Kara Swisher (2:18)

No, I'm in Bergen, which is beautiful.

Scott Galloway (2:20)

That sounds like a speaking gig with some serious zeros on it.

Kara Swisher (2:23)

I am doing actually a favor. It's not a paid speaking gig. It's for this Nordic Media Days They've been driving me crazy to come. The Norwegians are big on us, Scott.

Scott Galloway (2:34)

We're big in Norway.

Kara Swisher (2:35)

We're big in Norway. It's only 5 million people. But anyway, it's this group of people that like all the different newspapers and broadcasts and podcasters and everything else. And they do this thing called Nordic Media Days. And the woman who runs it has been like peppering me for a long, long time. And so I have agreed to do it because I was in London, which I was also in London for Tina Brown's thing.

Scott Galloway (2:58)

Didn't contact me, didn't stop by, didn't sign up.

Kara Swisher (3:01)

I wrote you several times and you were in Hamburg.

Scott Galloway (3:03)

Didn't inv.

Kara Swisher (3:06)

I invited you for dinner where I got to meet.

Scott Galloway (3:09)

Excuses me to cash big checks.

Kara Swisher (3:10)

No, this is such a lie. Would you like me to show the texts? I'm in Hamburg. What kind of excuse is that? I'm in Hamburg. Were you in Hamburg?

Scott Galloway (3:19)

I was in Hamburg. It was either I was at Sausage and having beer. I loved her, by the way. Just going to Norway.

Kara Swisher (3:25)

I'm going to finish my story. But go ahead.

Scott Galloway (3:27)

I'm sorry, Go ahead. This leaks into your story. I don't know about you. I am much more liked or less disliked in Europe than in the us. I think it's because in the us, the moment you get assigned to some sort of political party or not, 50% of America hates you. In Europe, they really don't care.

Kara Swisher (3:45)

Maybe they just don't know you well enough yet to hate you. Maybe that's where we are.

Scott Galloway (3:50)

That's fair. I'm like, give it time, give it time.

Kara Swisher (3:53)

Anyway, so I went to London to do this. Tina Brown does this really amazing cause around journalism. It's a great conference where she puts together. It's for her late husband, Harry Evans, who was an astonishing journalist. And she brings together like amazing people. And so we. It was with Craig Newmark, Christiane Amanpour and Don Lemon, and I had a thing on stage.

Scott Galloway (4:21)

Don Lemon was in London?

Kara Swisher (4:23)

London. He wants. He didn't call me again.

Scott Galloway (4:25)

Guy uses me. He doesn't call me.

Kara Swisher (4:26)

Well, I did, but you weren't available anyway, so. Don't. Don't. Because we asked you. Don't even start. So I'm here. So they just said, can you fly up to Bergen, which was an hour and a half flight. And so here I am. It's beautiful. I have to say. It's sort of the entry to the fjord area.

Scott Galloway (4:43)

Northern Europe in the summer is.

Kara Swisher (4:46)

It's cold today.

Scott Galloway (4:47)

Oh, but it's so everything. The light, the water, the sky at night. I mean, it's just incredible.

Kara Swisher (4:53)

I just had giant shrimp. This fish up here is astonishing. And then I walked to the top of this flugenfavenflagen. Whatever. Everything reads like an IKEA piece of furniture here and in the Nordic areas and up the top. This is in a funicular. I love a funicular. And then I get up there and there's goats up there just hanging out. Goats?

Scott Galloway (5:17)

Really?

Kara Swisher (5:17)

Yeah.

Scott Galloway (5:18)

As I said, off. My goats can digest anything. My Great Dane cannot. If I feed my Great Dane 30 minutes early or late, it becomes literally a shit cannon. Roaming around the house, decorating fecal matter across the most expensive items we have. So goats are not like my Great Daneleia.

Kara Swisher (5:33)

Well, they want goat poop up there on the goat on the top.

Scott Galloway (5:36)

They can eat anything if you give it a tennis shoe, no problem.

Kara Swisher (5:39)

I know, it was really cool. I was like, you know when you're not expecting goats and then there are goats. It was like, great. I was like, oh, look, goats.

Scott Galloway (5:46)

You like that?

Kara Swisher (5:46)

I did. I was like, oh, this is cool.

Scott Galloway (5:49)

You want to hear my Nordic story? Should we bring somebody in?

Kara Swisher (5:51)

One second. And then I'm gonna go after the London thing, which is, I had a lovely lunch with Christiane Amanbor when we heard the news about Ted Turner, but I'll get to that in a second. My little European jaunt, which I did ask you to dinner at a fancy person's house where there were celebrities.

Scott Galloway (6:06)

You know, I don't like other people, Cara.

Kara Swisher (6:08)

It was nice.

Scott Galloway (6:09)

It was beautiful. I would spend a half an hour with you and then I'm done with other people.

Kara Swisher (6:12)

Okay. But you would have liked this dinner anyway, so don't say I don't invite you.

Scott Galloway (6:16)

I'm going to Stockholm for brilliant minds. Or at least I've rsvpds. So my story about Stockholm was I went there a couple summers ago on a guys trip and I was walking around on a Sunday and it was the most beautiful day. Fountains, public squares everywhere. And I noticed so many people out. Noticed it was all 80% of the people out were like a 55 or 65 year old woman and a teenage girl or a woman in her female in her 20s, all holding hands, walking around and I didn't know what was going on. And I literally asked someone next to me, I'm like, what's with all the women holding hands? All the women holding hands. Is that. Oh, it's a tradition here. Mothers and daughters on Sundays I don't know if it's every Sunday get together. And there must have been, I'm not exaggerating in this square. There must have been 300 mother daughter duos walking somewhere hand in hand. And I thought, fuck it, I'm moving to northern Europe.

Kara Swisher (7:11)

I know. It's really lovely, I have to say.

Scott Galloway (7:13)

It really is. I mean, these people get it.

Kara Swisher (7:16)

One thing that's interesting though, I have to say is. And I was, I was talking to a bunch of media types here, they're, they're beside themselves about Trump. They just, he has really spun them up. They're all like. And I said, well, you know, we've had it for 10 years, so you'll have to, you know, I'm sure he's on his way out, but it's, it's, they're just. I was like, it's time to just. You're gonna have to take control of your own destiny at this point. You can't rely on us in that regard.

Scott Galloway (7:41)

Yeah, I agree. Same thing in Germany. The, in the, in the emotion I registered from them is that they are actually, they're very worried and they're actually, in a weird way, it's like you don't appreciate something until it's gone. They miss the old America. And I think there's a certain kind of bereft, like these were our friends. We're fond of America and we hope that it is still America.

Kara Swisher (8:09)

The second thing, maybe you got it too. The second thing is, how did the tech people become villains? It's here. That brand is here, like completely. How awful the tech people are. And before they like had antipathy, that's for sure. Like, you know, with all the different rules they created and they were sort of onto them before everybody else was. But it's a real, like, you know, it's the same trends that are happening in the US The AI is not trustworthy tech villains. They suck up to Trump to get their stuff. It was that. It's really a theme here. And it's linked to Trump. Of course, the tech people are very linked to Trump. And so they have this, they have more than antipathy towards techno. It's really that, that is interesting to me too.

Scott Galloway (8:52)

Whenever they. But I got some questions about that, about how did tech come off the rails about. I'm like, okay, but you have to couch it in the following context. I get a little bit defensive around this and that is. And you get that a lot. How did tech and how did American tech brothers become so, so terrible? I'M like, okay, just, just, just to slow your roll a little bit. In 1995, GDP per capita and hourly wage was about the same and productivity was about the same between Europe and the U.S. the U.S. has blown away Europe, I mean up 20 or 30% while Europe is flat. And most of that is capital formation and tech Anthropic, which was founded five years ago, if it had been founded in Europe, it would be one of the five most valuable companies in Europe. I'm like, for all the villain, for all the villainy or villainry or bad vibes that you're getting from tech, keep in mind these companies have created unbelievable economic value that has quite frankly left you in the dust.

Kara Swisher (9:49)

Yeah, no, that's been happening for a long. Let's cycle the second cycle, the third cycle. No, it's absolutely true. But one of the things that was interesting is they're debating whether to use Palantir and some of their defense systems. So it's top of mind for these people of who these people are. So it was just interesting. And I'll be interested to see what happens at Cambridge, like what the questions they are. But it's nice to check in with other people.

Scott Galloway (10:10)

Just the IPOs. Just the IPOs of anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX, if they go through, are estimated to earn or raise about $250 billion. Just those three companies. Do you know how much money was raised in the capital markets in the UK last year?

Kara Swisher (10:30)

Probably. What, in the billion?

Scott Galloway (10:32)

Maybe 2.4 billion.

Kara Swisher (10:34)

Yeah.

Scott Galloway (10:34)

Now granted that was a, that was a, that was an especially weak year. But the capital formation in Europe is just not there. It's interesting it's there for Seed Stage companies and also the tax policy. You get a 30% tax credit here in the UK for seed stage investments, you get 30 cents on the dollar back right away. So they're really good about Seed Stage. What they don't have is in the US, if you show any promise or scale, especially in AI right now you can go out and raise $100 million for your BNC round. That just doesn't exist here in Europe.

Kara Swisher (11:07)

No, it's true, but nonetheless, they're still in with us, technologically speaking, and they have to use our companies. So they're very interested in what's playing out with Trump and the tech people. Anyway, we have to get to the news. Speaking of great entrepreneurs, Ted Turner, the media mogul CNN founder who helped create the 24 hour news cycles, died at 87. Turner was also a major philanthropist, making a record $1 billion in donation to establish the United Nations Foundation. He was a different kind of billionaire, although he was also. It was called the mouth of the South. Beyond media and Philanth Turner pursued countless other passions from his Montana Grill. His eco. This is an eco conscious restaurant chain being named Yachtsman of the Year multiple times. He was Larry Ellison. Before Larry Ellison. He announced he had Lewy Body Dementia, progressive brain disorder. In 2018. Jane Fonda, one of Turner's ex wives who remained a close friend, remembered him saying, men like Ted aren't supposed to express need and vulnerability. That was Ted's greatest strength, I believe. And he was. And I recently interviewed her and she had told me he was quite ill. I talked to him a little bit for my books on aol. He was real mad about the sale and everything else except that when he sold the company he had that famous quote where he said this deal was better than sex. Do you remember that? He always had something kooky to say at any one moment. And a lot of people are like, oh, he's the reason we have terrible cable. His vision of cable was not this what has happened. So I sort of push back against that because his idea was that you can get news to sort of democratize the news a little more from the big three. And so I consider him real important, his legacy very important. Even though it sort of morphed into this scream fest that it has become. But his was, you know, it was real news. And I was happened to be with Christiane Amanpour who got there pretty early, not right away, at the beginning. And she had nothing but great things to say about his tenure when he was sort of do real entrepreneurial news and other things and a very generous and charitable person at the same time. And also funny and weird and interesting.

Scott Galloway (13:18)

Yeah, this guy is. He kind of defined the term that you don't hear anymore, a captain of industry. And the term captain he was something people don't know about him is I think he may be the only billionaire who was also an elite world class athlete. He won the America's Cup.

Kara Swisher (13:35)

Yeah, he did.

Scott Galloway (13:36)

And there are just aren't very many billionaires who've reached the pinnacle of a sport. And maybe Roger Staubach, is he a billionaire now? Anyways, but he built CNN from nothing. It's really interesting how it emerged. So news when we were growing up was a public service. And that is ABC and CBS sold a shit ton of ads from Tang and Chevrolet running against all in the Family and MASH and the Partridge Family and the Brady Bunch. And they felt that it was a public Service to have 23 minutes of news and 7 minutes of commercial in this money losing thing called the local news. And he said he correctly figured out that there was money in a market for 24 by 7 news. And it was very scrappy. If you go back, it wasn't very well produced. And he started the whole thing. Now, where it came off the tracks was quite frankly with Rupert Murdoch recognizing that the part of the news they made an observation, and that is KABC news with Jerry Dunphy back in the 70s had something called point counterpoint and SNL used to mock it. You know, Jane, you ignorant slut.

Kara Swisher (14:45)

Jane, you ignorant slut. That's our show pretty much. But go ahead.

Scott Galloway (14:48)

So they recognized something called Point Counterpoint and it was Bruce Hershensen and Jim Tunney and they would start yelling at each other. And someone did the analysis and found out that's what people were tuning in for.

Kara Swisher (15:03)

Yeah, I know.

Scott Galloway (15:03)

And that was really the key and arguably the most dangerous insight that Rupert Murdoch made.

Kara Swisher (15:11)

And of course, what did he.

Scott Galloway (15:12)

And that is, no, this isn't about balance. It's enough news to keep, to give, to create a halo of legitimacy. And quite frankly, CNN was guilty of it too. Crossfire and CNN now has a show like that where they all just start yelling at each other.

Kara Swisher (15:27)

That's when Tucker Carlson started.

Scott Galloway (15:29)

Yeah, Michael Kinsley, remember Tucker and Michael just going at it. And that seemed civil compared to what

Kara Swisher (15:37)

it actually, when you watch it, it actually is.

Scott Galloway (15:39)

It seems patrician.

Kara Swisher (15:41)

It's intelligent. It's intelligent, sir.

Scott Galloway (15:43)

I beg to differ. You know, anyways, it has digressed and has become something that is, I don't know, it's a longer talk show. Let's get back to Ted Turner. He gave away a billion dollars. He actually gave away a billion dollars to the U.N. i would argue in the U.N. actually meant something. Something. Also people constantly ask me for male role models for kind of a positive or aspirational form of masculinity. I think Ted Turner is a great role model. 1. Let's just go to the male stuff. Very aggressive, also politically incorrect. When Time Warner, when Time Warner was acquired by cnn, Gerald Levin introduced the whole thing and said, and now I want to introduce my best friend, Ted Turner. And Ted stood up and said, best friend. I've never been to your fucking house.

Kara Swisher (16:29)

Yeah, he was great.

Scott Galloway (16:30)

And then my favorite was when he did an all hands and it was Ash Wednesday and there were a bunch of people in the audience with Ashes on their forehead. He's like, shouldn't you be working at Fox? Oh, I mean, the guy was.

Kara Swisher (16:41)

That's funny.

Scott Galloway (16:42)

I think there's a certain charm in a world now where everything is so. I don't know especially.

Kara Swisher (16:48)

Yeah, but it was a different kind of.

Scott Galloway (16:50)

Well, it's good natured. He wasn't mean.

Kara Swisher (16:52)

He was called the mouth of the South. Remember, he called himself that too. I mean, and so he was a different time period. He wasn't malevolent, but he was.

Scott Galloway (16:59)

He was charitable, he was visionary, he was aggressive. 14 grandchildren. 14 or 12 grandchildren.

Kara Swisher (17:06)

Married to Jane Fonda. She still loves him. She told me she still an environmentalist.

Scott Galloway (17:11)

And also took his seat and his privilege and his wealth as an obligation to serve and connect nations with each other. He funded something that didn't work called the Pan American Games. But it was meant to be a more. A less corrupt Olympics. I called it the Pan American Games. It's called the Goodwill Games. It was an effort to ease tensions between the US and ussr. Anyways, he was very serious about uniting nations and trying to promote world peace. He saw his wealth and his seat as an obligation that he was optimizing for service, not for attention.

Kara Swisher (17:48)

I urge people, if they're blaming what cable is now on him, not to. It's not what he. That was not his vision. I was around for that and it became that and it was not his. He may have created the 24 and they did take advantage. Remember the thing that really sent them over the top was that the girl down the well. Remember the girl down the well story?

Scott Galloway (18:08)

Oh, yeah.

Kara Swisher (18:10)

That's what Christiane was. She's like, oh, that's the thing that really got people watching that in the Iraq War. Yeah, the Iraq War. And that's where Christiane showed up. You saw moments of that where. Remember the stud Scud, Arthur Kent? Like, it started to turn. That's when you started to sort of see the beginnings of kind of the circus acts of these cable stations. And I was thinking that as I was, you know, I went on Sky News and BBC and stuff like that and like the constant Hantavirus. And I think it's a very serious. I'm worried about hantavirus. But the constant. Let's go back to the cruise ship, let's go back to the. And I was like this. Actually, we're in a war in Iran. I feel like perhaps we need to head over there and take a look at what's had the cruising going on in the Strait of Hormuz. But he has a great legacy.

Scott Galloway (18:58)

And remember Bernard Shaw?

Kara Swisher (18:59)

Bernard Shaw, Amazing.

Scott Galloway (19:00)

Daniel Shore.

Kara Swisher (19:02)

Yep.

Scott Galloway (19:02)

Oh, my dad's favorite. For the wrong reasons. Bobby Bautista. Lois Hart. God, I grew up on cnn.

Kara Swisher (19:08)

And Christiane. Yeah.

Scott Galloway (19:09)

And also I genuinely believe a decent administration would be CNN anchors. Dana Bash should be president. She is smart, she's elegant, and she could smother you in your sleep. She's got that edge to her, which every president needs. If you crossed her.

Kara Swisher (19:24)

Yeah.

Scott Galloway (19:26)

Anderson should be vice president. Any problems with the Pope? He just goes over there. Just talks about grief. Everybody loves him. Confident enough. Freed Zakaria. Secretary of State. Hands down. Hands down. Michael Smerconish. He could be Secretary of Commerce or Labor.

Kara Swisher (19:42)

Okay. Do I get anything? I'm a contributor. Do I get, like, an ambassadorship to something?

Scott Galloway (19:47)

Oh, you're ambassador to Guyana. We've already decided this here. We're gonna move on because you're saving me from myself.

Kara Swisher (19:53)

I'm saving you from yourself because it's interesting. I don't think Ted Turner, he didn't like the AOL time warrant deal that I did speak to him about. But first he was like, it was better than sex. The deal was the best thing I ever did. Better than sex. And then afterwards, he, like, totally publicly decried it publicly. And one thing that Barry Diller, I think, told him was like, if you sell your house and they wreck. They wreck the patio. You need to shut up. You sold the house. And I didn't necessarily agree with him on that, but it was. He definitely had much regrets, and he probably wouldn't be thrilled. Where from the latest numbers from Warner Brothers Discovery. The company reported a net loss of 2.9 billion doll in the latest quarter. That's essentially a $2.8 billion termination fee tied to the Netflix deal. Paramount agreed to cover the cost, but the expense still sits on Warner's books until the deal officially closes. For people who don't see why that was that big of a loss. But the first. Nonetheless, the first quarter revenue was down 1% year over year, and ad revenue slid 7%. Total streaming revenue did rise 9%, largely by HBO. Max went international. Paramount had slightly better news to report, beating revenue and earnings expectations in the first. Paramount added 700,000 subscribers during the quarter, helping streaming revenue grow by 17% year over year. The company's film studio did well with revenue up 11%. And they said they're making great progress on the Warner Brothers deal. With late Q3 closing still on track, there's still some pushback to it. At the same Time I'm going to add one more earnings Disney's. Under the first new CEO Josh D'. Amaro. The numbers were strong with revenue climbing 7% to 25 billion. Operating income across Disney's Entertainment, sports and Experience division beat expectations. Says it expects earnings per share to grow 12%. That's solid in the fiscal year. And one weak spot. A dip in attendance at its US theme parks, probably due to fewer international dollars. They're gonna see repercussions from gas prices, I'm guessing, and other prices, but it's only down 1%. Maybe the next quarter is where you're gonna see it over the summer. That will be the real indicator there. Thoughts on the Warner and everything? They're just sort of bumping along these companies.

Scott Galloway (22:02)

So Warner Brothers 117 adjusted GAAP VER estimates of $0.09, which is actually pretty good. They had a 45% beat. Operating margin was down, but are mostly flat. The linear networks continue to bleed. The revenue fell 8% with domestic pay TV subscribers down 10%. And free cash flow was $476 million. And net leverage sits at 3.4x. The Paramount deal is expected to close Q3, which will form a company with $69 billion in pro forma revenue. If there's a book, if you wrote a book called the worst acquisitions in history, you could just call the book Time Warner. They are at the center of the. I mean, three of the five worst acquisitions in history all involve Time Warner.

Kara Swisher (22:48)

Yeah. With AT&T. AOL. Right. And this.

Scott Galloway (22:52)

Yeah. And this one, I think will go down as in terms of shareholder value destruction. Paramount posted a clean beat and streaming turned its first real profit revenue of 7.35 billion versus 7.28 EPS of $0.23 versus $0.15 expected. I mean, companies are just. It's just incredible. Companies are just blowing away their earnings. Their direct to consumer revenue was up 11%. Paramount plus revenue up 17%. I wonder how much of that is landmin. They added 700,000 net subscribers to reach 79.6 million in total. Direct to consumer EBITDA improved to 251 million. TV media revenue fell 6% to $3.7 billion. As cord kind of continues. And Paramount has nearly doubled its film slate for 2026 versus 2025 since closing the Skydance deal last August. Which to their credit, promising.

Kara Swisher (23:45)

That he has been promising.

Scott Galloway (23:46)

Yeah. Everyone's been saying, oh, they're going to gut Hollywood and they're coming out swinging and they're doubling their film stock.

Kara Swisher (23:51)

The thing is, is it Going to make money. Right? That's the issue. Let's see what happens.

Scott Galloway (23:55)

What happens?

Kara Swisher (23:55)

Yeah, so let's just wait until they, you can spend the money. I mean, that's what rich people do. But let's see if they make it. If they have some hits. If they have some hits.

Scott Galloway (24:04)

And so, Josh, tomorrow's First earning call CEO reported a really strong beat. Shares gained roughly 7% after the report. But here's the thing. 100% of this beat, the credit goes to Bob Iger. Someone doesn't impact earnings two weeks after they take the CEO job. This beat was really ringing the bell for, for Bob iger. Revenue at $25.2 billion versus 24.8. Expected earnings a buck 57 versus 1.149. Expected streaming operating income jumped 88% to $582 million. And Disney's streaming margins broke into the double digits at almost 11%. Their streaming revenue hit 5.5 billion, up 13%, driven by price hikes. And Disney no longer reports subscriber numbers, which is a shame. But their experiences that you reference was up 7%, which must be an increase in prices because as you mentioned, numbers are down at the price, attendance is down. And they also have raised their buyback target, similar to what Apple did last week and guided for, I think Disney, I think Disney is a buy and tomorrow is, you know, he came out of the parks, which grew nearly 40% in revenue under his watch. And he called Disney the digital centerpiece of the company. On Wednesday's earnings, he flagged fuel and consumer spending. Dana Walden, who I know you know, named president, chief creative officer.

Kara Swisher (25:36)

That was an important keep for that company, the keeping her because she was a CEO, she was the top contender.

Scott Galloway (25:42)

Well, not only that, they're all, I mean, quite frankly, a lot of these people are probably, I mean, this is the challenge. When your stock is below where it was 10 years ago, you have to get the most talented people in the room and say, I'm going to issue new options. And please stick around. Because you got to think a lot of these people are looking at, except

Kara Swisher (26:01)

what is their option. Yeah, because that's harder now. You can't be as good a. You can't do those sweet, sweet deals anymore.

Scott Galloway (26:09)

Yeah. But if you're a talented Disney executive, you could absolutely land.

Kara Swisher (26:15)

I would stay. See, now I would stay because you have power. We were one of the last pieces of, you know, pieces of wood floating. I don't know, I just thought I

Scott Galloway (26:24)

would say, oh, that's interesting. I Hadn't thought of that analogy. I like that it was from the

Kara Swisher (26:27)

Devil Wears Prada too, but go ahead.

Scott Galloway (26:29)

I thought it was from the Titanic.

Kara Swisher (26:30)

It is, but it was. She just said that. She goes, we just got on the last.

Scott Galloway (26:33)

I was wondering how long it was going to be before you mentioned the Devil Wears Frotted.

Kara Swisher (26:36)

Just saying. It's killing it. Still killing it.

Scott Galloway (26:39)

Yeah. No, it's great. Let's go over every movie that's actually making money.

Kara Swisher (26:42)

It is making money.

Scott Galloway (26:43)

Yeah, it's making a ton. It's going to change the world. Lawrence of Arabia meets the Sound of Music meets success. Disney stock is down more than 10% year to date despite. Despite back to back earnings speeds. I don't know if it's because everyone's giving up on traditional media or because AI is sucking all the oxygen out of every other everything company of the other 490 in the S and P, but I think Disney actually right now is a really good buy and I wouldn't be surprised if it's put in play in the next three to six months.

Kara Swisher (27:15)

I keep saying that. By whom? To Apple. To. Because Apple was looking at perplexity.

Scott Galloway (27:19)

Allegedly an activist. Oh, an activist comes in and says you need to cut 20% of your staff or you need to put the company in.

Kara Swisher (27:27)

Which they did with Iger. I mean, Iger went through that, right? Several times, I think.

Scott Galloway (27:32)

Yeah. But Iger had so much credibility he was able to back this stock because

Kara Swisher (27:35)

this is a new CEO, right?

Scott Galloway (27:37)

The stock Disney has this unbelievable franchise. Or it might be corporate restructuring. Go good bank, bad bank, spin out the parks into its own business.

Kara Swisher (27:47)

And they decided not to. As you know, they were gonna get rid of ABC at one point and then they decided to keep espn. I think that's one of dem tomorrow's first incident.

Scott Galloway (27:55)

And an activist will argue that their decisions have been really poor because this company has probably the greatest collection of IP in the world, a booming parks business, and yet the stock is trading below where it was in 2016. This is sort of. I gotta think there's a lot of activists.

Kara Swisher (28:12)

The same old sort of unpleasant Ike Permutter activists.

Scott Galloway (28:15)

No, if I had to bet on any firm that shows up forcefully yet dignified, it would be Elliot. And by the way, I don't know anything. I haven't talked to them about this, but I wouldn't be surprised. Unfortunately, it'll probably be someone like Peltz, but he's more consumer. Or I wouldn't put it past Peltz

Kara Swisher (28:32)

was in the last one I think with poor Mudder, remember?

Scott Galloway (28:35)

I don't know. I think if Netflix stock was. I think Netflix and Disney. The merger between Netflix and Disney could never happen under an administration that didn't have its. That didn't have a FTC or a DOJ that was in a slumber. If there was any desire to do that, then now would be the time.

Kara Swisher (28:55)

Brenda is not. He doesn't like Disney. It's in his sights.

Scott Galloway (29:00)

Who doesn't like Disney?

Kara Swisher (29:01)

Brendan Carr. Brenda. I call him Brenda.

Scott Galloway (29:04)

Yeah, but.

Kara Swisher (29:05)

Well, he's specifically called out Disney, like, by name, saying he doesn't like what they're doing.

Scott Galloway (29:10)

Yeah, but he doesn't get to decide antitrust. I mean, I guess. Could he lead it? The bottom line is Disney and Netflix right now. Disney is cheap right now. So Netflix and Disney in a windup would be game over. If you took Netflix's ip, including Wednesday, Stranger Things Bridgerton, and used it to go vertical and create experiences and parks. I just think it'd be. I just think it'd be incredible. By the way, it shouldn't happen. It would be too much concentration of media. But from it, I would buy shares in that company.

Kara Swisher (29:42)

Yeah, absolutely. I don't think it'll happen, although I don't know why it shouldn't, because they have a lot of companies to go up against, these tech companies. But I don't know. Anyway, well, interesting to see. It was fine. It was perfectly fine. It was like, okay. It's so funny, you know, when Ted Turner, when that deal happened, I mean, media, that was the top for media, wasn't it? Like when ao All Time Warner happened, I think it was like they were running the fucking show. They were the kings of the road. And then they weren't. Like, it's been a downward, downward, downward slide for traditional media.

Scott Galloway (30:15)

The fall of traditional media for me is embodied by when I first moved to New York in 2000, and like all single people in their 30s, we would pile eight people into a house in Bridgehampton. And every weekend was a mad scramble to see who we knew at Conde Nast. Who knew what magazine was throwing the most fabulous party in the Hamptons.

Kara Swisher (30:42)

That was Ron Coloa. All those people.

Scott Galloway (30:44)

And whether it was Details or Vogue and the job, the masters of the universe were these was the creatives and the business people working at Conde Nast magazines.

Kara Swisher (30:56)

In the magazine group and in the journalism business, I have to tell you, I was like the Internet person. And they, like, treated me like shit. Like they were like, oh, you're part of the Internet tech was boring, you know, and you're. No, the. No, it was Ponzi scheme. It was Ponzi scheme. Oh, it's nothing. It's gonna. It's all a bunch of. It's gonna go away. And the media reporters was such snot bags, I have to tell you. They just were. And I was like, I don't. I think you're in trouble. I was. And they're like, you don't know. They're going to run the show and Media, media, media. And I was like, well, I think there's got some vulnerabilities there. But they. I. I'll never. It was the same thing. It was sort of. It was. Well, too bad. That's what happened. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. We come back Anthropic gets into bed with Elon and SpaceX. Support for this show comes from Ferragamo. On Mother's Day, Ferragamo wants to celebrate the everyday moments between a mother and her loved ones where style, confidence and grace are naturally communicated. Ferragamo presents their the Things I have Learned from youm collection, where the deepest form of love and elegance are showcased. Because these lessons are not formally taught, but rather absorbed through the small, everyday gestures that define a lifetime, their new HugSoft XS bag is the true protagonist of the selection. It's compact, but never confined. The hug soft XS translates Ferragamo's craftsmanship into a form designed for a modern rhythm. Graceful in the hand, effortless in motion, versatile across occasions. Plus, there's a selection of silk scarves and bandeau featuring prints with flowers, leaves and petals arranged to reproduce iconic shoe designs from the Ferragamo archive, reflecting the brand's tradition of storytelling through print. Designed to last. Like the values they represent, Ferragamo embodies the enhancing ideas of femininity, refined, effortless, and authentic. Discover Ferragamo's Mother's Day gifting selection@ferragamo.com or in store. Support for this show comes from Harvey AI. The future of law is agentic. Not just tools that assists, but AI agents that navigate complex matters. Harvey was built on legal agents that analyze, draft, and execute with precision. But great lawyers don't just complete tasks, they strategize. That's why Harvey created agents that can do the work from end to end. They build a plan, pull from secure data sources, run sub agents in parallel, and draft the work product ready for your review so you can delegate the work and own the judgment. Harvey agents support work across fund formation, litigation, regulatory compliance, M and A and more. Adapting to the complexity of each matter and the way your team actually works. Trusted by more than 60% of the Am Law 100 and leading Fortune 500 legal teams, Harvey is the AI operating system designed specifically for legal work, helping teams move faster with greater precision and confidence. Harvey AI tailored for law Learn more at Harvey AI

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Kara Swisher (34:35)

Scott we're back. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodi says the company planned for 10x growth this year, but is now seeing growth closer to 80x, creating a massive need for more computing power. Enter SpaceX, or rather SpaceX AI. SpaceX acquired XAI back in February, but Elon Musk has just revealed X AI will be dissolved and its AI products will be part of the SpaceX AI brand. Of course, because everybody left, it didn't have quite the traction that he had hoped, so he's, as I said, folding it right in. Everything's going to get folded. Tesla's next under the new deal, Anthropic will get Compute power with SpaceX AI data center in Memphis, the one that's polluting people as it works to keep up with surging demand. Everybody needs power. Real turnaround for Elon, who earlier called Anthropic evil. He's now saying he was impressed after meeting with senior executive, adding, no one set off my evil detector again. Look in the fucking mirror, dude. So is this the enemy of my enemy is my friend because of ChatGPT? This is an interesting thing. I mean obviously Lynce has not had the success he'd hoped to dominate, and it's all about his beef with Sam Altman. But in this case, this is what he's doing. I would be careful if I was Daario in general, but I think he's savvy enough to deal with Elon though, and he seems to have enough pushback. Any thoughts on this?

Scott Galloway (35:58)

I'd rather talk about me and the aughts and reminisce a Little bit longer. Is that okay?

Kara Swisher (36:02)

Just for a second.

Scott Galloway (36:04)

So I started.

Kara Swisher (36:05)

But I want thoughts on this.

Scott Galloway (36:06)

In 2000, I had moving to New York from San Francisco. I had just been abused, ridden hard and put away wet by Sequoia Capital. Kicked off the board of the. Kicked out of the band. I started. Kicked off of the board of the company. I started. Just like got divorced. Just like, I just wanted. I wanted to never go back to San Francisco the rest of my life. And I moved in New York.

Kara Swisher (36:28)

Here's the question. Did you deserve it just a little bit?

Scott Galloway (36:31)

Did I deserve what?

Kara Swisher (36:32)

What happened with Sequoia? I'm just asking. I'm just curious.

Scott Galloway (36:35)

Oh, I was an obnoxious, aggressive entrepreneur that was arrogant and reckless.

Kara Swisher (36:40)

Okay.

Scott Galloway (36:40)

But also Mike Moritz is a small, vindictive man.

Kara Swisher (36:43)

Okay, got it.

Scott Galloway (36:46)

So, yeah, I think there's enough blame to go around for everyone. And also the board was a bunch of obsequious people getting. Anyways, it doesn't hurt. I'm still not triggered. I'm clearly over it. I'm clearly over it.

Kara Swisher (37:00)

All of you are still to this day.

Scott Galloway (37:02)

I'm clearly over it. Anyways, I moved back to New York and I started an E commerce incubator backed by Goldman, JP Morgan, Maveron Howard Schultz's company. And it was near impossible to recruit people to come to work for a technology incubator. And I would take people out who were working at traditional media who were making five or six hundred thousand dollars a year. And I'd say, I can only pay you 200, but I'm gonna give you 2 million options on 2 million shares. And I would have to walk them through what options were.

Kara Swisher (37:35)

Oh wow.

Scott Galloway (37:37)

The ecosystem. I couldn't even use a New York based law firm because they didn't do venture. People don't realize New York in 2000 was about finance, it was about media. There was no.

Kara Swisher (37:49)

There were a couple little ones. Guilt.

Scott Galloway (37:51)

Yeah, I mean there was a guilt and there was guilt.

Kara Swisher (37:54)

I forgot about that.

Scott Galloway (37:55)

There was guilt in the. Kevin Ryan's company. And then there was the one ad company that got sold.

Kara Swisher (38:01)

It's a media company. Which McCall did. Gawker. There was Gawker.

Scott Galloway (38:04)

Well, that wasn't an Internet company.

Kara Swisher (38:06)

I know, I know.

Scott Galloway (38:06)

That was a gossip magazine, a digital gossip. There was a. There was a digital ad company in New York. There was no technology.

Kara Swisher (38:15)

There really wasn't. Oh wait, there was one. Oh, the one that bought. Was bought by Yahoo. Tumblr. Tumblr.

Scott Galloway (38:20)

Oh my God.

Kara Swisher (38:21)

Tumblr was in New York.

Scott Galloway (38:22)

Tumblr. The worst acquisition in history. The worst acquisition in history.

Kara Swisher (38:27)

I broke that story. Nice to meet you. But yeah.

Scott Galloway (38:30)

Where? Marissa? Within the same 60 days, Mark Zuckerberg made the best acquisition in history for a billion. He bought Instagram. It's now worth a thinks probably a half a trillion to a trillion dollars. And Marissa Mayer said, I'm a baller. And she bought Tumblr for a billion dollars, which seven years later got sold for how much?

Kara Swisher (38:49)

A couple million to $3 million. It was a collection of blogs, dirty sites, dirty blogs.

Scott Galloway (38:56)

And then when they shut down the porn, I got into an online battle with what's the guy with the bad Caesar's haircut? The venture capitalist. There were two or three Union Square ventures. Anyways, they told Tumblr they were no longer going to fund this bag of shit that was making no money. But he convinced Marissa Mayer to buy it for $1.1 billion. Anyways.

Kara Swisher (39:17)

Anyways, I'll walk down memory lane of New York.

Scott Galloway (39:20)

This has been fun. I've really enjoyed this.

Kara Swisher (39:21)

Okay. All right.

Scott Galloway (39:23)

And then I joined and then my incubator collapsed within like six months. Founding it after the dot com implosion. And I joined the faculty at NYU where my first year salary was $12,000.

Kara Swisher (39:34)

Nice.

Scott Galloway (39:35)

Good times, nice. Okay, good times.

Kara Swisher (39:36)

Back to exam.

Scott Galloway (39:38)

Anyways, back to anthropic. What are we talking? I've said this. I wish I have never bet on a predictions market. I said this a week ago. Kalshi had Musk winning at 51 or 52%. Now it's all of a sudden fallen to 38.

Kara Swisher (39:54)

Winning at what? Winning.

Scott Galloway (39:56)

Winning the case.

Kara Swisher (39:57)

Oh, the case. Yeah.

Scott Galloway (39:57)

Then Musk wins the case.

Kara Swisher (39:59)

Yeah. Yeah. He's gotta make some moves. Yeah.

Scott Galloway (40:01)

Going from there is no moves. He does not have a legal leg to stand on. You can go from a non profit to a for profit. You're allowed to do that.

Kara Swisher (40:09)

Yeah. And when you and California already approved it.

Scott Galloway (40:13)

Speaking of the late 90s, I bought a home for $720,000 in Noe Valley near where you live, which was a lot of money for me at the time. And two years later when I moved to New York, I sold it for 960 and thought I was a fucking real estate genius. It ended up that house is next to where Mark Zuckerberg moved. It's got to be worth $10 million right now. This is the equivalent I live right now. Okay. A lot more. This is the equivalent of me going back to the owners and suing them. This is regret and a Messiah complex. Cosplaying a legal argument.

Kara Swisher (40:45)

I would agree.

Scott Galloway (40:46)

Judges and courts aren't concerned or aren't moved by anger and indignance and sellers regret. They're moved by evidence and argument, and there's none here.

Kara Swisher (40:56)

Though I will say, this trial, I was thinking, you know, you're watching the texts go back and forth, and Mira Morati doesn't like Sam. Really? Even though she pretended she did. And the girlfriend who was on the board, I'm blanking on her name. I don't really care, because Siobhan Zillis, who has.

Scott Galloway (41:13)

Isn't that his girlfriend?

Kara Swisher (41:14)

Well, it's his partner. And then they had four children and she didn't manage to tell the open I people that she had two children with him. And obviously she was.

Scott Galloway (41:23)

That's not a conflict, Kara.

Kara Swisher (41:24)

She's like a spy in there. Like, right, they're accusing a.

Scott Galloway (41:27)

That's not a conflict.

Kara Swisher (41:28)

Like, you might get. Give that piece of information if you're in a beef with someone, if you're

Scott Galloway (41:33)

a fiduciary for all shareholders making decisions around someone's compensation and you're having their children.

Kara Swisher (41:37)

That's just like.

Scott Galloway (41:38)

She probably just forgot to mention it

Kara Swisher (41:40)

anyway, so the whole thing. And they're like, going back and forth in this trial, and I thought, this is a soap opera. But the most boring people, most awful boring people in it, I'm like, I could give a fuck that whether Mir Marati likes Sam Altman or not. I don't care. I don't care. Like, oh, he was manipulative. I don't care. Like, what does that have to do with anything? Like, I, you know, honestly, I force, you know, you hear that, of course, about Sam being manipulative and telling one person one thing and another. And as I'm reading it in the trial, I'm like, so what does this. Is this illegal? Is he's just a jerk or you didn't like him, or he was deceptive? Did he do anything illegal? Because otherwise your internal corporate hijink. I don't, you know, care. I do think she should have told people she had his babies, in my opinion. But the whole thing is like a bad soap opera that you want to, like, turn off. Like, and it's just bad for AI, it's bad for the companies. And therefore he's going to do another deal like this. That's where we. That's why we're where we are. He's trying to glom himself onto a successful.

Scott Galloway (42:41)

Ron Wayne was one of the founders of Apple he owned 10% of it. He sold his 10% for $2,300 back to I think Jobs and Wozniak. That is now worth $400 billion.

Kara Swisher (42:54)

Yeah, he feels bad.

Scott Galloway (42:56)

And guess what, it sucks to be a grown up. He signed the legal documents. Private property. Key to private property is when like Elon Musk. And my favorite defense is, oh, he didn't read the fine print.

Kara Swisher (43:07)

No, please.

Scott Galloway (43:07)

He's the wealthiest man in the world with the most sophisticated legal team in history. But, oh, he didn't ruin the fine. I would like to. I would just love to see someone show up who sold the guy who sold Tesla to Musk or the rights to it. I forget his name, show up and say, oh, I didn't realize it was going to be worth this much. And I didn't read the fine print just to see how that goes over.

Kara Swisher (43:25)

Yeah, instead he's like, baby daddy. I'm like, come on, like, stop it, you people.

Scott Galloway (43:30)

And then the notion these are the

Kara Swisher (43:32)

smartest people on our planet. Such idiots.

Scott Galloway (43:35)

They're trying to make an emotional argument that he's trying to. That I wanted it to be a nonprofit. And what did I do? Go on to found a for profit AI company that arguably has less guardrails than any other AI company. A jury of actual people. I think this is a great buy at 38%. I'll take the other side of this. I don't.

Kara Swisher (43:58)

Yeah, nobody likes these people. I have to say, Brockman came out of all these sort of loathsome people. I'm waiting for the Sam Altman testimony, but of all the people so far, Greg Brockman comes off the best. And I'm not a particular fan of his either, like the one that keeps notes of everything. So some of the highlights of the the testimony listed emails from zealous showing Musk suggested OpenAI become part of Tesla, potentially as a B Corp subsidiary. Musk tried to recruit Sam Altman to join the world class AI lab within Tesla, even offering him a board seat. They had no interest. Sam Altman and Greg Brockman. Two days before the trial started, Musk tested Brockman, asking if he was interested in settling the case. Musk supposedly wanted full control of OpenAI in part to help him raise $80 billion to colonize Mars and was using OpenAI employees to do secret, secret work for Tesla. OpenAI president said the mask lack of understanding. This is Brockman of AI was a concern for the company. That was factual. When I heard that, I'm like, I get it. And OpenAI's former CTO, Mira Muradi, who's a very nice person. She testified saying she couldn't trust Sam Altman's words and saying he created chaos. Mira, I like you, but I don't care. Like, then leave. Leave, leave.

Scott Galloway (45:11)

None of this matters.

Kara Swisher (45:12)

Nothing matters. Like, none of it. Right?

Scott Galloway (45:14)

It's not who's a better person. It's not who would be a better shepherd of AI. It's contract law. I know when you sell an asset, it doesn't matter who the bigger asshole is, the seller or the buyer.

Kara Swisher (45:27)

I know he sold.

Scott Galloway (45:28)

He gave up his ownership and got baby daddy.

Kara Swisher (45:31)

Gave up his ownership.

Scott Galloway (45:32)

Baby daddy. And media's trying to turn this into who would be better at running it. It doesn't fucking matter.

Kara Swisher (45:38)

Don't follow along with these people.

Scott Galloway (45:40)

When you sell an asset, it doesn't matter who's the better person or steward of the home you sold.

Kara Swisher (45:46)

It is instructive to look at how sloppy it is. And so that's. I keep saying to people, they're like, oh, they're masters of the universe. I'm like, they're kind of sloppy. Like Google. Like, everybody in the beginning of Google, they were all like, fucking each other. Like, it was like. And it was a big mess and it was chaos and they all hated each other. They liked each other. I could care less. Right? That's the thing. Until professional management got in, Microsoft early on was like this, like, kind of a mess, but who cares? But the fact that it's coming out in court is. Just makes you realize how dumb and dumb dumb, dumb this trial is, like, how dumb it is. It's about money. That's all it is.

Scott Galloway (46:25)

This is. I sold something that ended up being worth $850 billion.

Kara Swisher (46:29)

You're right. That's exactly.

Scott Galloway (46:31)

It's. I'm the messiah who's going to put us on Mars, who should control autonomous in the US should control space. And, oh, by the way, the one part of the technological revolution that I don't control and I can't seem to catch up in is AI nursing his angry wound six years after I've decided, oh, I should own it, I need it back, or I need money back, or I need to get in the way of their progress. So Xai can. I mean, pretty soon it's going to be, I don't know. I had a conversation with Dario Amadei. I should own. You know, I should own anthropic.

Kara Swisher (47:08)

It's ridiculous. These people. $80 billion to colonize Mars. Guess what, Elon, you Have it, spend it, and have a good time. Have at it. Good luck. Bye. Take your children. Go. We're thrilled for you. We're excited. We'll write a poem for you. Like when on your way out in 19. So stupid.

Scott Galloway (47:27)

I think it was 1986. Was it 86 or 96? Mike Tyson, the peak of his career, fought Marvis Frazier and knocked him out in the first 30 seconds. I think legally Elon Musk is Marvis Frazier. I just think the guy.

Kara Swisher (47:46)

I don't even know what you're talking about.

Scott Galloway (47:48)

It's a boxing analogy. I don't like boxing because I don't like to see young men beating each other up like that. But if you want to talk. Oh, my gosh, whenever the reels come on. Of Mike Tyson's 10 greatest knockouts. Jesus Christ. I met him at a restaurant.

Kara Swisher (48:02)

Did you?

Scott Galloway (48:03)

Yeah. He came up to me.

Kara Swisher (48:05)

I hope.

Scott Galloway (48:06)

Oh, my. I was so scared of the guy. I just thought, be nice to him. That guy, one of the most dominant athletes of all time. Anyways, this should, and I believe will be a first round fucking knockout. And all this drama and all the media say, who would be better at opening what happened?

Kara Swisher (48:23)

None of them. None of them.

Scott Galloway (48:25)

Who's fucking who? It's like when Iran and Iraq were at war. I used to say, I hope the Bullets win. I don't. Both.

Kara Swisher (48:33)

We don't care.

Scott Galloway (48:34)

I went on CNN and they asked me, who would be a better steward? I'm like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

Kara Swisher (48:41)

The answer to me is none.

Scott Galloway (48:42)

Private capital and private property means it sucks to be a grownup. And if you sell your house, it ends up being next to fucking Mark Zuckerberg and could be worth 8 or 10 million right now. Okay, it's done. You sold it to.

Kara Swisher (48:53)

Let me make one final observation about these people. These are the richest people on earth, and they're so manifestly unhappy, they just can't shut the fuck up. They can't stop fighting. They have so much money. None of them are qualified to run, be in charge of AGI. None of them. This is what this is showing what tiny, petty, angry, unhappy people they all are. Every single one of them. And you're like, y', all, none of you deserve what you've got here. So none of you has the dignity or character to look good. And meanwhile, over to the left, Daria Modi's, like, sucking up all the. The attributes of goodness. I don't even trust him. And I like him. Like, it doesn't even matter at these people anyway.

Scott Galloway (49:35)

The problem is we shouldn't have to trust these people. We should be able to elect representatives we can trust to do the right thing and regulate these companies and then

Kara Swisher (49:42)

we can fire them easily. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about managing a stock portfolio via ChatGPT. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying Big Wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments.

Scott Galloway (50:07)

But that's weird.

Kara Swisher (50:08)

Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment

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Kara Swisher (51:12)

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Kara Swisher (51:46)

Scott we're back with just one more quick story over the past few months. I'd love to know what you think of this. A Wall Street Journal reporter asked ChatGPT for investment advice to see if AI could really realistically manage a stock portfolio. It actually makes sense. There's Speaking of anthropic, they just did an interesting deal where it would make decks and pitch decks and things like that working. It's called. It's a company. I can't remember the name, but it's interesting though. ChatGPT There's a lot of interesting smaller AI companies being made that actually sound useful. And so this is what the reporter did. ChatGPT generally identified market risks, but also made simple math mistakes, suggested questionable market timing strategies, and sometimes veered into overly complex ideas like options trading. The chatbot often told the user what they seem to want to hear, highlighting a bigger concern that AI could sound confident and persuasive even when its advice may be flawed or risky. Sounds like a lot of brokers. I know about 30% of everyday investors report using a AI for their portfolios, so apparently not so good yet and in lots of really problematic ways. I mean, with a person you're looking at, you sort of have a sense when they're sort of trying to sell you something you don't want. So it's curious. It's just like with law or medical. It's not there. It's not there. And this personalized investment advice is just the latest wrinkle. I don't mind them making decks, pitch decks and things like that, but huge risk for lawsuits. I would assume just the same with legal or medical or anything else else. Any thoughts?

Scott Galloway (53:16)

Well, I think it was tempting to believe in the 90s you could use Lotus 1, 2, 3 to beat the market by doing all sorts of analysis and calculations and you might have had an edge for a minute. But what I would argue is that the individual thinking they can use Claude and I'm guilty of this. I've been asking Claude like crazy using cowork to come up with different options and hedging strategies and to identify stocks. Guilty of it. I love the markets. I like to gamble. It's my gambling, you know.

Kara Swisher (53:50)

That's why I'm asking you this.

Scott Galloway (53:52)

And I find it interesting what it says, but here's the bottom line or what I think. Ken Griffin will hire 2000 PhDs and he will weaponize them with AI and they will outperform the market. But you believing with your $20 a month Claude, cowork weapon can compete against these folks, you are showing up with a very elegant squirt gun and they have a fucking howitzer. So this is what you do. You invest in low cost ETFs like Vanguard and people who know and understand technology can understand how to use AI. But this will further diminish or create or widen the delta between individual investors and institutional because institutional investors will have the capital. The bottom line is every time you place a trade, you got to keep in mind on the other side of that trade is likely someone Smarter than you. That has broader technology. So what you want to do, in my view, unless you. I get a lot of psychic income around playing the market. So 30% of my net worth.

Kara Swisher (54:59)

You like doing it?

Scott Galloway (55:00)

I enjoy it. It's fun for me. Occasionally I have access to a deal that other people don't have access to. So fine. But the retail investor would be better off finding low cost ETFs where the management team there is really technically competent.

Kara Swisher (55:16)

That's what I do. That's what I do.

Scott Galloway (55:18)

I put it in there exactly the right way.

Kara Swisher (55:20)

I'm not interested in it. I know I could do slightly better if I'm a little smarter than most people and have a little more insight.

Scott Galloway (55:27)

You're smarter in an area that has nothing to do. That's done in Kruger. Be careful thinking that.

Kara Swisher (55:31)

Oh no. What I mean is I have some thoughts on some things that I probably. I'm talking about the average bear, but I'm. I don't think I'm smarter than the average.

Scott Galloway (55:40)

Well, you understand technology.

Kara Swisher (55:41)

That's right. So I could be like, I wouldn't bet on this company. I would bet on this company probably earlier than other people, but I still wouldn't win. Still.

Scott Galloway (55:49)

The problem is people have emotions in the market and you can't trust your emotions in the market. So when the stock gets cut in half, your emotion is to sell it because you can't take any more pain. When that's probably when you should be buying more. And so so. And then you literally have Ken Griffin out there looking at all the trades and seeing where emotion is spiking or irrationally plummeting and then moving in in a millionth of a second and then moving out and absorbing millions of different data points. So you do not want to play in traffic here and believe that just because you're going to get up to the mound where a guy's pitching 105 miles an hour because you got a new aluminum bat that you think is going to. That you're going to be able to hit a home run. No, you're going to get beaned in the face. So I do think AI is going to be a huge unlock. And also it will compress margins because what will happen is financial advisors, unless they're really good and can go upstream into tax plans. Planning a mediocre financial planner at your local bank. No, you could probably do almost as well using AI or better and save 1% a year. I remember when my mom passed away and I was looking at her estate this Guy was charging her one or one and a half percent of her assets every year to put her in 8s and P stocks. I'm like, okay, that's just not that hard. Why are we paying you one and a half percent?

Kara Swisher (57:17)

It was one and a half percent.

Scott Galloway (57:19)

So what I would say is, I think, by the way, I think people should use AI to try and pick stocks. I just don't think they should buy them. I think it's fascinating to see the logic, to see what it comes back with, to start asking them more questions. I've been trying to figure out option strategies on a strangle strategy. I just, I'm learning a lot.

Kara Swisher (57:37)

Sometimes you don't know if it's accurate, right? That's the issue. Some of it, the sycophanticness is still a problem because it's not going to challenge. It's not if you. It's. I think someone was. I think the article says it's no more than having a smart assistant, right? Like they're no smarter than anything else. And there's an assistant part which doesn't want to displease you. And then it's just a smart person. But you're never going to have an

Scott Galloway (58:02)

edge with AI the way you can normalize for that. There's a cowork feature in Anthropic where you ask this council of people, one's a cynic, one's an optimist, one is grounded in historical context, the other is like an analytical, unemotional person. And all of these quote unquote agents look at your question and then they distill their answers up to a quote unquote chairman who distills it and gives you an answer back. You can also, I lead a lot of prompts with give me the brutal truth because I don't like, you know, I don't like it. I hate it when it says to me, great question. The other thing you should do is, and I can't do this because I unsubscribe from ChatGPT. You can beta test the same, do the exact same prompts somewhere else.

Kara Swisher (58:49)

I did that before I quit and I was on other things like show me a book title, show me a book cover. I gotta say, Claude was hands down the best. It just was. It just was so clearly better. You know when you taste test things, you're like, oh, that tastes like shit. And that's good, right? Or the coffee or something like that. But yeah, you're right. But anyway, it's very interesting. I mean, you should all try it out to see what happens and do one of those tests. But this was a great article in the Journal and I think it showed that it just doesn't. It's not is ready for prime time, as they say.

Scott Galloway (59:19)

And about 30%, a third of retail investors are already using AI for their portfolios. And so everyone's looking for a shortcut.

Kara Swisher (59:26)

Scott.

Scott Galloway (59:26)

But this one of the greatest grips, I believe legal grips in corporate history was the financial advisor or institutional investors. And by the way, the majority of the grift has happened amongst the richest rich people. Like, yeah, rich people like to believe that they deserve something better. So they want to get into these really high profile, well marketed hedge funds who they believe, oh, I have access to Alison or I have access to this, you know, D.E. shaw, whatever. Okay, fine. Guess what? If you added up all alternative investments and hedge fund returns for the last 50 years, they have underperformed the S and P by the amount of their fees. And some outperform. Berkshire Hathaway has outperformed. My buddy at Anchorage Capital has outperformed. I have another buddy at Mudger Capital has outperformed. But generally speaking, over the medium and long term, they all underperform the market by their fees.

Kara Swisher (60:24)

By their fees.

Scott Galloway (60:25)

That's correct. Every piece of data analysis. If you go to the finance department at a world class university and ask them where they invest, they're like Vanguard.

Kara Swisher (60:35)

Me too.

Scott Galloway (60:36)

And they don't pick stocks.

Kara Swisher (60:37)

Do you know what I mean?

Scott Galloway (60:38)

They don't pick stocks.

Kara Swisher (60:39)

I don't know. Someone's like, how are your stocks doing? I'm like, I have no idea. And I'm not gonna look until I need. And I don't really need the money. So I just am like, I just put it there and then it goes away. It's like, it's like a bank at Gringotts. I don't care. Like I. The more I think about it, the more upset I get, right? Like what am I missing? What did I get wrong? Did I buy gold? Should I do this? And then I'm like, why am I that fucking person?

Scott Galloway (61:01)

It's a great point. Because, because in addition to the capital you're investing, you want to talk about the emotion you're investing and that is I do get psychic income.

Kara Swisher (61:11)

You like it? You like it?

Scott Galloway (61:13)

I started buying stocks when I was 13. I worked at Morgan Stanley. I find it fascinating. I really do enjoy markets and it served me well. Having said that, it also takes a real emotional toll. Staring at your fucking phone and then when you buy a stock and you're convinced you're a genius and it gets cut by 40% in two weeks after you bought stock, it. You're really going to beat yourself up.

Kara Swisher (61:32)

You are. It's just. It's better not to pay attention.

Scott Galloway (61:35)

100% it is.

Kara Swisher (61:36)

And the other thing is, Can I just say, for people again, if you like it and it's fun, that's one thing. And it starts to get to an obsession. It's another. The only thing I wish you wouldn't do is put so much of your. Your. Your medical information into these people. Because they don't. It's. They don't. They're not bound by hipaa. Same thing with legal. I'm like, please don't. I mean, unless you find one of the. These ones that is bound by the same law as everybody else's. I just worry about that over time.

Scott Galloway (62:00)

What's that?

Kara Swisher (62:01)

Wait, no, I'm just saying, whenever you put a lot of your. You always like, oh, I loaded up. Sometimes you don't even realize you're saying this to me. I put away all my medical thing into this, and I was like, really? Not sure I trust these people to have all Scott's medical.

Scott Galloway (62:13)

I'm very promiscuous with my information.

Kara Swisher (62:14)

You are. It makes me worried. I'll be honest with you. I think, oh, dear. No, don't do that.

Scott Galloway (62:19)

Because you think at some point they're gonna get all of it and weaponize it against us?

Kara Swisher (62:23)

They could. Because they're not bound by hipaa. They're not bound by leg. I just am. And who knows if they had a security breach? I just am like, I trust my lawyer because I can sue him. I trust my doctor because I can sue him. You know what I mean? And they're bound by.

Scott Galloway (62:39)

Anyway, I wonder if I should just send out a preemptive apology to Angie Dickinson and Emily Ratajkowski right now.

Kara Swisher (62:47)

Why?

Scott Galloway (62:48)

Well, just all the things I've asked AI about.

Kara Swisher (62:50)

Oh, no. Okay, we're moving on. We gotta go. All right. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

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Scott Galloway (63:31)

So we are 250 years into this American experiment and I'd say it's going okay, I give us like a C.

Kara Swisher (63:38)

There is no perfect past, but there is also no exclusively negative past because humans are gonna human. That's what we do. I think the story of America is the struggle of people who have not been included in the promise of America to expand those principles to include more people.

Scott Galloway (63:58)

What's going to determine the next 250 years of America? And how do we write a new social contract that can give us the democracy we deserve?

Kara Swisher (64:07)

Okay, so I'm just going to be a jerk here because I'm a historian. So we have to have a prologue explaining, you know, we the people.

Scott Galloway (64:16)

You know, I do still remember it from Schoolhouse Rock. We the people, in order to perform a more perfect union, establish justice. What is it? Ensure domestic tranquility.

Kara Swisher (64:25)

So you're talking about a foundational document. So I'm building a document that will protect American democracy.

Scott Galloway (64:32)

That's this week on America, Actually

Podcast Advertisers/Guests (64:36)

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Kara Swisher (65:22)

Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. Do you have a prediction for us?

Scott Galloway (65:26)

There was a really interesting story this week that I think kind of indicates or portends what might be in store for us around potential acquisitions. And I made a similar prediction a few years ago, but it didn't pan out. Out. And that is a 32 year old TikToker just crowdfunded 132 million in non binding pledges to buy a bankrupt Spirit Airlines. Did you see this?

Kara Swisher (65:50)

No, I didn't.

Scott Galloway (65:50)

I didn't. He said, look, Spirit helps keep airline prices down. Let's do what we did with the Green Bay packers and let's mutualize it. And he's very talented. And Spirit said it was going to shut down at 2am on Saturday. And this guy, Hunter Peterson person had a TikTok up the same day. A website by the next and 6 million views within days. And more than a hunt. Get this, kara. More than 133,000 people have pledged, on average, about a thousand bucks each, totaling $132 million. And essentially what he's saying is that, okay, 20% of American adults paying the average spirit fare of $30 to $40 equals enough to buy an airline. And they say, okay, let's be honest, it's unlikely to close. But the idea with. In an era of AI and compliance, AI, where you could spin up the legal documents and have people sign them. And with PayPal, I think you're going to see in the next 12 to 36 months, someone pulled us off where they say, hey, who wants to buy Estee Lauder? Or who wants to buy. It'll start with a small stock. It wouldn't be Estee Lauder because that's too big a company. But it'll start with a small company that goes out of business. They'll say, okay, Dick's sporting whatever it is, and someone talented, who's very charismatic, who will weaponize social media and AI to collect legal pledges for funds and will buy something. I think crowdfunding is going to happen. And also retail participation in U.S. equities has risen by nearly 20% of average daily trading volume, which, by the way, is usually a sell signal. Yeah, up from low single digits before

Kara Swisher (67:35)

COVID So it's like when everybody got in one of those accounts.

Scott Galloway (67:38)

That's right. And rather than fading retail flows, hit fresh records in 2025.

Kara Swisher (67:43)

The stock market's up. Everyone's like, that's right.

Scott Galloway (67:45)

And everyone thinks they're a genius. Now. Everyone's like, oh, okay, I like that.

Kara Swisher (67:47)

Why don't you do it? Why don't we buy something?

Scott Galloway (67:50)

Well, that's what I used to do for a living between 2000 and 20.

Kara Swisher (67:53)

All kinds of stunts. What could we buy? What would we buy? All kinds of stunts, like Chipotle or something.

Scott Galloway (67:59)

Chipotle's expensive.

Kara Swisher (68:00)

All right.

Scott Galloway (68:01)

I'm just saying, Chipotle's expensive.

Kara Swisher (68:02)

I don't want to buy an airline.

Scott Galloway (68:03)

You know, they send me. I used to tell. I was in the original. Isn't that the plot of they sent me a card. This is the most impressive my sons have ever been with me. I got a card for free. Lifetime Chipotle. And I sold it. Or I didn't sell it. I've lost it. But I love.

Kara Swisher (68:17)

Oh, you want one again? That's what this was about? Little coffee.

Scott Galloway (68:20)

I didn't get paid. They sent me a card. No, if they do it again, I want serious cabbage.

Kara Swisher (68:24)

Yeah, Yeah, I like that prediction. It's a really, really good prediction, by the way. I predict the government is going to lose that idiotic case against the New York Times about the hiring the DEI and then attacking the woman who did redistricting. These people make Ceausescu look kind. It's ridiculous. They're going after all their enemies with the FBI and they're attacking. Here's what I predict. It's going to end in tears for those people. They attacked the New York Times for DEI in a lawsuit. Then they're gonna use the Justice Department to try to get E. Jean Carroll's money that Trump owes her the 83 million, which is insane. And then they attack the woman in the 82 year old woman. They raided her office to try to find corruption who was so. This badass lady in Virginia who did all the redistricting that kicked their ass. And then they are investigating the reporter for the Atlantic who. Who, you know, no shit. Sherlock did the story about Kash Patel being a drunk. And of course she immediately answered it by showing off a bottle she bought on auction where Kash Patel gives out whiskey to people with his name on it, like some Woodford Reserve whiskey. So no one's having any of this nonsense that they're doing. It's just so, like cloddish and thuggish. So none of it's gonna work. That's my prediction.

Scott Galloway (69:42)

Can I just. I can't help it. I agree with you to. Private companies get to do what they want. Whether that's none of the government's business, in my view. Unless it's. They're claiming reverse racism. I think that

Kara Swisher (69:57)

the guy sue the New York Times. I don't care.

Scott Galloway (70:00)

A search warrant is not proof of guilt, but it is a serious threshold. And federal judges do not casually approve raids on senior state legislators.

Kara Swisher (70:08)

Come on.

Scott Galloway (70:09)

So, well, why her?

Kara Swisher (70:11)

Why her?

Scott Galloway (70:12)

Because. Well, okay, you could argue that the investigation, the fact that it was even launched is politicized. But a federal. A sitting federal judge, they do not issue. This is my high profile corruption probe. They often look strongest at the raid stage and weaker later once the evidence is publicly.

Kara Swisher (70:31)

Letitia James. Right.

Scott Galloway (70:32)

But to be fair to the other side, a search warrant is a. You know, it has to pass a serious threshold that a federal judge does not casually approve on senior state legislation.

Kara Swisher (70:42)

I understand that, but there's a reason they didn't pick 20 other Republican ones. This is what they do all the time. They just. This is. It's a weaponization of the power and they complained about it happening to them and then they're doing it. So stop it. Just cut it out. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com pivot Submit a question for the show or call 855-51-Pivot Elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe this week 6 Scott Profg Markets is going on tour this month. Tell us a little bit about it. It's kicking off May 27th. It's going to San Francisco, Louisiana. Miami, Chicago and New York. You go to profgmarketstour.com for tickets. Tell us a tiny bit about this and why people should go.

Scott Galloway (71:25)

Well, thanks, Kara. It's similar to what we did with Pivot. It's a live tour. We have a bunch of great guests across different cities. It's interesting. What sells out the quickest? New York and, and San Francisco. We were worried that San Francisco wouldn't like us because we're constantly shit posting tech people. But New York and San Francisco are going to sell out in the next 24 hours and anyways. But yeah, it's just a live tour with me and Ed Elson.

Kara Swisher (71:53)

We sold out San Francisco first on Pivot. Just.

Scott Galloway (71:56)

Yeah. This is Toronto.

Kara Swisher (71:57)

Was it Toronto in San Francisco?

Scott Galloway (71:59)

Oh, Toronto and Boston. Wait, did Boston.

Kara Swisher (72:01)

We sold out Boston. Fat. We sold them all out fast. I'll be on LA was happened to be a huge theater, so it took a little long longer.

Scott Galloway (72:06)

But yeah, but it's, it's. And it'll be after the show. It'll be a bunch of people coming up to me and asking me if Ed Elson is single because their daughter is looking for a nice husband. But yeah, so it's. It's my Property Markets Live tour. Go to Profit markets tour. Profit marketstour.com it's starting the end of May, first week of June.

Kara Swisher (72:28)

Great. That's fantastic. And also we're going to be doing Pivot in the fall. Another Pivot Tour in the fall. We're just. You're going to be on the road, Scott.

Scott Galloway (72:34)

Yeah, we're doing another tour.

Kara Swisher (72:36)

Yes. You know that. Do you know that we are.

Scott Galloway (72:39)

I didn't know that, but I'm excited about it.

Kara Swisher (72:42)

You did know it. We literally had a call about it. What's happening?

Scott Galloway (72:45)

We didn't have a call about another tour.

Kara Swisher (72:47)

We literally discussed it. We're having a tour in the fall. You were on the call. You weren't listening, but you were there. You were.

Scott Galloway (72:55)

I don't remember. Where am I?

Kara Swisher (72:57)

Well, we're having one anyway. That's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week.

Scott Galloway (73:05)

Today's show is produced by the Larry Aman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin and Todd Weissman. Ernie and Todd entered this episode. Rich Shibley edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Bros, Ms. Vera and Dan Shalon. Nishad Khoros, Vox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business care. Have a great weekend.