Who Scott Mentors (and Doesn’t), the Bankruptcy Double Standard, and the Case Against Marriage and Kids

Summary

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway Episode: Who Scott Mentors (and Doesn’t), the Bankruptcy Double Standard, and the Case Against Marriage and Kids Release Date: July 25, 2025

---

In this engaging episode of The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway, bestselling author, professor, and entrepreneur Scott Galloway delves into three pivotal topics: his approach to mentoring, the societal double standards surrounding bankruptcy, and the complexities of marriage and parenthood. Through thoughtful analysis and candid discussion, Galloway offers listeners profound insights into these areas, enriched with personal anecdotes and actionable advice.

1. Who Scott Mentors (and Doesn’t)

Timestamp: [01:32]

Galloway opens the episode by addressing a listener's query about his mentoring practices. He emphasizes his focus on mentoring young men who are struggling, highlighting three primary reasons:

• Relatability: "I relate to young men."
• Need for Support: "I believe young men, especially a lot of them, are struggling."
• Personal Fulfillment: "I enjoy it. I can offer good advice."

Galloway advocates for mentorship as a means to provide guidance and support to those who might not have access to strong male role models. He stresses the importance of Big Brothers programs and encourages more men to step up, countering the prevalent stigma and misconceptions about mentoring.

Notable Quote:

“Find the single mothers in your workplace and just say, would your son be interested in coming over, washing my car, going to a ball game, hanging out. And you're just going to find a lot of people very willing to fork their 17 year old over to you for an afternoon.” – [05:45]

Galloway also shares a personal story about a challenging encounter with a single mother, illustrating the emotional complexities involved in mentorship and the boundaries mentors must sometimes set to ensure the well-being of those they aim to help.

2. The Bankruptcy Double Standard

Timestamp: [09:15]

The second segment tackles the societal perceptions of bankruptcy, contrasting its treatment for the ultra-wealthy versus the working class. A listener named Ben questions why bankruptcy is often seen as a savvy financial tool for the rich but a moral failure for ordinary individuals.

Galloway responds by highlighting the structural differences in how bankruptcy laws apply to corporations versus individuals:

• Corporate Bankruptcy: Viewed as a strategic tool to reorganize, allowing companies to shed bad debts and restructure operations. This process is often respected and seen as a path to rejuvenation.
• Personal Bankruptcy: Stigmatized and loaded with shame, especially when associated with struggles like food insecurity or student debt.

He underscores the inherent unfairness in the system, particularly pointing out that student debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy, leaving many young adults in precarious financial positions without a clear path to recovery.

Notable Quote:

“Student debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Meaning a kid maybe comes from middle class families, told they need to go to college, goes to college for two or three years, racks up six figures in debt, decides college is not for him or her, drops out and still has that debt with no degree and no ability to kind of pay it back.” – [14:10]

Galloway praises initiatives like Ben’s nonprofit, Upsolve, which aids individuals in navigating bankruptcy, and argues for a more compassionate and equitable approach to personal debt relief.

3. The Case Against Marriage and Kids

Timestamp: [13:30]

In the final segment, Galloway addresses a provocative question from a listener named Miami Peter, who challenges him to argue against marriage and parenthood. Galloway commences by clarifying his personal stance:

• Marriage: While initially ambivalent, his experiences have led him to value the companionship and shared victories that come with a committed relationship.
• Parenthood: Initially disinterested, fatherhood transformed his life, providing purpose and a deep, albeit gradual, love for his children.

Despite his personal affirmations, Galloway presents a balanced argument for those who might prefer a child-free and unmarried life:

• Quality of Life: Observing that same-sex marriages often forgo having children, leading to more disposable income and healthier relationships.
• Autonomy and Self-Care: Without the responsibilities of children, individuals may experience less stress and greater opportunities for self-care and personal growth.

However, Galloway counters that statistically, relationships and parenthood contribute to longer, happier lives and greater societal productivity. He emphasizes the biological and psychological benefits of raising children, such as fostering strength, masculinity, and pride through nurturing vulnerable lives.

Notable Quote:

“The statistics show that people live longer, are happier, are more productive citizens, build more wealth when they're in a relationship.” – [16:25]

Galloway concludes by affirming that while a fulfilling life is achievable without marriage or children, the collective benefits and personal rewards often make building a family an advantageous and enriching endeavor.

---

Conclusion

In this episode, Scott Galloway masterfully navigates complex social issues with both empathy and analytical rigor. His discussions on mentorship highlight the critical need for supportive relationships among young men, while his examination of bankruptcy reveals systemic biases that perpetuate economic disparities. Lastly, his nuanced perspective on marriage and parenthood encourages listeners to contemplate the profound impacts these institutions have on personal fulfillment and societal well-being. Through candid conversation and insightful reflections, Galloway provides valuable guidance for navigating the multifaceted challenges of modern life.

Transcript

[Ryan Reynolds]

Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.

[Scott Galloway]

Now.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a [e-mail] switch upfront payment.

[Unknown]

Of $45 for a 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first 3 months only speed slow after 35 gigabytes of networks busy taxes and fees extra see mintmobile.com.

AI is moving fast. So fast it's hard to keep up. In fact, in ServiceNow's latest AI maturity index, scores dipped 20% from last year. But that's okay, because AI isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. You may be behind today, but tomorrow you could be a pacesetter. Dive into ServiceNow's AI maturity index and see how you can innovate as fast as your ambitions. Visit servicenow.com aimaturity learning through play starts.

With Lego Duplo With Lego Duplo, toddlers can develop real life skills while having fun with colorful bricks made just for them. Large, easy to grip and safe to explore. When children express themselves with Lego Duplo, they build patience, problem solving and empathy. See your child learn perseverance and self expression with everything they imagine and create. Visit lego.com preschool to learn more.

[Scott Galloway]

Welcome to Office Hours with Propg. This is the part of the show where we answer questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a recording, a voice recording to office hourspropgmedia.com Again, that's officehoursofgmedia.com or post a question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in our next episode. First question Our first question comes from low definition 3186 on Reddit they say, Scott, how do you choose which people to champion and mentor beyond the people you have hired? How do you make sure that at a minimum, you don't dilute your personal brand? I'm grateful that 30 years ago a college alumnus gave me grace when I was late to an informational interview and the referral he gave me launched my career. I hope I would do the same for my 22 year old neurodivergent self, but I don't know. Thanks. So I try to mentor at any given time two to Three young men. One, I relate to young men. Two, I believe young men, especially a lot of them are struggling. And three, I think I'm good at it, I enjoy it. I can offer good advice. And by the way, if you're thinking about mentoring a young man, just do it. They're everywhere. Find the single mothers in your workplace and just say, would your son be interested in coming over, washing my car, going to a ball game, hanging out. And you're just going to find a lot of people very willing to fork their 17 year old over to you for an afternoon. And even if it's your friends who do have a male role model son, I find they're much more inclined to listen to another dad. I go out of the way or I go out of my way to make sure my 14 and 17 year old boys spend time with other men because I find the other men say the same thing I'm saying, but they listen to them. There's a healthy gag reflex where young men are trying to establish their own identity and basically become allergic to their parents. There was an interesting article in the New York Times on this and boy, are we going through that right now. I am fucking pollen on top of cyanide. In terms of how my kids respond to my advice right now, the older one less so, he's kind of coming back to me. Anyways, by the way, I was at a dinner party last night and the woman next to me, single mom, son came over, wanted to go to some party, started cussing her out. I mean just, I wanted to stand up and fucking slap this little bitch. Was that wrong? Anyways, and she said to me, she said, she just sat down and said it's really difficult not having a father figure in his life Anyway, how do I choose these kids? A lot of it is just situational. A friend asks, somebody asks, I get an email that I respond to or resonates with me. Who I don't mentor is actually more interesting. I don't mentor kids who are just got out of MIT and are graduating from Google and want to mentor. Fuck you, mentor me. You should be mentoring kids. You're doing just fine. I'm not. And by the way, I'm not suggesting you don't need a kitchen cabinet, but those kids don't need help. I don't mentor kids or very few of them are in or graduating from college. I mentor young men who quite frankly are struggling. Look, the easiest thing to do is your friend's sons. They're gonna listen to you more than your friend. Or the dad. But mostly the kids who I try and spend a little bit of time with are the ones who really need help. And as I was saying, a lot of times I'm not afraid to call the parent and say I'm not qualified to coach this kid because I get the feeling there's a lot going on here. I once had a friend of mine asked me to meet with his daughter and she came over to the office and she was so uncomfortable in her own skin. And then her, actually her aunt and uncle showed up and there was this like, you could tell, this, this visible release of anxiety and like exhale. And I immediately called her dad and said, I can't mentor your daughter. I think she's. I'm not an adolescent psychiatrist. I'm not going to diagnose her. I'm just gonna tell you, I think she is really struggling and needs professional help. So the kind of the sweet spot for me is a young man, single mom who is struggling and quite frankly just needs someone to help him make very basic decisions. And this goes back to the call out. And the call out is for more men to get involved in Big Brothers programs, Big Brothers of New York or whatever city you're in. There are three times as many women applying to be Big Sisters in New York as men. And I think a lot of them are intimidated or they're selfish or they're not stepping up or there's a stigma to wanting to be involved in a younger man's life. Or you think, maybe I'm not a baller, I'm not doing that well, or I don't have my own kids. Who am I to help a younger? I can tell you firsthand, it is so easy to add value. These kids are just making really bad decisions. And it's not that they don't get advice from their mom or their dad on how to make better decisions, but they immediately just, they just have this natural, healthy instinct not to listen. Anyways, appreciate very much appreciate the question. Our second question comes from Ben on Reddit. He asks Prop G, why is bankruptcy seen as savvy financial tool when used by the ultra wealthy but treated like a moral failure when used by working class Americans? I filed in 2017 when I was broken on food stamps. They gave me a second chance. And now I run a nonprofit called Upsolve that helps others do the same for free. I've helped over 17,000 people file and almost all of them had to fight an uphill battle against shame to make a life changing decision. It makes Me wonder why do we moralize debt relief for some but not others? It's a really interesting question, Ben. On the whole, relative to other nations, we actually stigmatize bankruptcy less. Keep in mind many countries used to have debtors prisons. They used to put you in prison. And one of the great things about America is we don't embrace failure. That's bullshit, but we tolerate it. And bankruptcy laws are an example of that. You can declare bankruptcy, be relieved of most of your debts and kind of start over. And that's a wonderful thing. Now we tend to stigmatize it for people much more than corporations. Corporations are inan objects. And when iheart radio I think is declared once or paper company, there's also two of the three automobile companies declared bankruptcy. We assume it's not their fault. We don't hold them personally accountable. Also it's a fantastic construct because sometimes companies borrow too much money or make bad decisions and they're decent companies. They just have bad balance sheets or debt structure, meaning they have taken on too much debt for projects that just didn't work out. And bankruptcy gives them the cloud cut to reorganize, forgive them of their debts, equitize their debt, Their debt turns into equities such that maybe the debtors get some of their investment back. And basically the equity holders who usually get more upside when things are good, get wiped out. But they might say okay, if you're like retailers are great companies to take bankrupt. Basically you could go through if they declare chapter 11, you can go through and of their 500 stores you can pick the 200 that work and you get out of the 300 leases, you get to liquidate or absolve your offer obligation to those 300 leases. And in retail leases are usually what kills a company or specifically bad leases or stores that aren't paying off. So it gives the company a recognized the company may still have value that people can get employment from or shareholders or debt holders can get their money back from or more money. And it's a fantastic means of bringing new life to a company. My best investments have been my two best investments have been corporations or investors bringing a company out of bankruptcy, washing out the debtors, washing out 100%, the equity holders, turning some of the debt into equity and then putting new capital into the company and then using that cloud cover bankruptcy to create a healthier, leaner company. One was a yellow pages company called Dex Media. The other was a consumer company called njoy. Those have been my two best investments. If there was one asset Class, I would say is the best investment. It's distress credit. And that is going into companies that are struggling anyways. Another talk show, but we do stigmatize it for individuals. And I think credit card companies are now trying to pass types of legislation that make it harder for people to be absolved of their credit card debt. And the most immoral component of this is that student debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Meaning a kid maybe comes from middle class families told they need to go to college, goes to college for two or three years, racks up six figures in debt, decides college is not for him or her, drops out and still has that debt with no degree and no ability to kind of pay it back. That is the real, I mean, you want to talk about kind of like, you know, fucked at 22, that's the scenario. And it's just insane that the one cohort that should be, we should have the most grace and the most forgiveness for is the one we decide that the primary debt they deploy or that is leveled on them, student debt is not dischargeable. So this is, this is the lobbyists from credit card companies and from banks deciding that student debt should not be dischargeable. So I applaud what you're doing. I think bankruptcy, there should be some stigma to it. You don't want people doing it over and over. I think in the corporate world, bankruptcy, I think those laws are actually really powerful. I mean, powerful in a good way, a positive way. The president is known for bankrupting several of his own companies. After you do that, it gets harder and harder to borrow money. He was always able to do that. He was always able to borrow more money and kind of leave a lot of banks holding the bill. To be clear, he's never declared personal bankruptcy. So you're right, we do stigmatize it more for individuals than we do for corporations. But I do think our bankruptcy laws are a feature, not a bug, of our country and that is there is less stigma. And generally speaking, that's true of our entire approach to risk. We're much more risk aggressive. I've started several companies, some have worked, some have not. And I wonder if I'd been in Europe and an entrepreneur, my first company had failed, if I'd ever would have been able to raise subsequent capital. So bankruptcy and our willingness to forgive and move on are key components of what makes America unique and more prosperous and able to attract more capital and more human capital that's willing to take outsized risks, knowing that if it doesn't work, it's not the end of the world. Thanks for the question. We'll be right back after a quick break.

[Unknown]

Support for the show comes from SoFi Small Business Lending. You're a small business owner. You need capital to find new opportunities and grow. And you can do that with help from SoFi. You might know SoFi for student loans and high interest savings, but now they help small businesses too. No more chasing bankers or wasting time in a branch. SoFi Small Business Marketplace is your new.

[Scott Galloway]

Go to fast and digital solution.

[Unknown]

In one single simple search, SoFi matches you with vetted providers for your business. In just minutes you can discover options that meet your specific needs. And if you find a quote that works for you, you may receive funds as soon as the same day you're approved. Say it's working capital you need or a line of credit or an SBA loan or equipment financing. SoFi's marketplace can help you find all of the above. It's already helped thousands of small businesses find the funding they need. SoFi also offers business owners curated tools, vetted business bank accounts, business credit card recommendations and administration. Ton of resources to help you scale.

[Scott Galloway]

Your business like a boss.

[Unknown]

SoFi now helping you get your business right. Visit sofi.com prop gpod and see your options in minutes.

The McDonald's snack wrap is back. You brought it back. Ranch snack wrap Spicy snack wrap. You broke the Internet for a snack Snack wrap is back. Pro Savings Day's door Buster deals are on at Lowes. Milo's Pro Rewards members save an additional $120 on a GE 21.9 cubic foot top freezer refrigerator. Plus members save $70 on a Bosch hammer drill now only $99. Not a pro Rewards member join for free today. Lowes we help you save valid through 723 while supplies last selection varies by location. Loyalty programs subject to terms and conditions. C loads.com terms for details subject to.

[Scott Galloway]

Change welcome back onto our final question from Miami Peter on Reddit Scott make the argument for never getting married and never having children. Just come spend the Just come spend this afternoon with me and my boys and I'll make the argument for you. I'm not one of these people that thinks you have to get married and have kids to be happy. I just don't think that, especially the having kids part. I didn't want kids. I liked my life. I recognized I was self aware enough to know that I'm pretty selfish and like to have my own weekends and I'd like to spend a lot of time alone that hasn't changed. And then something strange happens when you have kids. God reaches into your soul and turns on a switch and you just kind of are in love with these things. Although the switch is more like a dimmer. I fell in love with my kids. I didn't feel loved right away when I came marching out, but I do think that it gives you a certain sense of permanence. Well, you wanted me to make an argument for not having kids. Simple look at gay people. Typically gay marriages don't have as many kids and it seems to work really well for them. One, they have more disposable income and more time for each other and more time for themselves, which creates an absence of stress and more healthy relationships and more self care. I wonder if gay people live longer and you know, just have more disposable income because they're not taxed with kids or with this preconceived notion of what monogamy is supposed to be. So I would say that if you decide at some point you're just not up for don't want to have kids. I probably would not be married if I didn't. If I decided not to have kids. I don't want to say I was forced to get married, but basically my partner, and this is their right, said if you don't want to have kids, I'm out of here. And I'm like, okay, I'll have kids. And now I love it. It's given me purpose. Notice how I had to add that in for orthodoxy and virtue signaling what I would say. I don't know if you're a dude. Miami Peter. Look, Miami Peter, what I would tell you is that the statistics show that people live longer, are happier, are more productive citizens, build more wealth when they're in a relationship. And that I can say, I don't know that many super successful, super happy people who kind of die alone. I just don't. I think it's fun to build your life with somebody. Up until when my mom died, I needed to call her every time something good happened such that it was cemented. And now I share those victories with my partner and my kids because at the end of the day, what you want and what you need is a mammal is you want. You want someone to notice your life. You want someone to witness you. You want someone to share in your victories. You want to build something with someone. Even one of the guys I co invest with, we had a really an investment work out really well. And he said it's so much more fun to make money with your friends. It's so much more fun, it's so much more rewarding to build your life with someone. In addition, there's a certain reward and satisfaction that you're here for a reason when you're able to take your intelligence and your grit and your blessings and help take care of others, especially kids, because they are just so vulnerable and so dependent upon you that it gives you a certain sense of strength and masculinity and pride. So yeah, can you have a nice life without kids? Absolutely. Can you have a nice life without kids or getting married? You can have a series of relationships, but I would argue on a risk adjusted basis. Boss, There's a reason why most cultures still have the ultimate goal is to have a family, and in general, most people or most studies have shown that you would be happier. Having said that, if you want to roll us some time in London or grab a beer, I'm always up for being single for at least a night or two a week. Anyways, thanks for the question. That's all for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question, please email a voice recording to officehoursoropertymedia.com Again, that's office [e-mail] or if you prefer to ask on Reddit, just post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit and we just might feature it in an upcoming episode.

[Unknown]

If you've been personally victimized by AI advertising, you're about to be pretty disappointed. You know Redis the world's fastest caching solution? Well, it turns out fast. Caching is a pretty good segue to fast short. And it turns out fast. Accurate memory is exactly what you need to make AI agents actually work with your data. So don't blame us. It just makes sense. Redis for AI the right infrastructure, the right tools, the only way to scale. Learn [e-mail] Genai mom and dad, I'm.

Growing at an alarming rate, and clothes you buy me this year will be very small very soon. But at least your wallet doesn't have to be my fashion victim with low prices for for school at Amazon. Hope that helps Amazon spend less Smile.

More tipping Culture is out of control. Yesterday I tipped someone just for handing me a napkin. So when hotels.com gives me up to 20% off for being a member, I finally get tipped. And you know what? It feels good. Hotels.com members save up to 20% off at hundreds of thousands of hotels.