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Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
This show comes from ARM. There's only one company at the heart of all the technology that makes podcasts like this one possible. It's the same company that powered the smartphone revolution and is helping define the AI revolution. The company is called arm. ARM designs compute platforms for the biggest companies in the world so they can create silicon and solutions to power global technology. ARM became a NASDAQ 100 company in less than a year of its IPO and is proudly NASDAQ listed. AI enabled. ARM CPUs are able to provide the compute platform for the global AI revolution in the years to come. Visit arm.com discover to learn more.
Scott Galloway
Support for Pivot comes from Solidigm. Creating highly advanced AI is complicated, especially if you don't have the right storage. A critical but often overlooked catalyst for AI infrastructures, solidigm is storage optimized for the AI era. Offering bigger, faster and more energy efficient solid state storage, solidigm delivers the capability to meet capacity, performance and energy demands across your AI data workloads. AI requires a different approach to storage. Solidigm is ready for everything the AI era demands. Learn more at storageforai.com I brought politics. Sex. Wicked. I am literally the Dave Chappelle of the cultural zeitgeist.
Christy Kaler
Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media podcast network. I'm Kara Swisher. The end of my cold.
Scott Galloway
And I'm Scott Galloway.
Christy Kaler
Yeah. How do I sound? Scott?
Scott Galloway
You sound better.
Christy Kaler
Better. Although it was an exhausting weekend. I had Saul's birthday, so we had a million three year olds running around, so I had plenty of time to rest.
Scott Galloway
That's a lot. That's a lot.
Christy Kaler
I know.
Scott Galloway
It was.
Christy Kaler
It was a lot.
Scott Galloway
Where are you now, son? Yostoy In Mexico, In Cabo San Lucas at the Baja Summit. Yeah. Where I'm meeting people who will say things like yeah, after selling my company and I decided to take a year and really focus on my sleep I'm not exaggerating.
Christy Kaler
Wait, what is a Baja summit? What in the world?
Scott Galloway
That's a good question. It's a community, you know. God, everything's a community now. But these young, interesting people got together and bought a mountain somewhere and then started inviting people. The way I would describe it is. Is learning, man. And that is during the day it's a bunch of TED Talks and at night everybody does X and listens to DJs. And, you know, you meet people in vertical farming who are trying to explain why they're poly or not poly.
Christy Kaler
Polycule.
Scott Galloway
A lot of guys in their 50s who either. My sense is they're mostly rich kids who have pretend jobs who wear beads and are like, I don't know, one twist of psychotic fate away from being Jim Jones. It feels very culty, but it's also very interesting and they get good speakers and it's also. It's a lot of fun. Everybody's really friendly. They've done a. It's an interesting thing. It's quite unique. I don't know how.
Christy Kaler
Wait, how did you get invited to this young person's.
Scott Galloway
Young Person's Academy festival? I don't know if you've heard, but I speak quite a bit and they invited me at Summit at Sea two years ago and I did that and I really.
Christy Kaler
Oh, it's these people.
Scott Galloway
I really enjoyed it. And they said, do you want to do the Cabo thing? And I have speaking gigs out on the west coast, so. And rather than giving me speaking few, which they don't do, they let me bring a bunch of people. So I brought a bunch of my friends who, like me, are in their arrested adolescents, midlife crisis. And so we're all partying down here. It's a ton of fun. I'm really enjoying myself.
Christy Kaler
So, man, children, in other words, you're not listening to any of the speeches, are you?
Scott Galloway
I don't go to other people's content. Let's be clear. I'm not interested in what anyone else has to say.
Christy Kaler
Is there anything you learn from it?
Scott Galloway
I had a really illuminating conversation. I had like a two hour lunch, Arnold Palmer sojourn meetup with Jessica Yellen. And she always kind of helps me understand what's going in the world in the media. And I find her very thoughtful and very interesting.
Christy Kaler
Oh, that's good.
Scott Galloway
I listened to, you know, Peter Diamandis talk about, you know, that we're going to be growing ears in our refrigerators and all that other crazy shit that's not going to happen.
Christy Kaler
Oh, Jesus.
Scott Galloway
And what else? The woman who runs Only Fans spoke. That was sort of interesting. Creator economy, if you will.
Christy Kaler
That has nothing to do with life.
Scott Galloway
Extension, but okay, sure ain't a lot of biohacking. It's. I don't. I'm pretty sure you would hate it.
Christy Kaler
I would hate it.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, you would hate it. But it's. Yeah, I think it's fun and I'm very.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, I'm open minded these days. You kind of have to be, don't you? We've got a lot to get today, including how Trump's Cabinet picks are moving markets. Plus, our friend at Pivot is Christy Kaler, the founder and CEO of Trashy. That's kind of your name. My name for you. And clothing recycling and rewards platform we've got. You know, there's a lot going on. You saw Joe and you over here in the real world. Joe and Mika shared on Morning Joe that they went down to Mar a Lago. Speaking of trips and sojourns, I don't think, unless they were hanging out with Elon, I'm not sure there were any psychedelics happening. But to meet Trump face to face for the first time in seven years, to, quote, restart communications, even though she. I think he called her dumb as fuck or something like that, and he was passing around information about Joe killing one of his aides. But let me have Mika try to explain what they thought was important to meet with Trump. Let's listen.
Joe Scarborough
And for those asking why we would go speak to the President Elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, why wouldn't we? Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country. We have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump's actions and words in the coarsening of public debate. But for nearly 80 million Americans, election denialism, public trials and January 6th were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote. Joe and I realize it's time to do something different. And that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him.
Christy Kaler
What do you think of this move? I mean, a lot. They're getting a lot of clapback, largely because they were like, really? At some point, some, like, calm down Joe and Mika about Donald Trump. But it's a pretty big shift for them given how loud they were. And so, you know, essentially calling him a fascist every morning on morning television.
Scott Galloway
I think they're doing exactly what they should be doing. I don't. He's the president. They command the highest rated show on MSNBC for four hours each morning. They talk a lot about politics. So to engage with the freely elected president. I'm surprised at the pushback. I think that's exactly what they should be doing maybe. And what am I missing here?
Christy Kaler
I think they were particularly vehement. It's interesting a lot of people who are like he's such a fascist, he's a dictator, are now going the opposite way. So which. Who do you believe? Did they ever believe that or. And he had. He did say some pretty salty things about him beyond belief salty including I think she called her dumb as a prick. I forget what he called her. Something about her facelift with this and that. It was pretty ugly and then. But they didn't say what happened at this meeting. If they're going to be real reporters I get it. Otherwise I'm not really clear. They didn't say what happened at the meeting. It was on background. But what's the. I don't. I don't know. It just seemed they were super vehement and now they're shifting rather quickly but I guess so.
Scott Galloway
Well the far right when people who are the fans in the media they get criticism. They. In my opinion they were. I like Joe and Mika because I think it's great tv. I think they just do a fantastic job to. I think they've. They've haven't pulled any punches. They call it as they see it and I quite. I think it reflects what. Well both on the president and on them. He's the president. If they're going to have a four hour show every morning and talk about politics to have a direct dialogue with him I think is important. They're putting their egos aside. He said some insulting things. Fine, he's the president. President. We'll go down there and talk to him. And also I think it reflects well on him to a certain extent that he's engaging with people that in the media who've been critical of him. So I don't. I see this as a feature, not a bug. I don't understand why people were seem so triggered by it.
Christy Kaler
I just think when someone's. It's interesting because I know you talked to Charlamagne tha God. But he was talking about this. He called Donald Trump fascist and then he was sort of perplexed why Biden would be so friendly given he went on and on about. I think it was about credibility and believability. If you really think this what are you doing? I think it's a good thing to discuss. They felt like a branch of the Democratic Party to me. That's what they felt like when they were going on and on. I don't think they're journalists at all. I think they're discussioners or commentators here. Commentators. But I mean, then actually, I mean, she spent a lot of time with people who had been dying of abortions because of Roe. I don't know, it just. They were. I felt like they were a branch of the Democratic Party, so that's just me. I guess I heard them differently than you might have.
Mika Brzezinski
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
But I think if the president's people called Kara Swisher and said, we'd like you to come down and talk to.
Christy Kaler
The President, I think they called him.
Scott Galloway
But go ahead, or whatever it might be. I think you do a service to the country and to people. To go down, be Kara Swisher or be Joe and Mika. Ask hard questions and try and engage in a. We need more. If I don't want to call it forgiveness or grace or generosity, but we need more reasons to interact with one another as opposed to just writing each other off.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, that's true. It's just these two, they were super in Trump's tank and then they were super anti. And now they're like, I want to know what happened at the fucking meeting. That's all. I don't believe why they're keeping it from us. And so, I don't know. It feels a little bit like a Comcast wants to play nice because he's threatened to take away the full of broadcast licenses of NBC and cbs. I believe it feels a little. That's why I think people are doing that is he's made all kinds of. I have to say, I do think Charlamagne has it right. It's like, let's hope he's not a fascist and if he is, call it out. But what he said was fascist. The things he's been saying are. And so. I don't know. I don't know. It's just weird.
Scott Galloway
It's just.
Christy Kaler
It's. You know. Anyway, they have a very liberal following and have been particularly vehement, so the shift was rather dramatic.
Scott Galloway
Fair enough.
Christy Kaler
Okay, this is interesting. This is. I love this. See, I like humor in dealing with these people. The onions acquisition of Alex Jones Infowars has been paused while a federal bankruptcy judge reviews the auction process. The parody says site was named as the winner of the bankruptcy auction last week, but lawyers for Jones complained how the Auction was handled. A group of Sandy Hook families who filed the defamation lawsuit against Joan agreed to accept smaller payouts to increase the value of Onion's bid. A hearing to review the auction process will be held this week. The CEO of the Onion parent company has said the sale is still underway as part of the standard process. I love this. I thought this was very perfect. It's a great way to use satire to buy up Alex Jones stuff. I don't know. I kind of like this one.
Scott Galloway
I mean, this was the first time I thought, if there is a God, he has a sense of humor. Yeah, exactly. I love this. And I actually thought about. I wish I'd known or been more on top of this. I'm really curious what it went for, because it gets a lot of traffic, I think to turn it into a nonprofit talking about gun control or for a podcast that's on the left to take it and just absorb the traffic, supposedly. Also with the purchase, you get a lot of supplements. I guess that's how they made their money. Seriously, there. You get supplements. Onion was saying, we don't know what to do with it. I don't know if the. It sounds to me like the auction's probably going to go through. The fact that it was filed by Jones's people just seems like, I don't know, grievance or whatever it is.
Christy Kaler
Yeah. I just love it. This is how you, you know, this is how you show. I think the Onion has gotten really good since Ben took over. I think it's really fun. I think he's having a lot of fun with it. I think it's humor. You know, the. Right. Spent a lot of time, did a lot humor stuff, and it might as well be funny. Right. And biting and cutting in a really clever and witty way. I think it's a really nice way to like, especially this son of a bitch. You know, he deserves all the embarrassment and shit, but just being angry at him is not enough. To mock him, I think, is always the best way. I love mockery. I love mockery. Scott.
Scott Galloway
Well, there's. It's like, what can you do about it? This is a vile person who has. Who has brought more despair to people who are already grieving tremendously. I mean, this really is a vile human being.
Christy Kaler
And the question is, you know, I. I think you should die, but go ahead.
Scott Galloway
Well, then. And this is something I've struggled with my entire life. The difference between being right and being effective. And I like to. Virtue signal and cry into TikTok or scream on Twitter. About Alex Jones. You know what's more effective? Making a shit ton of money and then go buying his assets out of bankruptcy. Yeah, that's more effective.
Christy Kaler
Exactly.
Scott Galloway
If you really.
Christy Kaler
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
If you really want to push back on this stuff, then don't go on Twitter. Send some money to Planned Parenthood. Don't cry into TikTok. Identify some candidates who you think you could get behind and start bringing some presents to.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, like, get you done.
Scott Galloway
You know, to a certain extent, the Peter Thiels and the Bill Gates of the world, they get the fucking assignment. They're not on social media screaming, although lately they are.
Christy Kaler
Did you hear? They're all victims. They're the resistance.
Scott Galloway
No, they're the counter elite.
Christy Kaler
Is the term Elite.
Scott Galloway
The counter elite. I'm worth $13 billion, but I'm the counter elite.
Christy Kaler
Counter elite. I am the resistance. They're such a rebel. They are the Death Star, the rebels.
Scott Galloway
Such a rolling stone.
Christy Kaler
Oh, my God, they're so fucking. See, that's what they're doing now. They're becoming like, the way they annoy liberals annoyed them. Right. They're counter elites. They're the resistance. They're the fighters. Give me a fucking break, you rich fox. Come here. I love. I love this. I love what the Onion's doing. It's time for us to start being mocking bros. That's what I say. I've been listening to a lot of bros because I've had to listen to Charlamagne's podcast with Andrew Schultz, who I do not think is funny. I think he's a horse's patoot.
Scott Galloway
Really?
Mika Brzezinski
I think he's great.
Scott Galloway
He had the. I think.
Christy Kaler
I think he. I don't know. He's loud.
Scott Galloway
I would think he would like it.
Christy Kaler
I see the appeal. Let me just say. I see the appeal. I do. But I think we can do better. Anyway, here's another thing. Speaking of mockery, unfortunately, Mark Zuckerberg has given his wife another gift. Let's. Let's just listen, and we will decide if we like it or not.
Scott Galloway
From the windows to the walls Till sweat drops down my balls Till all these bitches crawl oh, skeetskeet motherfucker oh, skeetsk God damn oh, skeetsk motherfucker oh.
Christy Kaler
Skeetsk goddamn oh, my. It was an acoustic cover of Get Low by Mark Zuckerberg and T Pain, which Zuckerberg recorded as an anniversary gift to. Part of me loves it. The other part is, can't you just get her, like, I don't know. On Instagram? He said the song was playing when he first met his wife at a college party. I kind of like it. And yet it hurts my ears. How do you feel?
Scott Galloway
I love it. I think it should be private. I don't. I don't.
Christy Kaler
He loves to perform with that statue. Remember the statue of her in the backyard?
Scott Galloway
But when you do that, it's not a gift for her, it's a gift for you because you want people to look at you giving someone a gift. And so I love this. I think it's hilarious. I think it's great. I think it's important to. With relationships. Look, women. Women love gifts more than men. And women have a special relationship with cocaine, jewelry, and gifts. And if you're a guy and you don't recognize those things, you don't understand women. And maybe you don't get jewelry. But trust me on this, you need to buy a woman in your life that's important. Your mother, your spouse, your girlfriend, jewelry. And that's part of the assignment, is things you don't get, you don't need to get. You just need to get that they really like these things.
Christy Kaler
But you like the song. You just, like, would like. He does perform everything. He has to be like, it's.
Scott Galloway
It's fucking adorable. And it's for. If it's for him and some of their friends, and he does it at a party. But putting it out, I think it just cheapens a little bit. But let me. Let me on the whole. More power to you, brother. You got the money, you got someone, you're in a relationship, you love that person. You've done something creative and unique. I think we need more of that, not less of it.
Christy Kaler
What would you make for me?
Scott Galloway
I knew. I swear, I knew you were gonna ask that.
Christy Kaler
What would you sing for me?
Scott Galloway
I think I would do some sort of bad karaoke of rock, lobster or dancers, mess around or. Has anyone seen.
Christy Kaler
Would you be naked? Would you be naked?
Scott Galloway
No, I wouldn't want to upset you. Yeah. I've been working out a lot lately, though. In the testosterone naked, I look 59 and 7 8. So it's all coming together. And since the scrotum lift, it's gone from sad elephant to really healthy anteaters.
Christy Kaler
I feel like there needs to be a performative performance by you at me to show your love. I feel unloved.
Scott Galloway
Oh, no. Just do as I say, not as I do. Whenever I do anything nice for other people, I want everyone else to know about it.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, I mean, you know, whenever I.
Scott Galloway
Give money, I want to make sure that like they put out a press release. Yeah, I definitely have the same problem as him, but I can recognize it because I suffer from the same thing.
Christy Kaler
Mark, keep being awkward. Keep being awkward.
Scott Galloway
You be you my man.
Christy Kaler
You be you my man. That's all I gotta say.
Scott Galloway
You showed those people in high school when they wrote in your yearbook, stay cool. You aren't, but you got really fucking rich. That's even better.
Christy Kaler
You leaning into uncool. You keep doing that. And by the way, you can't sing. Okay. But that's okay. It's okay. It's the thought that counts. Anyway, let's get right to our first big story. The post election Trump bump has come to an end. With the markets closing lower last Friday and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ seeing their biggest one day losses in two weeks. The downturn is being attributed in part to President President elect Donald Trump announcing RFK Jr. As his health and Human Services secretary. Shares of major vaccine and drug makers including Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca tumbled in the wake of the news. What do you think? Shares of Eli Lindley and Novo Nordisk fell. He's against Ozempic, by the way. As processed food stocks including PepsiCo, Coke and General Mills. The markets were also reacting to Jerome Powell saying the Fed is in no hurry to make further interest rate cuts. What's your take on this and the pick in general? He says he wants to make America healthy again. They have to stop with this make America whatever again. America was never healthy. Let's start with that RMK Jr. Which I loved. Eating at McDonald's on the private plane with Trump and Elon Musk. It was. Someone likened it to making the cop take the drugs just to make sure.
Scott Galloway
He'S not a cop. Yeah, that was making the new guy do drugs to make sure he's not a cop.
Christy Kaler
Yeah. Oh, he looked such in pain. What a fucking asshole. He talks about McDonald's being poisoned and then he's sitting there with one. What a dumb ass that that guy is. Anyway, what do you think of this?
Scott Galloway
It's like when you're in Vegas and a pro asks you to show your genitals and make sure you're not a cop. I just heard about this. I wouldn't know firsthand, but I've heard that happens. Big Ed and the twins. Sure. Anyone wants to see Big Ed and the twins, that's fine.
Christy Kaler
I'm waiting for that Rock Lobster video.
Scott Galloway
There you go with that.
Christy Kaler
I want that for my birthday. It's December, is my birthday.
Scott Galloway
But go ahead, look, the market has been remarkably right and I see that as a negative four looking indicator because Moderna on word that Kennedy would be head of HHS was down 21%, Pfizer down seven, Eli Lilly. I mean this is tens of billions if not even maybe over a hundred billion in market value drawdown because this guy has a reputation, he can't fool anybody. He is crazy. Anti vax with the operative term there being crazy. It's very disappointing because what I would argue is that whenever you have the far left on the far right come together on something, it's a really bad fucking idea. Whether it's reckless spending, anti Semitism.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, you're right. He's left. He's so far left, he's right. That's.
Scott Galloway
Well that's what happens. They meet, they meet around the bed, they come together crazy. And actually the anti vaxx movement originated on the far left. You know, don't let corporations.
Christy Kaler
Oh it did?
Scott Galloway
Yeah. Don't let corporations put crazy shit into your body. And then the far right picked it up because for some reason science and experts became associated with the left. And I would argue, and I think there's real evidence here that everyone is so fucking fascinated by innovation and metal chopsticks grabbing a rocket and photo sharing apps and GPS and rightfully so, it creates a lot of economic value. But if you were going to talk about how we come together as a species and use communication and education and cooperation to accomplish something really incredible, the most positive innovation of the last couple hundred years I would put forward is vaccines. And there is nothing that has come out of our great academic institutions that's been privatized that has capitalist fuel that also government weighs in and says we can distribute these things in low income areas that have saved more lives than vaccines. Maybe is it food distribution? I don't know what it would be. Or pesticides maybe in my view vaccines kind arguably some of the best things ever. I am so pro vax. If anyone's holding edibles or vaccines, meet me in the bathroom and I'm going to show you that the only thing better than feeling high is not feeling unwell.
Christy Kaler
He tries to be cute about it and says I have questions and I don't think that's the case. I think he's done more damage. I call him best friend of measles and polio. I think Zeke Emmanuel, who's the brother of Ari and Rom, appointing RFK Jr to the HHS is a big mistake. While I'LL admit he has a few important ideas on chronic disease and processed food. I mean, yeah, everybody, we all think processed food sucks. These are overshadowed by his problematic views on vaccines that threaten to walk back. Major progress we've made. Above all, appointing people like RFK Jr. Who will bend to Trump's every whim is guaranteed to be truly dangerous. I think he's right. I think that's 100% right. We can agree with some of the things, but this guy is anti vax. I'm sorry, all you people, he's not questioning it. He's truly anti vax and try to stop pretending it's otherwise. What do you think of the GLP drugs, the impact on US economies and global economies? I mentioned drug maker Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly saw shares drop. Are people going to listen to him hear enough to do lasting damage to the industry? Kennedy has been critical of things like Ozempic in the past, calling it a drug that will, quote, gladden the wallets of big farm execs and think everyone should rely on eating better produce. I guess that's his thing, which I think everyone should eat more produce. Robert but seriously, seriously, the really upsetting.
Scott Galloway
Thing about RFK Jr. Is that in my view, he is so good on a number of issues. He talks about the unholy alliance between the food industrial complex, PepsiCo, General Foods, McDonald's that want to get you addicted. Let's go meta on this. So when our species left the savannah, there was an absence. There was a dearth of sugary, saltier, fatty foods. It was really hard to come across these things. And so when you found them, you gorged. There was an absence of safe free play because there was always threats everywhere around. There was an absence of mating opportunities. 80% of women on this planet have reproduced, only 40% of men. So when you get industrial production of all of these things, people develop addictions to food, addictions to gambling, addictions to porn. And what GLP1 has done, as far as I can tell, is it's like scaffolding on our instincts. And it says, look, even though you can find more calories than you can consume based on industrial production, almost, almost anyone can eat as much as they want. They can gorge. We're going to turn off that signal. And people on these drugs report that they're drinking less alcohol, they're biting their nails less. What's even more amazing about these things is not only are they eating less shitty food, the people on these drugs are eating more fruits and vegetables and grains. It's as if this thing is actually calibrating what's good for you and what is bad for you. And when you look at the one thing Americans share other than a Netflix subscription and Amazon prime, it's that we are 70% of us are either OG obese or overweight, and obesity is the COVID or it is the epidemic that kills more people every year than Covid ever did. But because there's so much money involved from large corporations and hospital clinics and knee replacement and kidney dialysis and statins and pharmaceutical. And McDonald's. We pretend that you're finding your truth. No, you're not. You're finding fucking diabetes. And he is very good on this issue. And then all of a sudden it's like, huh, what you wanna this bullshit that he said repeatedly that the best thing you can do when you see a woman with a newborn is go up to her and say, don't get her vaccinated. Jesus Christ, really?
Christy Kaler
Do you know her? His cousin, Carolyn Kennedy, who's US Ambassador to Australia. I didn't know that. It doesn't tend to speak up. Said a lot of negative things about him this week. There's a whole story on it. She goes, others are just getting to know him. But she said everything he says. I don't think most Americans share them. He's denied he's against vaccination, just so you know. Styling himself as a safety activist who questions corporate influence on science. His critics say he's promoted conspiratorial ideas about public health intervention, widely viewed as one of the most important advances. He's embraced a dipunk theory on vaccines can cause autism. He's questioned COVID 19 vaccinations. He's also been leaked to a measles outbreak in Samoa. And Kennedy, Carolyn Kennedy, the daughter of JFK and Jackie Onassis, obviously said her family was united in terms of our support for public health sector and infrastructure. The greatest admiration for the medical profession. And Bobby Kennedy has a different set of views. It's very unusual for her to speak out. His whole family says he's as crazy.
Scott Galloway
As can be, but I just hope he comes clean. And I'm being serious here about steroid use. I've seen him without a shirt on. He's 70. Yeah, he looks good. That guy's on HGH or some sort of. Or deca. He's on some sort. And by the way, I'm not sure. I'd love to hear him defend it and talk about it, but he doesn't want to needle around a vaccine to stave off polio or rubella or measles, but it'll inject human growth hormone to look jacked at 70. So I would. And by the way, he might have. I take creatine and it's brain protective and heart protective. I'm not. Hormone replacement therapy, I think is. They're finding it's a very positive thing for both men and women. A lot of people say that the biggest instance of malpractice was discouraging women from hormone replacement therapy. So I'd love to know his views on it. But just be clear. As someone who works out a lot and is beginning to look like Monty Burns despite every fight thing I'm trying to do, that guy is on. Is on some form of steroids. And I would just.
Christy Kaler
Can you just say allegedly? Say allegedly. Right.
Scott Galloway
That guy. I mean, I would argue. I would speculate that he. He might be in fact taking some sort of human. And I would just like to him to speak openly about it and get his views on it because they seem to me to me somewhat contrary to this notion. But don't put.
Christy Kaler
I do think that picture did a lot of damage. Honestly. If he cares so much, why with him at the McDonald's box, the big Mac back. How the fuck could he do that after he called it poison? Like, what a dumbass. He's just such a dumbass. Anyway, should investors be worried about these Trump cabinet picks impacting markets? The stocks of major defense contractors also dropped last week following peak heg Seth announcement. God. The Washington Post wrote a story about him and he looks. He looks very dangerous as a person.
Scott Galloway
Why do you say that? I'm curious why. I'm asking for an answer. Not. Not as a comment. What. Why do you think he seems dangerous?
Christy Kaler
I was reading the story. He looks like. Look this. Whatever happened in that encounter with this woman, I think he attacked her. This is my feeling, Pete. This is what it looks like. He was already downstairs bothering women when this woman came and got him, right? That he doesn't even question. He sounds like he reminds me of a sexual harasser. He reminds me of. I've had that happen to me in college. He looks like the guy in college. He has the tone and ability of every woman looks at him and goes, cover your drink when you're around this fella. That's. You know what I mean? That kind of thing. And between him and Matt Gaetz, I mean, they feel like weird sexual aggressors. But, you know, whatever. Whatever Pete Hegg says the fact that he Paid off a woman. You know, it's just like, Bill O'Reilly, you know, oh, you know, I just paid her off because he did. And then there were tapes where he did say the things she said, he said. Right. So they're just all such weird. This. This whole gang of this GOP are all fucking each other down there at Mar A Lago. It's weird. It's a weird group of people. Sorry. Like, you know, there's the rumors of Corey Lewandowski and Christy Noem. There's the rumors of, like, they all seem like Caligula down there. I don't know. It just like. Yikes. I find, you know, they talk about liberals being loose. I feel like they're, like, creepy. And I don't. They're just. And then the guy who gradually grabs someone's. Some man's nuts, you know, it's always something.
Scott Galloway
Yeah. The only thing is, I would push back a little bit. I think it's unfair to conflate Peter Hegseth. Is that his name? With Bill O'Reilly where Fox paid some woman 20 or 30 million dollars after supposedly he was forcing her to watch gay porn and then describe it to him. You don't pay someone 20 or 30 million dollars just to make a nuisance lawsuit go away. Matt Gaetz supposedly has a witness, a credible witness, that says she witnessed him having sex with a minor. That's pretty serious shit. And in the case of Pete, first off, he served very honorably. He. 20 years, I think, two bronze stars. I mean, he really is a decorated service person.
Christy Kaler
Got it. He's.
Scott Galloway
Hold on, let me finish.
Christy Kaler
He's absolutely unqualified for this guy.
Scott Galloway
Let me finish up. I think he does not have kind of the executive management experience or the gravitas around that would qualify him to oversee 3 million people. I agree with you there. He did pay somebody off to drop a suit. I don't see. I gotta think that's gonna go away because it doesn't accomplish what it's supposed to. You can see a scenario where someone accuses you of something, and to make it go away, you just pay them. Let me be clear. I don't think he's qualified for the position, but I do think it's unfair to compare him to what Matt Gaetz is undergoing or.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, okay. I mean, the whole gang of them. It's just. Something's happening down there. Something in the water. I don't know.
Scott Galloway
But what do you. I'm curious. I don't understand. Well, I think I understand incentives. What Is The Machiavellian weird 5D or 0D chess that's going on with putting Gates forward is AG. I don't. Do they think if they create havoc if they go. If they go this guy's. If they offer a blood offering and Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski convince some people and supposedly there's 20 or 30 Republicans who've said no fucking way, then does it make some of their less crazy but still grade A crazy picks more likely to get through? What. What's the strategy here?
Christy Kaler
I think so. Unless there isn't one. He just feels like it. He was on the plane at the last minute and did he had another person for AG and then suddenly it was Matt Gaetz. You know, I think sometimes it's just like his whim at the moment. He just wants to do what he wants to do, you know. Here's another one. Trump has yet to name his Treasury Secretary, though he's reported meeting several contenders at Mar a Lago. This is a critical job, right? A critical friggin job. He said he wants someone big for the role. Apollo's Mark Rowan is in the mix now. I have a lot you and regard for him as his former Fed governor Kevin Warsh. Another very qualified person, Elon Musk threw his support behind Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick over hedge fund manager Scott Besant who many, many people on Wall Street I have been checking think is highly qualified in an ex post over the weekend. So I'm not just because Elon threw his. Lutnick has a terrible reputation compared to Scott Besent and is obviously a look at me kind of fella. Right? This is lunacy the way they're deciding this important job and the same thing that one, I think he was on the plane with Matt Gaetz and just decided let's fuck with the liberals or I don't, I honestly don't know. Loyalty, I don't know.
Scott Galloway
But I would argue that the nominees for Treasury Secretary are incredibly impressive and competent and normal compared to the nominees across all the other stuff. They're all. I mean Howard Lutnick I know people have some issues with but generally speaking these are talented, smart, accomplished people who you can imagine in the role. I'm a big fan of Mark Rowan. I like that. I've spoken at Apollo conferences where he's spoken. This guy is a blue flame thinker.
Christy Kaler
He is. That's why I'm like okay, great, yeah, sure.
Scott Galloway
And also the reality is now granted, Kennedy could do a lot of damage with hhs, but you're going to have pretty serious checks and balances. The reason why this position is so important is regardless of policy, if the economy doesn't grow, everything just gets harder to do. And the adult in the room needs to be the person around economic policies. In my view, this is. Everyone says, you know, Taylor Swift was person of the year last year. No, it wasn't. It was Jerome Powell. These people have more impact day to day on people. I think America is a platform for two things primarily, and this is where I think Democrats have fucked up because they've lost this. One, defending our shores and our citizens. And two, creating the atmospherics of prosperity so you can develop economic security for you and your family. If you want more rights given to people, help them get more money, that's the easiest way for them to gain rights. So I like this. And the thing I also really like about Mark Rowan, although I have no influence over these picks, is I thought in contrast to some other famous billionaires, he handled the antisemitism on campus really well. He was forceful yet dignified. He had a problem with the president of Penn. He got his big game trophy on the head and then he went quiet. He didn't start talking about reforming education.
Christy Kaler
He wasn't Bill Ackman.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, he wasn't. Look at me. Look at me. He's like, this is my objective. I'm upset they fixed it or they took action and now he's gone back to his day job. So this guy strikes me as having a decent amount of humility. Forcefully undignified. And I'm telling you, we want a high IQ person in this role.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, he really is. If anyone spend any time with him, he's really a sharp cookie. He really is. He's well regarded. I mean, that would be a good, serious pick. Like, I wouldn't. I would like him in a Democratic or a Republican administration. Someone like that. Lutnick seems like a horse's patoot. I'm sorry. He just does. He just does. He's always on. He loves being on camera. And he strikes me as an unserious person in that regard. I get his reputation, but having checked, I've called like a dozen people. Nobody likes him. They like Scott Besant. And I think the issue around Scott Besant is that he worked for Soros, which I think you either work for Soros or a bunch of different people as a great investor. Like, that's what you're holding against him. So he's a little independent. I think that's their issue. I think that's why Elon wants someone like Howard Lutnick. He can push around.
Scott Galloway
I know a lot of people vote for George Soros when it comes to money. George Soros does not suffer fools.
Christy Kaler
That's correct.
Scott Galloway
The Soros funds are very serious, very competent and they aggregate outstanding professionals. Having worked for George Soros and it's not a political position. He was there to just make George richer. I mean, that's what he's there for.
Christy Kaler
I know, but I'm just telling you that's what's going down over there. But I do think one of the. It's critically important. This is a serious person. I think they're trying to get someone like Mark Rowan or Scott Besant, who to me are very serious selections, to say yes on tariffs. They may not be able to quite as easily. I think this has to be a person who makes the calls in a way that's not. It has to be political, but not, you know what I mean, in the interests of the economy. According to them and their theories, how.
Scott Galloway
Do I make long term adult, non political decisions that are going to help? I mean, here's the issue. Prosperity is here, similar to the future. It's just not distributed equally. How does this person make really good decisions that ensure we can argue over a bigger pie? We're always going to argue, but the pie grows. And this person has to absorb a massive amount of data and also make hard decisions. Chairman Powell raising interest rates 500 points angered almost everybody. Elizabeth Warren was pissed off about it. People on the far right were pissed off. And he's like, no, this is what we got to do, folks. And as a result, inflation came down faster in the United States and I think any G7 country, and it was already back to its target level and that kind of leadership intellect. And quite frankly, folks, even though America seems to be against IT expertise and people who have PhDs who actually studied this shit anyways, this is like the only, it feels like this is the only substantive conversation around his nominees other than, wait, let me get this. Someone saw him having sex with a minor. Let me get this. He's against vaccines. And I mean it's all Dancing with the Stars. And then we go to PBS for a few minutes.
Christy Kaler
I'm like, what are you doing frittering away your chance here? I mean, it's just, he's just, you know what, he's trolling and pranking and he's got to cut it out. He's got to cut it out on this serious topics if he really wants to be. Historically, you know, he's still, he's just a terrible person, Donald Trump. But he could help a lot of people. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Big Tech leads the charge to derail the Kids Online Safety Act. And we'll speak with a friend of Pivot, Christie Kaler, about how our company is reducing clothing waste. You know, I'm a big recycler in the era of fast fashion.
Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
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Christy Kaler
Scott we're back. A campaign Against Kids Online Safety act is in full swing as the bill has been stalled in the House for months. A new report from the Wall Street Journal details Big Tech's willingness to dump cash into lobbying efforts and lean into culture war issues with liberal lawmakers. Lobbying efforts focus focused on concerns the bill could censor LGBTQ youth, although I think they fixed that part of it. And with conservative lawmakers, the focus is on potential for censorship of anti abortion positions. Meta and Alphabet have spent nearly $90 million in the last three years lobbying about a range of issues, including Cosa. Cosa would assign platforms the duty of care, which would hold them accountable for addressing issues like mental health disorders, bullying and sexual exploitation. Also at the same time, Brandon Carr has been over at the FCC. He wrote part of Project 20 2025. He's also very anti tech. So interesting times. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the Trump administration because it has a very strong anti tech ban, especially JD Vance. So do you think they'll hold firm? Are they going to be more empowered once Trump takes office? I'm not so sure. I think they may be wishing for the Biden administration again. So what do you think? $90 million or pending?
Scott Galloway
Yeah, I just. Look, this is, I, I thought we were going to get this one. Now I'm not as sure. There's been 40 congressional hearings on child safety and social media and there's been zero laws. And this is not perfect, but perfect. It's not on the menu. And I thought we were going to get this. And now it looks as if the delay in obfuscation and the weaponization of our government and the fact that there are that ByteDance has one lobbyist for every 11 members of Congress. Meta has one for every eight. Amazon has more full time paid lobbyists living in D.C. than there are sitting U.S. senators. And money has always played a role here, but essentially Big Tech has really mastered the art. I think there's a lot of backroom deals that involve our security apparatus, but 5% of kids under the age of 18 qualify as being addicted to drugs or alcohol. 5%, and that's a lot. If you know 10 households with two kids, that means somewhere there's a kid who's an addict to drugs or alcohol. Alcohol with social media, 27% qualify as addicted. There's never been, I don't think there's ever been an entity, a sector or a private company that has ever been this guilty of addicting our children than Big Tech. And yet there's absolutely no laws. And so I got excited that this seemed like it was going to go through. And now it feels like Big Tech is winning again. And every day they have their lobbyists out there giving money, playing golf, coming up with thoughtful reasons around why you should be express your concerns. And now it feels like it's at risk. I find this all very discouraging, but I don't feel like I have the insight to handicap it. What do you think is going to be here happening?
Christy Kaler
I think they just don't want any regulation whatsoever. I think they want no laws whatsoever. And so they're nitpicking every single one of these laws. There's been lots of problems with cosa, there is no question about that. But they've managed to do different things things to it. There's not going to be any rule that's going to be good. And that's the point. They don't want any law. They don't want anything at all. They don't want a privacy law. They don't want antitrust renewed. They will hold this stuff up as much as they can and it's going to take like serious bipartisan work together away from all the censorship versus hurting LGBTQ youth. Both of which I'm concerned with. Both of them. Right, by the way, more the young gay people. But they don't want anything passed. They don't want a duty of care. They don't want a duty of care. And every other industry has a duty of care in Some way, whether it's an airplane or a pharmacy, you know, big pharma, maybe they manipulate things, but can we get one on the frigging books and then figure it out from there? They just don't want any slight bit of edge to get them stopped. And that's. And they will do anything it takes. That's. This has been a historical thing for these people. And they'll do it as long as our regular. I'd even be like, go, Brendan Carr. Even though I think some of his things are loony. I'd go, Lina Khan, go. Just to muck up their works for five seconds. But you know, you saw Amy Klobuchar get mowed down. You saw Ken Buck get mowed down. Like it doesn't really matter. They mow everybody down.
Scott Galloway
And Congress hasn't passed a major bill to protect children online since 1990.
Christy Kaler
Amazing.
Scott Galloway
Cosa does put in place protections for kids online, like regulating addictive features and harmful content. I mean, this is. Tech lobbyists continue to maliciously stir doubt on Capitol Hill using one unfounded narrative with Democrats and another with Republicans. I mean, with Republicans, they've been stating that COSA censors speech. What the fuck? We're worried about a 12 year old's speech.
Christy Kaler
Yeah. Johnson has said it's. I love the principle, but the details that are very problematic.
Scott Galloway
And let me tell you what's behind all of this. The six most popular social media platforms earned roughly, get this. $11 billion in just one year. Advertising from advertising that targets. Wait for it, Children. Children. Social media companies have existed with very little regulation for 30 years and want to keep it that way. I mean, okay, so what's going on here? $11 billion is at stake. Costa would not censor, limit or remove any content from the Internet. Not give the FTC or State's attorneys general the power to bring lawsuits over content or speech, no matter who it is from. The bill passes First Amendment scrutiny because it is content neutral. We're talking about kids here.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, they don't want to do anything. They just, they play them. They play these sides perfectly.
Scott Galloway
And this is light touch, good regulation. It's important to note that there's no new rulemaking power for the FTC in cosa, nor any ability to create rules about content. So this whole free speech bullshit doesn't hold water. It's $11 billion they're making. And we have seen evidence everywhere that social. The more time kids spend on social, the more likely they are to be depressed, anxious and engage in self harm.
Christy Kaler
You know, what we need to do, Scott.
Scott Galloway
What's that?
Christy Kaler
Kara, can I just tell you, you and I need to go down to Mar a Lago and discuss this with the President. What do you think?
Scott Galloway
I would do it. I just like to see the two.
Christy Kaler
Of you in the same room share a McDonald's. I like Mc. Can I just say, I love fucking McDonald's.
Scott Galloway
You love McDonald's.
Christy Kaler
I do, I do. I eat it. Not infrequently. I don't eat it very much. I know it's bad for me, but I gotta tell you, I love it. I take the kids. Amanda's always horrified.
Scott Galloway
You go to Mar A Lago. I wanna go to tulum with Don Jr. I'd like to roll with him. You can go to me and Don.
Christy Kaler
Jr. You can go hang out. We should go together. And we have to make sure Elon's not there. The guest who wouldn't leave because he'll come at us. But we need to go and talk about this with him because that's the kind of people we are. We're looking for common ground. Honestly, I would go down there if we could talk to him about something. Like, for this, it's worth it for me. And I would eat the McDonald's. President Trump. I would eat it anyway. All right, let's get to our friend of Pivot. Christy Kaler is the founder of and CEO of Trashy, a clothing recycling and rewards platform. They also just recently started doing tech stuff. Getting rid of all your tech crap that you have. I'm really intrigued by this company, although I find it that I'm sort of confused about how it could possibly work out, because everyone has their sad, recycling, recycling stories. Christy, you know what I mean? Like, you find out you recycle and it doesn't work. So explain what it is and how it works exactly. Because there's a lot of clothing that ends up in a landfill, right?
Mika Brzezinski
Yeah, 85% of our clothing ends up in landfill. It's actually 17 tons. Million tons per year. So it's about 112 pounds per person in the US every year. So I think the universal truth is just everyone has too much stuff. And typically recycling is actually, actually kind of either inconvenient. We don't know where the clothes go even. Only Goodwill sells about 27% of what they collect. And we're like, what happens next? So with Trashy, we created a product called the Take Back Bag, which is really fun and exciting. And people do it from the convenience of their own home. They fill it up with anything from any brand in any condition. So it's quite convenient on that sense too. And they mail it back to us.
Christy Kaler
So this is soft clothing, shoes, shirts, things like that.
Mika Brzezinski
Yeah. So your shirts, your shoes, your bags, your accessories. It can be towels and sheets. You send it back to us. And then we have a big recycling center where we meticulously sort and grade all of the product. It actually goes into one of 253 grades. So it's a very detailed process. And then we find the next best use for it. So that can be reuse, that can be recycling, that can be down cycling fiber recycling. But we control the whole process. So we have complete visibility into it. We know where it goes. And so where most programs are opaque, we provide a lot of transparency.
Christy Kaler
Fashion. Fashion for people who don't know, it's come a huge industry, particularly in the last few years with the rise of companies like Shein and Temu. Scott's a big proponent. I'm gonna get him. Pull him in or a second. But just so you know, Amazon, interestingly, just launched your competitor in that field last week with a storefront called Haul because they got in trouble because they were just throwing everything out. Like if people return stuff, they just threw it back out when they didn't ever return it. Just curious, what's your take on these companies? And I'll note a couple of stats. The average consumer buys 60% more pieces of clothes than they did 17 years ago. Not Kara Swisher, but others. The number of times a garment has worn and declined is around 36% in the last 15 years or so. So talk a little bit about. People are moving into this, but you wonder if you have the disappointment you've had in the recycling business, which has shown that most things you recycle don't get. Recycle.
Mika Brzezinski
Yeah, I think there's a lack of transparency in the recycling process. It's a very kind of antique network of people recycling clothes. So you don't get a lot of transparency and visibility into what's happening. But to your point, we're consuming more. I mean, do you guys know how many products she puts out per day?
Scott Galloway
7,000.
Christy Kaler
Yes.
Mika Brzezinski
Between 2,000 and 10,000 per day. So on the macro scale, we've moved. I mean, it makes Zara look like luxury.
Scott Galloway
I should get a free trip to Mar a Lago. I thought that was outstanding. Seriously, that was outstanding. Look how impressed Christ is. Seriously, that's great. Anyways, go ahead.
Mika Brzezinski
Sorry, no. So we've moved from fast fashion to instant Fashion, which I think is why everybody's taking note, like, we have to do something about this. We can't keep putting that much product out into the world. It's estimated that we lose about $600 billion in value every single year. It's remarkable. Obviously, the Shein effect, the TEMU effect. You talked to kind of the increased consumption numbers. I think it's time that we all kind of took note that we need to do something about it. It's estimated that we lose about $600 billion into landfill every year in value from fashion, textiles, technology, toys. But most business models really are not that effective. So either people don't do it because it's not fun, or it's not convenient, or it's not rewarding. There's not like a what's in it for me Kind of component to it. And so those are the pieces we really play with, all embedded with, like how a really good business model that works. We need to get the flow of economics working. We can't just say we need to do it because it's the right thing.
Scott Galloway
Nice to meet you, Christy. One of the things I like about what you're doing, I find it sort of ineffective, unrealistic to believe that you're going to talk young people into consuming less. I also, and I'm an investor in the space, I think young people need more access to products for a lower price, but at the same time trying to figure out a way to deal with one of the externalities here. I think it's really important. What I mean, the fear I have is that people worry that recycling was nothing but an attempt by people to make them feel that they were actually addressing the problem. And a lot. There's been a lot of information that recycling, quite frankly, is just more emotional benefit than actual benefit. What happens to these products if organizations like yours don't get a hold of them and repurpose or recycle themselves effectively?
Mika Brzezinski
Yes. I mean, I think the term recycling is often applied in a very broad way. And so sometimes people take products in, they kind of skim the cream off the top, try and resell them for profit, and the rest, unfortunately, ends up in landfill. That's not discussed. I think that's pretty, pretty typical. Even with the modern resale platforms. I think, unfortunately, that's often done at lowest cost. So they're bundled up, they're shipped offshore. We have a whole concept called waste colonialism that we talk a lot about, but it's really the infrastructure to properly process materials hasn't been Modernized in order to handle the volume and handle it with precision so that we can actually keep 95% of what we collect out of landfill, which is what our processes is able to do. It doesn't mean that it's perfect. Some things are down cycled, some things are reused. You have to have kind of a broad approach to where these products can go. But taking them in in the first place is really critical. We have a gap in the collection cycle and we have a gap in sorting and really the transparency around sorting and where things are being recycled after that.
Christy Kaler
So explain the business model then to us. What is the business model? Because that's where the, you know, you have these colorful bags. You put. I've done it a couple of times. And then you get stuff, right?
Scott Galloway
Correct.
Mika Brzezinski
You get rewards. Yeah. You unlock deals. You can. So basically business model works that we've created this, as I said, kind of recycling service. It comes in the form of this package that's fun and bright and convenient. Customers are willing to pay for that. So that really creates the relationship. And then after recycling, you unlock deals and rewards at places you like to shop. And that can be anything from like Uber and Doordash to Nike and Adidas. So it's a broad range of rewards which we found really important. Important because I think you don't always want to recycle your jeans and buy new jeans. You might want to recycle your jeans and buy dinner. It's just a much broader universal kind of incentive platform that gets kind of the consumer into their next step of kind of their journey in a way where they're also extracting value.
Christy Kaler
So you're not like chastising them saying, oh, you shouldn't buy things. It's that you don't want them to go to better places.
Mika Brzezinski
Presumably we want to collect them all. I think. I totally agree. It's a unrealistic to think that consumption is going to slow down. There's nothing we can do to do that. Frankly, you know, that train's kind of left the station. If we can engage on the post consumer moment, if we can say, hey, we know you've got that pile. We know you've got cords and chargers hiding in a drawer. Let us help you. Most of the time people are like.
Christy Kaler
How did you know?
Mika Brzezinski
Because we do this.
Scott Galloway
So from what I understand, and Temu and Shein are going to be responsible for 20% of all holiday purchases, which is just.
Christy Kaler
And now Haul, which Amazon is trying to copy them, but go ahead.
Scott Galloway
That's right. What I Mean other than just the consumption culture, more for less. What do you think is going on here? Because we had typical fashion, then we had fast fashion. I would describe this as on demand fashion. Can you talk about why this category has just become, I mean it really is the, the explosion here is staggering. Any thoughts as to why these companies have become so dominant so fast?
Mika Brzezinski
I mean, I think you have a few different forces at play at the same time, which is the Sheens and Temu of the world have kind of hacked cost of goods and speed to market so they can really, you know, drive that frequency of launch in a way that nobody's been able, able to ever before. So that 10,000 styles a day, I mean they often Pride themselves on 98% sell through. They're not making these decisions nine months in advance, they're making them two weeks in advance. And so they've really figured the market out. So like that kind of demand cycle is really fast for them. I think obviously social media and our access to kind of trend information product is really important in driving this forward, particularly with the Gen Z kind of community. That's where everything exists. And so it's a rush, it's pretty human nature to kind of have that consumption cycle. And I think there's a really interesting conflict in values because it's often the same people who are like we need to save the planet. Which is an interesting tension that we're facing.
Christy Kaler
Right. Which Patagonia has done. Right. If you think about it, a bunch of other Patagonia makes a big deal or you return them and they fix them. I did that for Louis. He happens to like this one Patagonia jacket and they fixed it, you know, and he preferred that which was instead of a new one, which was interesting. But you're now moving into tech recycling. What is. Now I know Apple does that to an extent. What is tech recycling? Because that's. Because I've got cords from, you know, the 60s essentially, you know, or whatever. Where do those go? Where, why are you doing this and where do those go? Obviously you want to do as much stuff that you can actually make money from. Presumably you can from this stuff.
Mika Brzezinski
Yeah, I think it's getting the consumer engaged is one piece. And so what we found is like we've helped, we've distributed over 600,000 take back bags just for textiles in the last 12 months. And when we speak to consumers they're just like, please do more, like help me more. So we know the demand is there on the consumer side. To your point, like Apple and other platforms have kind of their buyback programs, but they're not handling old charges, chargers, cords, the actual drawer of stuff that you don't know what to do. And so in a similar format, you know, we see there's just such a huge opportunity and we build the supply chain to support that so we can take those products back and recycle them into materials, into componentry alternatively. That typically ends up in landfill. So it's pretty similar stats to textiles.
Christy Kaler
But you can make money from. Presumably that's a lot of money.
Mika Brzezinski
It's like it's copper off of things. I wouldn't call it a lot of money, but there's a revenue stream to it which helps the business model work so that, you know, that value that I mentioned, that goes into landfill, typically we're extracting some of it so we can, we can.
Scott Galloway
Right.
Mika Brzezinski
Rather than garbage pickers, rather than garbage, you're getting the, you know, the metals, the plastics, the componentry, where possible. And then all of that's, you know, when we take back electronics, it's incredibly important too, the data, sanitation. So the supply chain piece of what we do, the integrity of that is really essentially essential to making this work well and delivering on the promise.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, it would be bad if you started killing people by doing that.
Scott Galloway
So people have zeroed in, I would argue unfairly on fast fashion. Do you think that Apple and Nike, because of their incredibly positive brands, get a bit of an undeserved hall pass? Or is fast fashion really that much worse than some of the other kind of more aspirational brands that have supply chains in China?
Mika Brzezinski
It's a great question. I mean, I think on a unit by unit basis, fast fashion is a key player in those statistics that we just quoted. And the growth of that consumption cycle. I don't think that gives these brands a pass that are kind of the incumbents with large supply chains and large businesses. Patagonia, I mean, I think they've done amazing work, but their business is a billion dollars a year. I think it's grown.
Scott Galloway
It's a pimple on the elephant.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, I get it.
Mika Brzezinski
But I mean, they're still producing product. So I think that, you know, overall you're, if you're making product and you're selling it to consumer, 85% of the time it's ending up in landfill. Everybody should be engaged in this conversation.
Scott Galloway
Let me ask you just a quick follow up. Who in your mind is the worst and the best of a large iconic brand or retailer? Everyone from Walmart to Amazon. If you were to pick the people doing their level best and the people doing the worst, which, which brands would be at the top and the bottom of your list?
Mika Brzezinski
Oh, gosh, that's a really tough question to call people out. I mean, I think, I think actually Nike has done good work particularly on upstream supply chain historically and materials innovation, and they continue to do that. I do another best. I do think Patagonia has led the way. Not as large in kind of changing consumer mindset. Worst. I would say right now, knowing the Shein team's kind of working on things a little, little bit. I don't know if the TEMU team's working on things in the same way. I'd say that's bad. I would say Amazon's, you know, pretty responsible as well.
Scott Galloway
You would say Amazon is responsible?
Mika Brzezinski
Yeah. Not like they're not being responsible. They're responsible for the problem as well.
Scott Galloway
Oh, I see. Excuse me.
Christy Kaler
That sounds right. Yeah. They throw everything in the trash when you return it. FYI, if you send something back, it never goes anywhere. It's like crazy. I almost don't want to return things to them anyway. Perfect. This is great. Christy Kahler is really interesting business is the CEO and founder of Trashy. Thank you very much.
Scott Galloway
Thanks, Chrissy.
Mika Brzezinski
Thank you, guys.
Christy Kaler
All right, Scott. We are so solutions based, aren't we?
Scott Galloway
Oh yeah, that's right.
Christy Kaler
Fixing it solutions. Let's mail a box of Trashy down to Mar A Lago on our visit. Okay, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails.
Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
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Christy Kaler
Okay Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. You go first.
Scott Galloway
My win is going to shock you. I met a guy down here who just sold his company and he reached out to a friend of mine who knows First Lady First Lady Alania and said I'd really like to get my and this is a serious story. True story. My resume in front of DOJA or Department of Government Efficiency because I'm interested in going to work for a group in the government that is very focused on solutions and they have said Vivek and Elon to their credit. In my view that if you're looking to bring a private sector innovation, work your ass off vibe to this group, we want to hear from you. And I do think there's value in trying to restore some of the aspirational, more merit versus tenure based culture to government work. I think that it's lost a lot of prestige. People still have a lot of prestige for our folks that serve at the highest levels or serve in uniform. But I worry that some of our best and brightest young people, unlike Israel, even unlike the uk, don't think I'm really good at what I do, which logically means one of my options should be to go to work in a government role. And so I do like that they're trying to create this aspirational feel around it. I think that's a positive and I wanted to call that a win. My fail is I just want to just again, the fact that we're normalizing the notion that somehow vaccines are bad. Just some stats here. U.S. childhood immunization from 1994 to 2013 prevented 732,000 deaths and 21 million hospitalizations from vaccine preventable diseases. COVID 19 in the U.S. prevented 139,000 deaths in just the first five months, reducing projected fatalities by 20%. And then overall, vaccines save millions annually by preventing infectious diseases and their complications highlighting the need for robust immunization programs worldwide. I mean, these things really are. If you were to hold up something that is like, okay, our species kind of gets it, and there's real hope here. The measles vaccination prevented millions of deaths, but in 2023 saw a 20% rise in global cases, preventable cases due to poor coverage, leading to, get this, 10.3 million cases and 107,000 deaths. So the World Health Organization says over 22 million children, children missed their first vaccine dose, contributing to outbreaks in 57 countries. So anything that normalizes the notion that these things are 99.9. There are just so few things that create so much positive, that prevents so much death, disease, and disability across communities, quite frankly, that really need it. These things are inexpensive. They're easily distributed. So I really hope that we check back on what is a. You know, get the easy stuff, right? You know, and this is the easy stuff. These things work. They're a gift.
Christy Kaler
Yeah. And also, by the way, let me just say Operation Warp Speed, which was one of the better things of his administration.
Mika Brzezinski
He's.
Christy Kaler
They. They. He really is moving away from it. I'm like, you fucking idiot. That was something really amazing that you did, like, take fucking credit for that thing. That was impressive. And I know people. People do like to trash Trump all the time. Trashy Trump. But that was something that was great. That was something that was intuitively good, right? Like, so it's possible. I don't believe he's walking away from it. That drives me nuts. Okay, I agree with you on the government thing. The only thing I would say about that is they also trash government workers, like, incessantly, in a way that's cruel, by the way, there's so many amazing government workers, so stop insulting them that way. Like, oh, they all have to be cut, especially. Econ's just irritating. But Vivek Ramaswamy is just a. Just always has to trash, always has to trash people and never. No one's ever good. Everyone sucks. It's the same part of we're the counter elites. They're not. You're a bunch of elites. Stop insulting really good government workers. Some things work, some things don't. We can make it better. That's my feeling on that one. All right, my win is I'm going to be seeing Gladiator soon, which is very exciting.
Scott Galloway
Gladiator 2, you mean?
Christy Kaler
It looks. Gladiator 2. It looks really good. I love that Paul Mescal. I love. I hear Denzel Washington's Amazing. I know. I've talked a lot about Wicked. I'll get to that in a second. But I'm so excited to see that movie. I'm gonna go by myself. I'm gonna go by myself to see. That's how much I love the movie.
Scott Galloway
It's supposed to be good. My Sun Song. Yes.
Christy Kaler
Yes. But there's another movie, and that I've heard is fantastic. Aubrey Plaza, who I think is wonderful, is a movie called My Old Ass, and it's about this young girl takes. I forget who the other lead is, but she takes mushrooms and meets her older self and they have this relationship. And I've heard it's wonderful. I'd love to meet my younger self. It would be just interesting. I don't know.
Scott Galloway
I don't think it'd be that interesting. Anyways, go ahead. By the way, I saw Aubrey Plaza when I went to that WNBA game.
Christy Kaler
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
Which, as you know, I'm totally down with. The wnba.
Christy Kaler
You're a famous lesbian.
Scott Galloway
Scott Callous, new unofficial spokesperson for the lesbian community.
Christy Kaler
I knew you would like it. I'm so glad that worked out. My fail is, I think, like I said, with, like, them insulting everybody and doing everything, I think they're overstepping really quickly and becoming sore winners. It's not. The numbers are really moving. And so now it's 49.3 versus 48.
Scott Galloway
Oh, God, here we go again.
Christy Kaler
Now, let me just say they're now doing things like, calm the fuck down. This was not as close as you think that. Besides that, but NFL players are doing the Trump dance. Did you see this? Like, they're doing that stupid, weird, you know, jack off dance he does where he looks like he's jacking off two horses. Do you know the dance he does? They're doing that. This isn't going to endear you to anybody. Being sore winners. Just stop it. Like, whatever. Do your stupid dance. But so did this guy. This UFC fight. They're all doing the dance. Let me just tell you. You think liberals are irritating. You're fucking irritating, too. And I agree some liberals are irritating, but, you know, there's no. This is not. We need to. We do to get along. And you're just being douche nozzles about it. So whatever. It's not going to make me think you're better. It was close, Scott. I don't care what you say.
Scott Galloway
We need to pivot to the center. We got.
Christy Kaler
We need to pivot.
Scott Galloway
That's right. That absolutely got destroyed. We need to rethink America's a platform for two things. Defending its citizens and its shores and creating atmospheres to get more money.
Christy Kaler
In any case, don't be a sore winner. Don't be a sore loser. Don't be a sore winner.
Scott Galloway
I'm just so.
Christy Kaler
Anyway. You're just sore. Yeah. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-Pivot. We'll be doing another call in show soon. Submit your voicemails with questions you'd like to ask us live on the air and let us know where to reach you. Also, Scott, I'm sure you remember Barbenheimer last year, but you're familiar with Glicked. Glicked. Get it? Wicked and Gladiator 2 are coming out this Friday and people are planning to sing both movies back to back. I have seen Wicked. I'm going to take Clara to see it tomorrow night here in D.C. we.
Scott Galloway
Can talk about how movies are making a comeback. Anyway, I'm sorry.
Christy Kaler
Go ahead. This you need to see in the theater. Wicked. You absolutely need. I. I'm glad you do.
Scott Galloway
You love that. You love Wicked.
Christy Kaler
I love Wicked. It's really good. You'll see they're trying to recreate that Barbenheimer magic, which I thought was kind of cool. I love that. That did bring a lot of people back to the theater. They did great. You. Are you going to go to either? No, you won't.
Scott Galloway
I might go. I might go to. I'll definitely go to Gladiator. I'm not sure.
Christy Kaler
In the theater you want to see it though, right?
Scott Galloway
Yeah, I think so. I'll probably.
Christy Kaler
Like I said, yeah, I like when these movies do well in the theater. I don't. You don't have to discount that experience. But speaking of Wicked, I just spoke with the director of that movie, John Chu, for the latest episode of on with Kara Swisher. He explained to me how he used your favorite device, Scott, the Apple Vision Pro, to edit the movie. It turns out he's a closet geek. He's a Steve Jobs is his God. Let's. He grew up in Silicon Valley, by the way. Let's listen.
F
Once I got the Vision Pro, I found it. It changed the game for me because I put it on and I wasn't on a computer with my editor or over in somewhere else, which feels very limiting. I don't get interactive with it. My blood's not pumping. But with the Vision Pro. I could make the screen as big as the room and I could walk around and pace the way I do in the edit room. I could lay on the couch the way I do in the edit room. And then I could bring it closer. We were doing visual effects on it, and so I could give notes and use my finger to, like, mark things. And this is people in the Bay Area. This is people in London. This is people in Canada. And 40 people are on this. And I'm on my couch and I can look at it, what it looks like 20ft wide and what it would look like on an iPad.
Christy Kaler
Anyway, it's a great. It's a really interesting interview. He's super geeky and in a really interesting way and also very creative. And his movie comes out. Obviously, the first part of it comes out. He's also working on all kinds of cool is this.
Scott Galloway
He's the director for Wicked.
Christy Kaler
Wicked.
Scott Galloway
He did Crazy Rich Asians, you know, supposedly. I mean, they're so excited about it. They've already. They've already given a green light for a sequel, but it's about Mitch McConnell's sex life. It's called Something Wicked. This way it comes. Oh, that's good.
Christy Kaler
That's a really bad politics.
Scott Galloway
Sex. Wicked. I am literally the Dave Chappelle of the cultural zeitgeist, Mish McConnell.
Christy Kaler
He shall be in our rearview mirror. And that's good enough for me. Okay, Scott, that's the show. Where are you going next?
Scott Galloway
I told you. I'm going to Vegas for a speaking gig, then I go to la. I'll be at the Beverly Hills Hotel again trying to find. Find famous people to stare at. And then I go to Vegas for F1, and then I go to Brazil.
Christy Kaler
Oh, my God. Your life. I'm going to be in New York this week.
Scott Galloway
All right, I'm sure I'll hear about it. I'm sure. Say hi. Say hi. Say hi to my doorman.
Christy Kaler
Yeah, no, I'm not staying at your house. They putting me up. I'm doing a secret thing. A secret show.
Scott Galloway
A secret thing?
Christy Kaler
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
Okay.
Christy Kaler
I'm doing a secret. I'm doing a pilot. Doing a pilot for a show.
Scott Galloway
Nice. Good.
Christy Kaler
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
All right.
Christy Kaler
I'm not supposed to jog about it, but I'm completely indiscreet. Yes, that's correct.
Scott Galloway
But you will.
Christy Kaler
I don't understand secret. If I don't understand secretiveness. It's not bragging. Transparent. That's what we are. We broke. As we said, we broke the fourth wall. I got a Call from Stephanie Rule, by the way, who was complaining about us insulting cable while we go on it. We can do both. I was like, are you going to bitch me out? You're going to bitch me out in the morning? She called this morning. I was like, no. We said it's a terrible economics, and it is. And your numbers are declining overall. And we love your show, and it is. Our issue was it could. Could be good. There's ways to make it good. There's ways to make everything good. And we do it because we like it. Correct, Scott. And it helps our podcast.
Scott Galloway
She's like you. Although she'll call me. She won't even say hi to Stephanie. She'll be like, you really disappoint me. And I'm like, oh, no. And I'm like, oh, no. And I get scared. And also, I gotta be honest. Little turned on. Little turned on. I don't know what's coming next.
Christy Kaler
Now she's gonna call me. Now she's gonna call me. I kind of like it. Stephanie, we love you. Call and yell at us. Call and yell at us. Anyway, I'm excited for this song you're going to make for my birthday. You have a month. You have a month. Less than a month. So get on it. Okay, Scott.
Scott Galloway
Okay.
Christy Kaler
That is the show.
Scott Galloway
75 is a big one.
Christy Kaler
Today's show is.
Scott Galloway
Read us out. I'm reading us out. Okay. Today's show is produced by Lara Neyman, Zoe Marcus and Taylor Griffin. Ernie this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Saverio and Dan Schulon. Nishak Kazakh, Fox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York magazine and Fox 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 care. Have a great rest of the week.
Kara Swisher
Support for the show comes from United for Business. Something you want to hear when you're building a business, and you usually take it as a sign of success, is that you're going places.
Christy Kaler
But who do you turn to when.
Kara Swisher
You need to actually go places? We're talking about business travel, folks. United offers the most diversified international route network among US Airlines based on the number of international destinations served. And now you can meet your business travel needs with ease with United for Business. No matter how big or small your company is, United offers travel solutions made just for you. Get started at Uafly Co. Pivot.
Scott Galloway
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Pivot Podcast Summary New York Magazine | Host: Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway | Episode Release Date: November 19, 2024
1. Trump Cabinet Picks and Market Impact
In this episode, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway delve into the ramifications of President-elect Donald Trump's recent Cabinet appointments, focusing particularly on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The hosts discuss the significant market reactions elicited by this decision.
Scott notes, “Shares of major vaccine and drug makers including Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca tumbled in the wake of the news” (19:38). The appointment has sparked concerns due to Kennedy Jr.'s well-known anti-vaccine stance, leading to a substantial decline in the stock prices of companies like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Galloway emphasizes the potential long-term damage to the pharmaceutical industry, stating, “If you really want to push back on this stuff, then don’t go on Twitter. Send some money to Planned Parenthood... Identify some candidates who you think you could get behind” (14:02).
The discussion highlights the tension between economic policies and public health initiatives, underscoring the challenges that Kennedy Jr.'s views may pose to ongoing efforts to combat infectious diseases.
2. The Onion's Acquisition of Alex Jones’s Infowars
Swisher and Galloway also explore The Onion's recent acquisition of Alex Jones's Infowars, framing it as a masterstroke of satire. They appreciate the parody approach, with Galloway remarking, “This was the first time I thought, if there is a God, he has a sense of humor” (11:58). The hosts discuss how The Onion intends to use humor to undermine Jones's controversial platform, viewing it as a more effective form of pushback than outright hostility.
Christy Kaler adds, “I love what the Onion's doing. It’s time for us to start being mocking bros. That’s what I say. I’ve been listening to a lot of bros because I’ve had to listen to Charlamagne's podcast...” (13:15), highlighting the effectiveness of satire in combating harmful narratives.
3. Big Tech’s Lobbying Against the Kids Online Safety Act
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to analyzing Big Tech's aggressive lobbying efforts against the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Swisher and Galloway examine a Wall Street Journal report detailing how companies like Meta and Alphabet have invested nearly $90 million over the past three years to influence legislation.
Galloway states, “Big Tech has really mastered the art. I think there’s a lot of backroom deals that involve our security apparatus...” (45:07), expressing frustration over the lack of substantial regulation despite mounting evidence of social media's detrimental effects on youth mental health.
Kaler concurs, asserting, “They just don’t want any regulation whatsoever. They don’t want any laws whatsoever” (43:19). The hosts critique the industry's obstructionist tactics, emphasizing the urgent need for bipartisan cooperation to implement effective safeguards for children online.
4. Interview with Christy Kaler, CEO of Trashy
The highlight of the episode is an in-depth interview with Christy Kaler, the founder and CEO of Trashy, a clothing recycling and rewards platform. Kaler discusses the alarming statistic that “85% of our clothing ends up in landfill” (50:07) and outlines how Trashy aims to revolutionize the recycling process.
Trashy's Mission and Process
Kaler explains, “We created the Take Back Bag... Customers fill it with any brand in any condition and mail it back to us” (50:51). Trashy's meticulous sorting system categorizes items into 253 grades to determine their next best use, whether that be reuse, recycling, or downcycling. This transparency contrasts sharply with traditional recycling programs, which often lack visibility into the end use of collected items.
Business Model and Incentives
The platform incentivizes recycling by offering rewards and deals from popular brands. Kaler highlights, “After recycling, you unlock deals and rewards at places you like to shop” (57:03), making the recycling process both convenient and rewarding for consumers. This model addresses the common barriers to recycling—lack of convenience and insufficient incentives—by integrating economic benefits directly into the user experience.
Challenges and Industry Impact
Swisher and Galloway discuss the broader implications of Trashy's approach in combating the fast fashion epidemic. Galloway points out, “The fear I have is that people worry that recycling was nothing but an attempt by people to make them feel that they were actually addressing the problem” (54:48). Kaler counters by emphasizing Trashy's commitment to transparency and efficacy, arguing that comprehensive recycling solutions are essential to mitigating the environmental impact of rampant consumerism.
5. Entertainment and Cultural Commentary
Towards the end of the episode, Swisher and Galloway engage in lighter discussions about upcoming movies like Gladiator 2 and Wicked. They also touch on the cultural phenomenon of "Barbenheimer" and the resurgence of theater as a communal experience. Scott humorously shares his admiration for Aubrey Plaza and comments on diversifying his social interactions, while Kaler expresses excitement over participating in a pilot show.
Conclusion
This episode of Pivot navigates through significant political and economic developments, such as the controversial Cabinet appointments and Big Tech's lobbying against child safety measures online. Additionally, the insightful interview with Christy Kaler provides a practical solution to the pervasive issue of clothing waste, illustrating how innovative business models can drive meaningful environmental change. Throughout the discussion, Swisher and Galloway maintain their trademark blend of sharp analysis and candid banter, offering listeners a comprehensive overview of pressing issues in tech, business, and politics.
Notable Quotes:
Scott Galloway on market reactions: “Shares of major vaccine and drug makers including Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca tumbled in the wake of the news.” (19:38)
Christy Kaler on Trashy's mission: “We created the Take Back Bag... Customers fill it with any brand in any condition and mail it back to us.” (50:51)
Scott Galloway on Big Tech's influence: “Big Tech has really mastered the art. I think there’s a lot of backroom deals that involve our security apparatus...” (45:07)
Christy Kaler on recycling challenges: “They just don’t want any regulation whatsoever. They don’t want any laws whatsoever.” (43:19)
Note: This summary is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the Pivot podcast episode for those who have not listened to it. For an in-depth experience, tuning into the full episode is recommended.