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Kara Swisher
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Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
AI agents are getting pretty impressive. You might not even realize you're listening to one right now. We work 247 to resolve customer inquiries. No hold music, no canned answers, no frustration. Visit Sierra AI to learn more. Hi, everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast network. I'm Kara Swisher, and we're going to get right to it because there's been endless speculation in recent days, questions swirling about his whereabouts and many people believing the worst. But Scott Galloway is not dead. He's here now with non bruised hands and shapely ankles. Welcome back, Scott Galloway.
Scott Galloway
Thanks, Cara. Look, there's a lot going on and I don't like to talk about myself. I don't want to make a big deal out of this. Oh, no. That's right, ladies. That's right. You've been so good in August, you've been deprived. I know it's gonna help a little bit of Scott. You're thinking, how do I resist fascism? The key is not to resist. It's to surrender to the dog. What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? Ladies. That's right. We're doing a field trip down to where Kara hangs out. We're going to this big white house and we're screaming, bring out your dad. Bring out your dad. And then we're gonna party with RFK Jr. As I like to call him the Marvelous Mrs. Measles, by the way. By the way, I'm like your Xanax and your hbo. You don't need me, but you want me. Oh, last thing.
Kara Swisher
Okay.
Scott Galloway
Kara, did you know.
Kara Swisher
Oh, no.
Scott Galloway
We have mating rituals, and it goes a little bit like this. Hello. Hello. That's right. Oh, my God. That's right. Lindsey, maintain eye contact and relax the throat.
Kara Swisher
I'm having another stroke. A Donald. Donald Trump stroke.
Scott Galloway
I can't hear anything. You're welcome. Next up, Rachel Maddow.
Kara Swisher
Rachel, put your earphones on. Scott, put them on.
Scott Galloway
Oh, my God.
Kara Swisher
Put on your earphones. Are you hot?
Scott Galloway
Can't hear. Can't hear. I like doing a podcast this way. I can't hear.
Kara Swisher
I can tell you one thing. Rachel Maddow didn't take her shirt off.
Scott Galloway
Oh, my God. I've been working out so hard this summer.
Kara Swisher
I see that.
Scott Galloway
I haven't brought my testosterone.
Kara Swisher
Did you?
Scott Galloway
Yeah.
Kara Swisher
Oh, thanks for showing me.
Scott Galloway
Want me to do it live on tv?
Kara Swisher
No. Oh, no. Okay. All right.
Scott Galloway
Super easy.
Kara Swisher
Do you do this every day?
Scott Galloway
No. Once a week.
Kara Swisher
Okay.
Scott Galloway
All right.
Kara Swisher
Well, so glad it's.
Scott Galloway
Oh, my God, kara. 1 inch, 2 inches. 2 and a quarter.
Kara Swisher
Two and a quarter. Oh, God.
Scott Galloway
Two and a quarter.
Kara Swisher
Bring back Gavin Newsom. Bring back Gavin.
Scott Galloway
That guy's had a glow up. Think about a glow up while I was gone. He glowed up.
Kara Swisher
He glowed up. Glowed up. He said he wasn't gonna do a lifting contest against you. Cause you probably were out working out all summer. That's what happened.
Scott Galloway
Well, it's not easy looking this way when you're 78.
Kara Swisher
So tell me about your time away. We had a terrific time here at Pimp without you. Yeah, we really missed it.
Scott Galloway
I noticed that. And not only that, I noticed our downloads went up.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, they did.
Scott Galloway
And all the comments are like, can we have a scot free 25?
Kara Swisher
Yes. I know. Not every day. A lot of people missed you.
Scott Galloway
They did that. I pay at Albanian Troll Farm to manage my brand.
Kara Swisher
We had a good time. Let me. I'll go through. We had a really good series of guests. I have to say, there wasn't a loser in the bunch, but they were all great. And of course, it ended with Gavin Newsom at exactly the Right time. Because as you say, he's had a glow up. But Matt, I was great. All of them. Wes Morris. All of them. Scaramucci, Tim Miller. I'm gonna miss someone. Abby, Phillip, Mel Robbins.
Scott Galloway
Let them.
Kara Swisher
Let them.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, sorry, Mel, that shit don't work. Try that with kids. I'm sorry, I don't think she has.
Kara Swisher
Let me is the second thing. Which is let me smack them back to last Sunday. Oh, David Remnick. He was really good. He brought the smarts. He was excellent. And the mooch, obviously, was. We kicked it off the mooch. But we did miss you.
Scott Galloway
Thank you.
Kara Swisher
We did miss you. So tell me what you did. What did people want to know? People know what I did. I was here hosting and improving our downloads. What were you doing?
Scott Galloway
I continued my World Arrested Adolescents douchebag tour. I was in Colorado, I was in Ibiza, and I was in Nantucket and actually. And then I was in Brazil for a speaking gig. So I saw that, you know, still a total fucking hormone.
Kara Swisher
What happened? What are the highlights of your vacation?
Scott Galloway
Oh, you know, Kara, it's just a chance for me to reconnect with nature and my children. New York, you know, the best thing about this past month has been the last week in New York is amazing. I was trying to think, what is it about? Well, one, it's like Model Country Safari, because it's about to be Fashion Week. But two, all the douchebag dudes are gone because all the spiritual motherfuckers into Crypto are at Burning Man. Like, the guys left in New York right now are just awesome. I've been connecting with a bunch of friends. Actually, I felt a little bit like you. I was anxious to get back to work. You probably sensed it. I started tweeting and texting it, everybody.
Kara Swisher
Oh, I did? You kept commenting as if you were still on pivot. Yes. You're like, my thoughts on this in three parts in triplicate.
Scott Galloway
Everybody deserves to know what I think about this.
Kara Swisher
We saw that. We saw the thirstiness. It was coming in, like around August 15th, I'd say. That's when you, you know, halfway through the summer, you're like, oh, wait a minute.
Scott Galloway
Did you know? I mean, there is.
Kara Swisher
There's a lot of news.
Scott Galloway
Let's put it, in addition to being really good at not working and trying to spend more time, I don't know, just reconnecting and doing cool shit, because I can. I'm going to be dead soon. In Germany, every. Well, not every corporate board, but best practices among boards as they Say to the CEO, you need to take at least four to six weeks off consecutively.
Kara Swisher
Consecutively.
Scott Galloway
And if the. And if the company falters, it's a negative on you. And I mean, to a certain extent, you always want to make sure that nothing's too dependent upon you. And unfortunately, you guys did that a little too well. A little too well. But I had a great. I had a great summer.
Kara Swisher
I'm sorry to inform you that Rachel Matta will now be co hosting Pivot. Go ahead.
Scott Galloway
She's. Yeah, she's. She's a genius.
Kara Swisher
We have a thing. I think we had a thing. Don't you think we had a thing?
Scott Galloway
Well, you look like. You look like brothers.
Kara Swisher
That's correct. It's like. We're like the Kelsey Brothers of lesbians.
Scott Galloway
In a weird way.
Kara Swisher
So what is your favorite? What's the go ahead? You can talk about Rach.
Scott Galloway
Well, no, you both need to find one of your a. I don't know how all that shit works, but create a super army of Lokistan army to take over everything. We're waiting.
Kara Swisher
We had a lot of insights.
Scott Galloway
You actually. Guys, you remind me of each other. You're both very hardworking.
Kara Swisher
Yeah. What was your favorite part of your vacation? Name one moment. Was it with George Hahn when you were cuddling on the scene?
Scott Galloway
No, no, no. I've started. I remember being serious. I've started working out. There's this cool gym in Nantucket that's outdoors. It's like a prison yard. And I've started working out with my son. And it's like that saying your kids are the only people you want to be more successful than you. And my son has gotten fitter than me just in the last six months, faster than me. And I can already tell he's not as strong as me yet, but he's getting there. But it was just fun to. I mean, you saw with Alex looked like a fucking superhero.
Kara Swisher
He is.
Scott Galloway
But watching. Watching your son get strong. And not only that. I think about trying to figure out what I call Slopa. And that is slow dopamine. And that is showing your kids it's small efforts and acts of discipline every day add up to something really wonderful. And he's starting to feel that he's like me. He's just super tall and super skinny. But we're lifting weights and we're eating a lot. And it was just kind of fun to see that progress over the course of the summer. And it was very bonding for us.
Kara Swisher
You should work out with Alex sometimes. I'd like to see that now, because, you remember, you worked out with him when he was, like, a teen, like, and he was little, and you.
Scott Galloway
Oh, that's right. No, that guy. That guy looks like the Rock if the Rock had Irish parents.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, he's in really good shape. We had a lovely. I did take a few days off. I mean, I did podcasts from Vermont, but all four kids were in Vermont. And we had a really wonderful time.
Scott Galloway
Jesus, you went to Vermont?
Kara Swisher
Yeah, I went to Vermont.
Scott Galloway
Or did you take your Subaru and your German Shepherds?
Kara Swisher
Could you do more?
Scott Galloway
Any cliche?
Kara Swisher
Guess who bought a Subaru.
Scott Galloway
Oh, no. Who bought a Subaru?
Kara Swisher
Louis Swish.
Scott Galloway
Louis bought a Subaru.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, we got him for. It's our last little gift to him. We got him a Subaru Forester, and that's what he picked. He had a choice of in that range, whatever. And that's what he. A lesbianist car.
Scott Galloway
So is that a graduation gift?
Kara Swisher
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
Oh, that's nice.
Kara Swisher
Yeah. And that's it. Now he has to make his own money.
Scott Galloway
Why does he need a car in New York?
Kara Swisher
He's actually living. Not living in New York. He's living up in Western Mass for now with his girlfriend. So, anyway, he's got a lesbian car. Now he's a Lesboro. He's so pleased.
Scott Galloway
I can oddly see that, actually.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Except for the mustache. He could be a very attractive lesbian. So the mustache. What's happening with the mustache?
Scott Galloway
Honestly? Or as I like to call my second taste like a caterpillar.
Kara Swisher
Go ahead.
Scott Galloway
I was in Brazil last week for a speaking gig, and I went into this barber shop, and granted, his English was better than my Portuguese, but I basically said, take it all off. And I ended up with this Burt Reynolds. If he was Jewish and ugly. Look, this was an accident. Seriously, this is an accident. Yeah. Wasn't supposed to be like this.
Kara Swisher
I'm not sure I love it. I don't love it on Lou either, but. And I don't.
Scott Galloway
No, it doesn't. It doesn't look good on me. I look. I don't know. I look like. Literally like a canter at the second biggest temple in Cleveland. Who's having a midlife cris? That's good.
Kara Swisher
What else could I do? I'm trying to think of. Oh, according to the New York Post, I'm in Devil Wears Prada, too. That's New York Post.
Scott Galloway
I think I saw pictures of you filming, maybe.
Kara Swisher
No, no, no, no, no.
Scott Galloway
Literally, that's what the creative community was streaming out for. Is the Devil Wears Pride. I mean, we are really reaching.
Kara Swisher
No, it's gonna be so good. Are you kidding me? No, it's the same. That is such a good movie.
Scott Galloway
So Meryl Streep is looking for a bigger brownstone?
Kara Swisher
No, I'm just telling you that was a great movie. Go back and watch it again and it will be a great sequel.
Scott Galloway
You know I would.
Kara Swisher
When it's a huge hit. Who has been right about Hunting Wives? Kara Swisher.
Scott Galloway
I'm always right about these two close friends. You and Justin Thoreau are both in it, so I'm gonna see it.
Kara Swisher
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
But quite frankly, the world just wasn't asking for the devil. Where's Prada, too?
Kara Swisher
But it is. There's an AI theme in it. I bet. That's what I've read. I don't know. They didn't tell me.
Scott Galloway
Raise minimum wage to $25 an hour, mandatory national service, and no sequels for three years. No sequels for three years. And the creative community will bloom.
Kara Swisher
It's a great film.
Scott Galloway
And no one does anything original anymore.
Kara Swisher
Except for Sinners was earlier in the.
Scott Galloway
Oh, sinners. This is a big summer, actually, for those sinners. And what was the other one?
Kara Swisher
Spring Weapons. What was it?
Scott Galloway
Have you seen these things? I don't even. I'm so close to it.
Kara Swisher
No, I saw Sinners because I.
Scott Galloway
What did you think of it?
Kara Swisher
I liked it very much. It wasn't as scary as I thought because, I mean, I heard vampires and the other one is Weapons. What is it? Weapons. Weapons.
Scott Galloway
Oh, weapons.
Kara Swisher
Weapons. And that's supposed to be. Everyone who's seen it said it's the scariest movie they've ever seen. And it's a different kind of scary. This guy is apparently, like, a very gifted maker of things, but I can't see it. I can't see it.
Scott Galloway
Hmm.
Kara Swisher
I'm just waiting for Wicked, too.
Scott Galloway
Well, thanks. Thanks for doing all the hard work. I almost started to feel. Almost started to feel bad that this is your happy place.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, I liked it. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.
Scott Galloway
Just want to work and buy more. Subarus.
Kara Swisher
Yes, that's correct. Now that Louis has a Subaru. But we got a lot to get to today. We've got a lot we're going to go through. A lot happened while you were gone. Like, a lot I was kept. Every time something happened, I'm like, I wonder what Scott would think. I did the whole summer. I did. The whole August. I did. Obviously, Donald Trump is still alive. He offered proof of life at a press Conference Tuesday after going, going six days without a major public appearance or saying something which I think we're not used to because he's such a fucking diarrhea mouth. The Internet went wild over Labor Day weekend with rumors about Trump's health and speculation that he died. All these conspiracy theorists had. They were trying to put it together like they were detective, essentially Clouseau. The hashtags were where is Trump And Trump is dead were trending on X. People were sharing their all kinds of conspiracy theories on Reddit and TikTok. One of them I can. I actually said that's the way the White House website is always. And people got mad at me because I was like, sorry, this is not right. And same thing with closing of Walter Reed. I was like, it's not closed. I just drove by it. It's not closed. But people had all these different theories. He claimed at his Tuesday presser not to have heard of the rumors even though he posted. He never felt better in his life. Of course he heard them. What I was kind of irritated about because you and I have been really, we're tough on Biden. You was particularly at the beginning of it. And it was turned out to be true. And had they listened to many people, not just us, things might have been different right now. But I don't see one of the things that bothered me besides the exaggeration and conspiracy theories on social media was you didn't see a story in any of the newspapers talking about this as a phenomena and then actually doing digging and what's going on with his health? Because something is going on with his health. Right. With the hands. There's actually visible things. His ankles looks not well. He misses a lot of things. How do you look at this? And I'm amazed at reporter. I'd like a good reporter to tell me what's happening actually.
Scott Galloway
Well, okay. So sometimes the obvious explanation is the right one. He's suffering from a condition that's only going to get worse and it's called 79. And I listened to Sanjay Gupta yesterday on CNN and I think Sanjay or Dr. Gupta, an actual expert who's done the work. You know, his explanation was very reasonable and that there are reasonable explanations. And in this instance, in a rare instance of the truth, his doctors have let out information. He has that condition where if you bleed it comes right through your skin. It's just thin skinned. I think that sounded very logical to me. The vascular condition that older people get where their ankles swell. That sounded very logical to me. But if you, if you try to figure out or if you look at an actuarial table and say what is the likelihood from insurance companies which by the way have been, you know, they predicted the LA fires. If you want to talk about people who can predict the futures future, talk to people in the actuarial pay for it.
Kara Swisher
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
Because they're trying to figure out what can we afford, how much should we be charging for certain outcomes around health and death. And if you go into an LLM or you go on an actuarial table and you say you have a 79 year old who is obese, under a lot of pressure but access to the best medical care in the world, what is the likelihood in the next three and a half years they either die or become incapacitated? Couldn't work. It's towards 50%. So I don't think there's any big conspiracy here. I just think we're dealing with someone who's 79.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, I'm not saying that. It's just that it was interesting to see they continue not to. And I think they should look imagine like Roosevelt or Wilson. It's not just them or Kennedy had a number of health issues. Right. That were including drug use that was probably should have been reported on on some way. I just, I find it really interesting that especially the people who were like all in on Biden being like how dare they hide it. Why don't we know more about the health of all our leaders? Right, like, like, you know, Jerry Nadler just stepped down from Congress because, because he obviously is old. Like that's kind of stuff. I just wish we had more of an insight so we could have assess. I get it about privacy, but not for these people. I feel like we should know quite a bit more and not rely on like Ronnie Jackson who really needs to sit down as a doctor, really independent assessments of our leaders so we have some sense. Maybe I'm wrong.
Scott Galloway
Well, there's, there's two things going on here. The first is applies to everybody and the second is more mendacious and unique. And the first is that ageism is still an ism and we as progressives or thoughtful people or media are seen as ageist or worried about being ageist. If we reference that biology doesn't give a shit about how politically correct you are. I mean we essentially Democrats potentially lost control of Congress and weren't able to block shit because we were unable to be honest and say to the five members who died in Congress, you are no longer capable of serving in this important role. And we decided to ignore it with Biden and we're ignoring it again with Trump. This old shouldn't be asked to get on planes, to go to Singapore to negotiate trade agreements, or have to get up at three in the morning and decide whether or not they're going to strike a terrorist cell and start calling. They just don't. Presidents would probably be in their 40s and 50s just because of the physical and mental acuity it demands. And we have decided that it is politically incorrect to be ageist. And biology says, hold my beer. And this happens across both parties. The second thing is more mendacious, and that is Trump has deftly, meticulously and bluntly taken a page out of the autocrat's handbook and said anything you say negative about other people, that's First Amendment. Have at it. Anything you say negative about me, you better get ready to lawyer up and it'll be thrown outta court. But I'll sue you. I'll try and ruin your reputation. And it's working. People in the media, the biggest media companies in the world, I mean, you can point to so many examples, not only of it sending out a chill, but him actually extracting payments and barter from law firms that technically should be the least scared of this guy. So he's put a chill and it's like, do we really want to be the media company that leads with saying something is wrong here and it looks like congestive heart failure, because if it's not, they're going to have to, in two or three years, potentially settle with the guy. And he's not afraid to weaponize the DOJ and raid homes and have the head of the FBI who wrote a fairy tale kids book about a king that was wrongly prosecuted, going and dunking the basketball after someone's house is raided without even saying how they got the indictment. I mean, he's weaponized institutions we never thought were capable or would be weaponized. So, yeah, people are. It's working. He has put a chill on any real criticism.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, he's energetic. That's for sure. He's energetic. That's.
Scott Galloway
He's very robust.
Kara Swisher
Well, robust. He looks sickly, but energetic. It's a really weird combination and I think some of it is cognitive decline. That's very clear. I mean, again, let me put someone on the left, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who's supposed to be the representative from D.C. while not having a vote or is certainly involved, has just been out of it because she's old and she might be running again, which is just like Insane. Insane. All these people, like there should be a number. I come more and more around to your feeling on this. What did you think of the death rumors? Because they kept coming back. They left and came back and left and came back. This is like no way to run a country. That's what I kept thinking.
Scott Galloway
I mean, in a weird way, I don't think they're trying to suppress it because one, it keeps Epstein out of the news and two, they know he's not dying or he's not imminently dying and they'll just show him in five or six days. Fine. Oh, the media's talking about it. Fine. They're not talking about Epstein. Let him continue to talk, talk about it. I'm fine. But it doesn't. All this is done so far because it looks as if the obvious explanation is the right one. And these are not life threatening conditions. These are just the average ailments of a really old man. And it's anything to keep Epstein out of the news cycle. That's all they want. He might disappear again for five days and create rumors. Yeah.
Kara Swisher
Or something else. You're right. It's actually. That's really smart. Okay, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Trump sets his sights on New Orleans for the next crackdown. Foreign support for Pivot comes from ZocDoc. Dentist appointments, annual checkups and dermatologist meetings all have one thing in common. Paperwork. And if, like millions of other people walking the earth, you don't like filling that stuff out, it might be time you checked out ZocDoc. ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in network doctors and click to instantly book an appointment. Appointments made through the app can happen fast, typically within just 72 hours of booking. You can even book same day appointments to take some of that stress out. Once you find the right doctor, you can see their actual appointment openings and choose a time slot that works for you. Plus you can filter for doctors who take your insurance are located nearby. Might be a good fit for any medical need you have and are highly rated by verified patients. You can stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to Zocdoc.com pivot to find and instantly book a top rated doctor. Today. That's z o c-o c.com pivot zocdoc.com pivot.
Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
Scott we're back. Trump is floating the idea of sending National Guard troops to a lot of cities, but now it's New Orleans, the latest target in his crime cr. He's also still fixated on Chicago and Baltimore, calling both cities hellholes this week and asking the governors of those states to invite him to Deploy troops, which they are not doing. Illinois Governor J.B. pritzker fired back. I refuse to play a reality game show with Donald Trump. Trump did hit a legal setback this week. A federal judge ruled his use of troops in Los Angeles was illegal. What a surprise. The judge warned that Trump appears intent on creating a national police force with the president as a its chief. Newsom himself said the problem with the troops in Los Angeles is they had to waste their resources protecting them from citizens, which was, I think probably accurate. Talk a little bit, by the way. We'll get to the foreign stuff in a second. But how do you look at what's happening here? I mean, they're trying to obviously push back in San Francisco, in Chicago, Baltimore. I think he must have gotten news that people were mad about that there wasn't a red state that got looked at because most of the murders statistics are in. Eight of 10 red states are more murderous than blue states. Talk a little bit about what was it like from afar because we haven't really talked about this increasing militarization.
Scott Galloway
It falls into the basic pattern of all politics now or actions at a political level. And that is one. Democrats either ignore a problem or aren't honest about it or let it go too far. In my opinion, they let the DEI apparatus go too far on campuses. They sweep in with an overcorrection and under a false flag of anti Semitism, try and pull funding and ensure that our populace stays uneducated because educated people have a annoying tendency to ask why they overcorrect. We do something really stupid. We let a 65 swimmer born as a male show up to A woman's national NC2A competition, sweep every medal. Taking medals away from women who've been training their whole lives have bike competitions or a transgender woman crosses the finish line five minutes early. And all Democrats kind of look at each other, you know, not knowing what to say and say. It's inspiring. And then they sweep in with an overcorrection and start demonizing transgender people and kicking us, kicking them out of the military. People who have saved bravely and consistently, making us less safe. Democrats have ignored or not addressed what are very real lifestyle issues, quality of life issues in cities.
Kara Swisher
Yes, we talked about this. Yeah.
Scott Galloway
News and talking about. And so what do they do? I know. Let's sweep in with an overcorrection under the false flag of trying to reduce crime such that we can normalize military and cities in case I decide to deploy the military. If it looks like I'm gonna lose the Election. First off, it's just wrong. The military is not right, is not there. They're not there to protect people. They're there to accomplish missions that oftentimes mean killing people. They're trained in the combat.
Kara Swisher
They say in D.C. they're there to pick up the trash. But just so you know.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, but they're trained in combat, not crime or law. They have the wrong attitude about civilians, the wrong complexion of civilians. Cops are taught to protect. The military sees people as potential threats. That's what they're trained to do. And they're untrained in collecting evidence and building a case that will hold up in court. Even if they're able to arrest or prevent crime, they won't be able to put criminals behind bars. But I feel like as Democrats, we get the right idea, we take it too fucking far, we decide there's a narrative, we have a knee jerk reaction to everything, we are not as focused as we should be, or we prioritize social virtue, we're trying to achieve social virtue and ignore the actual material and psychological well being of Americans. And then the Trump administration sees that hole and runs right through it with a fucking bullet train of mendacious awful behavior to accomplish something else. That's unrelated.
Kara Swisher
Also an overreaction 100% with other sticky problems with it. So what would you do if you like, do you think the governors are responding correctly in the mayors?
Scott Galloway
Well, look, I said, and I'm patting myself, I said six months ago who I thought would be the Democratic nominee in 28. I said the most likely person is TBD. We didn't know who Barack Obama or Bill Clinton were at this time. The Democratic process, when we let it run its course is like Navy Seals training. And that is few people get through it. But the people who get through it are fucking deadly. They're very good. If the people who can survive all those fairs in Iowa and get on debate stages and stand up to podcasters like you, they just get battle tested and they just get very good. And so it's probably, we don't know that's probably the leader right now. I said if I had to bet on anybody. People consistently underestimate Governor Newsom. He survived a recall effort. If you look at California since he's been governor, it's passed Japan to become the fourth largest economy. The technology and companies literally driving the S and P and global markets are back stronger than ever. And by the way, where are they? Oh, they're in that unlivable state called California. People are moving back Supposedly on the ground there, you said, and I have friends in la, the fires were bad. But people are saying in some of the cities on the west coast now they've gotten the memo and they are saying, okay, maybe calling people the unhoused versus the homeless isn't going to solve the fucking problem. And we're gonna have to move in and make some uncomfortable decisions quickly.
Kara Swisher
I have to say, San Francisco is excitement with the AI companies of all different kinds. There's new everywh you go, there's new stuff. Now, I had said this was gonna happen because this is the way San Francisco goes, right? But everybody is back. Everybody is back and it has a real energy to it that had been missing for a little while during COVID particularly. And there was no, I think I was talking to a bunch of AI people and there was sort of like, there's no better place to do it than here. Like with Stanford and Burke. I was both at Stanford, I was at Berkeley. I spent some time with Steve Jobs son Reed, who was doing a bunch of stuff in Biote. With AI involved in it, it's just the place to be, if that makes sense. And Newsom feels very muscular, and I think he used that word right? It feels very muscular, California right now, for some reason. Is this a good thing for people like him and Pritzker and Wes Moore to show off muscularity around these Trump attacks on cities?
Scott Galloway
Look, this has been the, this has been the Augusta Newsom. His pushback by mocking and holding up a mirror to how ridiculous Donald Trump's communication style is, has been hilarious and really effective. And that is, it just basically says, okay, look how fucking ridiculous this is the way, you know, the all caps pushing back. He was kind of the leader we wanted, right? We wanted someone to push back. The next part of the program needs to move to ideas. JB Pritzker is giving off really nice dad energy and being thoughtful. But the reality is Trump hasn't done anything illegal and they're somewhat hamstrung around Trump. I believe what Trump is doing, it may be stupid, it may be a false flag, it may be disingenuous, it may be a poor use of our military, but it's not, as I understand it, it's not illegal.
Kara Swisher
But, well, the polls, people don't like it. People don't like it. Like all the polls are pretty clear, including the Republicans. No one loves a troop in a city. Nobody. Even if they're picking up garbage. It's weird. It's not, you know, it's not Something you see except when you go visit other countries that are under autocratic rule, right?
Scott Galloway
That's what a couple things are going on. One is good, one is bad. And I can speak to this in fairly knowledgeable detail because I'm in New York right now. I spent a lot of time here. I don't care what anyone Sundays, we're in 2030. You know, history is as much clearer and harsher in hindsight. People are gonna look back on New York in 2025 and say that was a fucking golden age. Walk around. So there's lines to get in stores, there's a new amazing members club opening literally every two weeks. The art scene, the fashion scene, the food scene. This through Covid, this city shed its skin. There's new places, there's a sense of energy. It's fucking amazing. The downside to all of this is the following. Inflation is out of control in these hubs where these epicenters that attract basically three types of people. Someone in tech who's highly educated and can afford a $5,500 one bedroom in Manhattan, finance bros who make a very good living or, or somebody whose parents are putting them through New York or San Francisco. So that young person who wants to come and try and make it in a non finance or non tech industry and add, they just can't afford this city. Every young person I meet, they're making really good, what used to be really good money. They can't afford to go out. And I always go to, we're in a sex recession, we're in a mating recession. Young people can't afford to go out. They can't afford to go to a place and demonstrate excellence to each other and smell each other's pheromones and make friends and find mentors and find mates. So it's become a playground. It's never been better to be in the top 1%. America's becoming more like itself every day, as evidenced by how amazing New York and I imagine San Francisco and LA right now. But quite frankly, there might as well be a velvet rope around these cities for anyone under the age of 40 that's not making $150,000 a year. So unless we get rid of NIMBYism, unless we put more money in their pockets. Tax holiday 8 million new homes, construction manufactured homes on sites that cost 50% less and really make an effort to put more money in the pockets of young people. All of the amazing cities in America are basically going to be sequestered to a small number of very fortunate over educated people with rich parents.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, you're absolutely right. I think homes are. I'm beginning to really focus in on homes. I know you talk a lot about other issues, but. But you know, even homeless, homelessness. A lot of homeless people have mental issues. A lot of it is solved by homes like that. You get people out of a high. One of the things in this documentary I'm doing is high stress situations lead to cognitive, like mental problems. Cognitive. And there's no higher stress than not having a home or not having somewhere to go or having to figure out where you're gonna eat and drink or something like that. And it seems like if we could get more people housed in affordable housing and then create a city that has all kinds of people, not just the rich people, as you point out. I mean, where you live is a particular place, right?
Scott Galloway
It's like, yeah, people don't have a.
Kara Swisher
Birthright to be in Manhattan or not SoHo in particular. I mean, that's a circus there. Really. I love it, but it's a circus. But I think homes should be. Whoever's running should focus in on Holmes after we get over the Trump thing. Like, I think Newsom's smart in attacking Trump until the 2026 elections. And then we should act like rear view fucking mirror. If they win the House, like, what are we gonna do for you? And homes should be at the very top of that list. Also restoring vaccines, but that's another issue.
Scott Galloway
I mean, let's be really bold here. The next part of the Democratic program. If we're gonna flip the house and win back the White House, we've gotta go, okay, we were flat footed, now we're resisting. Now we need to move to ideas and around housing. You zeroed in on what I think is one of the biggest issues. Because the reality is if you don't, if you can't afford a house, you feel shame. You have trouble making a step towards mating. And also a house, because people have a tendency to pay their mortgage rather than be embarrassed and have it foreclosed on. It ends up being a great way to build wealth over the long term. It gives you a sense of place, motivation. There's a lot of wonderful things about homeownership in Singapore. Let's be bold. One bold thing. Eight million houses in 10 years do away federal legislation that takes down NIMBYs. What they did in Minneapolis, what they did in Austin, they said, no, you can. We're not. We're going to take off the height limits. We're going to. We're Going to take certain areas and we're going to do. Let's do. If you took big swaths of land and unincorporated them near the center of cities and had manufactured homes and then government backed, government backed mortgages and said, okay, we're just going to flood the market with a bunch of new housing that is inexpensive. Or you could go even deeper and go really innovative and bold and do what Singapore does. Singapore gives houses to people and says and then graduates until they're finally paying market rate and mortgage. And you know what it ends up being? It ends up being their retirement. They only not only get a home, but they say to them, we want you to build wealth. We want you to build a family.
Kara Swisher
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
Wealth is we want you to have kids and we want you to build wealth. So if you're a good citizen and we'll look at your finances, we gotta do one of two things and the answer is both. We either gotta raise income of young people, put more money in their pockets, restore, get rid of fucking capital gains tax deduction. Everyone pays one tax rate. Do what Portugal does, tax holiday for people under the age of 30, which wouldn't cost us that much because they don't make that much money. Or we've got to lower the price of housing. I mean, there's only two things we can do. And the answer is we should do both.
Kara Swisher
It would be a great thing for like, what are we going to do for you today?
Scott Galloway
Eight million houses in 10 years.
Kara Swisher
Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things I'm gonna switch, I think Trump is more on the ropes even though he seems like a complete menace today with all the vaccine things and everything he's doing. The attacks, the attacks, the attacks. This one really stuck out for me, the US being excluded from the group chat. Indian Prime Minister Modi entered the summit in China this week holding hands with Russian President Putin before the two formally formed a friendly circle with Chinese President Xi. Meanwhile, President Trump put a message for Xi, Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they appeared together for China's largest military parade, which he wishes he had because it was a pretty good military parade. Writing on Truth social. May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America. These are people he cozied up to, like cozy, like, like scary cozy and fun. Fact was interesting. Xi and Putin were caught talking on a hot mic about the possibility of becoming immortal via Organ transplant, which was pretty funny given what I'm working on. But this to me was like, how did we drive these players together? In the decades this hasn't happened, we've managed to keep them apart. To be close with India, we should be close. It's been a struggle over the many years for various issues, but it's a country we should be close with. But here we are shoving them into the hands of Putin and literally in the hands of Putin. And the same thing with Xi. That picture really gave me the chills, I have to say. And then he goes, conspiring together. That's right, Donald Trump, they are fucking conspiring against the United States of America. And that's why we should have been in there and not allowed this to happen.
Scott Galloway
You're exactly right. Bush W said that the axis of evil was North Korea, Iran, in Iraq. They had some energy combined, a willingness to sacrifice. They're crazy. Some decent science. Some decent science and scientists, actually formal scientists in Iran and about a GDP of about a trillion dollars. India, that image, the image of 2024 was Trump pumping his fist in the air. The image of 2025, in retrospect will be that image you just described of the three of them looking like their little brother. Brothers ganging up against Laughlin. It's like the siblings of the Murdoch saying, we're sick of this shit. We can collectively, we're strong and we can push back on our big fucking crazy asshole brother. They have a combined GDP of $20 trillion. They have unbelievable energy, they have unbelievable technology and capital out of China. They have the largest emerging consumer population in the world, India. Those three nations together are a formidable.
Kara Swisher
With a side order of Kim Jong Un. Right.
Scott Galloway
And to your point, I mean, the thing, there's some weird stuff protecting Taiwan. One of the things that's protecting Taiwan is China has had to divide and deploy a great deal of military resources to its northern border on what's called the Amur river, because China and Russia have always had territorial disputes. We take for granted the fact that if we in Canada were having territorial disputes up around Montreal, Toronto, it would cost us about $100 billion to fortify that border, another 25 to billion a year. And China and Russia were spending a lot of money on fortifying their borders. In the north, across the Amor river, there was zero bridges 10 years ago. Now there are three bridges and there's a quarter of a trillion dollars in trade. So all of a sudden they're getting along and liking each other. And the biggest own goal the biggest own goal was that the new swing votes geopolitically that were kind of playing both sides, but emerging economies who were incredibly important, similar to that soccer mom in Madison that might decide the next presidency. The two swing votes were the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and India. And we have a fantastic relationship with India.
Kara Swisher
Have had.
Scott Galloway
Not now I'm getting there. You're stealing my thunder. It's a democracy. And in addition to that, that and I can speak to this firsthand, we have this connective tissue with India amongst tech companies. In addition, if you walk down the hall of NYU Stern and you want to find someone fucking amazing at research that could be making tens of millions of dollars being the chairman of Millennium or some other great quant trading firm, but instead decided to teach, that's someone most likely with a multisyllabic last name who came out, came out of Delhi and somehow managed to get to IIT and is one of the smartest people in the world. And what do the smartest people in India do? Or a lot of them. They come teach at our elite universities. And look at the way we are treating academics, universities and foreign PhD students, many of which come from India. We have this amazing vehicle for goodwill. We have torn it up and we have done the absolute stupidest thing possible. And that is we have taken, taken three enemies or three people who didn't get along very well. And we've said no. Nothing rallies your enemies like being the bigger dick enemy. That photo of the three of them, what do they have? They have massive amounts of energy. They have massive amounts of technology. Technology and capital. In addition, Russia and China have something that the EU and the US don't have. They have a willingness to kill their own people. People Russia has been willing. I don't care if it's good or bad or wrong or right. It just is they are willing to kill and or injure a million of their own people. Europe is being invaded and the EU will never will not put any of their young men and women on the boots on the ground. I mean, to a certain extent, the most intimidating people in your class and who get a disproportionate amount of power are not only the people with the biggest fits, but the people who are willing to actually throw blows, right?
Kara Swisher
Throw hands. I mean, one of the things I was talking to a guy like Dmitry Alperov, he started crowd crowdstrike. He was saying the enthusiasm. He was talking about Ukraine. He's very big supporter of Ukraine. He's like the enthusiasm of Russian troops still putting Hundreds of thousands of people, they need the jobs, right? Because the economy is more troubled than it was before for a variety of reasons. But he's like, it's hard because Ukrainians have. Have either no more people to give or they're just exhausted or they don't want to do it anymore. And the Russians just keep throwing bodies after bodies and they just let them die, like the way they treat them. But some of these people need the money, so they just continue to just toss people into the void. In Ukraine, for example, I think you're 100% right.
Scott Galloway
But we're so instead of stupid tweets, they're performative and look like, oh, that tweet started out, he's trying to be presidential away. His friend showed up with ketamine, and now what the fuck is he talking about?
Kara Swisher
Right?
Scott Galloway
They should be doing he and Rubio and Hegseth behind the scenes of the Joint Chiefs should be doing the following. The Ukrainians have come up with a flamingo missile that can go deep into Russian territory. And there's one number that matters. 17. 17% of Russia's energy infrastructure has been damaged. If 50% of their economy is energy based and you start, if you get that number to 18, then to 19, then to 20, then to 30, Russia's out of business and Russia has to come to the table. F15 pilots and planes, fantastic anti aircraft, fantastic radar systems, and then help them with that new flamingo missile. If that 17 number goes to 27 and maybe 30, Putin shows up with a different attitude because this is an economy. It's basically a game he's playing.
Kara Swisher
Donald Trump, too.
Scott Galloway
It's basically a gas station posing as an economy. He shouldn't be sending out tweets. He should be figuring out a way to help the Ukrainian army with their unbelievable technology and brave army, figure out a way to take that 17 number up a half a percent every week for the next six months. And then all of a sudden, Putin's.
Kara Swisher
Gonna change his tomb 100%. But what more to the point, we gotta move on, but would you like an organ transplant for eternity?
Scott Galloway
You know what? I forget that name of the Mexican artist that Salma Hayek played.
Kara Swisher
Frida Kahlo.
Scott Galloway
Yeah. I love what she said. I want my death to be glorious and I don't want to come back. I'm not one of these people that wants to live forever. I don't do you.
Kara Swisher
After doing this. No, no, actually, I want to be healthier. That's one thing. Literally, I've been running a Couple miles, four times a week now.
Scott Galloway
Oh, good for you. That's great.
Kara Swisher
You know, stuff and eating things, having a little more. I'm not, you know, the protein loading is a little much. I think they're going over. Speaking of going overboard, but some of the practices, I'm paying a lot more like I want to be healthier. That's for sure.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, but you have. What is the key to longevity? I mean, everybody is small children. That's exactly right. It's being social and having a lot of friends. There's studies that show right now, if you had a choice between having no friends and not smoking and having friends and smoking a pack a day, you'd live longer. If you had friends and smoked a pack a day. Taking care caregivers live longer than anyone in the world. If you want to die, just go home, stop being social and stop having mental interest and stop talking to your friends.
Kara Swisher
You know, every study with this documentary that is the. Everyone's like, what is it that saves you? I'm like, it's relationships, people.
Scott Galloway
It's relationships.
Kara Swisher
I was like, honestly, that's what it is. Like, it's going to be an interesting journey. There's other things, cool things happening.
Scott Galloway
And money.
Kara Swisher
Money. Absolutely.
Scott Galloway
Life expectancy for us. And you're doing a show on this and I'm curious to see it. The life expectancy for people in the top decile is 12 to 15 years greater now than people in the lowest decile.
Kara Swisher
Yep. Even in like Denmark, which have very long have longevity, the people who die are the poor people. It's really, it's really. Money is absolute number one indicator number two is people. And if you solve the cancers and everything else, it'll. Anyway, it's interesting. Let's go on a quick break. We come back, we'll talk about Google getting off easy.
Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
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Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
2.
Scott Galloway
Seriously, it's $15 a month. 3. No big contracts.
Kara Swisher
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Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
Payment of $45 for three month plan. $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com Scott, we're back with more news. Google will not be forced to sell off Chrome or Android. We thought they might. That's the ruling in an antitrust case which determined the company was operating an illegal online search monopoly, which was determined. The company will however, have to make certain search data available to competitors sharing essentially not necessarily the algorithm itself, but search data itself and let people use it. And they'll be barred from having exclusive contracts related to distribution of products they still can pay a lot to have placement, et cetera. Google said in a statement that it had concerns about the data sharing could affect the privacy of users. They should shut the fuck up and do a little dance in Mountain View. The company can now appeal the finding that it is a legal monopoly. They should just hush and move along. Google Shares are up 12% in the last five days. Time taping. I know you are a big Google fan. I think you thought this verdict would be more harsh. I wasn't sure because things have moved on. And one of the things that Judge did, Judge Mehta I think is very smart. Talked about AI sort of changing everything. So they should send a big basket of flowers to OpenAI, which was interesting. Which was interesting to me. I don't know. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Scott Galloway
Well, every year we pick or I pick a big tech stock pick. And this year I've picked Alphabet because you did. It was trading at 17 times be until a few weeks ago. The S and p trades at 24. So let me get this. Take the average S and P company, Dower, Procter and Gamble. Google is still growing like crazy. They still get 96 times the traffic of a ChatGPT, largest streaming service in the world, YouTube. 3. Three other businesses that do over 30 billion in annual revenue. Five products that have at least 2 billion users. And they're the number one in what is probably the most interesting application of AI, and that is autonomous driving. And they're trading for less than the average S and P company. Why? Because of this overhang of this cloud of uncertainty around antitrust and AI. Yeah, AI is going to create a lot of value. It's going to be a formidable competitor. But they also have very strong AI offerings. Maybe not in an LLM similar to ChatGPT, but they'll find other ways to leverage their amazing IP and their interface and their custody of the consumer. And what this was with this overhang has now been solved. And let's talk a little bit about the case. Case. The ofTC and the DOJ always break my heart. Finally, it's been rendered a monopoly. Finally. But this is what happened. This is like your kid comes home and he went out high on meth and started killing dogs and knocking off seven elevens. And you come home and say, that's it, you've been found guilty. We're going to punish you. We're not letting you go on snap for 30 minutes. This was. There's two things, finding them guilty and then there's the remedy. We found them guilty. You've been taking meth and holding up convenience stores. You're guilty. Oh, you gotta wear an ankle monitor for 10 minutes.
Kara Swisher
What would he have done, though? I mean, putting it off is sort of looking backwards, right? There is this push from AI. Like things have changed now. I think Google's gonna dominate here. By the way, FYI, I think they're gonna move their search monopoly into an AI monopoly feel that Google's the one to beat ultimately OpenAI we'll see if they can make it because given they're the only independent one, relatively independent one. But I feel like what is he gonna do? How can you look backwards at remedies? That's the problem, right?
Scott Galloway
Yeah but they've always faced these existential problems where he should have done it.
Kara Swisher
Sooner is what you say.
Scott Galloway
Let's go back, let's reverse engineer to big ideas to the Democratic Party party. One of those big ideas needs to be to say I'm this great environmentally concerned Republican called Teddy Roosevelt. I love Republican traditional Republican ideals of which there's none left in Congress. And one of those traditional ideals was trust bussing to bring down costs for Everybody. The big four. They should be 11 different companies. I'm going to turn the three biggest pharmaceutical companies into nine. I'm going to break up cable. I'm going to break up big Chicken. I'm going to break up Big Ag. And we are going to see see a decline in inflation over the next 10 years consistently because we're going to create the greatest sucking sound downward of prices in history and that is competition. Google, if YouTube was spun, forced to spin from Google within three months YouTube would announce their own search engine and Google would announce their own video platform immediately overnight creating a competitor that would lower the costs on the greatest toll booth in histories in the history that is Amazon Meta and Alphabet. There needs to be a candidate that says I'm fucking Teddy Roosevelt. I am going to break up so many big companies. Look at what's happened to the price of chicken. Look at what's happened to the price. We charge four to eight times for medications than you can get it for in Dubai or Toronto despite the fact, the fact that it's the same or we invent it. We invent candidate. I'm going to go through all of these industries, I'm going to get Jonathan Kantor and a bunch of economists and we are going to break up and lower cost. It goes to affordability. Consumers don't like these companies. And by the way these products are going to get better and shareholders are going to get richer as they have in every breakup. What has happened to the price of long distance phone calls? I remember when I was.
Kara Swisher
Remember how much it costs? Oh, I used to.
Scott Galloway
I spent summers with my father. Right when my mom and dad were divorced. Divorced. And when I wanted once a week we lived in Glen Ellen, Chicago. My dad worked for Vigoro after he got laid off from Owen Scott's selling shit for a different company. Literally fertilizer. He had an office in downtown Chicago. We would take the train in on Sunday when he wasn't working into Chicago, go to his office so I could call my mom on the Watts line. Because calling from our house was like $1.10aminute to call California. So we would travel on a train for an hour so I could use the Watts line at his phone. What has happened to the cost of Telco? Because they broke up fucking AT&T into seven baby bells. And by the way, within 10 years each of those companies was worth more than the original AT&T. Because we found out lying fallow at Bell Labs was cell technology analytics, fiber things they didn't want to release because they were going to compete.
Kara Swisher
And now Internet, right? I mean because Louis was just in Europe. He called me on FaceTime. It cost nothing. Cost nothing.
Scott Galloway
You would unlock shareholder value, create greater employment, greater tax revenue. But the problem is these guys love control. They all want to sit on the iron throne of all seven realms. So they create dual class shareholder companies. So these companies can't be broken up unless Sergey or Mark decide it's okay to break them up. There's very few of these companies. One of the reasons one of the things holding up Warner Brothers stock, one of the few things is it's one class of stock which. Which means someone could come in and actually break it up. If it ever looks like a viable business where the parts are greater than the whole. But this all reverse engineers affordability will again be the issue. James Carville is right. It's the economy, stupid. Specifically it's affordability and a really solid thing.
Kara Swisher
May I just say Mandani? Same thing. I think that's why he won. I think that's why he came ahead. He talked about prices.
Scott Galloway
He actually had a very similar campaign to Trump. But that's another talk show. But a key theme for Democrats should be a really thoughtful response. I am a trust buster. I'm going to bring down your pharmaceutical costs, the cost to advertise. I'm going to bring down the costs you incur as parents on your children getting into relationships with character AIs. Because these companies don't have any sort of competition or regulatory protection such that a 14 year old can establish a relationship with a character AI that confirms their suicidal ideation. Fuck that. There are all sorts of remote that have been incrementally going up. We're Like a frog in boiling water. And we wake up and we're like, our kids are a threat. Our prices are out of fucking control. Do you realize the biggest corporate tax cut in history would be one if China and the US made up and they leveraged their manufacturing, we leveraged our IP to get along again. But the second biggest tax cut in history would be the breakup of Amazon, Meta and Alphabet.
Kara Swisher
So he didn't do that. So when I read his thing, it made sense. It's like, AI has already taken care of this. The market has already sort of taken care of this. What? It's not happening now. That's the end of it. I mean, like, look, these, these companies, huge victory. They're all at the White House today, by the way. All these tech people, except for Elon. But they, this took years in the making and this is where it ends. This is where. And they're even thinking of appealing it, like, it's not.
Scott Galloway
They don't have to do anything they want to do. They don't have to do anything they're saying. They're basically the slap on the wrist is, okay, you can't have that $24 billion unilateral agreement. Agreement, but there's probably a way around that. And again, the market, which tends to be an unemotional arbiter driven on simply fear and greed or it's not politicized. That takes in millions of points of lights. Sent Alphabet and Apple for two of their biggest share day share gains in.
Kara Swisher
The last, leaving our market far too aligned to tech companies. But that's another. We'll get to that next week. But speaking of monopolies, by the way, Newsmax has filed a lawsuit accusing Fox.
Scott Galloway
News, what is going on there as.
Kara Swisher
A monopoly and suppressing. I mean, it looks like they had detectives following Chris Reddy or whatever his name is. A monopoly and suppressing right wing competitors. The lawsuit alleges Fox News coerces distributors into exclusionary agreements and had used intimidation tactics to hurt Newsmax, including hiring private detective firms to investigate Newsmax executives. I mean, this is a rooting for the bullets here, Scott situation, but I don't know how you win this law. This is insane. So they were a sharp elbow competitor. Oh, you're kidding. It's Fox News. What? I mean, so they sent detectives. Too bad. Like it's Rupert fucking Murdoch. What do you think he's gonna do? He's gonna find out that you like, are dating a goat. That's what's gonna happen here. And he's gonna use it or use it in some fashion. I just. I don't know. And then pushing coercing distributors into not distributing it. I don't know. I mean, people wanna have Fox News on their programs. I don't know. Oan just got on YouTube.
Scott Galloway
So.
Kara Swisher
So, I mean, to me, that's the end of this case. Oan just got on YouTube.
Scott Galloway
You know more about this than I do. I don't see any legal merit in this. To me, it seems like a play by Newsmax. Just to be in the news cycle and get pr. I don't think this case is gonna go anywhere. But what is happening here is really dramatic. I mean, Fox News Viewership down 30%. MSNBC down 27%. CNN down 4. 42%. Do you know what happens when your business is down year on year 42%? You literally can't fire people fast enough. That's a meltdown. What? Your business has been cut in half. In a third to half. Your costs are fixed costs. Meaning all of a sudden you have literally no money. And you know who's doing this, Kara? You know who the culprit is?
Kara Swisher
I don't know. It's not me and Rachel Maddow, because we're great. But go ahead. Sorry.
Scott Galloway
It's Kara Swisher. Okay, hold on. Let's just do the math. The 25 to 54 demo, that's the core demo. They're the only demo that matters to advertisers because people younger than that are either in college or their parents make their purchase decisions. People older than that get smart and start spending money on healthcare and saving money for their kids. People 25 to 54 are still in their mating years, which leads to irrational decisions, which leads to margin. They buy expensive coffee, Brunello, Cuccinelli, Range Rovers. Cause they're still in their mating years and still trying to impress other people and signal that is all they care about. Generously. Generously. A third of MSNBC viewers are in the core demo. No CNN. Let's do CNN. The average CNN show gets 92,000 viewers. That's down 55% times 0.3. It's probably less than that. There are only 27,000 people on average watching CNN shows that advertisers care about. Let's go to people pivot. We get 400,000 downloads every episode. 400,000. 70% of our listeners are in the core demo. We're getting 10 times the core demo as the average CNN show. So what is happening? Our revenues are up 40% this year because everyone's Figured out that the average MSNBC Viewer is a 7 year old white woman who's already decided who she's voting for and is done, done buying Sephora products. She's just like, no, I'm just gonna let things go. Or catheters. And meanwhile, the average podcast listener is a 34 year old male who makes 150 grand a year. That is the great white rhino for advertising.
Kara Swisher
There's stuff they could do. I always, I like, everyone's like, oh, they're over. I'm like, why Romantic? No, I'm not. No, no. Because if you make a great product, people will come. I'm sorry. You could do a lot with it. There's a lot of assets there and I don't think it's going, you know, I just did a long interview with John Malone, which was a kicker. You know, he likes to hear that actually. It's really great actually. He's so complex a thinker, you know, he's a self sustainable, one of the.
Scott Galloway
Smartest people in the history of me.
Kara Swisher
He really is, I have to say. He's also a crotchety old fantastically amusing guy. You know, I read him one thing where someone said John's been out on the plains and the mountains too long and his mind has like gone crazy. And he laughed and laughed. He just, he's got a good sense of humor. Humor that aside, I think you, I think his. We had an argument, I was like making it centrist is not the answer. It's making it interesting for people, right? If you make an interesting product with talented reporting. And I think he is right about this. He said people really like news and if you deliver it right, it's correct. He goes, I get thought of as I want it centrist, I don't want it centrist. You know, he lets Fox off the hook quite a bit. Like he's like, well, they're entertainment, most of it, right. They're not news, they're entertainment. So that's a different thing. I think that's a canard. But I think if you figure out a way to, to make it entertaining and you bring costs into line, there's no reason a great brand like that couldn't do well that they started by, started by the great Ted Turner, by the way. I just feel like it's just not, you know, a lot of these companies, not just cnn have sort of not understood what their, what the assignment is and then they have way too many costs. As you, as you and I. I know, but some things are popular, some things like oddly enough. Let me tell you a quick story. Last night I brought Louis friend Ben Berman, who I love is one of his friends from high school. Cause he really loves Caitlin Collins show and he watches it all the time. He thinks it's great. He knows what's going on there and he couldn't. He was like. I was like, I've just brought down the demo for your show right now by bringing him here. I brought him in to CNN and he was thrilled. So there is in interest, you know. And this guy's a pretty good consumer of all kinds of things, not just cnn. And he's. I don't think he's a unicorn. I think if you give people something they like and latch onto, any media property can be good. That's my argument.
Scott Galloway
Okay, there's two things. When you have still very profitable but declining businesses, which pretty accurately describes cable news or the cable TV world, there's a way to make money and add shareholder value. But it's to stop injecting Botox into grandma such as she looks freakish. It's to make her comfortable and consolidate. There isn't a reason for cbs, ABC and NBC to have three different newsrooms. They're just not that different. They're reporting the same fucking thing. Starching it, trying to make it interesting, and then showing some guy who's raising dogs in Alaska alone and some inspiring stories. So we're not just totally depressed about it. It's the same fucking thing over and over. And whoever's more attractive, you tune into that person. The back end can be consolidated. It's very easy. I told you, one of my best investments ever was a yellow Pages company. And we knew the business was going away way, but we just went around and bought every yellow Pages company, held onto the best salespeople. And as long as you cut costs faster than the revenue declines, you can have a good business. This business is not coming back. And the reason why is the following. You're right, a great product always works. But what you're. The three key words here are means of production. The means of production for the colbert show costs $100 million. They make 60 million million, which means they lose 40 million. Stephen Colbert is an amazing talent. It'll be an amazing product on podcasts. And of the 200 people that work on that organization, eight will make it onto the podcast arc. They will do 20 million in top line revenue instead of 60. But he will continue to make 10 million. But unfortunately, the 194 people that don't make it onto The Ark are going to be getting their real estate licenses. The means of production at CNN and traditional media are just unsustainable. So this is what's gonna happen. All that amazing talent and they do have amazing talent. Amazing brands is gonna be arbed down. What are podcasts? Podcasts are now TV shows with a strong audio overlay. This is what you're gonna have. You're gonna have on with Kara Swisher. My prediction is following Mark Thompson is gonna call Kara Swisher and say, we're gonna run on with Kara Swisher. I want you to do the following things. We're very talented. We're gonna make this a little bit more TV friendly. We're going to reduce it to 21 minutes so we can pelt nine minutes of ads. We're going to run it. And here's the thing, they don't need to get as many viewers because you can. We're going to do 10 million bucks in revenue this year. What do we have? Eight people. That's one and a quarter million dollars per professional. Cable News is averaging 2 to $400,000 per professional. The means of production. It's a cost issue and a lot of these companies may not be able to transition their means of production without some sort of radical restructuring.
Kara Swisher
You could, you could. There is glimmers of interest, including Fox News. Let me just say they could. They could. If they're. If it's done right, they. Well, yeah, well, hold on.
Scott Galloway
Just let me give you an example. Interrupt you. Megyn Kelly is getting bigger audiences than she did on Fox with six people.
Kara Swisher
Well, that's what she's doing.
Scott Galloway
Six people.
Kara Swisher
Yes. She's a very entrepreneurial person. Loathsome, but entrepreneurial.
Scott Galloway
Quite frankly, this is very self absorbed. I've decided, unless it's someone I'm friends with, like Stephanie or Anderson or Michael Smercow, you know, I'm name dropping her right now. I don't. The Juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, I know.
Scott Galloway
Look at the viewership. Look at the viewership. And not only that, in order to get ratings, they have fucking food fights. Like whatever that show is with Abby Phillip, it's like no longer news. Everyone's becoming foxy. Unless you're on the View or Morning Joe, if you have your own platforms, the Juice isn't worth the squeeze. There's some prestige to being seen on msnbc. You do it every once in a while. I used to go on once or twice a week. I don't go on anymore.
Kara Swisher
Yeah, I know. You don't. Juice is not worth the squeeze. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.
Scott Galloway
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Kara Swisher
Trump hasn't been seen in days. The bruises on his hands. Vance said he's ready to take over.
Scott Galloway
If Trump's dead, they should bury JD Vance alive with him like they did.
Kara Swisher
With pharaohs and their cats. Imagine not believing Trump is dead just because there's no evidence. Where's your sense of whimsy and joie de vivre?
Scott Galloway
By Sunday, Donald Trump himself had to weigh in. Never felt better in my life. Also, DC Is a crime free zone. I'm alive and I fixed DC On Today explained from Vox. We're going to assess that second claim because it's bold. It is.
Kara Swisher
It is a literal statement that President.
Scott Galloway
Trump has freed 700,000 people in this city who were living under the rule of criminals and thugs. He literally liberated D.C. and he wants to do Chicago next.
Kara Swisher
Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. Can I do a short one?
Scott Galloway
Of course.
Kara Swisher
Right now, as we record, Trump is set to host the big tech leaders including Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman in the Rose Garden Club, as he's calling it. I think he's paved it over and put up a parking lot. Interestingly, Elon was not on the invite list. And Trump had just recently given an interview with Scott Jennings. Speaking of food fight, who's on the Abby Phillips show. And he wasn't on the list, which was somewhat interesting. But Trump said that Elon has to come back into the fold. He has to. And I thought, does he? Does he have to? Anyway, I just was interested to see what would happen. I'm not so sure he'll come back in the fold. He may back JBD Vance, he may back someone else. He may stay in the Republican fold because the Democrats won't be having him anymore. But it was just interesting to me that Elon wasn't there. And I'm not so sure he's going to be as cooperative as they think he is. He's not a cooperative person. That's my prediction.
Scott Galloway
I think he's got bigger fish to fry right now. I think he's on the business. I think he's on the verge of losing 60, 80% of his net worth. I was in Brazil last week. Every time I got in an Uber, it was like this nice, clean little Tesla like car called a BYD. Do you know the BYD Sunny that goes for $8,000? I mean, what they are doing. The CCP has asked automobile manufacturers to stop lowering their prices. You can get a decent brand new car in China.
Kara Swisher
They're cool. They have all these cool features. Yeah, and they're cool.
Scott Galloway
The average price of a car in the US new car is $50,000. The average price in China, 21,000. You want to make things more affordable for young people. Partner with the Chinese and adopt these types of dark, you know, dark factory manufacturing techniques, competition. Anyways, he's got bigger fish to fry.
Kara Swisher
By the way, Elon said that 80% of Tesla's value will eventually be Optimist. The humanoid robots the company's been developing. I don't know.
Scott Galloway
Look over here.
Kara Swisher
Mark Benioff put one up and it couldn't get him a company Coke, which is. Mark, stop it.
Scott Galloway
I don't want to talk about my core business because it's about to. It's imploding. So I'm going to create a bunch of the Robovan. That was my favorite van.
Kara Swisher
Oh, remember that? The Rebovan.
Scott Galloway
Yeah.
Kara Swisher
What happened?
Scott Galloway
The Rebovin robots.
Kara Swisher
All right, what's your prediction?
Scott Galloway
Mine is boring, but it's the boring stuff that moves the needle. So the appellate court basically said that these tariffs are illegal, that Trump illegally enacted the war kind of Emergency Powers act act when this wasn't really an emergency. Bush did it after the 911 attacks, where you can actually take exceptional action around pricing under the auspices of some sort of national security threat. And the appellate court has basically said, no, this doesn't justify the emergency such that you can do unilateral tariffs without congressional approval if it goes to the Supreme Court. Now, a lot of people have said that he has workarounds. There's other ways he could implement tariffs, tariffs. If the administration were to decide to try and figure out a way to declare victory and leave and walk back these tariffs and say, oh, we never intended to keep them. It was a means of negotiating. We have all these great new deals and frameworks and agreements, and if Uruguay decides to implement more a different trade agreement, and these are all frameworks, not agreements, fine, they're allowed to do that. But if they decided or the Supreme Court upholds this and the Trump administration figures out a way to spin this and walk back the tariffs, which have gone from an average of 3% to 17%. And what do we see on average for every 1% increase in tariffs, we see a 10 basis point decrease in GDP. So our GDP growth was supposed to be around 2.8. It's been cut by half. It cut in half to 1.4. That may not sound like a lot, but that's the difference between doubling the economy every 30 years versus doubling the economy every 50 years. If the Supreme Court upholds that this is in fact, these tariffs were illegal and the Trump administration decides to try and figure out a way to use this as cloud cover to walk the tariffs back, declare victory, and leave off a fucking disastrous policy from one of the two most dangerous people in the world right now. Peter Navarro, Second only to RFK Jr you are going to see one of the biggest weaknesses weeks in Dow and NASDAQ history because all of a sudden they're going to go, okay, we're going to add another one or one and a half percent GDP growth when we back away and we pull our heads out of our asses if this.
Kara Swisher
Let's go, Brandon.
Scott Galloway
If the Supreme Court upholds that these tariffs are illegal and the Trump administration decides not to double down and walk these things back. A step back from the wrong direction is a step in the right direction. If those two things happen, you're going to see the biggest day in the markets of the last few years because the underlying economy has been surprisingly robust.
Kara Swisher
Jobs are starting to get tightened up, but go ahead.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, but if we take away this nonsense of the tariffs and say, okay, just kidding, we're declaring victory and leave, we've got these great deals, but we're going to pull them back to where they were overnight. We accrete 1.5% GDP growth. So that decision, I mean, this was a big decision.
Kara Swisher
What if the opposite happens?
Scott Galloway
Well, I think the bottom line is what you're seeing is again, the tariffs are yet another transfer of wealth from the 493 Old economy companies in the S and P to the seven new economy companies. Because Broadcom, to a certain extent, Nvidia with this vig they've got to give, which is just socialism. But in general, the companies that have been hamstrung in terms of their ability to plan or actually see their costs go up and shareholder value go down are exactly the wrong companies we want to hamstring. Right now, it's Caterpillar, it's P and G. Whereas the big guys who now represent 40% of the market have been totally unfettered. So you're helping.
Kara Swisher
They're in the Rose Garden right Now.
Scott Galloway
You're helping seven companies when you punish 493. So all that's happened here is a transfer of wealth from old economy companies that actually needed the help more than anyone to the new guys who are the last companies that needed it. So I think you would see a really healthy rise in the s and P493, if you will, if they do away with these tariffs. Because Meta doesn't care about tariffs. It really doesn't affect them.
Kara Swisher
No, it doesn't affect them. They're not making anything.
Scott Galloway
But this is gonna be, this will be the biggest market moving decision in a while if this happens. This is a big deal. It's giving them. I almost see it as an opportunity for the Trump administration to declare victory and leave and say, well, I'm a gamesman, I'm an incredible deal. I threatened these things. We got amazing deals. But now the market's getting a little yippy. He'll say something. So we're walking them back. But this was a huge victory for us. I forced them to come to the table and do all these great economic deals. But anyways, my prediction, if the Supreme Court holds it up and the Trump administration signals they're going to roll some of these ridiculous tariffs back and we're going to accrete overnight one to one and a half percent additional GDP growth, watch, the market could scream all Right.
Kara Swisher
I love it. I love it. On our next show, we will be talking about RFK junior. What a fucking murderer that guy is. He's a murderer 100%. Anyway, the Florida vaccine thing. God, I was a little concerned about you. Polio.
Scott Galloway
I had, I think, what, 17 or 14 vaccines by the time I was 12.
Kara Swisher
Well, that's the problem.
Scott Galloway
Fluoride.
Kara Swisher
I know. That guy who's the Florida doctor in charge is a fucking idiot. Like, that guy is like, so stupid and arrogant. I've never seen such a performance.
Scott Galloway
That's Desantis announcing that he still believes he can be president and wants to be the inheritor to MAGA20.
Kara Swisher
Ridiculous.
Scott Galloway
Agree.
Kara Swisher
It was funny. There was a picture of two women who had so much Botox in him and says, don't let anyone tell you what to put in your body. We don't want to put on substances. I was like, yeah, no, you don't need it.
Scott Galloway
Regulate that all the time.
Kara Swisher
And now you'll be preserved all of eternity. They'll find you hundreds of years from now in a crypt and they'll be like, oh, look, they're still here. Anyway, we'll talk about him.
Scott Galloway
Yeah, it's been a great summer for rubella and measles.
Kara Swisher
Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Galloway
They're about to do her.
Kara Swisher
Mrs. Measles, like you said, they're about to.
Scott Galloway
Do a reuniting tour. By the way, I saw Oasis. I couldn't be any wider. I went to that Taylor Swift concert and I saw every white 15 year old girl. This is where their parents go. They go to the Oasis concert.
Kara Swisher
How was it? Many people have spoken of it. Tim Miller loved it.
Scott Galloway
I thought it was fantastic. I like Oasis. I didn't love him. I went to the concert, it was amazing. But I love the backstory. It's two brothers.
Kara Swisher
Yeah. They hated each other and they hated each other.
Scott Galloway
And I love. Money solves all problems. A promoter came to that.
Kara Swisher
That's why we're together again.
Scott Galloway
That tour, on a much bigger level, supposedly that tour is going to generate a billion dollars. I went to MetLife. The stadium was packed and people were rocking.
Kara Swisher
I know they've done a good job. They've done a good job.
Scott Galloway
The two brothers said, I hate you. I hate me. But I like $50 million more than I hate you.
Kara Swisher
Yeah.
Scott Galloway
They have decided to put their differences.
Kara Swisher
But I hear they're bringing it. I hear they bringing it. Like, there's a couple of concerts. I've seen videos of that. I'm like, you need to concerting David.
Scott Galloway
Lee Robin, I saw and I saw Lady Gaga.
Kara Swisher
Oh, that was supposed to be a great concert, too.
Scott Galloway
So different. It was in such a contrast between old rock and roll. Oasis is just a couple of white guys who grew up playing the guitar with great voices. They're just rock and rollers. Lady Gaga is Broadway meets cinema meets opera meets ballet. It is a real performance.
Kara Swisher
I heard that. I heard that. I want to see it. I think I want to see it.
Scott Galloway
Both are outstanding for different reasons.
Kara Swisher
Do you want to see Dolly Parton in Atlas Las Vegas? Can you buy me tickets?
Scott Galloway
I'd love to see Dolly Parton.
Kara Swisher
$3,000 tickets.
Scott Galloway
Is that what she deserves? Every penny.
Kara Swisher
You know what?
Scott Galloway
That'd be fantastic.
Kara Swisher
You and I should go anyway. We'll be traveling a lot this fall. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your question about business, tech, or whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com pivot submit a question for a show or call 855-51PRIVOT. Scott, as I said, I'm thrilled you're back.
Scott Galloway
Thank you, Karen.
Kara Swisher
I'm glad to have you back here home.
Scott Galloway
Thank you.
Kara Swisher
The kids missed you. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott, read us out.
Scott Galloway
Today's show was produced by Lara Naman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin and Kate Gallagher. Ernie and Jetot engineered this episode. Jim Mackle edited this video. Thanks also to Drew Bros, Mr. Vero and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kurwa as Voxme is executive producer Podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine nymag.com pod we'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Cara, Zoe, Taylor, Lara, Kate, thank you so much for giving me this much time and doing such a great job. It's very generous of everybody. Anyways, just very grateful for the time off and, well, Drew knows a Jew's here right now. Anyways, I'm rubbing my fingers through his hair as we speak off camera. Anyways, thank you everybody, and it's great to be back.
Date: September 5, 2025
Hosts: Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway
This episode marks Scott Galloway’s return to the Pivot co-host seat after a summer hiatus. Kara and Scott dive into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics: squashing online Trump death rumors, growing international alliances excluding the U.S., the politics of urban militarization, antitrust outcomes for Google, and the shifting economics and cultural scenes in America’s major cities. As always, the pair mix trenchant analysis, irreverent banter, and bold predictions.
On Scott’s absence:
“You've been so good in August, you've been deprived. I know it's gonna help, a little bit of Scott.” — Scott Galloway (02:05)
On city life for young people:
“There might as well be a velvet rope around these cities for anyone under the age of 40 that's not making $150,000 a year.” — Scott Galloway (34:23)
On U.S. foreign policy & allies:
“Nothing rallies your enemies like being the bigger dick enemy.” — Scott Galloway (41:45)
On Google antitrust ruling:
“This was...like your kid comes home high on meth...and you say, that's it, you've been found guilty... We're not letting you go on Snap for 30 minutes.” — Scott Galloway (51:17)
Kara on the media ignoring Trump’s health issues:
“I just wish we had more of an insight so we could assess... we should know quite a bit more and not rely on like Ronnie Jackson who really needs to sit down as a doctor...” (13:54)
On the future of news media:
“Podcasts are now TV shows with a strong audio overlay.” — Scott Galloway (66:21)
On AI sequels in Hollywood:
“Raise minimum wage to $25 an hour, mandatory national service, and no sequels for three years. And the creative community will bloom.” — Scott Galloway (11:42)
This episode successfully blends humor and sharp commentary as Scott returns from his break. The hosts dissect the dangers of opaque leadership health, analyze both domestic and global threats to American influence, and highlight shifting economic and media landscapes. Their bold, specific policy suggestions center housing, competition, and affordability as keystones for future political wins. The episode ends on a light note with music and concert talk, underscoring Pivot’s signature mix of gravity and levity.
If you missed this episode, you missed not just political insight but also a masterclass in media critique, global affairs, and how to make the news both accessible and engaging.
End of Summary