Government Shutdown, OpenAI’s Sora 2, and Hegseth's Lecture

Summary

Pivot Podcast Summary – October 3, 2025

Episode Theme:
This episode of Pivot features Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway’s signature blend of sharp, irreverent analysis on the week’s biggest news stories across tech, business, and politics. They break down the US government shutdown, OpenAI’s controversial new AI video generator (Sora 2), and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s body-shaming rant at military leaders. The hosts also discuss major M&A moves in the tech world and reflect on the cultural impact of AI companions. Banter, critique, and bold predictions abound.

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Episode Highlights

1. Live Pivot Tour & Kara’s Teaching (01:25 – 04:50)

• Kara and Scott joke about the success of their upcoming live podcast tour, with playful banter about which cities made the cut and their own teaching credentials.
• Kara discusses her approach to teaching: “I talk to the students and engage them on the topics of the day. It's like a mini pivot.” (02:54)
• Scott pokes fun at “famous teachers” sharing “war stories” and both riff on their public personas.

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2. Saudi Investment, Censorship, and Tech’s Ethical Dilemmas (04:50 – 08:19)

• The hosts revisit the controversial topic of Western entertainers and tech leaders taking Saudi money post-Khashoggi.
  • Kara recounts her critical NYT piece: “I wrote a piece about why tech went to get money from the Gulf right after Khashoggi… there were so many other choices…” (06:32)
  • Scott: “When they murder a journalist, we should make companies less competitive and reduce the prosperity of people working for those companies.” (06:54)
  • The debate highlights competing perspectives: Scott, pragmatic but critical; Kara, moral and wary of Saudi influence.
  • Memorable moment: “How many women are allowed to do everything that they're supposed to? How many gay people get to survive? Scott, we're not doing this.” – Kara (07:36)
• Both agree on the improvement in Saudi policies but remain wary, particularly Kara regarding cultural and human rights.

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3. US Government Shutdown: Political and Economic Fallout (08:19 – 22:29)

Overview (08:19 – 10:43)

• Congress failed to reach a funding deal, leading to a broad shutdown: “About 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed and services… disrupted.” – Kara (10:07)
• The White House targets blue states, withholding funds.

Key Analysis & Insights

• Political Blame and Strategy

  • “Generally speaking, the American people do not like shutdowns as a means of negotiation…” – Scott (10:43)
  • Current surveys blame Republicans more than Democrats.
  • Dems focus on health care subsidies as a moral and tactical wedge.

  Quote:
  “They're embedding government workers in the midst of the firefight for no other reason than they say they'll be martyrs. On behalf of our great Republican battle.” – Scott (13:56)

• Democratic Messaging

  • Strong support for Bernie and AOC’s messaging: “They look terrific together. They were very articulate about what they want. This is all we want: that people shouldn’t have their healthcare doubled in price.” – Kara (14:06)
  • Scott suggests Dems “go right into enemy territory” to show the impact on Republican voters (18:16).

• Republican Posture

  • Senator Thune referenced as a reasonable figure: “He obviously has conservative values… But he is in the seat he should be.” – Scott (15:47)
  • GOP’s most effective talking point is resisting hostage tactics and keeping negotiation in Congress (19:47).

• Consequences & Outlook

  • “We keep just kicking the can down the road until we actually get reasonable people… This is just gonna keep happening over and over.” – Scott (20:46)
  • Kara: “I don't think they're gonna peel anybody else off… this is ridiculous.” (21:01)
  • Both note concerns about Trump’s mental state, referencing odd behavior and public statements.

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4. Electronic Arts’ $55B Buyout & Saudi Sovereign Fund (22:29 – 29:35)

• Overview

  • EA is being taken private, in part by the Saudi sovereign fund, Silverlake, and Jared Kushner’s firm—marking the largest LBO ever.

• Tech & Geopolitical Implications

  • “The Gulf is desperately trying to diversify away from a fossil fuel economy… Gaming is bigger than the TV and motion picture industries combined.” – Scott (24:43)
  • Kara raises concern about EA’s historic struggles to innovate compared to Asian rivals (27:25).
  • Scott likens EA to “Tom Brady … maybe not winning Super Bowls, but it's young and it's strong and it's vibrant.” (28:30)
  • Both agree the Saudis are leveraging pop culture and tech to build soft power.

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5. OpenAI’s Sora 2 & the Copyright “Opt-Out” Controversy (32:23 – 38:03)

• Major News

  • OpenAI’s new video app, Sora 2, will use copyrighted content unless creators opt out. Studios and talent agencies are furious.

• Analysis & Critique

  • “Do not crawl my shit. Of course, if I want to use someone else's likeness… does Rogue have to call me before? … No, there's no such thing.” – Scott (33:23)
  • Kara blasts Silicon Valley’s copyright attitude: “They're thieves. Years ago, Walt Mossberg called Facebook and Google and all of them rapacious information thieves. And let's add OpenAI to that list.” (36:18)
  • Both foresee lawsuits but predict companies like OpenAI will profit well before courts catch up, following YouTube’s historical playbook.

• AI Companions & Synthetic Relationships

  • Scott reveals his own AI avatar project with Google Labs, “Prof. G. AI”, designed to answer life questions—but expresses deep discomfort after launch.
  • Kara: “Some of the stuff they're making with AI to me is solving problems that aren’t that big. … It seems like a lot of this stuff is not problems we have.” (42:41)
  • Scott: “I have slowly but surely come to believe that these synthetic relationships have more downside than upside.” (43:34)
  • Scott had “Prof. G AI” pulled down 12 hours after launch, citing ethical concerns and fears of impacting real human mentorship for young men.

  Quote:
  “The most rewarding things in life … come from navigating, figuring out shit and then the victory of doing really hard things. And there's nothing harder than having relationships.” – Scott (46:21)

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6. Pete Hegseth’s Rant: Fat-Shaming and Political Theater in the Military (52:11 – 59:45)

• Event Recap

  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth berates senior military officials for being “fat” and unkempt; Trump follows up with threats and similar rhetoric.
  • “Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations … and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals…” – Hegseth (52:25)
  • Kara: “Trump followed the sentiment. Let's listen to a clip. Someone who happens to be actually fat.” (52:51)

• Host Reactions & Critique

  • Scott: “There has never been … a room with more competence, bravery, honor, humility … and for a guy who was … I mean, first off, I'm very into fitness ... but … being demeaning to that room is literally … is laughable.” (54:26)
  • Both denounce the performative, petty focus on looks. “This guy is white. Speaking of individualistic, this guy just relishes in it… and to act like he's some paradigm is kind of fucking ridiculous.” – Kara (56:17)
  • Both see Hegseth’s action as a personal branding stunt ahead of a potential presidential run.

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7. YouTube, Lawsuits, and Political Capitulation (60:12–61:50)

• YouTube settles a lawsuit over banning Trump’s account post-January 6 for $24M, following similar moves by Meta and X.
  • Kara: “They did nothing wrong at the time… They shouldn't be paying off these bribes. That's what they are. They're bribes.” (60:12)
  • Scott: “All it means is they're going to come back again. You're setting a really terrible precedent.” (60:50)

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8. Prediction: M&A and the Future of Content Giants (63:46 – 69:47)

• Scott forecasts a tidal wave of M&A, naming Boeing, Intel, and Target as “fallen angels” ripe for privatization.

• Big-Picture Prediction

  • “I think we're going to see a titanic acquisition or merger from Netflix… The gangster merger of the ages would be … Netflix and Disney… This would be the first trillion dollar pure play entertainment company.” – Scott (65:54–68:21)
  • Kara and Scott riff on potential synergies and leadership, naming Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Disney’s IP troves as key assets.

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9. Notable Quote:

• “I will never, ever believe that the way for change is confrontation and aggression, because people change when you reach the heart.” – Jane Goodall, from a 2020 interview excerpt played at the episode’s close (70:10)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Pivot Tour Banter & Teaching Discussion – 01:25–04:50
• Saudi Tech Investment, Khashoggi, & Censorship – 04:50–08:19
• Government Shutdown Analysis – 08:19–22:29
• EA Private Acquisition/Geopolitics – 22:29–29:35
• OpenAI Sora 2, Copyright, & AI Companions – 32:23–48:31
• Military/ Hegseth Rant & Reaction – 52:11–59:45
• Tech Lawsuits, YouTube Settlement – 60:12–61:50
• Predictions: Netflix–Disney Merger, M&A – 63:46–69:47
• Jane Goodall Tribute – 70:10

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Memorable Quotables

• “Do not crawl my shit.” – Scott Galloway on OpenAI (33:23)
• “They're thieves… rapacious information thieves.” – Kara Swisher on Silicon Valley’s copyright ethos (36:18)
• “Synthetic relationships have more downside than upside.” – Scott Galloway (43:34)
• “To lecture these people on leadership… is laughable.” – Scott Galloway on Hegseth’s military speech (54:26)
• “If he [Hegseth] runs for president on the Republican side, I will donate money to his campaign. Cuz that means the next president is going to be a Democrat.” – Scott Galloway (59:31)
• “The most rewarding things in life… come from navigating, figuring out shit and then the victory of doing really hard things.” – Scott Galloway (46:21)
• “The greatest yeses in your life involve one thing. A shit ton of no’s.” – Scott Galloway (49:17)
• “Be Jane Goodall, everybody.” – Kara Swisher, closing (70:10)

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Tone & Style

• The episode brims with Kara and Scott’s signature mix of dry wit, sarcasm, and unfiltered honesty. The hosts alternate between policy seriousness and humorous asides—never hesitating to roast public figures or the tech industry itself.
• Both hosts maintain their critical, occasionally cynical lens, but also show moments of vulnerability, especially regarding AI’s social consequences and the state of the country.

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This episode is essential listening for anyone following the intersection of technology, politics, ethics, and culture, delivered with brutal candor and a touch of levity.

Transcript

[Scott Galloway]

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[Kara Swisher]

Send me Scott AI, because I'm going to have some times with him. Hi, everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media podcast network. I'm Kara Swisher.

[Scott Galloway]

Can you get over how excited people are about our tour?

[Kara Swisher]

I know they are. Let's discuss it. Let's discuss it. We're selling very brisk ticket sales, it looks like.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, we're already, I think, like half sold out in San Francisco. I think that's mostly because of you. Yeah, or people are showing up to heckle Toronto. Toronto.

[Kara Swisher]

Toronto. We're almost. We're like half sold out there. More than half sold out there.

[Scott Galloway]

So just to remind people, DC, New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, LA. Did I miss anything?

[Kara Swisher]

No, I don't think so. Wait. 7.

[Scott Galloway]

The best comment, though, when we announced it was. Just say it. You hate Arizona.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, I know. People got mad. Other cities got mad at us. We'll come to those cities. We will come to those cities. Which I think we probably should have included another Midwestern city besides Chicago.

[Scott Galloway]

No, no, no, no. The biggest miss is Miami. Daddy Loves the hotties.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, you're right. Miami would be good. Yeah, but we should go to. Well, except if we go to some city, they're like, who the fuck are you? Like, that would be. There are so many cities that would be like that. Like Altoona, Pennsylvania, for example.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I think that's mostly cities that aren't on the coast with, like a ton of liberal universities. I love Kara Swisher. She's my hero. She's here, quote, unquote, teaching. And that is stories about how awesome she is for 20 minutes.

[Kara Swisher]

No, no, that's not how I'm teaching. No. In fact, the school complimented me because she said all these people who do these kind of things come in and tell war stories, and I don't. I talk to the students and engage them on the topics of the day. It's like a mini pivot. Like we talked about the comedy thing.

[Scott Galloway]

Mini pivot. That sounds compelling. Talked about sorting, except they're paying $7,000.

[Kara Swisher]

No, no, it's good. It's a good course.

[Scott Galloway]

I love famous teachers. They always add a lot of value.

[Kara Swisher]

I also get to hang out with Alex.

[Scott Galloway]

They tell people to follow their passion after they're already rich, having made their billions from iron ore smelting.

[Kara Swisher]

Let me just say, you have the professor, you have Prof. G, and you haven't been inside a classroom in, what, 69 years or something?

[Scott Galloway]

I taught a class the other day. Stop it.

[Kara Swisher]

Where? Where?

[Scott Galloway]

First section. My AI.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, but not at a university, correct?

[Scott Galloway]

No, I've been at Oxford recently. I'm going to King's College soon. I still show up in the classroom.

[Kara Swisher]

But the university you're assign to you.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, them. New York University. It's amazing they still keep me on faculty. I think it's because you know why they do. I mentioned more in applications than any other prompt at this point.

[Kara Swisher]

Of course you are. You're very popular. You're very. You're a popular.

[Scott Galloway]

And then they show up and get pissed off I'm not there.

[Kara Swisher]

And write letters to the administration. Have you thought about doing a course there or not? You just.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, when I move back, I'll start teaching you then.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, good. Oh, that'll be nice. You know, they tried to give me the professor designation on the syllabus and I took it off. I didn't feel like I deserved it.

[Scott Galloway]

Because you're so humble. That's what people know you for, is your humility.

[Kara Swisher]

Hostile thing. You know why I think you're hostile? Because most people agreed with me on the comic Thing. Did you notice in the comments on Kimmel Kara? No, on the comics that went. You know the place where you're gonna laugh your head off? Saudi Arabia.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, Riyadh. Oh, what a shocker. The wokesters weighed in. I love how people are virtuous with other people's money.

[Kara Swisher]

Whenever you lose an argument, you always are like, it's the woksters. It's bots.

[Scott Galloway]

No, I blame it on Russian bots. That's my go to.

[Kara Swisher]

No, they were, like, scary.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, should we pull out our military bases or the universities there?

[Kara Swisher]

You know what?

[Scott Galloway]

I actually do. I actually do. But no, don't let Bill Burr go.

[Kara Swisher]

No, actually, you know what? He had the lamest excuse, I have to say. I was sort of like, what did they say?

[Scott Galloway]

Why don't they all just say, I want the money?

[Kara Swisher]

He didn't. He was like, you know, they're regular people. They have McDonald's there.

[Scott Galloway]

Literally.

[Kara Swisher]

I was like, you're stupid now. You're an idiot. Like, he's like, oh, my goodness. They're not on camels. I'm like, no, they're the richest people on the fucking planet. My friends.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm going to Alua, one of the coolest tourist places or sites in the world. World. I love the people there. I want Americans to move there and make a shit ton of money. I want to secure our fossil fuel energy pipeline. If Israel and the kingdom normalize relations, it'll be like the Iron Dome for Israel. MBS is keeping the fucking crazies in line. Unlike some of the others. They're reforming like crazy.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, that's because he's brutal.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm going to bear hug the kingdom. Invite me.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, my God. I'm not going. You know when I wrote that piece about them in the New York Times many years ago.

[Scott Galloway]

Are you teaching a class in Michigan right now? Well, I'm glad you asked that. When I wrote a piece in the Atlantic.

[Kara Swisher]

Let me just say, as I was.

[Scott Galloway]

Touching myself to Rachel Maddow.

[Kara Swisher]

You're so insecure. You're so wildly insecure. Anyway, I wrote a piece about why they're still investing.

[Scott Galloway]

Have you seen me naked? It's common sense. I'm insecure.

[Kara Swisher]

Right? I haven't seen you naked. And this is something. This is gonna be part of our tour, is me seeing you naked. I actually have seen you partially naked many times.

[Scott Galloway]

Unfortunately, so has everyone else.

[Kara Swisher]

I know, that's true. But not the full monty. I have not seen full monty.

[Scott Galloway]

Daddy brings the egg salad, but the good egg salad with A little bit of bacon and the mayonnaise.

[Kara Swisher]

Let me finish my point.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm sorry.

[Kara Swisher]

I wrote a piece about why tech went to get money from the Gulf right after Khashoggi. Right? It was immediately after Khashoggi. And I was like, can't they go to Singapore or can't they go to. Like, there's so many other choices and stuff. And it was a really interesting debate because a lot of people in Silicon Valley, also very similar to this, were like, we shouldn't be taking money from them. We should be taking money from Singapore.

[Scott Galloway]

No, I agree. When they murder a journalist, we should make companies less competitive and reduce the prosperity of people working for those companies.

[Kara Swisher]

You know, they dismembered him and, like, took video of him.

[Scott Galloway]

He murdered him. I acknowledge that. I think it was a stupid, vile thing to do.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, okay. They've done a lot of stupid, vile things. So my point is, someone contacted me from Saudi. People who knew the Saudis was like, don't go to Saudi Arabia, Karen Swisher. I was like, okay, because I called him a thug.

[Scott Galloway]

But just a quick question. How many kids will be shot in Saudi schools today?

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, my God. Stop it. Don't do that. Don't do it.

[Scott Galloway]

How many. How many people in the Kingdom do not have health care?

[Kara Swisher]

We are not the same.

[Scott Galloway]

How many people in the Kingdom are going to go bankrupt when they find out their wife has lung cancer?

[Kara Swisher]

How many women are allowed to do everything that they're supposed to? How many gay people get to survive? Scott, we're not doing this.

[Scott Galloway]

They have shame. They have absolute agenda apartheid. And it's terrible. And the only good thing you can say about it, but you need to acknowledge it, is it's headed in the right direction. And our gender apartheid is headed in the wrong direction.

[Kara Swisher]

That is correct. But we're still far apart. I'm sorry. You're not gonn.

[Scott Galloway]

Sorry.

[Kara Swisher]

The United States is even in. The state it's in is.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm not even getting paid to be a mouthpiece for the king.

[Kara Swisher]

You really are.

[Scott Galloway]

Somebody send me a check.

[Kara Swisher]

Send him a check. You're gonna get into the comments, everyone. All the woke commenters. We're gonna move on. But nonetheless, I am correct and I won the fight.

[Scott Galloway]

My tagline should be, I don't read the comments.

[Kara Swisher]

I don't read the. You do read the comments, though. I think that it was a good debate. And I think, you know in your heart of hearts that it was kind of sky me for those. For the comics to do it. I'm not, I'm not thrilled with the military base. I'm not thrilled, but I get it. But comic to sign the censorship thing, I'm going to just stick with my guns on this. Anyway, we have a lot to get to today. I'm going to have the last word there, including OpenAI launching a new video app. That's actually fascinating. What's been going on. Pete Hegseth of course, ranting at top military officials about beards and outfits. But first, the US Government officially shut down this week. Kind of a big deal after Congress failed to reach a deal on funding. As of this recording, it doesn't look like this is getting settled anytime soon. The White House is now withholding billions of dollars in funding for Democratic led states and preparing to carry out massive layoffs. Democrats are calling Trump erratic and unhinged. He does seem a little bit more so and say he's more focused on posting deep fake videos of Hakeem Jeffries and sombreros than negotiating. Meanwhile, about 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed and services across the government are being disrupted. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is suspending operations, so no jobs reports and other key economic data for the time being. They're also targeting blue states. Roosevelt is saying it explicitly. I'm going to ask your overall thoughts and the best messaging for both parties right now and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the political economic consequences. But I did talk to some Trump people yesterday. Some of the more reasonable Trump people, which there are. There are indeed. I hate to tell you, but there are. And they were slightly worried because the crazies have taken over in the Trump White House and they were talking about things like this was crazy that it should last 47 days because that's the number of his presidency. They're like Taylor Swift, they're like Swifties. These people, they're interested in numbers and that they're very interested in a full. They're talking about a full like prostration of Democrats. Some of the reasonable Trumpies are worried that nothing's gonna happen. And of course everyone alludes to his mental issues like that he's really losing a step or two. It's been noticeable in several of his appearances. So any. Anyway, so that was kind of frightening to think about, like sort of the crazier people in charge of the situation with no interest in negotiating.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, generally speaking, the American people do not like shutdowns as a means of negotiation over policy and spending. Their attitude is, and I think this is the right or an understandable viewpoint is that you're supposed to figure this out of the ballot box negotiations on legislative process. You're not supposed to be taking the budget and the operations of the country and the livelihood of government workers hostage. And it has not worked in the past. The last couple shutdowns were threats from the Republicans who wanted funding for a wall or wanted cuts to Obamacare and they blinked because the nation said squarely, don't use this as a tool for negotiating public policy. Having said that, can I just make a note?

[Kara Swisher]

The last three have been under Trump, but go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

So. So anyways, my point is these things don't usually work and Americans aren't fond of using this as a political cudgel or wrench. Having said that, and there might be some bias here, I think if you look at the surveys, the majority of the blame so far is being levied at Republicans or more blame, I should say. It's like 34 to 24. And the Democrats here and the leadership are being shockingly strategic.

[Kara Swisher]

Explain.

[Scott Galloway]

They are not saying, oh no, we want to renegotiate, appreciate the tariff nonsense or we want you to stop these rounding up people with ice. They have been very pointed. We want you to extend subsidies so people can have health care because people are about potentially millions of Americans are going to see their healthcare become unaffordable and it's going to primarily target the most needy. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Democrats demand around that would have more impact positively if they get what they want on Republicans. So I think they are strategically going after an issue that is both the moral high ground and a function of affordability and likely to divide the Republican base. And in addition, the Democrats were just screaming out with two words, three words, do fucking something. This is something, this is saying, okay, sorry, you've got to come to the table. So. So I actually think this is strategically. And again, there's a lot of bad things about this. But keep in mind folks, when the Republicans say if they continue to do this, if they continue this battle, we're going to fire people. Not because those people don't add value, not because those people aren't important to landing planes safely on runways, not because those people aren't important to defend our shores, not because those people don't ensure that lower and middle income people can enjoy one of the great assets of the earth and that is our national parks. We're taking the Hamas approach and we're just gonna embed them in this fight. Even if they get killed or put out of work, that is just a pure collateral damage hostage strategy. They have said to Democrats, if you do this, we're gonna start firing innocents.

[Kara Swisher]

And also we're gonna target your stuff. It's explicitly political, it's explicit.

[Scott Galloway]

They're embedding government workers in the midst of the firefight for no other reason than they say they'll be martyrs. On behalf of our great Republican battle.

[Kara Swisher]

Which some of them want. Let's be clear. Let me just say some of them. I mean, you can see Russell Vogt getting hard on about firing people and getting rid of government. It's very clear. Same thing with Stephen Miller, who's demented. He gave a demented speech about immigrants the other day. More demented. And let me just caveat that when think about the messaging so far. Now, I sent you the Bernie Sanders and AOC1, which I thought was adorable. Great messaging, great messaging. They look terrific together. They were very articulate about what they want. This is all we want, was people shouldn't have their healthcare doubled in price. Right. It was pretty clear what is the next step to do. Because I think that, you know, John Thune is sort of puffing at his. Who seems to be a reasonable person away from Trump. Right. He seems to be one of your typical decent legislators who has been pretzeled in the Trump administration. But he's sort of going, yeah, we're not doing anything. I mean, I know that's a posture, and I'm not a particularly good news negotiator because I'm like, this is what I want. This is what I want. I just want this. Thank you. I'm not strategic that way or tactical, I guess. But he's sort of doing the posturing. And I think from talking to some Trump people, there's a group in the White House which is like, let's let it last forever. Like, this is great. They're giddy.

[Scott Galloway]

The anti government techno libertarians. Just let it all burn down. Let's start over.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, exactly. And so how do they thread that needle? What he's saying, we're not going to negotiate until the government is open again and then we'll cover this. And the Democrats should be saying, we don't trust you. Essentially. Correct. I mean, I don't know what would be the posture for each of them going forward?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, so I'm a big fan of Senator Thunes, mostly because he's just very handsome and in great shape.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes. I love his hair.

[Scott Galloway]

He does strike me. I've actually Met the senator. I think he's a reasonable guy. He obviously has conservative values, represents conservative states, South Dakota. But he is a. He's in the seat, he should be. And I think he will be a productive member, productive majority leader, and a productive, hopefully someday minority leader. What I would do, and I had a phone call on this last night, is I would take U.S. senators. And so Senator Warner did a great job. Someone, and it might have even been a planner question saying, why do you continue to advocate for giving health care to illegal aliens? And he immediately said, and this is what is so just mendacious about the Republican talking points right now, folks. We are not going to have a country, we're not going to have a democracy. We're going to turn to Ouija boards and horoscopes if there is not an objective truth. And the objective truth is there is no law or legislation in effect or being proposed that would give health insurance to illegal aliens. And yet Speaker Johnson continues to go on these shows and say this lie, and then they fact check him and he just starts talking about, well, no, that's not true. It's like, well, okay, Speaker Johnson, you didn't answer the question because you know you're lying. And also, what do we want? We want people dying in the streets. Oh, I'm sorry, you don't have an effective visa. We're gonna let you bleed out here in the parking lot. So Senator Warner immediately said, the premise of your question is factually incorrect. No one is proposing or asking for coverage for illegal immigrants, what they should be doing. And my advice to the person I was speaking to in comms yesterday, I would take your. I would literally send 500, you know, what is it? 535 congresspeople out to districts, specifically Republican districts. And I would interview people on their porches who clearly look, smell and feel Republican and talk to them about what it would mean if their premiums for Obamacare double. I'd go right into enemy territory.

[Kara Swisher]

Quote, unquote, you know, that's what Bernie and AOC are about to do.

[Scott Galloway]

And go right in and say, hi, who are you? I'm so and so. I'm a single mother. I struggle with diabetes. My kid has cerebral palsy. I don't know what I'm gonna do. I don't know what I'm gonna do. I would go right into the deepest red estates, which, by the way, tend to be the ones that need the most federal funding.

[Kara Swisher]

That's right.

[Scott Galloway]

And make it very human. Who did you vote for last time? All of them are gonna say Trump. Okay, fine, let's get that out of the way. Tell us about your healthcare. Tell us about what would happen to you if this resolution goes through and there's not an agreement to keep the tax credits or funding for Obamacare premiums. What would happen to you and your children? And then show their Trump flags. We are in Trump country. Because the smartest thing about I think what Leader Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Schumer are doing is they're fighting over a topic that's gonna divide Republicans.

[Kara Swisher]

So let me ask you another question, because one of the other talking points is that Schumer is doing this at the behest of the left. He's worried about being primaried by aoc. And so they're pulling. They're being. Being pushed into the shutdown by the left. I've just noticed that one as a big talking point.

[Scott Galloway]

It's hard for me to relate to, quote, unquote, the other side. I don't think that's a very effective talking point.

[Kara Swisher]

What is their most effective talking point then? What would you do?

[Scott Galloway]

If you're the Republicans, the most effective talking point is the following. That shutdowns are not meant to be taken. The government is not meant to be taken hostage. We negotiate policy in the chambers of Congress and at the voting, at the ballot box, which Thune was saying, that's their most effective message. I hate to say it, if it were true, providing health care to illegal immigrants would be an effective talking point. I think the Democrats and the media has done their job here. I thought George Stephanopoulos was actually quite strong on this. He just pushed back and said, that is not true. That is just not true. I think that's gotten out there that it's not true.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, but I think they'll do anything.

[Scott Galloway]

I think a guy like Thune standing up there just saying, look, we can't continue to have these shutdowns. And then of course, once the Democrats in charge, they'll threaten, they'll take the shutdowns hostage.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. It only goes to November 19, I think. It doesn't even solve the problem. Right? That's the thing. It just kicks the fucking can.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, that's it. We keep just kicking the can down the road until we actually get reasonable people to say, all right, at some point we gotta stop behaving irresponsibly and stop spending $7 trillion on 5 trillion in receipts. This is just gonna keep happening over and over.

[Kara Swisher]

They do think they're gonna peel off Democrats. They Peeled off, obviously Fetterman, who he's essentially Republican, and then the independent guy, and then they peeled off the Nevada senator who just didn't believe in shutdowns. But I don't think they're gonna peel anybody else off. I don't think they're gonna peel. I was talking to Tina Smith last week in Minnesota. Very centrist, very reasonable. She's like, no way. She didn't seem lefty to me. She's just like, this is ridiculous. We're gonna to, you know, this is. We're not. She was adamant about the situation. So I don't think they're going to appeal anyone. And she would be someone you could peel off, presumably.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't know. These things have a habit of. I wouldn't be surprised if they come to some sort of accommodation where the Republicans say, okay, we'll give you something around. We'll give you something that results in funding for these healthcare premiums and we'll pretend that it was already in the bill or something.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. Oh, the Republicans will do that.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I think they'll figure out a way because. Because he will own. There's so much chaos surrounding the President right now, and this has been a bad week for him. I've always pushed back when people say, oh, he's senile. I've always said, I think President Trump comes across as remarkably robust. I think he's dumb, I think he's strategically totally inept. I think he goes on, rambles on weird shit. But I've always thought he presents as robust.

[Kara Swisher]

I don't know, I'm just telling you, go watch some. I'll send you some videos. Cuz I'm like. It reminds me of his father, in fact, Fred Trump, who they pretended he was just fine, but we'll see. We're not doctors, but.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, hold on. For the first time, yeah, but we have eyes and ears. If you met my dad in the last year, you would say, okay, he should probably not be president. So look, the President, in the last week has had a couple instances, specifically the one that sent the shivers down my spine when he said, oh, so we're sending two submarines. I'm not going to tell you. We're off the coast of Russia and there's two N words and you can't say either of them. And it's like, like, Jesus Christ, has this guy lost his shit?

[Kara Swisher]

What am I seeing on tv? Is that real?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I was just. I thought, is this AI? And his voice was weak and.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, I think something's going down. Anyway, we're going to move on. Video game maker Electronic Arts is being taken private in a deal valued at $55 billion and largest leveraged buyout of all time. The investor group includes Saudis, the Saudis Sovereign wealth fund, private equity firm silverlake, Jared Kushner's firm, Affinity Partners. Obviously, Jared is right, the frigging center of this. And also for people who don't know mbs Love stays up all night and plays video games. Apparently, that's what I was told by several people who hang with him. The deal requires approval from the committee on foreign investment in the U.S. but it's. Please, it's going through. It's because it's Jared Kushner. Scott, you and I predicted in March that we would see a deal like this. Let's listen. I bet a lot of these companies may go private. Do you ever see one of the very big companies going private?

[Scott Galloway]

That is an excellent point. If you look at some of the fallen angels and you look at the amount of money capital sitting on the sidelines in private Equity, it's over $4 trillion of capital waiting to be deployed. I think we're going to see. I did my predictions deck yesterday. I think we're going to see the biggest take private in history this year.

[Kara Swisher]

There we had it. We were so smart. We called it. What do you think of this deal? And others will follow suit, obviously, the players. I know Egan pretty well. Obviously, Kushner was right in the middle of it because of his. His close ties to the Saudis and is getting the money from them. You know, it's a big deal to go private. The guy. The company has sort of struggled over the years, although they have some hits. It's run by this Australian guy who's a surfer. He got all tight with Egan. And then they have houses next to each other in Hawaii, apparently. And then they pulled in Kushner, obviously, who was the unguent here, whatever the grease in this particular.

[Scott Galloway]

So putting Kushner aside. And again, the Democrats are corrupt. They just do it for small ball, right? Hunter Biden shouldn't have been on the board of any company. He just shouldn't have been. But he gets hundreds of thousands of dollars. And Jared says, oh, I know how to be nepo corrupt, but I'm gonna do it for billions. And not only that, he hasn't done anything illegal. He's raised money on the back of his father's influence, and he's doing a big deal. These deals are not easy to get done. And so congratulations. To him, this is a smart deal. First off, essentially, the Gulf is desperately trying to diversify away from a fossil fuel economy. And they know that the oil runs out. They're not sure if it's 30 years or 80 years, but they basically got. The bad news is they have to diversify away from this fossil fuel economy. The good news is they have almost limitless capital to do it. So gaming, which is bigger than the TV and motion picture industries combined, it doesn't nearly get the amount of attention it deserves, is a huge industry. It's intellectual property. It would invite a new generation of young people. The other companies they have investments in are better in mobile. And also since 2020, the gaming industry stocks have underperformed the market. And so this thing was, I don't want to say was on sale, but what you have with Electronic Arts is they're kind of dominant in the old world and that is consoles and handsets and you go buy a game. The future is around mobile and free. And when you look at the amount of time that young people who are very attractive consumers, especially young men, spend on video games relative to the advertising they capture, there's an enormous. Remember those graphs, those charts we used to see that would show people spend 7% of their time reading newspapers and newspapers get 19% of ad dollars and people spend 30% of their time on the Internet, but It's only getting 4% of ad dollars. This is like 20 years ago. You knew that eventually they would calibrate to the time spent essentially ad dollars effectively lag but eventually catch up to where attention is the big opportunity. And the Kingdom has some investments in companies that are really good with mobile and free. The company had underperformed. It diversifies the economy in the Gulf. I like it because I think it brings us closer together. I really, you know, my bet and hope is that the Kingdom goes capitalist and continues to party in Mykonos as opposed to goes going Islamist and fundamentalist which the older folks leadership wants. So I like this deal. I think it kind of works for everybody.

[Kara Swisher]

You know, EA has always. We've had the heads of EA at my various conferences years ago and years ago and they were always sort of struggling in the digital age. Like, you know, I mean, obviously video games are digital on some level, but it was always like they moved from executive to executive. They had a lot of executive sturm and Drang over at that company. And the question is where is. Are they going to be able to compete with the ones from China, the ones from all over the World, Japan and everywhere else. And I think they've always had an issue with that. And so they definitely need the money. Right. In order to try to reassert themselves. But they kind of remind me, I know it sounds crazy but like, of a broadcast like cbs, like, oh, what are you going to do with this piece of shit like Ellison? Oh, no, no, no, because they were older. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm just saying EA always had, always seemed behind the 8 ball constantly compared to especially China or any of the other many video Korea. All the, all the different places where really interesting innovations were happening.

[Scott Galloway]

No, no. Okay. So I would just say that to kind of try and personalize this or humanize it. I would say EA is Tom Brady and that okay, maybe it's not winning Super Bowls, but it's young and it's strong and it's vibrant. CBS is Tom Jones, I mean awesome in the 70s, sexy in the 70s, but you know, on his final, you know, on the back nine. By the way, I love Tom Jones.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, I'm just looking at their.

[Scott Galloway]

What's up pussycat? Whoa, whoa, whoa. God, that guy's a genius. That guy's a genius.

[Kara Swisher]

They have the, they have all the sports, sports stuff. Madden was their bit but their sports were, are the biggest, most important games. And that does dovetail into the Saudis with their investments in sports and things like live golf.

[Scott Galloway]

It's a great, it's a great take. Private.

[Kara Swisher]

What's the next one? What's the next one?

[Scott Galloway]

The next one? Well, that's my big prediction at the end of the show and I'm excited about it.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, wait. Okay. All right. Okay, let's go on a quick break. When We Come Back, OpenAI's new video app is stirring up copyright concerns. What a surprise. Foreign.

[Scott Galloway]

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[Kara Swisher]

Scott we're back with more news. OpenAI is taking on TikTok Reels and YouTube with a new AI video generator app, Sora 2. The app will feature user generated clips and feeds with algorithm driven recommendations. Notably, Sora 2 will include copyrighted content unless copyright holders opt out. What a what a fucking instead of what? Anyway, OpenAI has been notifying studios and talent agencies about that over the last week. They're losing their minds, obviously. Meta also just introduced Vibes, a feed of AI generated videos that will live in the Meta AI app. You know, a lot of it is AI slop. Some of it is funny. Gavin Newsom has been making fantastic Sora or different AI generated videos, making fun of Trump and Vance and everything else, which are quite good. But talk about the copyright opt out. And Disney just separately sent character AI a cease and desist letter to stop using its copyrighted characters without authorization. Talk a little bit about this. What will happen here?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I just want to send a message to Sundar and Satya and Sam, I opt out. Take this as notice I'm opting out. Do not crawl my shit. Of course, of course. If I want to play, if I want to use someone else's likeness or if I want to start playing, I don't know if I want to start reproducing. I'm in my gym right now and I'm looking at my weights and they say rogue. If I wanted to start in China producing plates that said Rogue on them, does Rogue have to call me before and say they're opting out of IP protection? No, there's no such thing. The whole point of IP is people don't have the time to send a letter to everybody and say we opt out.

[Kara Swisher]

Why do you think they think they can do this? This reminds me of, remember YouTube kind of played this game and then later did the deals. They just went ahead and did it. Remember they said you have to find your stolen content and tell us. Remember that one many years ago?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, this is the dynamic at play and that is these companies with a leadership position that is helped by ignoring laws by starting your ride hailing app in Argentina without going through the bureaucratic process of getting business licenses. By showing that kind of growth in this market, you make so much fucking money that it's worth it to face the legal ramifications. So they've done the math and they've said if we can maintain the kind of growth we're going to have by molesting other people's IPs, even if it eventually gets swatted down in court, we'll have more than enough money. We're better off economically. It's the analogy I've been using for 10 years when there's a parking meter in front of your house and it costs $100 an hour, but the ticket is 50 cents, you break the law. And that's what they're doing here. They're saying they know this will eventually work its way through courts. The biggest IP owners in the world will hit them hard and they will start paying similar to what YouTube has mostly done. YouTube used to be able to put anything on your videos. A Beyonce song to start it, whatever.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, they did. Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And now they have said, okay. And they've done these deals just about the moment it became after they spent hundreds of millions of dollars pushing back open. Sam has already said, oh my gosh, take a billion dollars and give it to the meanest, baddest lawyers and delay an obfuscate which a decision which will clearly come down against us because between now and then and any fee they come up with, we're gonna get another quarter of a trillion dollars in market cap by offering funny memes of the family Guy starring in a Star wars film with Darth Vader and everyone will have their hair on fire. But by the time they actually get a judge to say, no, you can't do this, they'll have accreted another 100 or $150 billion in market cap.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, exactly. This is such. This was the sort of the YouTube playbook. And I remember when YouTube said, you need to find and tell us, I was like, why don't you not create a thieving service? Like you have to tell us who's shoplifting. You know, we've given them shoplifting tools, but it was really astonishing. And the idea that they, all of them, the character AI, there's Disney stuff on there. There's so many, so much copyright thievery happening again. And they just, they do it over and over again. And it's sort of like Lucy in the football with Charlie Brown with the media companies. I mean, ultimately, again, this has to be stronger copyright protections in Congress, presumably. But it's really quite astonishing that they continue to have this much cheek. They're thieves. Years ago, Walt Mossberg called Facebook and Google and all of them rapacious information thieves. And let's add OpenAI to that list. One good thing they did after people died, they rolled out some parental controls this week, allowing parents to adjust settings on their teens account. And they'll also be notified if an account shows signs of potential self harm. Let's see how well they do that. I can't believe they didn't do that in the first Fucking place. But there they are. There they are. Now in this genre, a lot of people in Hollywood are also up in arms over AI generated quote unquote actress that some talent agencies are reported looking to sign. She's a very attractive actress and looks very real. And they sort of must have crafted her out of a bunch of appealing actresses. Her name's Tilly Norwood and she, she's really quite appealing. I have to agree. And so they're going crazy because they didn't make it out of anybody. But it looks like they made it out of all of them. But you're in the AI mix right now. I'm disturbed by AI Scott Galloway picture that you sent me. You partnered with Google Labs for a new project called Portraits. They created an AI version of you to answer your questions and provide life and career advice. Let's listen to this AI Scott answer a question.

[Scott Galloway]

Hey, it's Pop G. Ready to get started? I got a good job offer, but it's in a random town. What should I do? A job offer in a random town. That's a classic fork in the road. What kind of job is it and what are your career goals long term?

[Kara Swisher]

Oh wow, you sound so. Not you but you kind of you adjacent. So talk about this. How are you feeling about it?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I'm genuine. I, I want your view on this because quite frankly how I feel about it has changed dramatically about. I get between 10 and 30 emails a day from usually thoughtful young men, sometimes mothers asking for mostly professional and career advice or sometimes investment advice. I'm 30. Am I too old to go back to business school? I have gotten into this school with a full ride but the better school's not giving me money. What should I do? How do I astro raise those kinds of questions? And they're usually really thoughtful young men who take a lot of time to write to me. And I can't get back to all of them. I can't get back to 1% of them.

[Kara Swisher]

And you feel bad? You feel bad?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. You don't know. You don't want to do an automatic response. You feel like you're ignoring them. I'm constantly virtue signaling about trying to help young men and then some young man takes a ton of time. I don't respond to people under the age of 18 because I think men should not have. Not for, you know, know, not for anything terrible. But parents should decide what the influences are in terms of their kids life. Anyways, so about 18 months ago we built a thin layer of innovation on top of an LLM and created Prof. AI, and it answered about two or 300 questions a day. We thought it was really cool. And then about nine months ago, a woman who is one of my graduate student instructors at A.T. stern, who is just so impressive, I'd use her name, but I don't want to get her in trouble. She's just an incredibly impressive, confident person, came to me and said, we can do this, but much better. At Google Labs, we're going to launch a series of thought leaders to answer questions. There's no money involved.

[Kara Swisher]

So it's an AI masterclass, essentially. Right? Is that the.

[Scott Galloway]

So the idea is that people who want to answer questions and that you might get some benefit from understanding how they feel about things, but you don't have access to them. And it's from Google Labs. I felt sort of funny in the beginning about working with Alphabet, but I really trust this person and think a lot of her.

[Kara Swisher]

So they ingested all your things.

[Scott Galloway]

So they crawled every podcast, every newsletter, every public appearance, and created a visual of me. And I actually think the voice is okay, such that you can ask this thing almost anything. And we spent a lot of time on safeguards. No one under 18, no advice around mental health. But the reality is, in between the time when we started developing it nine months ago and now, Kara, I have become increasingly freaked out about AI companions and synthetic relationships. One, I have a nightmare that I wake up and find out that some kid hurt himself and he had a series of AI relationships, including one with me. I just don't. I would never want to read that. Two, on a more or on a less mendacious level, I'm worried that if I created an ability to have a dialogue with me, that it might someday reduce a young man's motivation and mojo to establish mentorships in the real world with real men, with real teacher, their dad's friend, their scout leader, whatever it is. And so the thing launched. I said to him, look, I'm increasingly uncomfortable with this. I don't know how to reconcile it. I worry that synthetic relationships are attacking what's Mamalia about us, especially among young men.

[Kara Swisher]

So what happens to it? So they ingested it. Do you still have the rights to your things? Like they just. You're lending it to them. What is the situation?

[Scott Galloway]

So one thing I built in was that I can take it down at any time. And what I said to them is, I said, let's launch it for 12 hours and look at the data, because I don't want this out there. I'm just. And quite frankly, Kara, the interview you did with the parents who lost their son really rattled me. And I am increasingly uncomfortable with synthetic relationships, doing anything that replace a young man's mojo to find relationships in the real world.

[Kara Swisher]

So let me ask you sort of a bigger question. Some of the stuff they're making with AI to me is solving problems that aren't that big. Right. I know you can't get to everybody. Right. And I get that. I get that you want to reach out to more people and you want people to avail themselves through your wisdom, et cetera. But. But it seems like a lot of this stuff they're making is not problems we have. Like, you know, and I, and I. And I think it's hurting problems that we have with. What you're just talking about is men, men especially, making mentorship relationships kind of thing. And so what are we solving here by doing this? Except for you feel guilty about not being able to get back to all the young men. Is it a real. Is that the real biggest problem to use all this technology, all this effort? I mean, do you see it as ever being a good thing, except maybe working out? I guess. I guess it's just a better Google, right?

[Scott Galloway]

I think there's more upside. I think if you're 85 and in a state or county seniors home and you've lost the capability to communicate and all your friends are dead and you've lost, for whatever reason, you're strange from your family and you want to talk to someone about the packers, it's almost an age thing for me. I think over 80. Let character AI let them have at it. Because quite frankly, the downside's not that great. Anyone under the age of 18 shouldn't be on a character AI and I have slowly but surely come to believe that these synthetic relationships have more downside than upside.

[Kara Swisher]

I would agree. I would agree. Let me just interject. I just did an interview with Sherry Turkle, very famous MIT psychiatrist, and she's done a lot on this, has been talking about artificial relationships for a long time and sort of everything is now which she had predicted has come home to roost. And one of the things she was noting is it used to be sort of an outlier people did these relationships. She goes, now it's at the date dead center. She has friends who are having trouble with their husbands or wives that are having relationship problems, et cetera, and they.

[Scott Galloway]

Spin up their best gay friend to give them advice.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. Accept that. What it does is say women have issues with men not Listening to them or not being sensitive enough. So now you got a sensitive man talking to you. And men have issues.

[Scott Galloway]

We aren't folks. We all have to learn how to deal with insensitive men.

[Kara Swisher]

That's right. So she was talking about. So. And men like very acquiescent female. Which is why, getting back to Tilly Norwood, she is exactly what Hollywood studios want. An actress who doesn't get old and doesn't act up. Right. Or doesn't start to demand things. And so what Cherry was saying, the one thing that I thought was interesting and I love your observations, is there's no there there. There's nothing behind it except for stuff you inputted. Right. So you're not there. Scott as Scott AI. It's not you really. I think you would react if someone asked you. A general question is one thing, but a more complex question. It just doesn't. You shift and move as a person and this doesn't. And there's no there there. I don't.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, okay. So I don't think it's that there isn't a there there. A repository of all Peter Atty or Andrew Huberman's advice on creatine for women versus men. There's access. And these are neuroscientists who are thoughtful and I think fairly measured. There's value in having access to that put in sort of a narrative format. I do think there's an upside. However. However, I see the downside is that, and I'll be snarky here, women are constantly saying they want a more sensitive man. Well, that just leaves two people in the car crying in a parallel parking spot that is still empty. And that's snarky. But here's the bottom line.

[Kara Swisher]

It's true. I've been in that car.

[Scott Galloway]

The most rewarding things in life, hands down, come from navigating, figuring out shit and then the victory of doing really hard things. And there's nothing harder than having relationships. And that's what's so wonderful about them. Right? When you figure out a way to come together with someone and decide you want to have kids with them, when you figure out a way get your kid off screens and come to some sort of agreement, when you figure out the pecking order of high school and establish your crew and your friends, when you figure out how to navigate all the bullshit and frustration and bureaucracy of work, the end is where Mamalia. And that's what real fucking victory is.

[Kara Swisher]

So what are you gonna do with this thing? Are you gonna kill it?

[Scott Galloway]

This is where I am today. I had them pull it down after 12 hours. And by the way, Google Apps could not have been more cooperative. Empathetic.

[Kara Swisher]

You have a loud platform, but go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, but they spent a lot of time on this and it launched yesterday, and we were gonna let it go for a little bit to look at the data. And I looked at it and I thought, I'm just not down with this. I've got a bad feeling about this. And I email. I text messaged my friend there last night and she said, I'll pull it down right now.

[Kara Swisher]

All right, okay, well, that's what we're gonna do. Can you send it to me so I can hang out with you all the time?

[Scott Galloway]

Can I have it so you can yell at it?

[Kara Swisher]

Yell at it. You know, here's the thing. I don't like Scott AI. I like Scott. That's how I feel about it. And I think it's a really, you know, the only thing I would think about. Years ago, Martha Stewart said she was gonna start Martha. I get it. Put an I at the end of her name. And I thought, okay, for stuff like that, like how to boil an egg, how to make mashed potatoes. That makes perfect sense.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, Robo Advisors are basically synthetic stockbrokers.

[Kara Swisher]

Right? Exactly. And those make. Those kind of things, cooking tips, things like that make sense. Although I do like a good chef talking about cooking. I just. I think you made the right decision. I think you made the decision.

[Scott Galloway]

I find most life lessons come from Twilight Zone, the old series, which, by the way, is the first time I ever saw Robert Redford was in the movie.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, that's right. In that great episode.

[Scott Galloway]

But remember that episode where this guy, this criminal is shot and he goes to heaven and he's in heaven and every woman he approaches says yes and wants to date him? And when he goes up to the blackjack table, it's blackjack every time. And there's huge lines to get into the hottest restaurants. And they're like, right in this way, sir. And he starts getting sick of winning all the time. And he says, come on, guys, this is supposed to be heaven. And the guy turns and goes, my brother, this is not heaven. That's the point.

[Kara Swisher]

Mind blown. Oh, I love Twilight Zone.

[Scott Galloway]

That's the point.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, that's the point.

[Scott Galloway]

The greatest yeses in your life involve one thing. A shit ton of no's. Yeah, that's the whole shooting.

[Kara Swisher]

Could they make Scott AI be more of an asshole? Like, so that it's more like regular life?

[Scott Galloway]

I'm getting there organically. I'm getting there organically.

[Kara Swisher]

What do they have to do? Like what? And tell a dick joke suddenly? Anyway, Scott, let's go on a quick break now and when we get back we'll talk about Hegseth declaring the military free from wokeness and body shaming Generals Support for Pivot comes from LinkedIn jobs as a small business owner, your work hours aren't dictated by the hands on a clock. Your business is on your mind 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Week. So when you're hiring, you need a partner that works just as hard as you do. That hiring partner is LinkedIn Jobs. When you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in by making it easy to post your job, share it with your network and qualified candidates that you can manage all in one place. LinkedIn's new feature can help you write job descriptions and quickly get your job in front of the right people with deep candidate insights. Either post your job for free or pay to promote as promoted jobs. Get three times more qualified applications applicants at the end of the day, LinkedIn wants you to feel confident that you're getting the best because the most important thing to your small business is the quality of candidates. And based on LinkedIn data, 70% of small business owners using LinkedIn say that the platform helps them find high quality candidates. Plus, you can let your network know you're hiring by adding the hashtag hiringframe to your profile picture. To get two times more qualified candidates. Find out why more than 2.5 million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring today. Find your next great hiring on LinkedIn. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com pivot that's LinkedIn.com pivot to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Adobe Acrobat Studio so brand new. Show me all the things PDFs can do. Do your work with ease and speed. PDF Spaces is all you need. Do hours of research in an instant with key insights from an AI assistant. Stick a template with a click now your prezo looks super slick. Close that deal. Yeah, you won. Do that. Doing that. Did that.

[Scott Galloway]

Done. Now you can do that.

[Kara Swisher]

Do that with Acrobat. Now you can do that. Do that with the all new Acrobat. It's time to do your best work with the all new Adobe Acrobat Studio.

[Scott Galloway]

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[Kara Swisher]

Scott. We're back with more news. Defense Secretary Pete Hegg says held nothing back while addressing senior military officials in Virginia this week. Let's listen to some of his and I would have to say it was a crazy rant by someone who has moved on to other substances. It felt like, go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

If the secretary of war can do regular hard pt, so can every member of our joint force. Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It's a bad look. It is bad and it's not who we are.

[Kara Swisher]

Trump followed the sentiment. Let's listen to a clip. Someone who happens to be actually fat. Go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

If you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room.

[Kara Swisher]

Of course.

[Scott Galloway]

There goes your rank. There goes your future.

[Kara Swisher]

Uh huh. That was one of the few laughs. The generals looked horrified by the entire thing. The president also suggested military use, quote, dangerous U.S. cities as, quote, training grounds and told reporters at the White House that he would fire generals on the spot if he didn't like them. Wow, that was a real disaster. I have to say the visuals from the military leadership were sort of set it all. And of course they leaked the hell out of the thing. Also, Heg says focus on looks and outfits. They were expecting a strategic discussion about US Military forces around the world and instead they got a rant by someone who was a lower ranking person and someone who was a five time draft dodger about how to run the military but focused only on looks essentially. Let me tell you one other thing someone else told me was that the reason he did this and it was all from Hegseth, because he is considering a presidential run, which I thought was insane when I heard it, and that people, other forces who are not so keen on Pete Hegseth running for president and think it's ridiculous, got Trump to go to try to ruin his mojo there. I thought it was huge, hugely embarrassing for everybody, especially the military, which had to sit there and put up with it. Any quick thoughts?

[Scott Galloway]

There has never been possibly in history a room with more competence, bravery, honor, humility in one room than there was in that room. It was a security risk to have them in one place. You don't think there was GRU and CCP taking photographs and saying these are the most. Let's find what devices are on what algorithms are on their kids, their movements. That was just a stupid security risk. And for a guy who was. I mean, first off, I'm very into fitness. There is no to hold a general who served honorably, probably in Vietnam as an 18 year old who had as overseeing combat. Okay, Pete, I want to see what you look like at 65. I mean the notion that he has any license being demeaning to that room is literally. Is laughable. And all of this bullshit around, you know, I get it, beards, whatever that's.

[Kara Swisher]

Supposed to attack, especially men of color. Some men have issues with shaving, but go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

It's so performative, it's so stupid. It doesn't result, it makes us weaker. And you're talking to the. He was a major, which means if he had been much better and spent another 20 years in the armed services, he might have been able to pack the bags for the people who ended up in that room. To lecture these people on leadership and what they need to do to be.

[Kara Swisher]

It wasn't even on strategy. It wasn't on our position in the world. It isn't. You know, if he had said now we're gonna be this. Instead it's all performative. The other part is him talking them about being individualistic. This guy, there's not more of a fop in that cabinet than this guy. He's got funny socks, he's got weird things on the inside of his jackets. He's got tattoos, he wears the stupid glasses. This guy is white. Speaking of individualistic, this guy just relishes in it. And to act like he's some paradigm is kind of fucking ridiculous. He's such a ridiculous performative clown. And the fact that he's thinking of running for president, I mean, oh my. And this was what he was using this. He was wasting taxpayer money to give himself a shine up and he ended up looking like a clown.

[Scott Galloway]

The two features that just are always present in a room of leadership from our armed services are competence. These people are literally charged with deploying lethal force in a thoughtful way. And they're responsible for a ton of young men and women's well being as it intersects with some of the most complicated supply chain technology geopolitics in the world. And these people figure out a way to do it from a young age. One of my roommates was ROTC by the, you know, I'm 24, doing power PowerPoint decks, talking about taking over some refrigeration company in Wisconsin and my friend was commanding 1,219 year olds. I mean these people, they 1 demonstrate competence. And then the second key feature which these people do not demonstrate in any fashion on stage is humility. They don't brag, they don't. And the other thing that the armed services represent, and it's not to say it hasn't had its problems around racism, but it's been an enormous means of lifting up people based on character and competence. There's nothing that melts away racism and homophobia like being in a foxhole where both of your lives are under threat. All you care about is the competence and the character of the man or the woman next to you. You're not thinking, well, I don't like Puerto Ricans. And so the armed services have been an amazing means of creating equality and progressive advancement. And then when you have these guys up there with this sort of like this, you need to be fit and you can't have beards, they bring up.

[Kara Swisher]

You know, I said fat boy and little man bombed, right?

[Scott Galloway]

And misogynistic. I gotta be honest, I do agree with one thing. I think in combat the standard should be gender neutral. I think if you're applying to be in a combat position, you have to qualify by being able to drag somebody 90ft if they're wounded. I get that. But the reality is today, today's combat is more about. It's like, I think I would bet less than 2% of our armed services and you know, who are also warriors. The man or the woman that agrees to get in the driver's seat and drive a fucking fuel tank across a highway of IEDs.

[Kara Swisher]

I mean, that's correct. I mean the whole thing is, it was such an embarrassment. And listen, President Pete. You're not gonna be the Pete that's president. It'll be Buttigieg.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, let's hope he's the Republican nominee. Knee. Let's pray that he's the Republican. If he runs for president on the Republican side, I will donate money to his campaign. Cuz that means the next president is going to be a Democrat.

[Kara Swisher]

Literally. He makes Sarah Palin look smart. It was such a disaster view, Pete. And you got totally. They, they shoved other people who don't agree that you should get this little fancy, fancy shine up shoved. There was a whole machination happening among Republicans on how Trump ended up there, who also, by the way, when he said cities should be used as training grounds. That is dangerous and scary and ridiculous. And I'm sure those military people all thought that.

[Scott Galloway]

Just as long as he doesn't use the N word.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, I know. Yeah. Don't use it. Oh God. Oh, YouTube. Lastly, YouTube will settle a lawsuit over banning President Trump's account for over $24 million. YouTube banned Trump's account in 2021 after January 6 and reinstated it later. The settlement funds will go to building the new White House ballroom. It's so ridic. As a reminder, other big tech companies have done the same with similar lawsuits with meta settling for 25 million and X settling for 10 million. Oh God. Why are they selling? They did nothing wrong at the time. It was very dangerous and they reinstated it was the right decision at the moment. They shouldn't be paying off these bribes. That's what they are. They're bribes. I don't know your thoughts.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I keep waiting for someone just to hold the line and say no. I mean, all it means is they're going to come back again. You're setting a really terrible precedent. I don't. I mean these companies are the same companies that fight people tooth and nail. When their 15 year old gets served content that encourages suicidal ideation and self harm, they'll go to the mat for that shit. But when it comes to the President being butthurt about something that was said, they'll settle for tens of millions of dollars.

[Kara Swisher]

They're ridiculous. They look like such toadies. They look like toadies. These unctuous. Right down to Sundar Pichai. I like Sundar Pich chai. But Sundar, you're an embarrassment at this moment to me. I have to say. I've known you for many years and I know you don't care what I think, but ugh. Just really, I get your little. You should have held out. You'd have looked smarter. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

[Scott Galloway]

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[Kara Swisher]

Hey Pivot listeners, I want to tell you about a new podcast from the Box Media Podcast network called Apple Access with Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger. It's a show about the inside conversation happening across the tech industry. You may know Alex Heath from shows like Decoder and the Vergecast, and he's the founder of Sources, a new publication about the tech industry and a contributing writer for the Verge. And you'll probably only know Ellis if you worked in Silicon Valley yourself. He's the former tech reporter turned tech industry insider working closely with today's hottest startups. Their first episode features an interview with Mark Zuckerberg about Meta's latest smart glasses, the AI race, and what's next for the social media giant. You can find the Access podcast with Alex Heath and ellis hamburger on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Okay, Scott, let's hear that prediction. I'm curious who you think's going private. How interesting. What's a fallen angel?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, we, we talked about this. My picks were and this isn't my prediction, but there's just some really big iconic companies that have a lot of IP and revenue that probably should be either acquired or taken private. My favorites were Boeing, intel and Target. But I think you are about to see and we predicted this by the way. Our prediction at the end of beginning of this year was that M and A was about to boom again and it was in a deep thaw at the beginning of the year. What are the investment banks in announce record? M and A? The universe of companies that Palantir can potentially acquire right now has gone up a thousand x. Yeah, it's if you.

[Kara Swisher]

Don'T do it, you're stupid. Right?

[Scott Galloway]

Their banker can show up. Well, when you're trading at 100 times revenues, anything you acquire that's trading at less than 100 times revenues, which is every company on the planet is accretive to your earnings. The way I would describe it is if your stock doubles then effectively everything else has become 50% less expensive. And I think we're going to see a titanic acquisition or merger from Netflix. I think there are so many existential threats. Clouds forming around Netflix right now with some of this. I mean, Sam Altman putting out these kind of AI driven videos and saying it's so you can communicate with your friends and family. Family. That is a lie. He's doing this and trying to pretend it's friendly such that every Hollywood producer starts going, jesus Christ, why can't we start producing films for 3 million instead of 300 million? So I think there's some real existential threats to a stock that is now worth, I don't know, 440 billion. That stock, by the way, one of my great investments, I bought Netflix at, at 12 bucks a share. It's now at 1,146. The part of the story I left out is I sold it at $10 a share to take the tax loss and never bought back in. But basically Netflix now has almost a half a trillion dollar market cap. And I think they face some real threats.

[Kara Swisher]

They need to do something.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, well, the gangster merger of the ages would be the following Netflix and Disney. Because look at. It's very synergistic for some.

[Kara Swisher]

Ted could run Disney. How fantastic.

[Scott Galloway]

Ding, ding, ding, ding. So there's this co CEO, this guy named Greg Peters. I saw him speak at Cannes and I thought, Jesus Christ, this guy is so bright.

[Kara Swisher]

He is bright. So is.

[Scott Galloway]

By the way.

[Kara Swisher]

By the way, let me note a woman who's at the top of that business, Bella Bajaria is doing all the programming. Amazing.

[Scott Galloway]

They have an outstanding. And then Ted Sarandos is like built in a factory of lesser from parts of lesser CEOs. He is so good. I saw him on stage recently and they asked him these really pointed questions.

[Kara Swisher]

I like Ted.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, first off, he has the primary competence of any great CEO. And that is he has outstanding hair.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, he has good hair.

[Scott Galloway]

He has very good hair.

[Kara Swisher]

Good with talent.

[Scott Galloway]

Good with talent. Smart, not afraid of anybody. Any question he handles, the guy literally wreaks up a plume anyway.

[Kara Swisher]

A plume? You're a plumie, Ted. A plume.

[Scott Galloway]

Disney's leadership right now is Neville Chamberlain in a cashmere sweater, minus the dignity. Right, that's there. And who the fuck. And then the number two is a woman who's gotten dragged down by the Kimmel shit. They are desperate for leadership. What does Disney have that is absolutely singular and can't be threatened by OpenAI? It has the parks and cruise lines, but. But the IP at the parks Cinderella and Darth Vader are getting Stranger Things.

[Kara Swisher]

Put Stranger Things in there.

[Scott Galloway]

Stranger Things Wednesday. Can you imagine a Stranger Things ride At Disney.

[Kara Swisher]

Hunting wives, the whole lesbian ride.

[Scott Galloway]

For me, the streaming market. You have Netflix and Disney. It's over.

[Kara Swisher]

Hulu. Hulu's in there. Remember, you have Disney, Netflix, National Geographic is in there.

[Scott Galloway]

It's over.

[Kara Swisher]

Over. I love it. And we give them such heft.

[Scott Galloway]

They own, own. They would own place based entertainment and they would own streaming media. They would own cruises, parks and.

[Kara Swisher]

And also Netflix is going into live events too. Also comedy. Comedy. They don't own comedy.

[Scott Galloway]

It solves. It solves their leadership problem. Yeah, this would be anyways 220, 210 billion or 200 billion. Disney 450 billion. Netflix. Netflix would own. Call it 70% of the combined companies. This would be the first trillion dollar pure play entertainment company.

[Kara Swisher]

Will they get passed by. By.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, that's the thing. It might now.

[Kara Swisher]

It might now. Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Or my point is they can't. If there's a debt, they couldn't have done it seven months ago.

[Kara Swisher]

That's pretty democratic. Remember, Ted's pretty like down democratic highway. So.

[Scott Galloway]

But my point is as soon as there's under Biden, it couldn't happen. And if there's another Democratic administration, won't be allowed to happen. This is the window.

[Kara Swisher]

Let me add something to your deal. Snapchat.

[Scott Galloway]

Snaps. Snaps. Probably more trouble than it's worth.

[Kara Swisher]

Not really. It's like a great system. They can shove all kinds of shit on it. Like why not own it? Like the way Ellison owns TikTok.

[Scott Galloway]

Because it's kids and it's.

[Kara Swisher]

It is. So is Disney.

[Scott Galloway]

No, but there's not a feature. There's not a feature.

[Kara Swisher]

Put it on your. On your. In your saucepan.

[Scott Galloway]

There's not a feature on Disney Channel that lets you see people around you. The drug users, the drug dealers are using people don't go on the Matterhorn and start self cutting. Snap is. Snap has got real issues. I don't think they want near it. I don't think Ted Sarandos would want any anywhere near Snap.

[Kara Swisher]

All right. I'm just saying they'll get a social platform too. Think about Tesla and Snapchat. Okay. That was a great prediction. This feels like your Whole Foods one. I like it. I love it. And I think it has to happen. I'm gonna tell Ted to do it. Okay, we wanna hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com pivot to submit a question for the show. Or call 85551, pivot. And don't forget we're Going on tour. We'll be coming to Toronto, Boston, New York, D.C. chicago, San Fr.

[Scott Galloway]

Because we hate Arizona.

[Kara Swisher]

We hate Arizona. We don't. We love Arizona. We'll go there sometime. But anyway, we're very excited to see the fans. We are gonna be there for you. We're gonna try to put on our best show. We're gonna dress up. Scott's gonna do a striptease. I have some surprises for Scott that he doesn't know about.

[Scott Galloway]

You know it.

[Kara Swisher]

Visit pivottour.com for tickets. Anyway, before we go, I just wanna mention legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, who died this week at age 91. I had the opportunity to speak to her back in 2020. Let's listen to a brief portion of that interview. I will never, ever believe that the way for change is confrontation and aggression, because people change when you reach the heart. And so, you know, when people ask me, what do you do when you meet somebody who's behaving in a way that you really dislike? Or something? Try and find a connection. Maybe they have a dog or a cat or a horse or a child or something. Something just for one minute. If you have a short time to talk to them. Event stories. Tell stories. Oh, what a. What an amazing woman. What an amazing life. What an amazing life. Be Jane Goodall, everybody. She just was. I love that interview. It was fantastic. Anyway, Scott, by the way, you've been fantastic today. I don't know what's in your Wheaties, but very fine.

[Scott Galloway]

I thought that's generous of you.

[Kara Swisher]

Lots, lots of stuff. You're not Jane Goodall, but you're on your way. And again, send me Scott AI, because I'm going to have some times with him. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. One special thing. Clara Jo Swisher Katz, Happy sixth birthday. This weekend. We're very excited to have a fantastic mermaid party.

[Scott Galloway]

Nice.

[Kara Swisher]

And now read us out.

[Scott Galloway]

Today's show was produced by Lara Naaman and Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin and Kate Gallagher. Ernie and her Todd engineered this episode. Jim Mackle edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Ms. Siervero, Dan Shalon and Annika Robbins. Nishat Kurwas Vox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the [e-mail] pod we'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great weekend.