Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield

Summary

Pivot Podcast Episode Summary

Title: Hunter Biden Pardon, Kash Patel for FBI Director, and Guest Lauren Greenfield
Hosts: Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway
Release Date: December 3, 2024
Guest: Lauren Greenfield, Emmy Award-Winning Filmmaker

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1. Hunter Biden Pardon

Discussion Overview:
The episode delves into President Biden's controversial decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted of felony gun charges and pled guilty to felony tax charges. This move has sparked significant debate about the precedent it sets, especially in comparison to former President Trump's use of pardons.

Notable Comments:

• Scott Galloway ([09:29]):
  "We're becoming that nation... he pardons his son-in-law's dad who had committed crimes and then puts him, makes him ambassador to France... I don't like this race to the bottom."
  Galloway critiques the normalization of pardoning relatives, expressing concern over the erosion of accountability.

• Kara Swisher ([10:24]):
  "It's gross. I think if, you know, Trump's done 10 of these and then rewarded them even further. So I'm kind of like, oh, whatever, like Hunter Biden, it's fine."
  Swisher highlights the double standards in political pardon practices and the potential backlash it invites.

• Scott Galloway ([12:11]):
  "He creates, he cements, or he's emboldening this notion that it's no longer a bug, it's a feature to be a little bit rapey..."
  Galloway emphasizes the broader implications of such pardons on societal norms and behavior.

Key Insights:

• The pardon is seen as part of a deteriorating trend in political accountability.
• Both hosts express skepticism about the motivations and future implications of such actions.
• The discussion underscores concerns about the impact on public trust and the legal system's integrity.

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2. Nomination of Kash Patel for FBI Director

Discussion Overview:
The hosts examine the nomination of Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist, for the position of FBI Director. They scrutinize his qualifications and past behavior, questioning his suitability for a role critical to national security.

Notable Comments:

• Scott Galloway ([26:02]):
  "Patel... wants to prosecute and put in prison... people who weren't supportive of Trump."
  Galloway questions Patel's intentions and potential biases in his approach to law enforcement.

• Kara Swisher ([29:23]):
  "He sounds like a drunk and should get some help. And he behaved incredibly badly. And he's incompetent at running."
  Swisher harshly criticizes Patel's personal conduct and managerial capabilities.

• Scott Galloway ([34:03]):
  "Hegseth is a terrible role model for young men... We can't normalize this."
  Galloway extends his criticism to Patel's associate, emphasizing the negative role models being promoted.

Key Insights:

• Concerns about Patel's commitment to impartial law enforcement and potential targeting of political opponents.
• The hosts highlight disturbing reports from the New Yorker and personal testimonies questioning the nominee's integrity and competence.
• There is a strong consensus that Patel's appointment could undermine the FBI's credibility and effectiveness.

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3. Australia's Ban on Social Media for Under-16s

Discussion Overview:
Australia's groundbreaking legislation banning social media use for children under 16 is examined. The hosts discuss its potential effectiveness, enforcement challenges, and the broader implications for digital safety and youth mental health.

Notable Comments:

• Scott Galloway ([15:59]):
  "I think this has been inspired by my colleague Jonathan Haidt... I think it's wonderful."
  Galloway praises the legislation, attributing its success to prior academic research on youth anxiety and social media.

• Kara Swisher ([17:24]):
  "This is sending a message to social media companies to clean up their act."
  Swisher interprets the law as a strong stance against irresponsible social media practices.

• Scott Galloway ([19:03]):
  "Leadership in Australia here has shown a lot of common sense. Kudos to them."
  Galloway commends Australia's sensible approach to regulating digital platforms for youth.

Key Insights:

• The ban is seen as a proactive measure to protect young people from the addictive and potentially harmful aspects of social media.
• Enforcement is identified as a significant challenge, with questions about the practicality of age verification without infringing on privacy.
• Comparisons are drawn to effective gun control measures in Australia, suggesting that collective action is necessary for meaningful change.

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4. Interview with Lauren Greenfield on "Social Studies"

Discussion Overview:
Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Lauren Greenfield shares insights about her new docuseries "Social Studies," which explores the lives of teenagers in the age of social media. The conversation highlights the series' findings on social media's impact on youth, including mental health challenges and the loss of innocence.

Notable Comments:

• Lauren Greenfield ([46:34]):
  "Social Studies is a character-driven series where we follow kids in their lives, understanding how social media is affecting what's happening."
  Greenfield explains the documentary's focus on personal narratives to uncover the nuanced effects of digital platforms.

• Scott Galloway ([57:54]):
  "What I found is that they're producing tens of millions of addicts and sending them into the world where they're going to need dopa."
  Galloway emphasizes the addictive nature of social media, likening it to a dopamine-driven dependency.

• Lauren Greenfield ([52:19]):
  "We need regulation. We need the algorithms to be changed. We need the tech companies to be accountable."
  Greenfield advocates for systemic changes to address the inherent issues within social media platforms.

Key Insights:

• "Social Studies" reveals the deep-seated issues teenagers face due to pervasive social media use, including eating disorders, depression, and unrealistic relationship expectations.
• The series underscores the addictive design of platforms like TikTok, which can lead users down harmful content pathways.
• Both hosts and Greenfield agree on the necessity for regulatory measures to mitigate the adverse effects of social media on youth.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Lauren Greenfield ([50:04]):
  "TikTok is really, really harmful because it's so addictive."
• Scott Galloway ([52:27]):
  "Even putting the onus on the parents is not right... These algorithms are engineered intentionally and that's what the kids are calling out."

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5. Additional Topics

Elon Musk and OpenAI Feud:
The hosts briefly touch on Elon Musk's ongoing legal battles with OpenAI, portraying them as nuisance lawsuits aimed at hindering competition rather than addressing genuine concerns.

FTC Investigation into Microsoft:
The episode covers the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) investigation into Microsoft for potential antitrust violations, with discussions on the broader implications for major tech companies.

Wins and Fails Segment:
In their customary "Wins and Fails" segment, Kara celebrates the commercial success of Disney's "Moana," while Scott criticizes the mismanagement at Intel and expresses frustration over the dominance of teams like Manchester City in Premier League Soccer.

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Conclusion

The episode of Pivot provides a comprehensive analysis of significant political and social issues:

• Political Accountability: The controversial pardon of Hunter Biden and the questionable nomination of Kash Patel highlight ongoing concerns about political favoritism and the integrity of key governmental institutions.

• Youth and Social Media: Australia's bold move to regulate social media for minors, coupled with Lauren Greenfield's documentary insights, underscores the urgent need to address the mental and emotional well-being of the younger generation in a digital age.

• Tech Industry Scrutiny: Ongoing legal battles and antitrust investigations reflect the broader tensions within the tech industry, emphasizing the necessity for fair competition and responsible corporate behavior.

Key Takeaways:

• The normalization of political pardons within families poses serious threats to public trust and the rule of law.
• Regulations like Australia's social media ban are pioneering steps towards safeguarding youth, though they come with significant enforcement challenges.
• Documentaries like "Social Studies" play a crucial role in shedding light on the real-life implications of social media on teenagers, advocating for informed collective action.
• The tech industry's influence continues to be a contentious area, with calls for increased accountability and regulatory oversight.

This episode of Pivot effectively navigates through complex topics, offering listeners thoughtful analysis and critical perspectives on pressing issues in politics, technology, and society.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Scott Galloway ([09:29]):
  "We're becoming that nation... he pardons his son-in-law's dad who had committed crimes and then puts him, makes him ambassador to France."

• Kara Swisher ([10:24]):
  "It's gross. I think if... like Hunter Biden, it's fine."

• Scott Galloway ([15:59]):
  "I think this has been inspired by my colleague Jonathan Haidt... I think it's wonderful."

• Lauren Greenfield ([50:04]):
  "TikTok is really, really harmful because it's so addictive."

• Lauren Greenfield ([52:19]):
  "We need regulation. We need the algorithms to be changed. We need the tech companies to be accountable."

• Scott Galloway ([57:54]):
  "What I found is that they're producing tens of millions of addicts and sending them into the world where they're going to need dopa."

---

Resources Mentioned:

• Social Studies Docuseries:
  Available on Hulu and Disney. Includes an educational curriculum at learner.org/socialstudies.

• Hunter Biden Case Details:
  New Yorker and New York Times articles providing in-depth reports on Hunter Biden's behavior and legal issues.

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Conclusion:

Pivot's latest episode offers a critical examination of key political maneuvers and societal challenges, enriched by expert insights and real-world implications. Through engaging dialogue and compelling narratives, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway illuminate the intricate intersections of power, technology, and youth culture, urging listeners to reflect on the current state and future trajectory of these pivotal issues.

Transcript

[Scott Galloway]

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[Kara Swisher]

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[Scott Galloway]

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[Kara Swisher]

Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media podcast network. I'm Kara Swisher.

[Scott Galloway]

And I'm Scott Galloway.

[Kara Swisher]

Where are you, Scott? I don't recognize this background here.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm back in London, but we're in the midst of moving, so I get kicked out of my studio. We're moving back into our place in Marylebone, which has been undergoing a renovation. By the way, renovations always come in under. Under budget and much quicker than you'd expected. It's been a really good experience actually.

[Kara Swisher]

You know, I'm doing a renovation, actually, has been. I've had really amazing experience. We're moving back in January. Very. It's beautiful. The house is beautiful.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't believe you.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm telling you, I have the best people. Actually, they Turned out to be fans of Pivot, which is interesting. This group using called Four Brothers. They're great. Are you excited to move back in your new house? We're both doing renovations. How interesting.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I am. It's. I screwed up. I'm in the suburbs, and it's so dark and cloudy that I don't leave the house. And the thing I love about our place in Marylebone is it's near Marylebone High Street. And I go to this great restaurant called Grangers, and I get coffee there. And every day I make an appointment, and it gets me out of the house, which is important for me because, you know, I've started growing my nails long and peeing in jars.

[Kara Swisher]

I can tell.

[Scott Galloway]

And so it's important that I get out of the house. Where are you?

[Kara Swisher]

I'm in D.C. again. We were in Boston for Thanksgiving. How did you have a nice Thanksgiving?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, we didn't really do a lot. Beata and Nolan were in Africa on this kind of cool little charity thing. And my son's a boarding school. I was actually in Brazil. So we did a thanks, quote, unquote, Thanksgiving for friends. Or we went to our friends Patrick and Tatum's place. And, uh, there was a bunch of people there you would know, a bunch of fancy people. And it was really nice. Um, I. My favorite holiday. So I'm kind of bummed. We didn't really get to celebrate it that much. What did you do? Oh, you were in Boston with Amanda's family.

[Kara Swisher]

We had a beautiful. The Katz have, like, all these. It's a very classic Thanksgiving. And Ann Katz, who's a big fan of ours, is cooks an amazing pie. There's a lot of pies happening. There is a lot of. She baked me a pumpkin pie. She doesn't usually do a pumpkin because I like it. It was delicious. They do turkey, sides, all kinds of stuff. And the whole. All the cats show up. All the various cats and brothers and sisters in laws and this and that. And so it's quite a. And they have a beautiful house in Brookline in Boston. So it was nice.

[Scott Galloway]

Okay, let's bring this. Let's bring this back to me. So I have a public service announcement. This is not medical advice. This is just reporting on something that has happened to me. I've always been one of those people most. Because of genetics, and I work out a lot, but whenever I get a physical, there was like, wow, this is amazing. Your number. Your good numbers are high, your bad numbers are low. And for the first time, about three months ago, they took My blood pressure and they're like, oh, it's a little bit high. And I'm like, can you do it again? And it was like 143 over. I forget what. But yeah, I have elevated. I have high blood pressure. And I said, are you sure? And then my doctor came back a week later, did it again, 142. So I qualify as having high blood pressure. I have never had anything like that. So over the last three months, I've done a few things. I've done NAD treatment, which is basically cellular repair. I do the hardcore one. I do the infusions. I did them every week for four weeks. Now I'm doing it once a month. It's not easy, it's expensive, and quite frankly, it's a little bit uncomfortable. And I've. I track my alcohol consumption. I'm not willing to give up alcohol because I love it. But I've gone from eight to 12 drinks a week to four to. I cut it in half. I've tried to cut out all sweets.

[Kara Swisher]

That's a lot of drinks.

[Scott Galloway]

Okay, thank you, Dr. Swisher. Thank you, Cap. Thank you, Captain fucking Obvious.

[Kara Swisher]

I have.

[Scott Galloway]

And you know what? There's a term for that much. There's a term for that much alcohol. Worth it anyway.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay. All right.

[Scott Galloway]

And then I also an easy fix. I did a decent amount of research on it. I cut out all soda, a lot of sugar and soda. Anyways, as of yesterday, my blood pressure has dropped consistently to 132. So I've taken 10 points off my blood pressure in 11 weeks with those.

[Kara Swisher]

You gotta get down still with those.

[Scott Galloway]

That's actually okay. I've been told that's actually okay. Anyways, my point is. What I'm saying here is that if you do have high blood pressure, and I'm not saying this works for you, speak to your doctor. But these few things I did, which quite frankly just weren't that difficult. I don't eat as much sweets at night. I like to take inedible sometimes and I just start raiding the chocolate cabinet. Whenever I drink. I would drink with a ginger ale. I don't do that. I'm just getting. And I've cut my alcohol intake in half. This NAD treatment and it's taken my blood pressure down pretty significantly. Anyways, that's my public service announcement.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, good. That's really good. I have another suggestion, if you don't mind. I do. I have very low blood pressure. Just so you know. I have extraordinary low blood. Almost too low. But my.

[Scott Galloway]

And is your Doctor a fan of the show?

[Kara Swisher]

No, I'm sorry, but I happen to. I've always had it. But I don't drink, I don't smoke. And so. Yeah, so one of the things that is that I was talking. A friend of mine from San Francisco is visiting and he's one of these long distance cold water swimmers, you know, the plungers, the ones that go in at 40 to 50 degrees. And he has gotten his resting heart rate down to 50. Incredible. So he's so fit now from doing cold water swims. I just might suggest it to you, jump in the Thames.

[Scott Galloway]

So I'm not exaggerating. I'd rather die 10 years early than I did a cold plunge at that place, Stanley Ranch, you're going to.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

That's torture. It is literally torture. And so I would rather be on statins and take warm showers every day. I find cold plunge one of those things that rich yuppies do to torture themselves so they think they're doing something to themselves. I don't buy the cold plunge.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm working on my new book, actually. Cold weather stuff, not cold plunge. All this cold. The coldness is really interesting. There's all sorts of interesting research around bringing your body temperature cold. Mm. I'm just telling you.

[Scott Galloway]

I know I don't like to be cold. Daddy doesn't like to be cold.

[Kara Swisher]

I know, but I don't either. But I'm gonna do one. Cause I'm for this book. I'm gonna. Maybe even come with me. But the cold water is really interesting. I've been doing a lot of research on it anyway. I know, me too. Me too. But there's all these indications that it's quite good for you. And I don't like a lot of that stuff, but this one is one that I think is super interesting. Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today, including the damning new report about Peak Hegset and Australia's new Social. Plus, our friend of Pivot is filmmaker Lauren Greenfield. Lauren has a new docu series, Social Studies, where she provides an up and close and frightening look at teens and social media. It's like euphoria, but real, which is disturbing. It's a really good series. We wanted to talk to her about it. But first, President Biden has signed a presidential pardon for his son, Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was convicted of felony gun charges and pled guilty to felony tax charges. He was set to appear at a sentencing hearing later this month. President Elect Trump responded by suggesting January 6th rioters should be pardoned. He didn't quite object to it. He shouldn't. He pardoned enough crazy people and in fact gave them ambassadorship. So what do you think of the move, just briefly, regardless of the circumstances, does it set a bad precedent even though Trump is pretty free with the pardons?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, we're becoming that nation and that is there's sort of no shame or there's no attempt by the people we look to to set the cue for America, which sits the cue kind of tone for the rest of the world. And that is all right, this guy pardons his son in law's dad who had committed crimes and then puts him, makes him ambassador to France, which by the way, the American embassy in Paris is the most beautiful residence in the world. And so I don't like this race to the bottom. I believe if Harris had won, he wouldn't have done it. But I think his attitude is the following. And here's the flip side. If I were President Biden and I were an 82 year old man with a son who struggles with addiction, who I love immensely, I would have done the exact same thing. Because it's like, okay, there doesn't appear, it doesn't seem as if the American public is holding, is giving anyone any credibility or votes based on character anymore.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

So I would agree. I think his general attitude is, okay, if they can do it. And it doesn't seem, it not only doesn't seem to hurt them, it seems to help them. Why on earth, as I play the back nine or the back one hole of my life, why on earth wouldn't I pardon myself? I would have done the exact same thing.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, I think it's interesting because a lot of people, it's really interesting to watch Republicans attack them given Trump's record on this thing. And then I know I'm sort of like, stop, hush, hush people. I felt bad about it. At the same time, I think moving it behind us, for some reason the Hunter Biden thing just illuminates and it drives the right wing. It's like Hillary Clinton's emails. I'd like it to go away. And I think if this moves it towards going away, I feel, you know, I thought the prosecution was an overdone one. And most lawyers will tell you what they charged him. He's a very troubled young, I mean, older man now. And I just feel like they wouldn't have probably done it. They were using him as a punching bag. I don't know. The question is, will he pardon Fauci? Although Fauci hasn't done anything. Right. Or give him a blanket.

[Scott Galloway]

Fauci is going to need to be pardoned.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, I think they've threatened to go after him. So has Elon Musk. They all have. Jail him, jail him, jail him. So that's the question. Or Jack Smith or other people. And that's. I think that starts to get into really funny territory. At the same time, I think they've used Fauci as a punching bag and to make their points, they will continue. I think they would have continued to plague Hunter Biden. So I'm okay with this one. I don't know. I just. It's gross. I think if, you know, Trump's done 10 of these and then rewarded them even further. So I'm kind of like, oh, whatever, Like Hunter Biden, it's fine.

[Scott Galloway]

Let's.

[Kara Swisher]

Let's move along.

[Scott Galloway]

I think it's going to come and go. I don't.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, come and go.

[Scott Galloway]

But also, I think I've said this before. I think the Alvin Bragg New York case against Trump was politically motivated. I think every case against Hunter Biden is politically motivated. They were both a waste of prosecutorial resources that wouldn't have been allocated towards the prosecution had these individuals not been political figures.

[Kara Swisher]

The Bragg one, but not necessarily the documents one or the insurrection one.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, no, I think. I think. I think the nuclear secrets one. I've always thought. I've thought that New York and the fact that we are not mendacious Fox and not that strategic like McConnell. We wait too long to bring cases such that they can play slowball. And we dilute the veracity of the legitimate cases with bullshit cases around paying off a porn star. So I think this is what I want. Karaoke. I want more mendacious Fox running our party. I want Schumer out. I want Nadler out. We need more Mitch McConnells. We need more strategic motherfuckers who are totally unashamed, who take their punches regardless of what goes over well at the country club or who they can say to their dad, well, we stand on the moral high ground. Well, what's that getting us, boss?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. Or just older. Just older. We need new, fresh blood. I mean, there's a move to remove Jerry Nadler from put in Raskin.

[Scott Galloway]

That guy's smart. Raskin.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, That's. Guess who's behind it. Guess who's behind it. Nancy Pelosi, apparently.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, she's got some of the Machiavellian thing. She's. But it's time for her to Exit the stage, too.

[Kara Swisher]

I think she is, but she's trying to get him in there.

[Scott Galloway]

Who's that? Who's that dude? Moskowitz. Representative Moskowitz. Who after 14 months of the ridiculous impeachment hearings, called a motion to impeach President Biden, calling everyone's bluff. Do you remember? He said, all right, we've been doing this for 15 months, that I move that we impeached, that we recommend an impeachment of President Biden. And every Republican in the room looked like they'd just been caught masturbating. They didn't know how to respond because they knew this was all bullshit. Just trying to get moments on TikTok or Fox. We need some more people who are quicker on the feed. Senator Schumer. Fucking yawn. I mean, we always get played. Everyone hates McConnell. Why? Because he's smarter than the people running the Democratic Party. We need a ton. We need to shed our skin. And my biggest fear is that we're going to fit the definition of crazy and believe if we continue to do the same thing, we'll get a different outcome. And all of this bullshit about how we need to go farther left and if we just need to double down and we weren't progressive enough, we need new leadership and we need to do similar to what we did in the early 90s. Pick some centrist candidates who talk about real issues. Anyways, I'm going off track.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, at the same time, Scott, I know you're headed this way. There's not a bad argument for Bernie either, because a lot of these people were Bernie Bros. I mean, I'm saying there's. There's. There's a. There's several directions, but I don't think Bernie.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't think Bernie plays identity politics on trans issues or Bernie's. Bernie's more about, in my opinion. And this really resonates with people. He talks about income inequality. I've always thought that's Bernie's issue, so. Absolutely, man.

[Kara Swisher]

But he's considered progressive, just so you know. Anyway, let's move on. Australia has banned social media for children under 16. The law requires social media platforms to take reasonable steps, Prevent anyone under 16 from having an account or face fines of up to 32 million. There are no punishments for underage users and their parents. Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and X will be included, but YouTube and messaging apps will not. I'm not sure why YouTube won't. There's a lot of controversy around it, whether it's too broad et CETERA et cetera, same old, same old, same old. And whether it'll be effective. But it was a big move. It was a big move. And the word reasonable steps, I think people were like, what does that mean precisely? And how can you do it? I think the fines are interesting. There's legal questions, et cetera, et cetera, but thoughts.

[Scott Galloway]

So the Port Arthur. I think it was the Port Arthur massacre in Australia. There was a mass shooting in 1996. 35 people were killed, 23 wounded. And I believe in fairly short order, the leadership in Australia got together and said, all right, what are the upsides of having assault weapons? What are the downsides? Let's ban them. And I don't believe Australia has had any or a small number of mass shootings since then. In Scotland, there was a Dunblane massacre also in 1996. The Australian people just seem to be remarkably sensible. And I don't doubt there are some downsides to banning social media for people under the age of 16. There's a very solid argument that it's been a place where LGBTQ youth can find each other and support each other. The upsides dramatically overwhelm the downside. I think this is wonderful. I hope it inspires a lot of people in the rest of the world. And the thing I take from this is so much pride. My colleague at nyu, Jonathan Haidt, if you don't think. If you want to go into academia or you don't think doing a really well researched book can change the world, it can. I think a lot of this is a direct result of Professor Haidt's work around the anxious generation. But I think this is fantastic. No legislation is ever so elegant. It won't find detractors. It won't have downsides.

[Kara Swisher]

I think the issue is enforcement. It's how do you enforce it? Right. I think that's the question. I think to me, it's a flag in the sand, right? It's like, we're doing it now. We're doing it. It's the first in the world. You know what I mean? It's really astonishing. It's the first in the world of substance. And what's interesting about it is that will these social media sites abandon these areas? And obviously, one of the legislators said, we know some kids will find workarounds. We're sending a message to social media companies to clean up their act. I think that's the most important, important things is kind of like the Microsoft trial. It's sending a message, right? This is. We. This means a lot to us. And nobody's, I think nobody's getting forced to provide government identification as part of it because of privacy issues. There was opposition from conservatives about the privacy rights. And you know, I think France had a parental consent for social media thing. It wasn't quite as large as this. They've been pushing for similar measures across the European Union. Florida passed a ban for users under 14. But it has to, you know, there's constitutional challenges around that here in this country. So they don't have that issue in Australia. Right. And that was more a little hand waving. It has to be a national bill that will meet congressional, I mean, meet constitutional muster. But I do think it's a. I think a line in the sand's okay. I think it's actually saying something really significant about what a country's values are. Right. I mean, I think you feel the same way.

[Scott Galloway]

Look, one of the most important things in professional progress is the same thing around legislation or addressing the externalities of these things. And that is a start. And you referenced. So in France, users under 15 need parental consent. In Germany, users 13 to 16 need parental consent and Italy, users 14 and under need parental consent. This is a start, I think an outright ban. No phones in schools. I would like to see no smartphone under the age of 14. There's just too many temptations for kids. We basically have been putting teenagers pockets as their brain gets wired, a dopa bag they can squeeze whenever they're a tiny bit bored with a casino, a porn site. And I think we're literally producing tens of millions of addicts and sending them into the world where they're going to need dopa and they're going to find it in a lot of different places. And collective banning is the only way to do it because if you don't ban it collectively across the entire age group, the ones who aren't on it when most of their friends are on it are actually more depressed. So I just, I think the leadership in Australia here has shown a lot of common sense. Kudos to them. I hope it starts something that breaks out all over the world. I think it's wonderful. So, good day, mate. I come from a land down under I'm going to listen to In Excess all night tonight.

[Kara Swisher]

If you say Shrimp on the Barbie, I'll have to stop you.

[Scott Galloway]

Anyways, I'm a huge fan of this. Kudos to them. And like I said, I think a lot of this has been inspired by my colleague Jonathan Haidt.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, well, this was actually in the works for many, many years. But one of the things that Julie Inman Grant, who's Australia's e safety commissioner, they have one, she was noting about enforcement, which I think she's right. They've financial resources, technologies and some of the best brain power. If they can target you for advertising, they can use the same technology and know how to identify and verify the age of a child. They certainly could. They don't want to. They don't want to pay for it anyway. Kudos to Australia. We'll go down.

[Scott Galloway]

Let me get this. They can make $11 billion targeting people under the age of 18 so effectively with ads, but they can't figure out if you're under that age.

[Kara Swisher]

Right, Exactly. Yeah. This happens all the time. All right. Lastly, the FTC has opened investigation to whether Microsoft has violated antitrust laws. Ooh, it's back. Lena Khan is thr a bomb in her last moments in office. Probably she will be replaced. The company has reportedly received a request for information on its cloud computing, AI and cybersecurity products. The news comes just weeks left in the Biden administration. Probably they'll replace Lina Khan. You never know because J.D. vance likes her. But should Microsoft be concerned will be the off the hook? It's very unclear, but boy, I like that Lena Khan's going down. Like throw in some steamers or whatever they call them. Anyway, what do you think?

[Scott Galloway]

I think it's great and I think a lot of times I think that one, I think there's actually, I'm taking the under. I think there's a chance that they'll keep her there and we'll see. But even if she leaves the fact that it's there, I think the next person might go, you know what, let's keep this for a bit, see where it goes. So, and look, I've said this for a long time. The biggest tax cut in history would be if China and the US kissed and made up right now. Now, the second biggest tax cut would be if we enforce antitrust across these companies, which are just charging onerous rents on parents, small businesses, big businesses. So anything involving antitrust around these folks, I'm a fan of.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, interesting. You think they'll keep her? I wonder if they'll keep her. I haven't heard names floated. Maybe I'm not paying attention.

[Scott Galloway]

And he hasn't made any bold, weird, aggressive statements about her, right?

[Kara Swisher]

No, he hasn't.

[Scott Galloway]

Right. He could keep. And he keeps going after them.

[Kara Swisher]

Jeff Bezos would lose his mind, though. Elon would like it too. Elon would like it.

[Scott Galloway]

Think about this though, if you're him and you're playing poker, but if you're Trump and you want to have leverage over these people, you have something that gets right to the line in terms of being broke up. And he calls him and says, I want X, Y and Z and I'll make this go away. I mean, not that that's ethical, but my attitude is she's the Marines. She's in there first doing the hard work.

[Kara Swisher]

She seems to have gotten her, her feet under her, as they say. She had a little bit of a rough start. Right. So interesting.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, she did. But look, these companies, America is now 50% of the world's market capitalization. It's companies, just 10 companies control almost a third of the total market cap. And the rents they're extracting from potential employees, the tax avoidance, the lack of innovation. How is Google different than it was 10 years ago? We don't know what we're missing. We don't know what we don't know.

[Kara Swisher]

Their ad, their, their, their search share has declined. Rather precipitous. Market is taking care of some of this. That is absolutely, I think their argument, you know, that that decision is going to be written by the judge soon. That decision, then they have a second case coming up. I think they should keep Lena Khan, you know the conservative, you know that word conservative. There's a whole bunch of them, they like her. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see if the tech people. But I would say if Elon has a part of it, he'll advise the keeper too. Anyway, let's get to our first big story. President elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the FBI's former National Security official, Kash Patel. What a strange man he is. Patel is a Trump loyalist who's vowed to come after Trump's enemies, including people in the media. A number of high level Senate Republicans have already indicated their willingness to get behind the choice. But others, not so much that it's real, It's a real mixed bag on this guy. By the way, he has to fire Chris Wray who was appointed by Trump to a 10 year term. So Chris Wray shouldn't be out of office until 2027. It's alarming a lot of people. At the same time, the Pete Hegseth nomination is still raising big questions. This New Yorker piece is a damning whistleblower report on his previous behavior running two organizations where he drank too much, he abused women, sexual harassment, a bunch of lying spending mismanagement. This story is quite, has Got it all by Jane Mayer. And it's based on. Well, it's a devastating, very well reported piece about how bad a manager he was. It may have been a bad period of his life, but boy, was it bad. The New York Times also had the 2018 email from Hegseth's mother calling her son an abuser of women. That email was something else. She told the Times she'd written the messages in anger and had apologized for it. But, boy, did it have a ring of truth at the time. I guess it was during the same time time period. What do you think? I thought the mother thing I was. Had mixed feelings on at the same the New Yorker piece. I do not. It's really. He's a bad, bad, bad manager. And again, he could be going through a difficult period. But this, as you recall, John Tower, the womanizing and the sexual and the drinking was a big issue and sort of scuttled his nomination. This guy's entirely unqualified for this job. Both of them are. So what do you think about that?

[Scott Galloway]

I remember an era where you couldn't be on the Supreme Court if you'd been a Playboy bunny waitress at some point in your life. I mean, you want to talk about just a digression. You know, first off, Patel, he says that he wants to prosecute and put in prison. You know, people who weren't supportive of Trump. He's called, and at the same time, he's found time to write kids books about Trump. This is an odd kingdom. And then Director Wray is an outstanding individual. This is someone. I am so impressed by this guy every time he gets in front of Congress. It's one of those rare moments where you can't tell if he's a Republican or he's a Democrat. He's just trying to do his goddamn job.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, he was nominated by Trump, everybody, once again, let's just be clear.

[Scott Galloway]

And by the way, in my opinion, reflected well on Trump and everyone in those panels, they actually have a productive session because they realize this guy is loyal to the flag first and foremost. Okay, so I'll go to Hegseth. As a mother and as the son of a single mother, I read that letter and I found it deeply rattling. 1. I was sad, and I didn't know how comfortable I felt about it being made public. A letter, a communication, an emotional letter between a mother and a son. I do feel like it should be confidential, but the fact that it's out and the fact that a mother felt compelled to write that to her. So. Jesus Christ.

[Kara Swisher]

Did it have a ring of truth? It absolutely did. It was beautifully written. Wasn't emotional. It actually was. My son sucks, right?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. It pains me to say this.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. It rattled me beyond belief. I thought I would write that letter if my son behaved like that, but I would feel sick to my fucking stomach for doing it. But I would have written that letter if my son behaved like this.

[Scott Galloway]

I can't imagine getting that letter from my mother. I just. I can't imagine, like, it would just. It would devastate me so much that it would just. I can't imagine writing it. I can't imagine reading it. And, you know, like, Peter Hagst, by the way, an outstanding soldier deserves the bronze stars. He was given. He should not be in the running for this position.

[Kara Swisher]

Did you read the New Yorker piece? It was disturbing.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, the ending. The ending is really chilling.

[Kara Swisher]

And the attempts to try to attack the. There's, like, dozens of people making these allegations. Not like. And they're all conservative, every one of them. And you know this. They're trying to, like, say this person had created fake rape allegations, wanted this woman who accused him of raping her. And then, of course, the reporter went to the. To the. To the police, and they said, no, absolutely not. She has not. Like, they lie about the people. They're so aggressive. Still, it's disturbing that they're trying to shut down a dozen people who are. Who, by the way, are not Democrats. These are Republicans making these allegations. Very conservative Republicans. He sounds like a drunk and should get some help. By the way, he sounds like a sexual harasser woman. When he is drunk, he's falling down drunk. And all the rich people got him out of his jobs. They fired him. They fired this guy. As good a career he had in the military, they saw the need to fire him. Now, he may have come back from Iraq with all kinds of troubles and he drowned them in alcohol. He should get some help. And he behaved incredibly badly. And he's incompetent at running. He couldn't run a small organization. He cannot run and make decisions about nuclear war for us. I'm sorry. And the mother thing, at first, when I read the two in combination, it's devastating, just devastating. He's incompetent.

[Scott Galloway]

What's so disappointing is it appears to me that Trump and his advisors have decided we need to be adults and have a certain screen, a pretty fine screen around people in senior appointments that impact the economy. And yet they seem to have thrown in the towel on issues related to our military, our Defense or our security apparatus. I feel like the most frightening potential nominee right now is Representative Gabbard. I cannot believe that you are going to send a message. There are agents, there are CIA officers who have spent their entire lives and have put themselves in incredible danger every day. And there's only two people to know their identities, if they're deep, and that is their case officer and potentially the head of the Central Intelligence Agency or perhaps someone who's heading the entire security apparatus. And do you really believe that Representative Gabbard might not believe at some point to forward your names and your identity to these people? Because under some sort of.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, I know. I just.

[Scott Galloway]

I would be like, okay, folks, it is time for me. It is time for you to bring me back and give me my retirement. Because I believe that one of the things. I believe this is true of Director Wray. I believe this was true of George Bush when he was running the CIA. I think these case officers, quite frankly, these spies and these assets and these FBI officers or agents, they have to believe that this person would die for me, that this person would put himself or herself in harm's way before letting me be in harm. And I think all of those people met that qualification. They were deathly concerned about their safety. They put the safety of these people ahead of others. And I don't believe that is true of Representative Gabbard. In addition, you want to talk about real harm to our national security. No one nation can fight the rest of the world on its own. And this level of arrogance that we have enjoyed because of our prosperity and this America first kind of macho has given us the impression that we don't need the cooperation of our allies to prevent terrorism, to present theft of our intellectual property. And guess what? The European economy is just as big as ours. And the Mossad, MI6, guess what the French secrets are. They are very good at what they do. And on really sensitive issues around bioweapons, around terrorism, we cooperate, we coordinate, and we share information. Because guess what? We have mutual shared interests. In addition to that, we trust each other. Do you think these folks are going to share information with these folks?

[Kara Swisher]

No, I think that all three of them, I got to say, Cash Patel, Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard are. And by the way, one of the things I did when I was looking at them was find the other people that were in line. Every one of them was acceptable. Like, they're not my favorites, but they were certainly competent. Like the other names being bandied about. They were Fine. They're just Republicans and they're a little more conservative than I care to have. You know, a little more aggressive, a little less. Little too America first for me, a couple of them. But, you know, nobody. Not having allies, anti ally. Okay, I see it. That's a point of view. These people. One is absolutely incompetent and has a real problem with women in a creepy, creepy way. And has a drinking problem which he may or may not have taken in hand. I have no idea. And can't run anything, by the way. It's just good. He's a good soldier. Otherwise, no, thank you. The second one is insane. Cash Patel seems insane. And the other one is. Feels like a Russian asset. Like, it's like. And the fact that he had good people and pick these guys and then also Matt Gaetz, who they managed to get rid of, is just such a ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's really kind of like it's going to take up his whole. He's going to have to fire Chris Wray, just so you know, and then that'll. The chaos will. He'll never get anything done because the chaos will ensue because they'll spend all their time doing chaos versus doing anything. He said nobody, when they were voting for him to get the price of eggs down, voted for this loan, this lunacy. I'm sorry, they didn't. And that's. It's an opportunity lost.

[Scott Galloway]

Hagst is a terrible role model for young men. He creates, he cements, or he's emboldening. This notion that it's no longer a bug, it's a feature to be a little bit rapey. We can't normalize this.

[Kara Swisher]

Let's kill all the Muslims. Did you see that part? Let's kill all the Muslims.

[Scott Galloway]

We can't normalize this. What's even worse than being a poor role model and not being qualified. A different level, in my opinion, of threat is Patel, who has called for using the power of the Bureau and the Justice Department to prosecute journalists. Open quote, we're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. He said during an appearance on Steve Bannon's podcast. The fact that this guy has been considered is so the fact that as you described her perfectly, I don't think. Well, I'll take that back. It's not fair to call her a Russian asset. She's a Russian sympathizer. She provides comfort and aid to the enemy, and she will absolutely frighten the shit out of our own assets and our own allies. So I don't understand why he's not bringing the same level of maturity to our security apparatus and our defense apparatus that he's brought to the economic appointments. It just doesn't make any, it doesn't make any sense to me.

[Kara Swisher]

I think he just gets something happens late at night with him. Maybe he's taking ketamine with Elon or something. Anyway, we'll see what happens here. But it's disturbing. I would recommend reading the mother's letter as disturbing as along with the story from the New Yorker for he. That's for sure. And I'm looking forward to the Cash Patel story, which is going to be just worse, I think, in a different way. And the Tulsi Gabbard stories. Anyway, journalists are doing a great job with these things and I thought it was a very fair story. And Pete Heth, it really was. So, you know, whatever. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Elon Tarkov, OpenAI and Sam Altman yet again. And we'll speak with Lauren Greenfield about what she learned about teens and social media in her new docu series, Social Studies. Support for Pivot comes from Deleteme. It can't be stated enough. It's important to protect your data. Data brokers value your information. 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Get $1,000 off Vanta when you go to vanta.com pivot that's vanta.com pivot for $1,000 off support for this podcast comes from Oracle, even if you think it's a bit overhyped, AI is suddenly everywhere from self driving cars to molecular medicine to business efficiency. If it's not in your industry yet, it's coming fast. But AI needs a lot of speed and computing power, so how do you compete without costs spiraling out of control? Time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or oci. OCI is a blazing, fast and secure platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, plus all your AI and machine learning workloads. OCI costs 50% less for compute and 80% less for networking, so you're saving a pile of money. Thousands of businesses have already upgraded to oci, including MGM Resorts, Specialized Bikes and Fireworks AI. Right now, Oracle is offering to cut your current cloud bill in half if you move to oci for new US customers with minimum financial commitment. Offer ends December 31, 2024. See if your company qualifies for this special [e-mail] pivot that's oracle.com pivot Scott we're back. Elon Musk's feud with OpenAI is heating up with Elon trying to stop Open Air from becoming a for profit company. The new filing says Open Air Path from nonprofit to for profit has been full of anti competitive practices and flagrant breaches of its charitable mission. OpenAI spokesperson says the suit is without merit and Elon is recycling the same baseless complaints he had pulled the case and then put it back. I think he had some meeting with Sam Altman at some event around a fire and there was a hug et Cetera. And now it's back. I don't know. This is kind of ridiculous. Elon does everything through lawsuits. It doesn't matter who it is. He does lawsuits on every topic. I think this is anti competitive. I think there's plenty of competition in this area. And that claim Open AI is this giant behemoth seems over an overstepping on Elon's part. He has so much control right now with Trump and he probably will be a big name in selecting the AI. They're going to have an AI guru for the government or whatever. I just think he's got enough power and I'm not sure what he's doing here.

[Scott Galloway]

It's just a nuisance lawsuit meant to distract them. Maybe they get an injunction, maybe try some to slow Open AI down until I think any lawyer with assault has said to him, you have no shot here. But he's like, well, maybe we can slow him down. Nuisance lawsuits distract them. Maybe we get some key people to have to subpoena, give testimony, just anything to slow him down while we try to catch up. Just a little off topic here where I think Musk has really lost his shit is him accusing Trump whistleblower Alexander Vindman of treason and saying that he should be locked up. You don't accuse veterans of treason. Reason without any evidence. This is a guy who is a lieutenant colonel. Vindman served in the military for over 22 years. He worked as a Ukraine expert on the National Security Council and later testified in Trump's 2019 impeachment hearings. Vindman was also a public critic of Musk. I just. You don't. Treason. You're accusing these folks of treason. The guy Musk. This is your punishment. You are going to have to spend the holidays with Trump instead of your children. And that's what's happened. That picture of the, literally the lamest Thanksgiving in history where Musk is there instead of with his family. That's what happens when you.

[Kara Swisher]

In my view, I think his mother was there, but she's such a hanger on. Or a feral hanger on, but go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

I've always admired his mother, but anyways, I do not.

[Kara Swisher]

No, I know her. So I'm going to go be the winner.

[Scott Galloway]

Look, I'll, I'll, I'll defer to your judgment. You know, when someone serves in uniform for 22 years, you don't accuse them of treason. They're the opposite of treasonous anyways, that. It's like this guy is. I don't, I, I don't get It. Kara, I don't get it. I don't, I don't understand what's going on.

[Kara Swisher]

I know he loves to sue. He has so much power and it's not enough. Like there is so much competition in AI right now between all the. Even though they're the big companies and we don't prefer that, we'd like a lot more startups and things like that. This is just literally he's just trying to do besides being in polluting an area so he could get this thing he's trying to create going. He doesn't care what he does, whether it's stuff at Tesla where he flouts the laws. This is a very similar situation is he can't win by just winning and so he has to win by being anti competitive. And given he's going to have power over a lot of like Trump is going to favor him in the AI race. That's the worry is that he's going to have an undue influence which is nothing about actual competition or innovation. And is everything about influence and power tells you all I need to know about the situation.

[Scott Galloway]

The only meltdown I'm going to enjoy more than the meltdown of a football club, which we'll get to in our wins and fails, is the meltdown between Musk and Trump. That is definitely going to happen.

[Kara Swisher]

He's still at the plate. It's lasted a long longer that that Thanksgiving photo was depressing. Wasn't it sad? The food looks sad too. I was like, could you not do better here if you're paying? And then them dancing to oh, the music. Oh, ow.

[Scott Galloway]

I did this Thanksgiving for friends. And one of the folks there is this really impressive guy I've known for a long time. Do you know Matthew Bishop? He was the, I believe the US Editor for the Economist.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, great guy.

[Scott Galloway]

And we did this roundtable thing with and, and we were talking about something. Inevitably Trump came up and I wish Leslie Jones had been there to tell everyone to shut the fuck up.

[Kara Swisher]

That was a great video.

[Scott Galloway]

But Matthew Bishop, he just said very kind of solemnly he said, you know, character used to matter. And it's this. They just kind of summarized it. The character used to matter. And he also said something else that I found really fascinating. He said around the military, he said it's such a shame around some of these appointments, around Secretary of Defense because he said this really struck me that the US military is the best organization of the last century in terms of what it's accomplished, in terms of its integrity, in terms of its Sacrifice in terms of its resources. It is the most impressive organization in the world over the last century. And that struck me as so insightful. I never thought of that before. And if you think about it, what company, what organization has been more impressive than the US Military, on balance, over the last century? I thought that was really interesting.

[Kara Swisher]

Vivek Yamaswani. This is where I think they might. Both Elon and Vivek are going after defense budget, which is. I think there's. All of them should be looked at, by the way. I don't disagree that overspending is a problem and they should always be audited, et cetera. But they're going right for the military in that regard. Just so you know, I think that might be a big Trump fight going on forward. That's my feeling.

[Scott Galloway]

That'll be hard to get anyways.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, I agree. I agree. Absolutely. But you're right. It's really, you know, I did like one last thing is the Canadian general lady who like clapped back at Pete Hegseth saying women shouldn't be in the military. I love that she looked like I wouldn't get out. I would get out of her way in any day of the week and twice on Sunday. You know, it is. You can reform something without ruining it. There's also lots of things they need to fix, like sexism and stuff like that. But definitely it's an organization that has distinguished. Anyway, let's bring in our friend of Pivot. Lauren Greenfield is an Emmy award winning filmmaker and the creator, executive producer and director of Social Studies, a documentary series that delves into the lives of the first generation raised on social media. Welcome, Lauren. I have to say I loved. I love this docuseries. I love it. It's amazing.

[C]

Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me.

[Kara Swisher]

I feel bad because I refused to watch Euphoria and now I feel like I've watched Euphoria. Unfortunately, you know, I was like, no, I have lots of kids, I cannot watch this. So tell us about it because this is something we just were recently, just earlier talking about the Australia ban and about across social media for young people. So tell us about social studies and what made you decide to make this docuseries? Because it's been in the ether, this idea that this stuff is bad for kids. But talk a little bit about.

[C]

Yeah, well, I started filming right after Covid, so it was kind of like the perfect natural experiment after kids had so much time where they were, had really increased their social media use. So we started filming in the fall of 2021 and I had been looking at how media affects kids and youth culture and girl culture and body image with girls over the last 30 years and had really looked at kind of how there's an early loss of innocence and how values of fame and materialism and celebrity are amplified with the media.

[Kara Swisher]

And you're talking about like Cosmo, like thin thighs in 30 days or your man doesn't love you, that kind of stuff, all that.

[C]

Well, I did a book called Fast Forward which was about kids in LA in the 90s and looking at kind of the early loss of innocence there and wanted to go back and see how they were affected now by social media. As a mother of teens at the time, my kids were 14 and 20 and I saw what, how there was a kind of generational shift between the two boys. And so when I went back to make this series, I did a kind of social experiment where the kids who were participating agreed to allow me into their phones. And so we were doing contemporaneous screen recordings capturing what was in their phones. I really felt like we had feelings about what might be going on, but we needed to actually see the specifics. And so Social Studies is a character driven series where we follow kids in their lives, understanding how social media is affecting what's happening.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. And you say the teens are the experts. Obviously they are rather than the adults. This is not a new fresh thing. But talk about the importance of trusting them to tell their stories because, you know, most parents, I happened, my ex wife was the chief technology officer in the United States and I'm good at tech, so we were good at that. Right. But most parents aren't the experts and the teens really do. You know, my son's always saying, don't do it this way, do it this way. He's so facile with it. He's 22 and my other one's 19. So talk about importance of trusting them to tell their stories because they really do know what's going on.

[C]

They know what's going on, but we also get the benefit of their lived experience. They're on the front lines, so they're the experts, but they're also the subjects. And so we see in the series multiple perspectives because we see them kind of having interviews and also speaking to their peers, deconstructing exactly what's happening and sounding so wise about how social media is affecting them. On the other hand, we see them living their lives and being affected by peer pressure and college pressure and eating disorders and depression and dynamics of social groups and kind of all of the things that they can kind of break down. So I think one of the things that's unusual is that the knowledge about this, the wisdom about it, doesn't give them immunity. And so they're kind of from the front lines saying this is a roadmap.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. Because they know. Right.

[Scott Galloway]

Scott, nice to meet you, Lauren. Thanks for your good work. Two questions. One, what do you think are the biggest misconceptions that parents have about social media relative to the actual lived experience of teens? And two, what social media platform do you think is more harmful than people think?

[C]

That's a really good question. I think TikTok is really, really harmful because it's so addictive. And I think that what I saw as the scariest part was my first film was about eating disorders that came out in 2006, and at that time, one in seven girls had an eating disorder. And there are certain predetermined. There are certain kind of personalities and histories that give you more of a chance of getting that. I think what I saw with TikTok and in the current time is that the triggers are so ubiquitous that if you have any kind of interest in, for example, something as innocuous as a diet, the algorithm will take you by the hand and in very short order take you down a path so you can learn how to have more and more dangerous behavior, whether it's eating disorder or suicidal ideation or racism or kind of any variety of things. So I think the addictive quality of TikTok and then also where it takes you for engagement is really dangerous.

[Scott Galloway]

And just the first question, what do you think parents get wrong about the actual experience versus our perception of it?

[C]

Well, my experience in showing the show and also in teenagers watching it is that neither of them actually knows already. Like, even though kids, and we hear them in the show talking about what's happening, it was such a revelation for them to hear other kids being affected by it. So I find that parents are actually shocked by what's in the show, and kids are kind of feel relieved or seen by it from it. And I think for parents, I think the biggest thing is just not know, like, not knowing how much kids depend on it, but also how dangerous it is. Like Jonathan says, it's a lifeline, but it's also a loaded gun. And I think one of the mistakes that parents make, and I made this myself with my kids, is assuming that they have agency over it and kind of getting into a battle with them over screen time, like asking them to go off of it.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. That they can. That it's not addicted. Because you yourself are addictive as an adult. Right. That's the one thing for some reason parents don't see. They themselves have an addiction.

[C]

Exactly. And so I think just saying, you know, expecting it, putting the onus on the kids is not right. Even putting the onus on the parents, I think is not right. Like these. I feel like people ask me, should we be on? Should we be off? It's too punitive to have them be off. It's too dangerous to have them be on. I don't think it's a binary. Like these algorithms are engineered intentionally and that's what the kids are calling out. They don't have to be this way.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, two things. You notice the onus on the parent. I'm always. Whenever the social media sites we're doing this, I'm like, this is all on the parent. Like, you're all. You're doing it. And one of the. This was a character, this Jonathan in your. In the show said it is a lifeline, but also a loaded gun, which was very striking and actually quite wise to talk about it because it's necessary. These kids need it. And Scott talks about this a lot. You can't. It's part of your social life, right? What. When you think about that, when it's necessary, addictive and you can't not use it like that kind of thing. And it's also interesting, right. It's also. Also has some good qualities to it. How do you. What do you understand about where it's going? Because it doesn't seem like there's any fix, given the parents themselves are also addicted and perpetually online.

[C]

Well, I think that, you know, when Jonathan says, it's our lifeline, but it's a loaded gun, both are necessary. So I think that the current paradigm is not working. I think that basically we need regulation. We need the algorithms to be changed. We need the tech companies to be accountable. What social studies does is it kind of tells you how kids are being affected in the specifics. And I think one of the things in the short term that parents can do is talk to their kids about it. I have heard parents say, I'm afraid to watch the show. Even in the show. Sydney's mom. Sydney's a girl who posts very provocative pictures and sexy pictures of herself online and gets a lot of feedback by boys and men. And her mom in the show says, I don't know if I wanna see what's on her TikTok. I think that's a common thing from parents that they don't wanna fully know. And I think that's one important thing, is that this is a kind of secretive world and that's what the show is meant to do is kind of break that. And I think kids want to have those conversations.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, they, you know, they also don't. They don't absolutely know. There was a friend of mine whose daughter was sending very provocative kicks to my son. And my son showed them to me. He's like, mom, can you believe this? And I didn't know what to do because the person was like, oh, my daughter loves being online. And I'm like, you don't know what she's doing. Do you like it? And I didn't know what to do. Right. Was it my goal to say, hi, your daughter's sending real disturbing pictures to my son or not? Like, that was one of the things. Right. And I happen to have kids that show me these things versus kids that don't. Right. Who might not anyway. It was really a problematic thing.

[C]

And Scott asked, like, what's the thing that parents don't know? I think one of the things is how common this is. Like in the. We have groups in the show and they do silent clapping when they identify with what other kids are saying. And that happens so often. I ask the kids, like, how many have been sent a nude or sent a nude. Almost all the kids hands goes up. How many have dealt with an eating disorder or disordered eating. So many of the kids hands goes up. When did you first see pornography? Third grade. You know, I think pornography as the new sex ed is one of the things that's addressed in the show. And I think parents just don't realize that their own kids are seeing all of this material and also how traumatic it is for them that they really want to both talk about it and also have a place to process it.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, my son didn't want that picture. Oddly, you know, he was like, he was far too young and he didn't know what to do with it. Right. Which was why I think he showed it to me. But Scott just.

[Scott Galloway]

And I don't know if you've done much research around. There's a. There's a real dearth of academic, peer reviewed research around pornography because professors aren't in a hurry to be known as the porn professor. I would argue it's the biggest industry in the world that has the. Relative to the amount of actual research on it. And one of my fears amongst young men is that, quite frankly, it reduces Their desire to go make their own porn. And that is. It creates unreasonable expectations around what sex is. And quite frankly, they're like, why would I go through the humiliation of trying to engage a romantic and a sexual relationship when I just have this low entry, easy access, low risk thing called porn? And then that goes into character AI and I apologize for the word salad here. Something I find so frightening right now, and I don't know if you've looked at this at all, is these new characters, AI characters, where they start to have relationships with young people, especially young men who seem to be. Have trouble attached to other people. Have you done any research or have any thoughts on the emergence of these AI girlfriends, if you will?

[C]

I have not. I have not. I read the story about the teen who committed suicide after the AI bot relationship and that was just completely horrifying. But I haven't done any research on that. What I did find is that by the end of the year, what the kids articulated is they want to have face to face connection with each other. In a way, that was the hope that came out of the series is at the end they're saying, we would like a place to interact, connect without phones. And I think for me it was shocking that that seemed like a novel idea. But I think that, I mean, what I did find vis a vis pornography is that every kid was exposed to it. That it does create really unrealistic expectations and standards for both girls and boys. One of the scary things was seeing that the TR that everybody was talking about was BDSM for teenagers. And it's almost. It was almost like, almost like a comedy moment when one girl says, and teenagers don't even know how to choke properly. Like they're just teenagers. And so I think. And that wasn't just pornography that's on TikTok. So I think that, you know, and one girl talked about being in abusive relationship as her first relationship and not knowing that it was abusive because of what she had seen as normative on pornography. And we hear stories about assault and violence against girls and we can see this being mirrored in pornography. So I think that in a way what I was looking at was more probably like common and mainstream than having a relationship with a bot. But you can see how dangerous the influences are and also just how it kind of takes away from like the joy and romance and, you know, puppy love of being a kid. We also see relationships being about fame. Like one girl, Ellie, has a puppy love relationship in middle school with a child actor and then she becomes famous, accidentally and we see kind of relationships be means to popularity.

[Kara Swisher]

One of the things. I'm actually interviewing the mother of that child later today who killed himself. One of the things that's really disturbing to me is that they want to get off, but they can't. And I remember when I was younger, and I'm sure Scott remembers any little bit of prurient thing you could find. You read, right? But you only got a tiny little taste of it.

[C]

Right?

[Kara Swisher]

Like some, I don't know, some weird sexual thing when you were between dad's.

[Scott Galloway]

Playboy in the garage that you found.

[Kara Swisher]

Right, right. But you only got little tastes of it, like. And it was enough. And then it was a little scary at the same time, and it was scary to access it. And now it comes flooding at you in an addictive manner, which is a very different thing. So one is that it's so available and it's so not. There's no price for it. Right? There's no, you're not gonna get in trouble or anything else. But what. And I do think kids do want to get off of these things. Both my kids took their social media off their phones because it made them feel bad. Including the dating sites, by the way, because I think those made them feel bad at the same time, when they get a little older. What do you think think is the best solution for disruption of getting it out? I think in some ways my kids would prefer not to have had it. I feel like that's their tone towards it. And right now they mostly watch TV on it. That's what they do now. But what do you think the solution to get them off of it? Even though they talk about wanting to, they don't get off of it. Right.

[C]

I mean, I agree. A lot of them said they would have preferred to be in the generation of their parents before it exists. And yet it's a kind of necessary evil in their generation. Like, Cooper and Stella are talking at the end and say, like, do we exist if we're not online? Like, that's the current existential question for young people. I think it's very hard to go off as an individual. We see Ivy go off in the show and eventually get back on. It's a real kind of statement of saying, I'm gonna be outside of the social life. And I think that, you know, being a teenager is about being in the social life, trying to find yourself socially, having friends, being accepted. And so I think that as a next step, like, really, we need collective action. It's very hard to do this individually. When they are in our group without phones, when they talk about going to camp without phones, they love that. In the schools that have banned phones this year, it might have been a big shock in the beginning but the kids love it. Ironically, a lot of the kind of phones coming back in schools in the past has come from parents wanting to know where their kids are. And I think parents being okay with not being in touch with your kids at every moment will be helpful. But having phones that are not smartphones, you know, is great. Like they can text, they can talk, but not being on the social media apps, it doesn't mean we can never have the social media apps. Like you said, there are positive things about it, but the current algorithms are not made for kids wellbeing. Actually we know they're made for kids harm or indifferent to kids harm.

[Kara Swisher]

They don't care. They don't care. Scott, last question.

[Scott Galloway]

Do you think social media should be age gated?

[C]

Absolutely. I really support what Australia is doing and I think it should be, I just want to say like for this generation which Sydney and the film calls the guinea pig generation, they have already been exposed to trauma. So I hope that parents will watch the show with their kids. We have a parent guide and an educational [e-mail] social studies. It's free for schools. Schools should use the curriculum, develop media literacy. This is coming from the kids, but they can't do it on their own.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. And any argument about that they should be able to talk. Free speech arguments that people, people make. Do you buy any of it?

[C]

No. I'm a journalist, I totally believe in free speech. But I think what we have is a situation where capitalism is making it so that there's too much of a profit incentive for engagement which often means the most prurient, the most outrageous, the most dangerous, especially when it comes to kids brains. So I think that's exploitation of vulnerability even in the teenage brain that is an unfair match.

[Kara Swisher]

Anyway, this amazing series. Thank you Lauren. You can watch social studies on Hulu and Disney and you can find a link to the educational curriculum in the show notes. And we really appreciate you. Everybody should go and watch it.

[C]

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

[Kara Swisher]

Thanks Lauren.

[Scott Galloway]

Nice meeting you.

[Kara Swisher]

All right, Scott, that was, you know, it's the same story. I feel like we repeat ourselves over and over again on a critically important topic. I don't know what to do. But anyway, we'll keep talking about it. So people will change.

[Scott Galloway]

There you go.

[Kara Swisher]

Anyway, will be back for wins and fails. Support for pivot comes from NetSuite Planning for the future in business is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle without the box. There's a lot of pieces, but no clear big picture. That's why netsuite from Oracle wants to help make sure your business is future proof. NetSuite is one platform for all your business needs accounting, finance, inventory, HR, you name it all tied together in a single source of truth. With real time data and forecasting at your fingertips, you're set to make smarter, faster decisions. That way, when you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you'll be spending less time looking backwards and more time on what's next. And if you're wondering how AI could affect your bottom line or how it might affect your industry in general, netsuite is already there, giving you the data edge to stay sharp for whatever's coming next. Speaking of AI, you can download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com pivot the guide is free to you at netsuite.com pivot netsuite.com pivot Support for Pivot comes from Ether if you're looking for a perfect piece to add to your winter wardrobe, let me introduce you to the woman's Aura Puffer jacket from Ether A Apparel. I love this coat so much. I feel like a rich person. I feel like Scott Galloway wearing it. I feel like oh hey, I'm part of the crowd. Aether is a premium outdoor brand known for blending high performance with effortless style. Their new winter collection has everything you need this season with timeless, high quality pieces for both men and women. And the Aura Puffer jacket stands out for all the right reasons. It's very lightweight, it's warm, it's clean. Minimalist design makes it incredibly versatile whether you're heading to the city or out in a adventure in the mountains. It was built for elegance and functionality. It was just how I think of myself. It's not been cold enough to wear it, but I'm so excited. Put it on. I am elegant and functional. It's warm. It's design is beautiful. I literally feel like a rich person suddenly and I love wearing it. The things I love to do outside is nothing. I do not like to be cold and so being warm is my goal about the cold times and this jacket really does it. Get ready for your new adventure with Ether A apparel and for a limited time our listeners can get 25% off orders over $400. Just go to etherapparel.com and use the promo code PIVOT25 at checkout that's a T H E R apparel.com and use the promo code pivot25 for 25% orders over $400. Don't wait. That's etherapparel.com Support for Pivot comes from the Washington Post. If you're a regular listener of this podcast, then it's safe to say that you care about what's going on in this world. And of course, list to Scott Galloway and I is great. If you want to get more great coverage of our crazy world, you might want to subscribe to the Washington Post right now. You can go to washingtonpost.com pivot to subscribe for just 50 cents a week for your first year. The Washington Post offers substantial and considered coverage on a huge number of topics. The paper can be a great place to find thoughtful stories about Capitol Hill, the economy, climate change, and so much more. I've had a subscription Washington Post since I've been in college, and I love it. I work there too, by the way. Full disclosure. A long time ago. And I read it online every day. I read it every day. And I'm especially attracted to a lot of the features they do. They just did an astonishing one about a mother of a transgender student that I just changed my life in a lot of ways. So now is the time to sign up for the Washington Post, which does astonishing election coverage. Go to thewashingtonpost.com pivot to subscribe for just 50 cents per week for your first year. That's 80% off their typical offer. So this is truly a steal. Once Again, that's Washington Post.com pivot to subscribe for just 50 cents per week for your first year. Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. I think I shall go first. I shall go first. Here's the win. Moana, too. Oh my God, the money it's making. I liked it. I think the music wasn't as good. Lin Manuel Miranda's music was so good in the first one. The reason why I believe it started off as a TV series and it was. And Bob Iger made the call to make it a movie, which was a hugely fantastic call for this guy. Like, he has made some big calls. Inside and Out 2 is the top mo. The three top movies. Moana, Inside and Out 2, and Deadpool and Wolverine, all Disney movies. This guy is doing a good job with the movies at Disney right now. But I gotta tell you, it was beautifully done. It, my kids loved it. And let me just say, it's except for the music, which is not as good and it's killing it at the box office. More to the point, it's like closing in on $300 million in five days, which is amazing to go along with Wicked and Gladiators sort of pulling up the rear. And that 100 million domestically or something like that that I think Wicked is at almost close to 250 or 300 million. Anyway, great movie Moana. Winner, Winner, winner, chicken dinner for Bob Iger. My fail is Pete Hegseth. I know I would agree with you on Tells the Gabbard and Cash Patel frightens me and is weird. But this guy, the Secretary of Defense is one of the most important jobs in any administration and our lives depend on someone being competent. And this guy is, is obviously an alcoholic, is incompetent at management, is a creepy sexual predator. Very clearly his mom thinks so whether she takes it back or not. You know, she thought that. And I think they should absolutely send this guy out and get a competent person in one of the most important jobs. This isn't game I get Trump wants to kill the deep state, but this is friggin ridiculous and chaotic and dangerous in that regard. Scott, your turn.

[Scott Galloway]

So look, my fail is I think the President sets such a big tone and there's so many people. Nothing's by accident with the President. And President Biden walked out with a book called the Hundred Years War on Palestine. I think that's a fail and I think it's an exceptionally unbalanced book. It's written by a guy who is an advisor to Yasser Arafat and the former chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The book portrays the conflict as a colonial war raged against the indigenous Palestinian population without acknowledging the Jewish people also have indigenous roots in the territory. And I just don't think that was a productive thing for the President to do in his final months. And it was. Clearly I can't imagine this was by accident. And I'm trying to figure out what message he's trying to send.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, does he have a real aim there? Is the ceasefire right, which is holding and does it really matter what he reads now? I don't know.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I think the President holding a book as he walks out, they know it's going to be photographed anyways. It's a longer conversation. But anyways, I felt that if you look at this book and you look at how it portrays the obviously decades long conflict here, I just think it does not send a very balanced or empathetic message to many of us who feel I can't figure out strategically what he was trying to communicate holding that book. I don't think it's a balanced book. I think there are better books that would attempt to provide, if you will, a quote unquote, balanced vision of what's happened there. And I don't think this is one of them. And I'm trying to figure out what kind of message he was trying to say there in his last couple months of presidency. But anyways, that's my faith. Well, my win is the. And I can't believe you sent me a story on sports, which just. Just blows my mind.

[Kara Swisher]

I know. I didn't understand.

[Scott Galloway]

I can't. This is a huge weekend. We've had a huge couple weekends in the Galloway household. We are so much, and I hate to admit this, we are so. We are reveling in the epic, monstrous, unprecedented meltdown of Man City.

[Kara Swisher]

You don't like that? I didn't know.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, my God. Everybody hates Man City.

[Kara Swisher]

Man City.

[Scott Galloway]

Every year. Every year. Arsenal, you know, Liverpool, Chelsea, X, Y and Z. We all think there's a shot we're going to win the premier club. And then Man City wins. They are so dominant. They are so good. And the last two games, they lost two nil to Liverpool, who probably. Probably deserves it.

[Kara Swisher]

I can't believe you're saying nil and Zed now because you're from London. Go ahead. Go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

Hey, stop it or you'll end up in the boot. Anyway, so, yeah, that's my only. That's my. My big British.

[Kara Swisher]

I hear that you did it in a Scottish accent, but continue.

[Scott Galloway]

Britishness. I sound like some Indian kid on meth when I try and do my Scottish accent now. Anyways, but last weekend, my son is a Spurs supporter. Tottenham beat Man City 4 nil at Man City, at Emirates or Etihad. Anyways, whatever Middle east airline this is like. I can't tell you how much joy this is bringing to UK households. The epic fail of Man City. That is my win.

[Kara Swisher]

So it's like the Dallas Cowboys losing, right? Remember in the day when they were kind of douche nozzles over at the Dallas Cowboys and when they lost, people were happy.

[Scott Galloway]

It's a super interesting point because if you look at the most successful, arguably the most successful league in the world is the NFL. And the NFL has a similar but actually more elegant vision of what UK Premier League Soccer has. And that is it has relegation and promotion. That is the bottom three teams go down a league. The top three teams go up a league. And what the NFL has done, which is so visionary, is that the draft favors the worst team. The teams that come to do the worst get the top draft. So get this. In the last five years, about 95, 97% of NFL teams have made the playoffs, which does the following. It keeps fans engaged around the league. And the problem is right now with the NBA and with Major League Baseball, the owners of the franchises like the New York Yankees, there's no fucking way they're going to let the Cincinnati Reds rebuild. But the NFL under, quite frankly, what's been. Excellent leadership. What's his name? Roger Goodell, I think. Yeah, Roger Goodell. But they have. Similar to the. To the Premier League, they have a promotional relegation that keeps even more so fresh.

[Kara Swisher]

Keeps it fresh.

[Scott Galloway]

Every team's got a shot. Every team's got a shot. This might. When you say this might be our year, it might be.

[Kara Swisher]

So you're excited now that this team is getting its head handed to them?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I keep waiting for Arsenal because the manager is a dad at my school. He seems like a lovely guy and I think Bukaya Saka is just a joy to watch. But my son's like Chelsea and Tottenham, I can't tell you. The one thing we have come together on is Man City, Liz.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, well, good. I'm glad to provide that too.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, exciting.

[Kara Swisher]

I read it. I'm like, I think this is his team. Or maybe he doesn't like it. I didn't know which one it was.

[Scott Galloway]

I couldn't believe you forwarded me that. I mean, how does Cairn Swisher know about Man City's epic meltdown?

[Kara Swisher]

Cause I knew you mentioned it. And I vaguely listened to some of your soccer whatever you wanna call it.

[Scott Galloway]

I can't stand Holland either. He's so good and he's so awesome.

[Kara Swisher]

I love him. All I know is I'm glad the jets lost. And I don't even follow it because Aaron Rodgers is a jerk.

[Scott Galloway]

So you would love Masayoshi san. You would love Bukay Osaka.

[Kara Swisher]

They're both wonderful. Son runs. Wait a second. Isn't that the Internet guy? Is that another person?

[Scott Galloway]

No, no, it's not. Saab Bank? No. Son. Son S O N. He's the best South Korean player. He's the striker for the spurs. And he's just this lovely, gentle man who's like a great example for young men. Anyways, okay, they've also got the Knights Stadium. You come. Actually, you know what? You don't even need to come. Send your boys. I'll Take them to a Premier League game. It's the best sporting event in the world. You know what they do at Premier League games? The losing side, the losing fans, Everyone stays after the game and they clap for their team and they stay stick around convinced. It's the last place that men can show emotion, where they high five each other and hug. There is nothing. I'm not into sport, sports at all. I will. I go to a Premier League game probably every other weekend.

[Kara Swisher]

All right. I will send my sons to you to do this. You know where we are going. I've accepted on our. On your behalf. So I read that in that whole area, in the sports area, and I was reading it. Egan Durbin, you know, from Silver Lake, who I've known for a million years, who have always liked.

[Scott Galloway]

Was he chairman of Twitter at one point or something? Or he was on the board of.

[Kara Swisher]

He might have been. He might have been. But in any case, I've always liked him. He's a very smart guy. He and his wife Abby are investing in bull riding, like making it a thing. All these really rich people are looking for different sports areas to invest in, and they happen to like professional bull riding.

[Scott Galloway]

Pbr.

[Kara Swisher]

Professional bull riding.

[Scott Galloway]

I think it's owned by wme, isn't it? It's not bad.

[Kara Swisher]

No. I don't know. I don't know. But anyway, he's making invests. Maybe he is because he's close to those guys. But I wrote him, I'm like, bull riding. He goes, you want to come? I'm like, we're coming. We're coming to bull. We're coming to bull riding. I saw it once and I loved it.

[Scott Galloway]

Tell me you're a lesbian without telling me you're a lesbian.

[Kara Swisher]

I know. How do you like bull riding? And I said, I'm a lesbian.

[Scott Galloway]

Nothing is safe.

[Kara Swisher]

And I know people get hurt and everything else. I know there's damage. I don't care. I loved it when I saw it. I saw it in one of those states where they have it.

[Scott Galloway]

You know how they get those bulls out? Angry.

[Kara Swisher]

But anyway, they basically put a don't.

[Scott Galloway]

Tell me rope around their nuts and then they singe it right before they open that gate. Anyways.

[Kara Swisher]

Do you know what? I'm thinking of doing that for you. Sometimes that's a great idea.

[Scott Galloway]

You never know. That's called a Tuesday night. And I'll pay you for it. I will pay you for it.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, I'm glad your blood pressure is down, but I will try to bring it back. We're going bull riding also. Well, I'm glad for you and whatever soccer situation you have going. Anyway, that's the show. We want to 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 855-51-PIVOT. I also want to mention, on my latest episode of on with Kara Swisher, I'm talking to Nathan Mirval, the founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures and former CTO of Microsoft. He's a really funny thinker about everything. We discussed all sorts of things, including tech leaders taking to social media. This is my favorite response. Let's listen. Have you been surprised by the shift of some tech people into this area?

[Scott Galloway]

I am surprised at how people who have the skills and abilities to actually do something and who got where they are by lots of careful, reasoned, logical, rational thinking have become buffoons online, saying.

[C]

Things primarily for its shock value, entertainment value.

[Scott Galloway]

In a way that. Look, Kara, let's make a little pact here. If I ever do that, come and stop me.

[Kara Swisher]

I will. I tried with a number of them. It didn't work. It didn't work. I tried anyway. I like Nathan. He's always really funny.

[Scott Galloway]

He seems thoughtful. By the way, just some quick breaking news here. We talked about what did we say was the worst managed company over the last 20 years and their CEO was on the Green Mile. Do you remember this?

[Kara Swisher]

No, tell me. I forgot.

[Scott Galloway]

The CEO of Intel was fired today.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, wow. Well deserved.

[Scott Galloway]

Probably. You watch, you watch. We're going to see a private equity shop come in. Also, just to tease the next episode, Daddy, Daddy might be part of an owner group to buy a football club. And we're all going to go, oh.

[Kara Swisher]

I mean, a football.

[Scott Galloway]

Football, Soccer. The real football.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay. Oh, real football, football.

[Scott Galloway]

By the way, this is. This is not. It is not Man City or a Premier League team. It's what. It's what a podcaster can afford. But still, I'm going to. It's going to get me, like, good seats and a shirt and we're all going to go. It's going to be a ton of.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay, good. It's a team. Girls team, something like that. I don't know what.

[Scott Galloway]

That sounds. Pretty good.

[Kara Swisher]

Bend it like Beckham. Bend it like. Did you see that movie?

[C]

Go.

[Kara Swisher]

Go watch that movie again.

[Scott Galloway]

That was Keira Knightley's first film, probably her best film. That's pretty low bar. I'm not sure. I'm not a huge fan of Keira Knightley.

[Kara Swisher]

Bend it like Beck and Scott Galloway. Okay, I'm excited for that. I'm excited to be a sports owner. You've always wanted to do that. Oh, is I support it.

[Scott Galloway]

The Midlife Crisis Continues. The Arrested Adolescents Tour New dates announced.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh good. Oh, fantastic. Okay. All right, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Friday with more. Please read us out.

[Scott Galloway]

Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Andert engineered this episode. Thanks also to Gibraltar, Ms. Severio, Dan Schulon, and Kate Gallagher. Nishat Kurua is Vox Media's Executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the new show wherever you listen to podcasts. 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. Man City oh no. Oh no. Support for this episode comes from aws. AWS Generative AI gives you the tools to power your business forward with the security and speed of the world's most experienced cloud. Support for this podcast comes from Stripe. Stripe is a payments and billing platform.

[Kara Swisher]

Supporting millions of businesses around the world, including companies like uber, BMW and DoorDash.

[Scott Galloway]

Stripe has helped countless startups and established.

[Kara Swisher]

Companies alike reach their growth targets, make progress on their missions, and reach more customers globally.

[Scott Galloway]

The platform offers a suite of specialized.

[Kara Swisher]

Features and tools to fast track growth like Strike Billing, which makes it easy.

[Scott Galloway]

To handle subscription based charges, invoicing and.

[Kara Swisher]

All recurring revenue management needs. You can learn how Stripe helps companies.

[Scott Galloway]

Of all sizes make [e-mail] that's stripe.com to learn more.

[Kara Swisher]

Stripe make progress.