like, he doesn't see what's actually. We're actually gonna make them stronger by this. Correct. That's what you argue.

[Scott Galloway]

Of course. I spent too much time in these private members clubs in New York and I went to Casa Cipriani and I went with some friends and we had some drinks and some carpaccio with lovely little dinner like Nice in the corner. And the bill was 740 bucks. And I know the general manager and I came over and I said, who is here? It's all young people. And I said, who are these young kids who can afford to spend 700 bucks on drinks and a light dinner? And he said, no one here is paying and that is the young women here. Someone else is paying for them. If you think that's sex is fine, it's also true. And the men, the young young men, because it's their parents credit card, they're all trust fund kids. And this is an interesting thing they said they're trust fund kids from New Jersey. I know a lot of trust fund kids. And to a certain extent Europe has been a little bit of the negative externalities of being a trust fund kid. And that is it is dependent upon the military and to a lesser extent the economic umbrella of the US and quite frankly, they have become indulgent and spoiled. And that is a harsh statement and it is true. And what Europe realizes now is that they're smart, they can work hard, they have incredible skills, IP artisanship. They literally are the, her home of the Renaissance. They are the home of great philosophers. If they get their shit together, they cut the regulation and they show some of the resolve, some of the grit and some of the innovation that America and China has filled the void. If you look at the rise of China, it hasn't come at the expense of the us. The US still has the same GDP growth. The US still has the same, same number of big companies of unicorns. Who it's come at the expense of is Europe. And I think a lot of this is that Europe needs to finally say, okay, we're going to become a union. I believe this in some ways might be backsit. It might take England back into the European Union and they need to coordinate, lower the bureaucracy, lower the lack of what I would say the administrative state. They need to really increase their substantial spending and they need to say, if need be, we're going to put boots on the ground and yeah, fine, Trump, wave your arms, be an ass clown, fine. We're the ones that are gonna decide we're going to back Ukraine, we have seen what happens when you let a murderous autocrat run unchecked. We're not down for this anymore. We'd love your help. If it's there, great. If it's not, we're gonna count on it. Keep in mind that the Europeans substantially pushed back, pushed back viciously and victoriously on a murderous autocrat for two years before the Americans weighed into the war in 1930. You know, there were two long years of the greatest, one of the greatest industrial war machines ever. The Third Reich was invading a Europe that had stopped spending and stopped preparing and stopped coordinating. That's where we are now. Europe can absolutely push back on Russia.

[Kara Swisher]

Crystal. Savita, you're an idiot. You're the arrogant prick. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever is on your mind. Go to nymag.com pivot to submit a question for the show, or call 855-51-PIVOT. We're in the Kara and Scott universe. I talked to Ezra Klein this week with on with Kara Swisher. Let's listen to a clip.

[Scott Galloway]

There is an Orwellian ness to this, but efficiency needs a goal, right? I mean, if you want a government that can be more efficiently taken over by Elon Musk's companies and yeah, Doge is doing great. If you want a government that can more efficiently do things in service of the public and execute big public projects and like, no, it's not doing great. Goals here really matter. And. And what they're doing is trying to build something that is more open to high levels of crony capitalism. Right. It's a sort of an oligarchic takeover. I just want to fight that.

[Kara Swisher]

I thought it was good. His book is really interesting. It's about the government, the Democrats getting a set of balls, essentially. And I think it's an interesting book. I know you've interviewed him, too. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. And be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel, which is doing very well. We're getting.

[Scott Galloway]

Do you think Ezra Klein has spoken of the 92nd one?

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, many times. He's very popular. He's like the media sexy guy now. And you have to really compete. You need to compete. Okay. Anyway, we'll be back on Friday. By the way, Scott, do not sing YMCA and read us out.

[Scott Galloway]

Today's show was produced by Lara Amon, Taylor Griffin, Corinne Ruff and Kate Gallagher. Who are all these new people and who's paying for them? Ernie Intertodd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Amia Silverio and Dan Shulan. The Shot Kuros, Vox Media's Executive Executive Producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the [e-mail] pod we'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech in business. Who's going to decide not to surrender to a murderous autocrat? Two words first e Second. Um.